The Campbell Sisters Dancing by Lorenzo Bartolini

My first two-figure painting.  16x20 acrylic.  Complete with traditional unnecessary Tuscan countryside background and Botticellian flowers.

This painting is based on Lorenzo Bartolini's statue 'The Campbell Sisters Dancing the Waltz' ('"Gruppo delle sorelle Campbell in atto di ballare il Valzer").  Looking at the plaster model used for the sculpture I thought they were walking, and made my background accordingly; only later when researching the sculpture did I find out they are in fact dancing! Oops.  Sotheby's has a nice write up on the history of the statue here.

Placing religious moments and Bible scenes in the Tuscan countryside was a strong tradition during the Italian Renaissance, so I thought I would give it a try.  I've been trying to find a Greek myth to attribute this moment to but haven't found one yet (most Greek myths, like Bible stories, took place in the Tuscan countryside, according to Italians in the 1500s).

Ballerina Acrylic

Acrylic, 16x20
Currently challenging myself to do some figure paintings.  What has become an annual Ballerina piece for Amy. 

Da Vinci's Degas

I was inspired by seeing Da Vinci's Codex Leicester at the Minneapolis Institute of Art this summer to do a work loosely based off the Vitruvian Man.  My wife is a big fan of Degas' ballerinas, so I decided to try to blend the two.  The final piece is 8x10, oil pastel over pencil.  I have included a step by step look at how it developed.

Budgerigar (Parakeet)

A budgerigar I drew for a Thank You card.  Hoping to eventually do a series of pet birds similar to my song bird drawings

Degas' Ballerina

A painting for Amy's birthday.  Based on Degas' Dancer Adjusting Her Sandle (see it here). 8x10 acrylic.   

Mini Monet: The Summer Poppy Field

My first decently sized painting (11x14).  Still working on technique; I need to learn how to use larger brush strokes to get the effect I'm really looking for.  A picture taken during the process shows how it evolved as I worked on it.  Original painting here. 

Song Bird Art: Bluejay and Cardinal

Mini Monet: Meadow with Poplars

Another 5x7, one of my favorites so far.  Original painting here. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle Warbler)

We've had a ton of these little dudes hopping around the place lately.  The poorly edited-in yellow shows where the name comes from.  
For more song bird drawings, click here
For all my song bird art, click here

Mini Monet: Monet's Garden at Argenteuil

 A scan (left) and photo (right) of my extremely small version of Monet's Garden at Argenteuil.  The scan brings out some brighter color, but the photo keeps all the nice paint brush lines which I enjoy.  A good lesson for me in the subtleties of making a digital version of a painting.  Also it turns out that 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 inch square is not a standard frame size..oops.
The actual painting is here

Bovine Skull Drawing

Cow skull.

These are the pens I use.  They're great and don't smudge!

Equine Osteology: Femur

Equine femur for class, also a little tibia.  These are just pencil drawings that I make super-contrasted.

Sense of Humerus

I have managed to combine my predilections for drawing t-shirts and bones and drew some bones for a t-shirt. 

From left to right: Dog, Horse, Tiger, Bear

Canine Osteology: Skull

More drawings for studying

Horse Limb Bones

The past few days I've been trying to learn how to draw horses.  Horses are not easy to draw, so I've been spending some quality time doodling in my notebooks (an example is below).  Frequently I have annotated these doodles with notes on what is incorrect (I often don't make my horses long enough).  Horses (and other hoofed animals) have an odd bone structure that makes their legs a little less than intuitive when drawing.  Essentially they have one extra major joint, which occurs because their hooves are like the tips of their fingers, and their 'wrist' is what appears to be their front knee (also odd is that they have knees below their elbows). 

To show what's going on inside, I drew a horse with the bone structure showing through the skin (bones not quite to scale).  The horse limbs have 5 big zig-zags compared to the 4 in humans.

Pet Portraits: Waldo

My latest Pet Portrait, Waldo.  Actually a second version of a portrait I did before.  It took a few tries to get this one.  My first attempt ended up too dark, the second one looked sort of like a rat, but the third one was just right.   For all the Pet Portraits, click here.

These are the pens I use:

Pet Portraits: Barney

Barney, the clinic cat, who recently passed away.  For more Pet Portraits, click here.

 
These are the pens I use:

Minnesota Song Birds: Water Color

I finally had a chance to color in my new Minnesota song bird drawings.  I used old water-colors (I think originally from a coloring book...they're quite old) and colored in a print out on 110lb card stock.  The card stock isn't made to be water-colored, and the paper did warp a little, but not too bad.  Coloring over printed (or drawn) ink can be tricky because you can fade the ink lines if you make it too wet or brush over it too many times.  However, it meant I could try again if I messed up by just printing out another copy.

The original ink drawings are here
The first set of birds are here
Other water color pieces

Minnesota Song Birds

My latest drawings, another series of song birds (not to scale).

From top to bottom, left to right: Tufted Titmouse, House Sparrow, Nuthatch, Cedar Waxwing, Purple Finch, Baltimore Oriole, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 

Still debating whether or not to try water-coloring them.

See all the Song Bird drawings

Two Purple Finches

I was never wholly satisfied with my first purple finch drawing, at the bottom of this post, because even though it was made to be water-colored, it seemed like it still was just too lacking in detail.  So I made a new finch, and the new one makes me much happier.  The new finch displays a lot more 'coloring' and patterns, even in black and white, so you have a better sense of what the bird looks like.  Here are both of them, see if you can spot the differences :)   Here are all the Song Bird drawings

As always, these are the pens I use and love: