beaches are the best

Beaches are the best.  They've got all the best things, like little girls with afros and footballs

birds!

folding chairs

and lots and lots and lots of water - even waves!

blue hour

Outside is the best side.

SPACE

I realized while doing this that this is the only way I've ever really seen space and probably the only way I ever will.  That's ok though, because it's still crazy beautiful.

For Illustration Friday, topic: "space".

And while we're on the topic, do yourself a favor and download Stellarium if you haven't already.

summer weather

It rained today!  And then it rained some more!

before the earth was round

manual banding and lossy gif compression.

crayonology

Crayons are pretty transparent stuff.... and they don't build up well at all. The first layer holds fast to the paper and subsequent layers don't want to go on. Crayons characteristics translate pretty closely to oil pastels too... Below is a drawing I did of my duplex leading out to the alley (I have an alley!!), but I did it at night! in the dark! It was pretty interesting... It's incredibly hard to tell what color's you're using beyond hints of the cast, so you end up relying on value a lot more. Below that is a gouache painting from one weekend afternoon. They were each about an hour.

if - launch

Illustration Friday, topic: launch.

Growing up in Florida I've had the opportunity to watch a lot of shuttle launches. I've seen them on tv, at home, at the beach, and even as far away as Sarasota. It's not all that exciting as a sight itself. It's really just a dot in the east going up and leaving a short lived plume of smoke in its wake. But when you remember that there are people on that dot, and it's going to space AND coming back, it's just way cool. The final flight of the space shuttle program will be made by the shuttle Atlantis as mission STS-135 and is tentatively scheduled for July 8th. If you're in Florida don't you dare miss it.

littles 2

Some quick digital paintings from outside the window at home (:

back lots

Two paintings from the back lot behind whole foods. It was surprisingly nice painting back there. It was so stark in places but the lines of the place were never really straight and it was a really nice place to observe light. I like the turn these took. I used only the palette knife on them and was able to keep my colors a lot cleaner and edges sharper as a result. They were painted in the morning hours, one class session each.

late light

A larger oil painting (18"x24"?) for class done over the course of four short sessions around 5:15-5:45pm. It's in the area off to the side behind the bayou apartments and a pretty good contrast to the rest of campus. I approached this one a little different than I usually paint, and it was lots of fun. Gotta pay more attention to surface build up though - keep those darks thin and lights thick so the darks don't catch light and the lights get some more solidity. The right came out pretty nice, but the left isn't quite up to the same level.

Process shot here

late light process

A late light painting I started for class. Only have one session in so far, but I've been working differently on it and like where it's going.

painting at island park

More adventures in oil painting! These were painted at island park in the morning hours. This first one is a larger painting done during one class, the four after are super small and were all done during one class, and the last two are slightly larger ones both done in one class.

painting around school

These are my first oil paintings (aside from one earlier one). They're quick studies from mostly around campus. They're mostly around 45min to 1.5hrs except for the last two which are larger ones done in 2-3hours each. Everything is posted, so you get to see the train wrecks too! Sometimes you learn more from the disasters though.