Elephant Circus

I wanted to paint something that maybe someday, when I get my act together, I will be able to make a print of and hang on one of my children's walls. I tried to think of what my son loved, and remembered how he enjoyed being at the circus. That inspired this drawing.

Evil Monarch Alert

Trying out some new painting techniques and styles. I'm not very good at drawing cartoony-like, so this was a shot at that.

The Traveler

I'm not sure how long this took. I worked on it for a few hours for a few days. Maybe 10 hours in all? Anyway, now that I'm done, it makes me think of Picasso's Mother and Child, you know, the one that he cut the dad out of because he didn't like the composition? No? Maybe I was the only kid that read the Childcraft books over and over. I couldn't think of WHY it made me think of that painting. I thought it might be the sea in the background or something. Now I remember why: this image looks pretty darned interesting cut up into pieces. Maybe I'll post some examples in a bit.

In any case, I called it The Traveler because in the beginning, she was looking out over the sea wearing her traveling cape. But then I wanted to do a dress instead. I like the look of the overall thing: not like I'm trying to be super realistic but more stylistic. I like that it has a clean carnival feel to it. I also like the blue and orange together.

This one I did completely from my imagination, except for consulting a few pictures on what pearls look like and what the heck an eye from the side looks like. Otherwise, I used no references. Also, she was facing the other way for most of production but I forgot to switch her back before getting the final image ready. Oh well, she looks fine looking out this way as well.

Eve

It probably seems like I'm churning 'em out now after my long silence. I find that if I do anything I often do a lot of it, and I've been doing a lot of painting recently. This one took me just a few days. I learned a few things about faces doing this and want another shot at painting skin soon. Stay tuned for that.

I am also kind of fascinated with the Bible figure Eve right now. There might be more pictures of her in the future.

Also, for some reason, whenever I've pictured Eve, it's always been a dark haired gal that shows up in my mind. Don't know why that is or if others think of her the same way, but the idea came to me to paint a ginger complected Eve. The idea seemed almost sacrilegious when I first thought of it and I'm really not sure why. In any case, I decided that I could paint her any way I wanted, given that she didn't leave behind any Poloroids of her actual face.

Creation: Lord of Heaven and of Earth

You probably were beginning to think I would never post again, but I have, at last, finished the project I have been working on for a bit. Although I did put many hours into this, the length of time that has elapsed between this post and the last does not reflect the actual duration of the work.

I think that this is the final version. I may go back and change things as I'm not totally happy with some parts. I chose the title because I wanted this picture to show the grandeur of the Savior's power as creator of the universe and our world. I also originally wanted to take a few liberties with the costume and maybe make it more dressy than it actually came out. In the end it's pretty simple but I hope it still has somewhat of a majestic feel to it.

Here are some WIPs of earlier stages.

Not much changed between this last one and the "final" one...mostly just color and light adjustment that I'm not 100% positive I'm completely happy with. Oh, and, of course, the obligatory lens flare. I'll sleep on it.