computer color sketch of Yuki-Onna. I like the feeling of descending dusk and willt ry and project that even more in the final painting. I notice the tree has no snow in the branches… rather unrealistic. will have to fix that come the final.

A few weeks back I posted a really rough sketch of a girl standing in front of a tree. Today I finally sketched out a more detailed drawing of the image before it moves to the color and painting stage. That hoary old tree is gonna be really fun to paint!

Sketch out of the moleskine tonight. Sometimes sketches can get a bit carried away with themselves and before you know it they move into very odd territory. I started just drawing the woman from behind… had no idea it would turn into some omen of a fire devil fetus. In any case I’m digging the duotone effect of the red and black ink. I might play around with blue ink too for a tri-tone effect.

Well, here we go again… decided to do some updates to the web template of this site. I’m still using the same basic organization, just tweaking the graphic look here and there. trying to keep things as simple as possible. I don’t know why I spend so much time doing all this code and pixel tweaking over and over. maybe it’s some kind of catharsis… or it’s easier to tweak a little web template than to make a new 18×24″ oil painting…

anyway… back to the drawing table I go.(literally)

look, no girlies! This ink depiction of a shrine was inspired by the sort of out of the way sacred places one can come across while exploring Japan. I had a few experiences traveling and stumbling upon little niches or alcoves at the base of a hill, or an unseen bend of the road. inevitably they are deserted… which in a country with such a concentrated population is rather unnerving by itself… but there is a special feeling about such places… feelings I can’t express with words. This ink drawing is rather abstract, but I hope it gets across some of the mysticism and melancholy I’ve felt in such places.

Ink reference sketch of a seated woman in perspective. It’s easy sometimes to let a sketch get away with you with lots of shading marks and line marks. Here I’m trying to control my line quality better… less sketchy marks, more bold decisions with the pen.

Whoa it’s been 5+ days since my last post?! Life just just runs off when you’re not looking. Here’s a quick sketch, nothing earth shattering. Gotta get some more color works into this blog before it grows stagnant.

for some reason I never feel I can do much drawing on a plane… it’s kinda like sleeping or eating… it always feels half-ass when you’re 30k in the air. These sketches are from a trip last week, right after which I tore into a complimentary bag of pretzels.

What is that… flowers? a tree branch? a rooftop? could it be that I’m getting sick of drawing naked ladies? kimono ladies? I guess stranger things have happened…

a little oil practice… copying one of bouguereau’s angel figures. This was actually painted a while back and I have yet to get around to adding color in. Still it was a good exercise just to concentrate on value rather than hue. Sometimes you can learn a lot more from copying a successful painter than copying what you see in life around you.