English Robin Pencil Sketch

Color pencil drawing of an English Robin.

Here's my try at color pencil sketching. I brightened the picture a little and replaced the smudgy background with a sky gradient (I know, it's cheating). I don't think it's quite good enough to offer to the public yet, but it's a start. More practice! ...and maybe higher quality color pencils.

Felt a little guilty and uploaded a more representational version of the sketch.

Fantasy Shell

Went a little crazy on the colors. I kind of dig it though. What do you think?

2nd Cascade Vase - Finished

New name: Waterfall Vase

Finished vase after firing. I think the cascade areas look like a waterfall so I've renamed it. It's been an interesting and fun experiment using the clear cascade glaze under the colors of these vases.

Shell Part 3

Added some details for the final image.

Shell Part 2

Added some textures, thickness (subtle), and changed the shape a little.

It's still a little too clean. What do you think?

Shell Script

Shell I'm working on for my next rendered work.

It's done mostly with a script where I input the parameters of the spiral. Then I stretch and rearrange things to look more like a shell. This object currently has zero thickness and needs bumps, spikes, and a texture/color.

2nd Cascade Vase -- Step 2

I've used the turntable to paint the stripes in a cooler range of colors than the first vase. You can see the demarcations of the underlying cascade glaze.

I'm hoping it runs fairly evenly. We'll see.

Also note the new photo backdrop. What do you think?

2nd Cascade Vase - Step 1

I'm making another vase with the runny or "cascade" glaze.

First I taped off areas I didn't want to run (white areas). Then I painted 4 coats of the cascade glaze in the exposed areas (gray). I've increased the area sizes of the cascade areas from the last time. I also increased it from 2 coats to 4. Now I'll need to paint the color glazes over the whole thing. I'm thinking of using cool colors this time.

Balthasar van der Ast

I'm really digging these paintings by 17th Century Dutch Golden Age Artist, Balthasar van der Ast.

Many of his still-lifes have flowers, fruit, bugs, and shells in them. I like all those things and I've done computer renders with fruit, flowers and bugs; just a few with shells. I may get inspired to reproduce something like these in computer-rendered form.

Mug Painting Fun

This is at an outdoor mug party we hosted. Lots of fun was had painting beverage-ware. I'll have more pix after they're fired.

Pottery Bird

Here's a nice fat stone bird to decorate your garden or shelf.

Done in an olive green stone finish with subtle green highlights on the wings, tail and beak.

Experimental Vase part 2

It didn't run as much as I wanted. If I do it again I'll try 3-4 coats of the runny glaze instead of just 2.

And maybe bigger runny areas too.

Wineglass Morphology

I combined some of my wineglass renders into one render that shows some sort of progression. It's called "Wineglass Morphology." Kind of reminds me of the evolution graphic of an ape becoming a human.

Available from Fine Art America, this would look great in the kitchen, in a restaurant, bar, or den.

Underwater Empire

New update on an old render. I did about a year ago. I updated the colors--it was a little drab. I added sparkles to the sunbeams (hard to see at this scale). I also took out the focal blur so everything's in focus--I didn't think the extra depth cue was needed. Here's the before/after. I hope you agree that the "after" is better.

...Oh! And I added bubbles.

Desert Story

This is a render I did a little over 10 years ago that I updated and re-rendered today. I was trying to take a snapshot of a point in time in a desert mini-drama. A discarded or lost canteen lies on the desert floor having spilled it's water. As the water seeps into the sand, a sprout starts growing there. A lizard is scrambling toward the plant to get water or maybe eat the plant--the cycle of life. But how did the canteen get there? What happened to the owner of the canteen? What's going to happen next?

Experimental Vase (part 1)

Here's a vase I've been working on. I painted a clear runny glaze in areas at the top. You can kind of see the shadows of it - the elongated triangles. Then I put it on a turntable and painted some stripes. Hopefully the stripes will drip in interesting ways when I fire it. Stay tuned...

Hamburger Rendering continued...

Here's the next iteration of the burger. The wrapper's a little small, but I didn't want it taking up too much space. I've also rearranged things a little, changed the lighting, and made the onions less yellow. Hit me with more ideas. No bacon.

Hamburger Rendering

This rendering I started quite a while back in 2003. It started with just the burger which made a few incarnations as I improved it. Last year, I finally put it in a scene with background objects and a shiny "floor" to rest on. I'm now thinking the burger should be on a plate or in a basket for sanitation's sake. What do you think? Any other suggestions or additions to improve the composition? #ItsaNateThing #renderart #hamburger