Monster Fountain on the Plaza!

Well, I'm still painting rooms in my house, so nothing current to post. So I thought I'd reach back into the archives and show you this little oddity from February, 2010. It's one of my entries into a goofy photo contest from CREATUREBOX, a fun website by two incredibly talented artists, Dave Guertin and Greg Baldwin. The idea was to assemble a little cardboard monster "paper toy" they designed, called "Thorndyke", then put him into crazy locations. I didn't win any of the prizes, but I had fun anyway.

So here's the original location on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.

Here are the monster parts...took about two hours to build...way longer than I expected.

And here's the little guy all put together. The wire was to help me get the "one-footed-tip-toe" pose I needed. With a little Photoshop magic...voila! A new fountain for Kansas City!

UPDATE! Thanks to my nephew's eagle eye, I was made aware that I had forgotten to add one other source photo for this image. I borrowed the water spray that comes out of Thorndyke's mouth from a photo of another famous KC fountain. I can't detect exactly what bits I used...I'm sure I "cloned" parts that I liked and moved things around to make it work. Thanks, Christopher!

SKETCHBOOK - "Life Drawing Afternoon"

A little over a week ago, I went to one of the figure drawing sessions that are provided for artists at Hallmark Cards once a month. I really hesitated to post these drawings...it's been FOREVER since I've gone to a life drawing session, and I felt REALLY RUSTY!!! By the time it was over though, I knew I'd have to go again, because I've always loved drawing the human form.

First there were some 5 minute warm-up sketches. I didn't plan my time well on these...should have been looser.

Then we had a few 10 minute poses. I was a bit frustrated by not being sure of what materials to use. I bounced from sepia pencils to graphite, with white pencil for highlights...toned brown paper, then to white.

Next were two 20 minute poses. I had wanted to try laying down a mid-tone over the paper, then lifting out highlights with a kneaded eraser. I had not, however, prepped my paper beforehand with graphite, or with charcoal...so scribbling on the paper didn't really work as well as I wanted.

Finally, we had a 15 minute pose. I was pleased with this drawing...finally started to feel like I could get back into this figure drawing thing. It was also a challenge using a larger piece of paper and an easel, instead of my sketchbook. All in all...a good 3 hours break from my regular workload.

I leave you with a photo of my current "assignment"...painting several rooms in my house. Not nearly so fun.