Funny Face!

OK, one last post before I leave, see ya in two weeks.

McCain Quick Sketch 40 minutes . . .

I felt like doing some quick sketching and painting this morning to get my engines running . . . I sometimes feel for magazine work that I tend to hold back on exaggeration and how I really see someone for fear of the art director not going for it . . . that's about to change.

* NEWS FLASH * My wife Kat and I have been married for 10 years and this Saturday we leave for Ireland for two and a half weeks to celebrate! This will most likely be my last post until I return!

Joe Biden Color-fied!

OK, so I'm still experimenting with different ways to paint quickly while maintaining a certain look and quality that I want to see in my work. This isn't a finished painting, but I feel very good about the direction as well as this technique. All in all about 40 minutes to add the color, not bad and could save me some time? Still need to mess around with some other techniques and approaches, but for now I'm settled enough to move on with other projects!

Schoolism and Joe Biden Sketch!

This is a quick photoshop sketch I did this morning of Joe Biden. I'm working on a new color technique which I hope will allow for me to make tight deadlines while maintaining the quality that I aim for in my work. I will be adding color to this and will share when finished. I feel it's always good to experiment and try new things with your art, and it's also refreshing!

I need to also let everyone know that my next class at Schoolism.com is filling up. My next class starts on October 31rst. The classes have been going very well and the work that my students are creating is very exciting to see. For those of you out there who do not know what it is that I do, My course at Schoolism.com is an Online Art Class on The Art of Caricature. It's a one on one correspondence course. That means that every week my students watch a two hour video filled with demos and lecture followed by homework assignments. Each week I spend 15 to 30 minutes per student critiquing their work. What that means is that I record myself drawing and painting over the students work while sharing my thoughts and techniques. As a student you also have access to watch the critiques of your fellow students as well as the critiques of past semesters.
To learn more about Schoolism click here. There are limited seats available for each class.




I saved my Biden sketch in stages for you to check out. This is a study in values, so it was painted in grayscale using blacks, grays, and white!

Politics Shmolitics!

This is a quickie I did last week for The Weekly Standard. Started early Friday morning, and I mean early. Final was needed by the end of the day. It was a killer to pull off in this time frame . . . a challenge is always a good thing, and so is a good kick in the pants!





Here's how it looks in the mag.




Quick thumbnail of Johnny . . .



Couple different thumbnails of . . . what's her name?

Oil sketch of Tom Cameron!

Still working on a bunch of projects that I can't post quite yet. So for now, here's a 3 hour oil sketch that I did this week of my friend and Pastor Tom Cameron. Just for fun and good practice for me anyways to paint traditionally as much as I can.

Also, my daughter Isabeau just had her 5th birthday, I can't believe it? Anyways, yesterday she did her first caricature of her daddy . . . check it out!

George Lucas #4

OK, so I had another go at George . . . couldn't help myself. I'd like to paint one of them, not sure yet which one to paint?

George Lucas #3

I love sketching this guy.
Graphite on paper.

Aaron Wilkin Sketch

A private commission.

A blast from the past!

This past weekend my family drove up to Northern Wisconsin to visit my Mom, Dad and brother. My parents just moved into a new house, so they're going through old things, trying to organize and whatnot. Anyways, my Mom found an old wood carving that I did when I was 12 years old. I only did two carvings in my lifetime. This shark and a face on a walking stick. While carving the face on the walking stick I cut the tip of my middle finger off . . . it was stitched together just fine, but I haven't carved since.

I've always been obsessed with sharks, they are by far my favorite of all creatures! So at 12 I carved this Great White out of bass wood, and painted it with acrylics. Before this I illustrated a book full of sharks. I drew over 350 shark species, including side views, views from the bottom as well as drawing their teeth and labeling each page with they're common and latin names.