eklektos on Workbook.com

Lately life has been very full with teaching, making plans for a school, working, hanging out with my family, and working with some folks to help me build a bigger client base. Part of growing the business now includes several portfolios on Workbook.com. So far I've been really pleased with their customer service... no taking your credit card number and then forgetting who you are. Let's see what comes of it...

The Little Man

My daughter, Lydia snapped a great picture of Levi, my grandson, as he was looking out our kitchen window. "What a great subject for a drawing or painting" I said to myself. So here it is. Seven inches square on Arches hot press block, all in Winsor & Newton burnt sienna with #6 and #3 Kolinsky brushes.

I Love to Draw!

After posting an old pencil drawing last week I decided to return to my first artistic love. No matter what medium I work with, when I draw I want to shout my own rendition of Eric Liddell's famous line from Chariots of Fire... "When I draw I feel His pleasure!"


This past summer, my daughter Natalie snapped some great photos at her older sister's baby shower. One of those photos was of Hannah, a young lady for whom both Natalie and Alayna were babysitters. Hannah's piercing eyes and focused expression were the perfect subject for this seventh portrait.

1983

Teaching two classes and being very busy with work leaves me very grateful but with little time to finish a portrait a week. So, it's back to the archives.


1983 was a very productive year. I was hoping to make my way as a portrait artist, and that year I must have produced dozens of portraits in watercolor and graphite. I had a number of friends who were more than willing to let me draw/paint them or their family.


A friend from high school, Tom Brennan, moved from Hartford to a tiny town called Fletcher, Vermont — so small you had to go to the next town for the post office which was in a general store. Here is a graphite portrait I drew of him and his first daughter, Erin.
My signature style then was to have a rectangular background with the subject breaking out its frame into the blank page.

To Dad, Christmas 1978

Once again my week has gotten away from me. I'm grateful that I've been busy with design and illustration work. I also started teaching a class this week. I have a new portrait started, but won't get to finishing it until next week. So, once again, I dig into the archives. Today I'll share the drawing that was a turning point for me in realizing the drawing skills with which I had been blessed.


I don't remember who the subject was. It was from a photo I found in a magazine. But it looked like something my father might like. I'm sure I was pushing myself to impress my rugged, machine-shop-working father. He never said much, but the picture was always hanging right above his rocking chair in the den until he died.


I didn't know that there was such a thing as acid-free paper, or that there were other pencils besides your generic yellow number 2 model. But I was surprised and pleased with what I was able to do, and it started me on a path for many years creating very tight pencil portraits for myself and others.

By the way, here's the start of a portrait of my daughter, Lydia. Hope to post the finished piece next week.

Waiting for the J train

In November of 2009, while in NYC for my MFA, I grabbed a photo of this young lady waiting for the train. Tired and cold, she looked like an Ellis Island immigrant.


I'm enjoying working in this loose/tight style. I'm open to any suggestions or any photos you want to toss my way for portraits. I've got a lot of ground to cover these next 50 weeks.

Creation of Adam

OK... So I said I'd be posting a portrait a week. And hopefully I'll finish the piece I'm working on by tomorrow. 


So there you are, rolling your eyes, saying to yourself,"He's slacking already!" But before you jump too quickly, the reason I'm late with this week's portrait is that I've been given an invitation to hang and sell my work in a gallery here in Connecticut. Other than my thesis presentation, I've never had a gallery show. I'll be posting more details about it later. Here's a link to the gallery.


In lieu of a new portrait, allow me to share an image I created for a book cover. The challenge was to portray God seeing Himself in His own creation. While taking a drive to get some coffee, clear my head, and find some inspiration, the thought occurred to me that Genesis tells us Adam was created in God's image, and that he was fashioned from the dust of the ground. I bought my coffee (priorities!) and headed off to the nearest Home Depot to buy a couple bags of potting soil.


Layering the floor of my studio with cardboard and newspaper, I emptied the bags, moistened the soil and began to sculpt.

I photographed the final sculpture and began to play in Photoshop. The final portrait below illustrates the creation story with the shoulder being formed out of the ground, the face taking shape and then turning to flesh after God breathed His Spirit into him. 

I hope you find this portrait inspiring. And I promise to have my next image up soon.

A year of portraits...

It's been 6 months since I graduated with my MFA. And sadly it's been at least that long that I've failed to pick up my pencils or watercolors. I've never been one of those artists who just draws all day long... I need a project with deadlines and some accountability. So I either go for years of counseling to dig into my past and find out why, or I just give myself a project and give myself a reason to keep my feet to the fire. Call me a coward, but I chose the project.


We were visiting friends last week, and I was talking about this with their daughter, Rachel– a lovely, gifted young lady who has the makings of fine photographer. She was pouring out the same lament to me, that working full time has kept her from challenging herself more. So, right there at the dinner table we committed to posting a piece a week on our respective blogs. She will post a photograph, I will post a portrait. If you ask me, she got the sweet end of the deal, but if keeping my commitment makes her better at her craft, then I'm up to the challenge.


Since I've never done a portrait of my youngest daughter, Emma, I decided that would be a great start. For those of you who may not know, you can click on the image for a larger version.

So here's my first of 52 portraits. I ask you, dear reader, to prod and push me as well. And please encourage Rachel as she endeavors to grow creatively.

The Miracle Worker

In July 2008, Vin DiFate gave a presentation on several genres of illustration, including science fiction, movie posters and pulp fiction book covers. Guided by DiFate, we were directed to create a poster in our own style for one of our favorite movies. I created a poster for the 1962 classic, The Miracle Worker. I studied a number of screen shots of the film and created a 3D model of Anne Bancroft, who played the role of Annie Sullivan, instructor and companion of Helen Keller. I photographed my daughter, Emma, to represent Patty Duke, who played the part of young Ms. Keller. Bancroft’s large scale represents the enormous influence she had on Keller. The field in the foreground was created with several Photoshop brushes made from grass stalks drawn in Illustrator.

Portrait Portfolio

Two years ago I taught an evening illustration class at Paier College of Art. One of my students, Magge Gagliardi, is a very talented young illustrator. I am pleased to say she is planning on getting her MFA from University of Hartford. Last night, while having dinner with our family, she offered to take samples of my portraits to a gallery where she is showing some of her work. I decided to put together a flash presentation of portraits... a single place where I can direct people who want to see the work.

Gertrude Ederle, America's Girl

After each of our sessions together in the MFA program, we are given an illustration assignment. Normally the theme of the assignment is based on the location we have just visited. However, with our summer sessions in Hartford, the assignments take on a whole new flavor.

Murray Tinkelman gave an excellent presentation of American illustration in the 20th century. During one of his lectures, he told us we needed to pick an illustrator from 1900 to 1950 who was included in his presentations. He told us to choose a publication from that era as well as a person who was famous at the time. We then had to create a cover featuring that person in the style of the illustrator of our choosing.



I chose to emulate C. Coles Phillips. He created a style called the "fadeaway girl" that was more than a gimmick. He used the Gestalt principle of reification, also known as closure, where the eye will perceive a whole shape in an incomplete space by filling in the missing information.

The more I read about Getrude Ederle, the more I became fascinated with this strong, independent young woman (much like my wife and 4 daughters!) who was bound to not only swim the English Channel, but to also break all previous records in the attempt.



I took some liberties with the English and French coast lines in order to create the watercolor portrait of Ederle in the Phillips style. I then ran the scanned image through the color halftone filter in Photoshop to simulate the screening and muted palette that would have been used in publishing in the 1920s.

Night of the Hunter

So this week we spent time in the digital world with our instructors Jean Tuttle and Nancy Stahl. Our assignment was to create an image of a person from Connecticut using 3 programs: Illustrator, Photoshop and Painter. I had not used Painter before so I tried to do most of the work in that program rather than just lean on what was familiar to me. I decided to do Robert Mitchum (he grew up in Bridgeport), specifically his film The Night of the Hunter.

I was delighted with the watercolor effects I could get for the background and the ability to keep it all on separate layers, like Photoshop, so I could tweak, change or eliminate what I didn't like without having to start over. Also, having worked with Payne last week, I was free to create a caricature of Mitchum rather than produce an exact, photographic likeness. I'm not totally satisfied with the image of the woman on the bottom, but I had to stop the endless noodling. I may still play with it to get it right.

Looking forward to coming home and beginning the process of creating the body of work for my thesis. It's going to be a busy year.

Maple Man

What a great week it has been here in Hartford. First of all, getting back together with so many creative folks is electrifying. Second, to be under the tutelage of two illustration greats like C.F. Payne and Gary Kelley has been such a privilege. And third, I feel like I've really hit my stride. So much has seemed to come together in these past four days. It has also encouraged me to put this style to work for the Lady Who Swallowed a Fly book that I comped up last year. And best of all, I'm having a ball. What's better than that?

Getting ready for Hartford

For those of you who have been complaining about staring at a salt and pepper shaker for the last two months, here's a pencil drawing of yours truly that I've used as an element in one of the pieces I'm bringing with me to Hartford next week. I'll be in classes for two weeks for my Masters and will be half way to my degree! As my sister so affectionately noted, "who's the old guy?" I'll post the full image when I return... If I'm not too ancient to remember.

Enjoying the new studio. What a difference to have some sunlight!

Booker T Washington

Another of Teddy Roosevelt's firsts was being the first president to entertain an African-American to the White House. 

Beginning Teddy Roosevelt

Started on the image of Teddy Roosevelt today. Gosh, how I love working with pencil.

Liyah One More Time

Your comments are truly helpful and welcome. Taking one more shot at the image of Liyah, I desaturated the color, darkened the background a bit so that the face stood out more, and added a little color to her lips and cheeks. Still a moody piece, but a far cry from the murderous first attempt from a couple weeks ago.

Riley

Since deciding to work together with Ken and Lois Wilder I feel that rush like when I used to be a bike rider... when you come downhill and keep your cadence as you go up another. Having their photography, and the heart that comes with it, available to me has been a blessing and a half.

So ends my third week at this blog. I am so pleased with the progress from that first lip-biting shot with the lupe on my desk. So much more to learn...

More Color Adjusting

While I'm in this color scheme frame of mind, I thought I'd play with the image of the Thai farmer. Unlimited possibilities.

Liyah Revisited

Now that I've done a few of these images, I'm understanding more and more the impact of color. I know that sounds like a "duh" moment, but I was so caught up with working the new style that I didn't think so much about what a slap to the eye that red can be. I've had a number of comments about the image of Liyah. Sure, if I was illustrating an article about someone who had been murdered or their heart broken, the original color scheme would work well.

Thank God for Photoshop. Since each of the images is built in layers (pencil drawing, watercolor, photo) I can go back in and play with the hues. What a huge difference.

Keep the comments coming. Like I said, I can get a bit myopic (a sophisticated way to say "blind"). Your feedback has been helpful.