Oil Sketch

Here is a small oil painting I did the other day. I really love doing these quick paintings, there is a lot that stays fresh in the shapes and color. However, they generally lack substantive depth.

This one has a lot of personal meaning since I'm giving to my mom for Christmas. I did this painting in celebration that I am not the artist I was before. When I was about 12 my mother asked me to paint a nice picture for the house. I was twelve and very angst, so I painted an abstract interpretation of a suicide that had taken place in my middle school. Skeleton's, black and gray, very sparse color-yeah, like I said, I was 12.

I scoffed at being asked to paint a "nice picture." I didn't do "nice."

This painting is bright, playful, uplifting and hopeful. There has been a lot of maturing and self-evaluation happening. While there are real dark emotions and negative things that need to be addressed in life, I know that don't need to wallow there to be "artistic." Life generally is bright and hopeful; I hope you enjoy the post and will excuse me for sharing something personal.
Merry Christmas, a season of glad tidings of great joy!

Backwards

These little acrylic paintings I did of my brother's struggle with ADD; I thought it worked out perfectly with the Illustration Friday theme. Sometimes we all end up a little backwards, even after the simplest of tasks.

Tooth Time

Here's one character I made up for a series of tooth adventures. There will be a cowboy(floss), rocket ranger(toothpaste), and celebrity (toothbrush). I'd like to incorporate a female tooth as well to make the set be more gender neutral, let me know if you have any ideas.

When an elf gets an idea...

A little known fact: When an Elf gets a good idea a bright incandescent bulb doesn't appear, but a whole strand of colorful Christmas lights. This Elf is looking for the burnt-out bulb in his string of good ideas. The Elf joins the Snowman & Santa that you've already seen. Thanks to Mark R. for pointing me toward increased saturation.

Enjoy, I'll try to post all three together to show the Christmas character set.

I said SKAT, not cat.

Here is a painting I did as a self-promotional piece. The primary reason, I've never painted animal characters before! I know, I know, but it's the ugly truth. I had a blast with the cat's facial expressions & humanizing the anatomy.
I've also discovered that I unconsciously try to break a story down to it's minimalist components, a good AND bad thing.
It's now open to criticism, how can I improve? Thanks to you all!

Dave

By the way, my wife and I added a baby boy, Caleb Wilson, to our family on Sunday. You may see a surprisingly good looking young model appear in upcoming paintings.

Vector Sketching...what a blast!

A few nights ago I took a small sketch of my youngest and decided to turn it into a digital sketch. Usually I'll work in Photoshop or Painter, but I had a ball for a couple minutes putting this quickie together. What a pain-free process! I'll have to experiment a little more later.

It's always nice to take a breather from some of the more intensive work projects-I've got three paintings on my easel right now that are begging for more and more time. I'll be sure to post those as they wrap up.

See ya' next posting.

Divine Potential

Here is one piece I really had fun doing, Divine Potential. The Laurel and the Flower are each symbols of glory & grace. The Flower, still blooming represents the process of growth and refinement that we go through. This flower in particular is a symbolizes feminine beauty and womanhood. And of course being crowned with laurel and hallowed by a mature bloom tells of the divine nature of woman.

It's a painting that I could really enjoy packing some meaning into.