Illustration Friday: "Impossibility"

Done with watercolors, colored ink and India ink.

There is Still Prejudice

Not one to really follow American Idol and other reality shows, I couldn't help but feel the need to check out Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent on YouTube after hearing others talk about it. I was touched, and then saddened by the whole event.

Touched because Susan was perceived as the underdog in the competition and she totally rocked. Saddened because what does music have to do with the appearance of an individual? She was perceived as the underdog because she didn't look like a model or some slick representation from the media. She looks like the rest of us "real" people ("reality" show, get it?)
Our society is cultivating a new kind of bigotry where a person is devalued if they don't look a certain way (on top of that, we haven't even solved the racism issue).

Here is a sketch of my next project for the Illustration Friday topic "Impossibility" Susan is in the hot seat. Though not apparent in the sketch, I want to show the look prejudice and sarcasm of the judges and audience in the illustration.

Illustration Friday: "Fleeting" (Late)

I'm a bit late with this topic but I just had to get it down before tackling the next one.

Life is fleeting, "a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away".

Medium: Ultra Fine Tipped Sharpie Ink Pen.

Communion Triptych

This triptych is a repainted design after one of my sermon paintings. I want to paint all of my sermon painting designs at a smaller scale so I can reproduce them into prints for purchase. Since the actual sermon paintings are loosely painted (due to a tight time constraints) and are difficult to get a good photo at such a large size (approximately 4' x 6'), I wanted the repainted designs to be more finished in appearance. The smaller size of 18" x 24" is much easier to photo. I have made 10 prints of each of painting of the triptych. I wanted to start out with a small number of prints to see if there is actually an interest in buying them. I can always have more prints produced if I run out.

I really like my approach to these paintings. I started out with a grisaille (black and white underpainting), which was tightly rendered. After the paint dried I slowly added color glazes with acrylic gloss medium. The result is a luminous effect of light, shadow and color. Traditionally, painters that use this approach work with oils and oil mediums. However, since I did not want to wait for the paint to dry I decided to use acrylics. I can imagine that my results would have been even better had I used oils. I also think the painting process would have been easier. Nevertheless, I am happy with the end result.

San Francisco Drawings

My family and I visited San Francisco for a couple of days. It was good to get away for a little bit. Since my wife and I lived there during the first year of our marriage, we don't visit SF like most tourists. We ride the transit system like the locals. Our son loved riding the buses, street cars and subways. Here are some candid drawings that I managed to do on the bus and train (oh, and one sketch of the ceiling at Noah's Bagels).

Easter Morning Sermon Painting

The title of this morning's painting is Transformation. We are God's masterpiece creation. He created us unique with our own abilities and talents. After He made us, He broke the mold and started over again. The result is that not one of is is the same and we can all work together with our differences. That was the basic sermon, however, it was challenging to listen and paint at the same time (Sorry, Randy!)

This painting is approximately 4' x 6' acrylic on canvas. Completed in about 30 minutes with a little bit of touch-up after the church service.












Below are more pics of the painting in progress. I couldn't figure out the slide show for Blogger so maybe I'll include it later when I have more time to spend on it.

Sermon Painting Prep

For Easter Sunday I will be doing another "sermon painting". As our minister gives the message, I will be painting on a 4' x 6' canvas. I think I have the basic design down pretty well. Here it is:


This particular design is drawn on a smaller canvas that I plan to paint before this Sunday. It will act as a study before I do the real thing. It is really challenging to prepare for this sort of thing because I can't really afford to practice on a same size canvas as the one the finished painting will be on. There is always an element of "Can I really do this?"
In my mind's eye the design and colors are pretty clear. However, most viewers, at this point, will have to use their imagination to understand that the drawing is a terra cotta sculpture being shaped and transformed by "spiritual" hands (the hands of God). If that's not clear as mud, then you'll have to probably wait a few more days to see the end result.


Oh, by the way, I am going to try to get my wife to take pictures of the painting in progress so I can do a slide show. Is that possible with Blogger?

IF: "Poise"

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Poise". This picture is sort of opposite of the topic. Perhaps the man enduring the "Blah..." is the one with poise. I ... uh ... I mean, he is just wanting to enjoy his meal with his family, and yet the "Blah..." gets in the way and goes on and on.

I decided to experiment with two versions of this piece. The first is done with brush and ink and a little bit with the ink bottle dropper. The second was scanned and digitally manipulated with the Paint program that comes with Windows, a sort of a cheap way around using Photoshop or Illustrator.