Illuxcon coming up

I'm getting geared up to attend Illuxcon ,the first fantastic illustration art convention, next weekend in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Looks like it's going to be a good time and there is going to be tons of great art to see! If you also happen to be going, come find me and say hello.




The latest Monday night portrait is also drying and waiting to be scanned. Our model this week was local jazz singer Tish Adams. Image coming soon...

Monday Night Portraits Begin Again

Hurray! Monday night portrait session have begun once again after the summer break. We had a great model named Svetta for the first session last Monday, hopefully we'll have her back again.

Oil on board, 14"x18"

These sessions do great things for keeping my painting in practice. More to come...

Reoccuring Models

I don't see this guy very often at the coffee shop, but I like to draw him every time I get the chance. I've previously posted drawings of him here and from a less good angle here. There are many "regulars" at the coffee shop (one of which I suppose I am) if you look back through my blog posts you may be able to spot quite a few repeat sitters.

Just playing around with some Art Nouveau curves here

sketch, sketch, sketch

More from the coffee shop...

This is sort of a weird 'exquisite corpse' because the legs below belong to the girl above. I just ran out of paper on the above sketch, but I was interested in drawing her shoes for some reason.

More sketches

Who's that casting devious stares in my direction?

Actually, she was just looking at the laptop sitting in front of her.

Four and Twenty

Ladies in a pie... what's more to say?

Detail shots below, click to enlarge

I had the girls and the pie drawn from the beginning but I had some trouble figuring out what the background was going to be. I eventually decided on the branches because of how they bring out the nest like feeling of the pie, multiplying the different meanings and associations that the viewer can pull out of this.

Pencil People

More sketches for now, but I've got a new painting almost ready to show so watch for my next post.

This is Ali, you should go to her roller derby bout this friday!

Dereck

New Header

While I've been playing around with digitally coloring my sketches I decided to finally make a title image for the blog. I used the last sketch from this batch on the left side and drew some whiplashy things for the background. A little play time in photoshop, and there it is!

I recently took a ferry ride to see some of the galleries on Martha's Vineyard. It was a fun little day trip and I got a chance to draw a few of the elderly folks that also happened to be on the ferry. This guy above looked like he could have been me in about 40 years.

This is Phil from Arizona, on the ferry with his wife, Norma. They looked like they were enjoying their vacation. They must have been on some kind of organized tour because they arrived at the ferry with a whole bus load of other elderly folks.

(used in the header image as mentioned above)

Sketch

Grey McGear Modern

I now have gallery representation! A few of my paintings (specific pieces are noted on my web site) are currently on view (and for sale) at Grey McGear Modern in the Bergamot Station gallery complex in Santa Monica, California. It's really a nice big group of galleries all huddled around the Santa Monica Museum of Art, So if you're on the west coast and in the area go check'em out!

I really feel that the gallery is a good fit for my work and I will be continuing to send work there as time goes on.

And for those of you not on the west coast and in the Los Angeles area, here are some recent sketches...

portrait sketch off with Cory! (he was drawing me too)

New Illustration! - Dangers Lurk in the Forest

I've been working on this off and on for long time. Mostly off actually, different projects kept jumping up in the way, but I finally got back to it and finished it up.

It's just a personal piece. Oil on board, 17" x 22.5"

Here are a few detail shots...

Closing Night at the Theater

Here's a commission I recently finished. It's a going away present for the production manager of one of the traveling productions of the Broadway musical 'Mamma Mia'. The location is fictional, but it depicts a closing night in any given city where the cast will usually convene at a nearby bar or club for an after party. Meanwhile the crew remains behind to break down and pack up the sets and costumes and other equipment.
It's a big one, 40" x 28" oil on board. The above image is a scan which gave me the most accurate color and the sharpest image. However, there is a ton of glare on the brush strokes. I also took a photo, which is lower quality, but lets you see it without the glare.

I've been wanting to do more nature studies lately. There was a magnificent magnolia tree near my house earlier this spring but I didn't have time to draw it while it was blooming, so I took some pictures and finally found some time to study them.

And of course, here are some more sketches from the coffee shop.

And a recent figure drawing

The Sketches Continue

Getting back into the routine. Here are some new sketches from the coffee shop.

A simple sketch, I know. Angela called it a perfect drawing and tried to keep me from doing anything else to it. I don't know about perfect, but I like the shapes in it. It's nice sometimes, having someone stop you before you go too far.