Bella Rose

Here's my newest portrait of Bella, my little girl.   She's a 4 year old Yorkie that I just love to pieces.    This is 11 x 14 graphite on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper.   I did this as a Christmas gift for my wife. 

Bella Rose 11 x 14 graphite on Strathmore Bristol Vellum

Bella WIP 2

Here's a very small update.  I'm starting Bella's eye.  I used a General's Soft Charcoal pencil for the dark shadow tones in the eye.  The then used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with a 2B lead for the lighter tone.  I'll take a better close up of the eye and post it tomorrow.  I really want to try to show the detail.   I'm focusing on realism with this but again, I don't want to copy the reference photo exactly.  

Bella WIP 1

Here's my line drawing to my newest piece.  This portrait is going to be of my beautiful baby girl Yorkie, Bella.   She's 4 years old and has quite the little personality and I love her so much.  She just shows me those puppy dog eyes of hers and she makes me melt.   I hope to capture her in a graphite portrait which is going to be a Christmas gift for my wife.   Christmas is only 14 days away so I better get crackin' on this.

This is 11 x 14 Canson Bristol Smooth paper (the paper is actually two side, smooth on one side and more of a vellum surface on the other - for this I'm using the smooth side).  The line drawing was used with a 0.5 mechanical pencil with a 2B lead.

I call this phase of my drawing process the "ugly" phase because my line drawing looks, well; ugly.  The lines were quickly laid down and looks like a 2 year old could have done a better job.  I use my line drawing for placement of features only, sort of like a map.  I just want to block everything in and get the shape of Bella's head down on paper.  Once I have everything mapped out and placed where I want them, I can now start to add texture, tone, and depth to Bella to hopefully bring her to life on paper.

I will be blogging my process from start to finish.  This is only the second time I am drawing a dog so this should be interesting.   I hope you enjoy watching.

Bella WIP 1

Here is the  reference photo I am using.  I will also be drawing from life as well.  I do not want to copy the reference photo exactly.  I will be changing some things as I go along.  I want to capture Bella's personality which isn't really something the camera picked up.

reference photo (color)

The way I handle reference photos is that I take the photo and upload it to my computer where I open it in Photoshop.  Because I use graphite, I change the color of the photo from color to grayscale so that I can see the black/white/gray tones.

reference photo in grayscale

 I primarily use graphite because I just love it.  I think graphite and charcoal really makes an impact.  I think the drawing is more dramatic in graphite.  More to come soon!!!

Studio Photos

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd share some photos of my studio.....this is where the magic happens.  Actually, I have two studios in my home.   I have a smaller studio which I use when I want to be a little lazy and not travel downstairs into my basement where my main studio is. 

I pretty much stay in my upstairs studio during the week after I come home from work.   I use my main studio downstairs mostly during the weekends when I can spend more time there.   I do however go to my main studio when I want to transfer a line drawing to my drawing paper because this is where my light box is located.  

Anway, here are the photos of both my upstairs and downstairs studio....I hope you find them interesting :-)

This is my drawing table in my upstairs studio - this is much smaller than my downstairs studio.   I pretty much have everything I need though, my table, an easel, my durer grid for life drawing and lots of paper.   I also have my Gossamer and my Bruins finger (YUP, I'm a die hard Bahston fan)

Here are some shelves in my upstairs studio where I keep my supplies.   All of my pencils, erasers, blending tools, markers, a little bit of everything is here.  

Here is my downstairs studio in my basement.  This is my main studio though I don't get to spend a lot of time here because I work full time during the day and don't come down here much during the week.  I'm usually here during the weekends.  

This is an image of my supply closet which is basically a Craftsman Tool cabinet.   This is where I store ALL of my supplies including my colored pencils which are along the inside of the door of the cabinet all sorted by color.

This is just a small sneak peek into my studio.  I'll be taking some more photos from my studios and maybe some videos also.   Thank you for stopping by!!!!

New Portrait Coming Soon!!!

I am preparing to start a new portrait.  This is a special portrat because it's going to be a portrait of my dog "Bella".  She's a 4 year old Yorkie and I'm going to be drawing her portrait for a Christmas gift for my wife.

I already have the line drawing completed which I'll post later tonight.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time because I haven't really drawn animals before other than a dog portrait I did a few years ago. 

I'll be posting the reference photo along with my line drawing.   More to come soon!!!!

Self Portrait Complete

Here is my completed self portrait.  This is 11 x 14 graphite on Bristol Vellum paper. 

"Kevin" took First Place in the Mixed Media Category at the WGA Open Annual Art Exhibit

My portrait of "Kevin" won first place in the Mixed Media Category at the WGA Open Annual Art Exhibit held on Saturday November 24th at the First Congregational Church in Woburn, MA.  

I also won "Most Improved".  

Here is the critique that I got on my award winning portrait from the judges.  

Kevin Complete

Here's my completed portrait of Kevin.  This is 11 x 14 graphite on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper.