2/22

So around this time last year, I painted two pictures for my parents to give them as gifts when I went to MD during a break in classes. I have always personally favored these pictures and liked them a lot more than most of my other ones. Both of the pictures are below. The Rhino stuck in the tree with the boy was made for my Dad and the girl jumping rope was made for my Mom. They are pretty simple and although I used some random references I found online or from personal pictures, I feel they were some of the first couple pictures I painted that I began to start building a full composition and atmosphere. Anyways, here are those two pictures:

During the process of creating the two, I did a completely different sketch for my dad than what I ended up painting. The first sketch was simply a boy standing on a pier and looking out to water while ships floated above, one actually looks as if it's going down or about to crash. I scrapped the idea because it just wasn't very fun, not to mention the sketch was not drawn out well, and eventually came up with the rhino idea, which I don't think I really even sketched out before starting. This is the original sketches for my dad and mom's pictures:
My sister looked through my sketchbook over the summer and for some reason really liked the original one for my dad. Since she was always asking for me to paint here something I figured it would be nice to make her something for her birthday/anniversary this past weekend since I would be in MD. I did another quick rough sketch of the boy scene and again didn't like it. Instead I replaced him with a younger girl, made a more active ocean and a more fairytale like scene. This is that sketch:

I didn't really like the sinking/breaking pier idea much so when I transferred it onto the watercolor paper I replaced it with a rock. Here is the picture after transferred and drawn out in pen.

After taking time to figure out colors and such I finally came up with a finished product that I was happy with. I wanted to keep this picture similar to the ones created for my parents the year before, style-wise and theme wise I guess, I also threw on a little corner border like the others had to make them all match. Here is the finished product.

Commission

So I did 3 paintings for my uncle earlier this month for some money to pay the bills. Not really my cup of tea but I guess I can't complain. My uncle owns a company in Baltimore called TCS. He pretty much works on big trucks and puts hydraulic cranes on them along with welding of new beds and other stuff. I am usually really good at taking pictures of the things I do to keep for personal records and to display. This time, however, I remembered about 3 hours after dropping them off at the post office. I did take some pictures with my phone and since I am going to MD later this week I may snap pictures if I go to Baltimore. The quality isn't great but owell, I'll get better pictures when I can.

Looking at them again, I don't think the first and second pictures are complete when I took this picture. I don't think I put the dark dark shadows in yet. Owell, you get the point :) I did do another full piece earlier in the week, but I can't post it up until I get back from MD because I have to give it to someone first! But I will post it up as soon as I get back along with the sketch and an explanation and a step back in time to talk about two others that are related to it! Then I will be off to Florida the following week, I may pop in sometime before then but because of how much school work I am consumed with I don't know how much creative art I will get to do. Around mid-summer I am most likely moving back to Maryland and getting a job hopefully with my Dad doing graphic design and the likes. Once this time comes, I will have more free time than I know what to do with so a lot should be happening around then!