Illustration Friday - "Breezy"

For "Illustration Friday", this is a detail from a painting, the rest of which can be seen at my website, called, appropriately enough "La Colina de Vieto", or (more or less) "Hill of Wind".

A car as metaphor...

A long-time good friend had her 60th birthday late last year, and this is the birthday card I sent to her. It's watercolor and Sharpie. Sharpies may be the greatest drawing pen ever made not exclusively for drawing.

Illustration Friday - "Instinct"

This is my first time to participate in the "Illustration Friday" concept. The theme for this week is "Instinct", and I thought this pre-existing piece fit. Which is stronger, the instinct for parenting or self preservation?

We'll see how future participation goes, and I'll try to do something new for some of the themes. New ones may not be this elaborate, though.

Fishing studies

The drawings above were studies for "Rio Pescadores", below, one of the Americana Series.
Regarding the signatures, I'm not really that obsessed with my name. Those were for an article about my work that required an example of the signature I use on my paintings.

Another recurring image

The crown in the piece above reappeared in the piece below, part of a series of four images for an exhibit at the Museum of American Illustration in New York, commemorating September 11. My contribution was an update of the "Four Freedoms" outlined in Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration speech. This one addressed freedom of, or from, religion. The rest of the "Four Freedoms" series can be seen at my web site, at this link.

Studies

These drawings were exploring solutions for a cd cover (including an unrelated drawing of our cat, Scout), "Naked Dinner" by singer Kathy Corbin. A friend had bet Kathy she would never produce a cd. The loser of the bet had to cook a dinner in the nude for the winner. Below is the finished art.

Face unintended

A couple of friends pointed out seeing a face (detail, below) in the above painting, "Precipicio", one of my Landscape Series.
Now I can't see anything else.

Studies

The sketchbook drawings above served as studies for the paintings below, "New Age Rodeo" and "Rose of Sharon". They're part of the "Americana Series". These and more can be seen on my website.

Red dot

My friend Candis is in the Public Relations department of the State Fair of Texas. She tells a story of the visit of an Important Dignitary to the Fair, which required a tight ring of security around the visitor. One apparently clueless guy pushed his way through the security ring and approached the Dignitary. Candis says all she could concentrate on was the dot of red light on the guy's forehead, from the laser sight on an unseen sniper's rifle. Fortunately, the guy changed his mind and walked away.
This is a drawing in my sketchbook based on that story.
Click the image to see it larger.

This fish

While looking for another image I came across this one, from a couple of years ago. It's acrylic, my primary medium, on a wooden bowl. The fish turns up again in the painting below, "Fish Night". He'll probably be around again, in something.

How to begin?

That's the tricky part of these things. So I decided to begin with this.
Last year a Chinese magazine called "Fantasy Art" did a story about my work and about me. Since it's in Chinese I have no idea what it says, but I know it's probably positive. They asked for a "statement to the Chinese people", a scary proposition, since I'm not inclined to cause an International Incident. So I wrote a note on a page in my sketchbook opposite a study for a painting, "Vortex Tour", and here it is, below. You can click on it to see it larger.
The painting can be seen at my website, here.



A lot of this blog will be dedicated to random things about my work. So off we go.