Easy Glider No. 2 New Bike, different pose.

So, Pinc Tacos asked me if I would revise the Easy Glider pin up and insert a different style of bagger, one that had been customized and belongs to someone that they know. They really like the girl, but wanted to change the bike. Unfortunately, different bike meant that I had to alter the girl's pose a little bit. So far I've got the drawing of the bike and the girl just about rendered, but as you can see they're both completely naked. So as soon as I'm satisfied with the drawing, I'll go in and start blocking in the colors and filling out the details. So I just wanted to share you a quick little process shot of the revision. Enjoy her while she's still naked.

Great Video with me sketching in it!!!

Randall's Quest To See Denver's Best from Art Directors Club Denver on Vimeo.

I was approached by my friends Randall and Lindsay about being in this movie because they wanted an Illustrator to be in it. I think the idea is to show some different aspects of the Art Director's Club of Denver, in promotion for the Annual Show, this year. So we have Screen Printing with Stew and Nicky at Ink Lounge Gallery, Bryce Boyer Photography,Chris Thomas at Ripcord Design, and Myself doing Illustration. So about half-way through the movie you get to see me working on a sketch that I was doing for my original Chrome and Chroma painting. I never ended up making the painting that the sketch was for, since I went with "The Wild One," instead of this idea. But the drawing was based on a motorcycle ride up to Estes Park, and it got me to thinking about doing a series on Motorcycling Across Colorado. I still might do the series but right now I'm more inclined to focus on getting published, again, rather than gallery work. You can also briefly see my motorcycle in the movie, at 5:30 in, right after Randall leaves Herb's. Hope you enjoy the movie!

Here's the Sketch:


The ADCD Annual Show will be Sept. 24th. For more info visit www.ADCD.com.

Plein Air painting in my backyard

If you've ever been to my house, you've probably been in the backyard and saw the great little swing that we have back there that's covered by a grape vine. I've actually been meaning to paint this scene since I moved into this house but haven't, until now, been able to just sit down and do it. I actually spent a couple of days working on this piece, but I signed it with today's date because I feel like I finished it, today.

W.A.S.P Portrait Update

So I was not able to finish the painting of the Women's Airforce Service Pilot (W.A.S.P) in time for the airshow, but I took it anyway. The really exciting thing was that my table at the Airshow was actually right NEXT to two actually WASPs, and was able to show them the painting as it was, unfinished. They couldn't see very well and their hearing was going pretty bad, but they were very honored and appreciative of my sentiments. They signed pictures for many people that came up to the tent, which gave me a little bit of traffic as well.

Since I haven't finished the painting yet, I thought I'd share a couple of process shots to keep everybody interested in what I'm doing and show a little bit of a step-by-step.

So since you've already seen the digital composite, you've got a basic idea of what the finished image will be like. I washed over the drawing with a very diluted burnt umber to just get a whole quick layer over the bare canvas with the drawing over it.



From there I used a rub technique to pull out some highlights, and then went in again with the burnt umber to lay in my darker values and start giving the painting some shape. This is called the underpainting. It allows me to show my basic value and creates a unified base for the rest of the paint to sit on top of.



Now that I have my underpainting down, I can start mixing my palette and getting some color in there. It's important for me to start with the background so that I'm essentially painting in layers from background to foreground. I start with the sky and then work my way down the airplane, which is a Fairchild PT-19. The PT-19 was the plane that the army used to train its pilots during WWII.



The final stage will be, of course to render the girl, and then last but most important, the Fifi logo on her jacket, which is the emblem created by Walt Disney that the WASPs used.

More to come!