on the drawing board: a hot mess

Another look at my current piece in progress.  That dirty pile of pastel sticks, bits and pieces is typical.  Sometimes I try to be more neat about it, but I just keep grabbing different colors and that's where they end up.  It becomes my 'in use pile'.  They're all together but I do I have constantly rummage though it to find the one I want, the one I just got done using. :-)

on the drawing board: devil in the details

Because most of my pieces are more 'body centric' the faces that I work on aren't usually that large.  So when I do find myself with a life size or larger face to work on it's really fun getting to do all the little details that are often just a line or a smudge, things like shadows and highlight on teeth, the creases in the lips and individual eyelashes.

on the drawing board: be mine

Since I'm planning a brick wall in the back ground, for the overall tone I chose a red coloured pastel paper to start on.  This in progress pic I took makes the paper look very pink.  With Valentines day just two days from now, it seems very fitting.  He can be my Valentine :-)

On the drawing board: depth in the mundane

Normally after a few in progress posting of what I'm working on I'll unveil the finished piece.  But because that piece was a commission and is meant to be a gift, I'm holding off until it's revealed to the birthday boy.

Meanwhile here is a portion of the next piece I'm working on.  As you all know I do love capturing the simplistic beauty of seemingly mundane moments.  I just love the idea of concocting a story and all the emotions that might be playing out in such a simple instance.

on the drawing board: a commissioned boat

A client from Germany has commissioned me to do a piece for him. Above is my sketch for the piece and as with any commission I do, I have to find something about that excites and inspires me.  This one does.

When a client asks for a commission they tell me what they are looking for and I come up with a preliminary layout first that hopefully satisfies most of their request.  This client told me this sweet romantic story of the first time they got to be 'out' and alone together on a vacation to a lake.  He neglected to mention that he wanted the figures naked or that is was to be more sensual and a little less sweet.  Below was my first sketch for him. While it's a good concept, I'm very glad that it ended up being the sexier one above!

on the drawing board: back to work

My last work was a full frontal so I've done a 180 and am doing a full backal? ..dorsal? ...rectal???  What ever it's called I'm looking forward to diving in.