Sketches from Rome

We just got back from our trip to London, Paris, and Rome, and it was fantastic! I was able to sketch from some of my favorite sculptures in Rome, and here they are (the sketches, that is...). The first one is from the Fountain of Neptune at Piazza Navona; the second is from the fountain in Piazza Barberini; the third is the central figure in the Trevi Fountain; and the last is my absolute favorite sculpture in the whole world, Bernini's David. It was such a thrill not only to be able to see Bernini's magnificent sculptures in the Galeria Borghese, but to be able to sketch in person my all-time favorite work of art was a dream come true! It was an enlightening experience for both me and my wife, and one we will never forget. We'll try to get some pictures of our trip up on a blog of our own soon.

Illustration Friday: Red

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is "Red." In trying to figure out what to draw for such a topic I got the idea to do a sci-fi/fantasy redesign of the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood. This is just a quick marker sketch, colored in photoshop, of Red herself.

It still needs work, but my main intent with this sketch was to establish a precedent for my participation in Illustration Friday-- something I've been meaning to do for some time now.

I think I'll continue the Red Riding Hood redesign as a personal project to flesh out my character and environment design skills. I've got some cool ideas for what exactly she rides that makes her need her famous hood...

Right after the Robot Wash...

Finally, a little over a week later, I've got the second robot up! In truth, I've had the drawing done for several days now, but my hard drive crashed, and I was delayed a few days in scanning and coloring this fellow.

Anyway, this drawing shows that sometimes the same things that plague us humans also affect robots. It never fails that when you get your car washed it either rains or a big ol' bird decides to do some "custom detailing" by leaving a giant poop on your windshield. This bird's scoping out a prime spot to leave his mark.

Robots are awesome

My sister told me that when she has a baby and it's a boy, she wants me to design a robot theme for his room. Well, she and her husband just found out that their first little bundle of joy on the way is a boy, so I've gotta start brainstorming some robot ideas.

My second term at Art Center also just started, and I have the feeling that it's going to be replete with abstract and non-representational assignments. I'm going to need to do some more personal sketching, so maybe I'll do, like, a weekly robot or something. That could be fun.

Farmer Joe

This is just a quick sketch to get me started. I did it during a particularly boring discussion in my final English class at BYU. I colored it in Photoshop just to give it some life. No real inspiration that I can think of; Farmer Joe just kind of appeared on the back of a handout.

My First Foray into Blogdom

This is my first time doing a blog, and I'm not really sure what I'm going to post on here. I'll most likely use it to show off some of my art work, and I'll most likely wind up including the occasional rant. I'm about to write the (hopefully) last paper on literature of my college career (finishing up my BA in English this month, and abandoning "academia" in favor of the visual arts), so I need something to keep up my typing and composition skills. What better way to do so than a blog that probably no one will read? I hope get some artwork up on here soon. See you all soon!