Eagle Symbol Pen & Ink Progress

   My recent experiments with pen & ink got me a little more comfortable with the media. Here is the current state of a project on Arches hot press watercolor board.  The starting pencil sketch is shown at the right.  In looking for eagle reference imagery I found that I never realized how often they are photographed looking down at their feet (almost as if they are surprised to see them there).

  I have a fascination with symbols & myths and how they function in our current world.  It is always interesting when ideal meets reality.  As far as my subject goes--if you've ever taken a good look at the one dollar bill you might have seen the US National emblem and wondered why the eagle is holding arrows & foliage in each talon....

    

  

broken zipper

"Broken Zipper"

Once again it has been a while since i've posted anything on here but i'm hoping to get back to documenting what I am up to on a more regular basis.  (I took a little detour trying to learn more about digital art & the tools of graphic design, ie photoshop & illustrator.)  Along the way I came up with a few designs I put on redbubble.com to experiment with printing.  Here is how the organic tee came out--

If you are interested in seeing more you can click here Go to Link.

People Studies

 

Two things that are on the edge of my comfort zone ---- drawing people & using acrylics.  I decided to practice a little with both in the above.  Unfortunately I didn't quite capture the smirk expression I set out to paint.  The sketch was done on day one & painted on day two (not sure if i'll do more fine tuning since it is a study).

Out of curiosity I went back to look at some of my old sketch books to see if my people drawings are getting any better.  Here are a few below.  My favorite view, 3/4s is the one that seems the hardest to get the right proportions.  (This gets trickier when the subject's head is tilted.)

Falling

Study for another project.
Do cats ever not land on their feet in the falling dream?...

By the way, finding a really large inexpensive compass is a challenge.

Dots Color Study

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try to post more, do more quick studies, and become more comfortable with color.  This took an hour or two using watercolor pencils on wet paper (sketch is a little skewed..)

Year of the Horse

First Printing Attempt

I happened to come across a pristine square of printmaking lino that I hadn't cut yet buried in my old supplies & thought I would put it to use.  Sketch, transfer,...Next step--carving.  I wonder if I have any ink left.
Might be interesting to create a large scale collage with a collection of carvings.

Bird Quixote

Sorry it has been a while since i've posted anything on here.
Here is something I created in my photoshop class (I had a great instructor, very inspiring).  I am finding that I am becoming a little addicted to photo montage (originally I just wanted to learn how to create a quick something I could use as reference to draw etc.).  I have a new found respect for all the work that goes into creating a seamless result.