Infant Pastel

Newborn Infant Grandchild (click to see the complete picture)
This is a picture of my friend and neighbor's new grandchild. I saw the image and decided to experiment with pastels. I liked it so I decided to give it to my friend. She and her daughter liked it so I decided to post it here.

Anyhow...I also posted it on the Cennini Forum. I had some positive comments.

I would like to take a course in pastels sometime.

Drawings

The following are some tonal studies (about 8x10) from photos of great masterpieces printed in a book of about the same size. I did these to work on the five tonal ranges: Highlight, Halftone, Reflected Light Values, Shadow, Cast Shadow. I also attempted to "see" the expressions and replicate the feeling. Can you guess which drawing was the hardest?
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8border="0" alt="Girl In Red Hat after Vermeer">


The fourth one was the hardest. The object was to express the height of femininity. All the edges were soft except for a very few. It took me many hours to draw this one. The last one number eight was also difficult because Vermeer is so complex and without color chroma, it was almost impossible to provide the punch it needed. All in all this was excellent exercise. I intend to do more especially since I finished Riven Pheonix five DVD on the structure of man...that is a real milestone. I can already see the mistakes I have made in these faces but I am getting there. Gee I am happy. January 31st I head to Cennini's Art Boot Camp and I am so ready to go.

January Drawings

This of course is not a drawing, it is a watercolor of "Rebecca".














































Here is another pencil drawing. Self Portraits are very difficult.




This is a quick self portrait. It's done with watercolor pencils so technically it is a drawing. I exaggerated my features...like a fish bowl...chin/mouth too big; upper part too small...it is so distorted...but I like it for some reason.

Self portraits are very difficult for me. To exaggerate and make myself look either better or worse is dishonest. Too much information; too little. The truth is, I've never really studied myself and I don't really know what I actually look like. That makes drawing self portraits extremely difficult to do and difficult to judge.



Here is a complete drawing. This image is of very poor quality for it looks like I have drawn on 40% grey paper when in fact it is white. I am still trying to learn how to take pictures with my new camera...I thought I had the right exposure...guess I thought wrong. I shot it in RAW format and tried to adjust the exposure ... I think I made it worse. Soooo....I will be updating the image as soon as I can figure this out.

I am very frustrated because this image does not show the subtle rendering on the face....especially the expression and eyes which really is not coming across in this image. In fact I am not happy with any of the images that I have posted. I guess I simply don't know what I am doing...but I will figure it out eventually.

December Drawings

A Work In Progress




(None of the sketches on this section are keepers. This is just practice to show that I am working. Several of these were done on some very old sketch paper that had turned with age ... just to be frugal on my supplies. I tried to lighten this some but it is still too dark. Still fiddling with my camera settings.)





More practice on old newsprint. I've posted these because they are good likenesses.

Mom


Ozzie


Work In Progress -- this is done with some cheap watercolor pencils. Kind of fun...don't know if I will finish it. That is about how it goes with me...never finishing anything.

Cold - Hot - Cold

This is an interesting shot of cold icescikles against hot magenta and cool cyan and high chroma; sharp contrast of black.


Opening the aperture at night; interesting movement.

Beauty and Sadness

A study. My intention was to give a feeling of sadness.

Merry Christmas

Edited: 12/26/07

This is addressed to all Christians.

May you experience the very presence of the Lord, to remember to worship Jesus our Christ, our Lord, who is God in the flesh (Immanuel i.e. God with us) ... by giving thanks for his gift of Himself to redeem those whom the Father had given Him (John 17). Therefore it is not what man can do for God; it is what God has done for man. It is a free gift that can be accepted or rejected. It is never a "gift" plus something else. Jesus' sacrificial atonement is sufficient to save.

There is no other religion or belief system on the planet that offers Grace to man ("Grace" i.e. the unmerited favor of God - of Grace not of good works lest ANY MAN boast). ALL works of man are filthy rags to God. All means all. Therefore, there is no other way to gain right standing with God Almighty other than through Jesus;and the world will hate Christians just as it hated Jesus. Why? Man likes to take the credit for good works and righteousness and thinks that all men are basically good when the truth is that all mankind is basically not good.

Remember Christ's admonition that is so appropriate for our age.

Mat 5:11-16 "Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"You are the salt of the eretz, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men. You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."


Edit: Just to clarify I have added the following.

So what about this thing called "good" works.

When the rich young ruler addressed Jesus as "good Master" what was Jesus' reply? "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God." That was a loaded rhetorical question packed with great meaning because indeed Jesus was "good" ...for He is the only good man who ever lived...BECAUSE He was Immanuel (i.e. God with us in human flesh). Man is not made righteous by good works doing ... man is unrighteous therefore an unrighteous human being doing a good deed means nothing. (Mark 10:17) Jesus was teaching about man's depravity in this story. It was given to show man's love for this world and the things in it. This young man was coming to God with his good works saying ... "I have kept the law from my youth." Jesus countered, "sell all that you have and follow me." He couldn't do it and neither could any other human. Wherefore, the young man went away sorrowful for he had much wealth. You see, his depravity was showing. If you can't do anything for God to gain his favor what is left but a desperate need for the unmerited favor...Grace of God.

All "good" works are of God not man. ALL means ALL. Man is just a willing and sometimes even unwilling conduit for good. However, when man cooperates fully with God, his life becomes blessed because God's blessings are flowing unhindered through him; the kicker is that man dose not gets credit for initiating them, God does.

What is the significance of this?

God gets ALL the credit and man gets NONE except his willingness to cooperate; for that man will be rewarded in heaven. The idea that all men are basically good is not scripture. The idea that man can build up Karma to gain heaven ...makes God indebted to man forcing God to bless man. That is nonsense. (Gonna be lots of surprised people in heaven.)

In heaven Christians shall all be crowned and rewarded for those good works that God channeled though us because we were willing ... but we shall throw those crowns at the feet of Jesus because we know that all good are His works not ours.

If you would like the scriptural basis for anything that I write, please email me or comment. I will be happy to supply many scriptures to support what I am saying; I never used just one proof verse.



This is the Good News (aka The Gospel of Grace).

OCD Christmas lights

Decorations by a obsessive compulsive.



This is the ultimate in Christmas lighting. It is not possible to top this holiday display since every single twig and bush has carefully placed lights in perfect order.

Once you see this house live, you might as well just go home.

Drama in the ice.

For those of you who do not watch TV 24/7, we are having an ice storm here. We lost this tree this morning...I am worried that the other half is going to fall on our house. More moisture and below freezing temps may pull other trees down tonight. I'm nervous. (Yesterday I ordered a new SONY 100A (Alpha) DSLR camera body for all of my lenses and soon I will be posting much better images.)


Guess we'll get a new mail box.

Cennini Lesson - Merlin Part II

This is a continuation of a Cennini Forum Lesson. The following are examples of illustrating Merlin and the Lady of the Lake. Here is the part of the poem that I chose to illustrate. (Reference previous November post.)

"And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws, And takes it in her hand and waves it over the blossomed thorn tree and her sleeping lover. Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round, And made a little plot of magic ground.”

The task is to create big abstract black and white forms that convey the story in a powerful way. Next part is to make two color versions of the same illustration but create a different mood with a change in palette. One to create tranquil scene and one a dark and evil feeling of doom. The vertical ones appeal to me but I failed to lesson. I like these but I did not accomplish the lesson's objective...and that is less detail and more abstraction. On the vertical one I did get a shift in mood. I hope I will do better in the next lessons.

HORIZONTAL COMPOSITIONS





VERTICAL COMPOSITIONS