Jephyr Photograph: The Machines Of Men

Hi!

Hopefully you're enjoying my "Ghost Town Series" of photographs!

I've uploaded most all of it to my Fine Art America site now where you can purchase high quality posters, greeting cards and prints.  They offer all kinds of choices for sizes and even framing and matting of all kinds!

Please feel free to stop by!!

http://jephyr-curtis.artistwebsites.com/

In the Ghost Town Series I chose to look at some close-ups of old machines rusting in the Arizona desert.

One image I call "The Machines Of Men".  It's a close-up view of an old machine that in it's day probably saw countless hours of toil...but now sits idle in the desert sun.

The title is a metaphor for mankind...our lives of work and toil...and what will be remembered of us when we're gone.

The Machines of Men


--------------------------------------------

I liked this photograph and created several versions of it including the last one I'll post here where I took it to an obvious extreme.

The Machines Of Men - 2

The Machines Of Men - 3

The Machines Of Men - 4

-------------------------

You're invited as always to stop by my website for more examples of my artwork including charcoal figure drawing, paintings, digital "paintings" and videos and animations.

Jephyr.com

Jephyr: My Ghost Town Series on Fine Art America

Hello again,

As I mentioned, I decided to upgrade to a "premium" membership on Fine Art America.

Free memberships are a great way for artists to get started there but an upgrade allows you (among other things) to upload an unlimited number of images and they give you a personal artist web-site.  Even though I already maintain my own web-site I think it will be a valuable tool to have another one managed by FAA with links built for selling prints of all kinds, framed or unframed and greeting cards and posters etc.

You can check my FAA site out here:

http://jephyr-curtis.artistwebsites.com/

I got busy right away and uploaded a number of photographs from a series of images taken in 2010 at a Ghost Town east of Phoenix at the base of the Superstition Mountains.

I arrived there in the late afternoon and the light was great.  I'd just purchased my Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera and you may know it handles low light extremely well so I snapped away sometime focusing on smaller field of view subjects.

Anyway....thought I share a few of those images here...links will take you directly to their Fine Art America page.

"Desert Relic"

"Shadow Geometry"

"Sentinal"

"Forgotten"








































"Late Afternoon Sun"


----------------------

And two from the drive home:

"Highway Mirage"

and finally "Cactus Sunset"

There are other images from this series on my website and I'll be putting links to FAA there as soon as possible.

Jephyr.com

--------------

Thanks as always for stopping by!!  : )

Jephyr's latest video posted on YouTube

Hello!

I finished my time-lapse, speed painting video of the Jester Illustration posted here recently
(Read more:  May 14,2012).

I actually had most all of the time-lapse capture video completed last fall...but so many things kept me from creating the music bed and finishing all the video editing and titles etc.

But it's FINALLY done and uploaded to YouTube.

Here's a look at the final Jester image:

And the video:



Or if you'd prefer a link to view the video directly on YouTube:

 http://youtu.be/v15Y4DFwCto


---------------------

BTW I created the music track in Sony Acid Pro 7 and really enjoyed that process.

---------------------

Well...as always thanks for stopping by.

You're always welcome at Jephyr.com too!

Jephyr Art: Humorous Digital Photograph "Bottoms Up"

Hello!

Last December I created a free membership at the Fine Art America site where artists can sell  original works of all kinds and prints of them.  It's a "print on demand" service...so once you've joined and uploaded images they do the rest...including creating cards, posters and prints on canvas including a number of framing choices.

Just recently I paid for a Full Membership so I could upload a much larger number of images and have begun taking advantage of that adding a lot more there...including several digital photogs I've not posted anywhere else:  Jephyr on Fine Art America.  You're welcome, of course, to come by and watch me grow!  : )

Back in 2010, using my Canon EOS5 Mark II, I snapped a humorous shot of a "duck couple" feeding at a pond near my home.  I call it "Bottoms Up". 

 

I'd already posted another version of this Photograph at my Fine Art America page but just re-posted the version above which is cropped differently and at a slightly higher resolution:  Bottoms Up

 ------------------------

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Please visit my website:  Jephyr.com

Jephyr Art: A Jester - My latest digital illustration

Hi,

Thanks for dropping by.

Here's a look at a Jester I just finished digitally painting in Adobe Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos Tablet.

Update:  You can now purchase a high quality poster, greeting card or framed or unframed print of this image:

 http://jephyr-curtis.artistwebsites.com/featured/jester-jephyr-art.html


---------------------

And the story behind the pic:   

I've wanted to illustrate a poem for quite a while.  Toward the end of 2011, I decided to take a crack at creating one of the characters for it...the Jester. 

I drew several Jesters in my sketchbook just using my imagination.

[      BTW...I apologize for the written "rant" on that page ^ ^ ^

Later when I got to the car I realized I had developed a bad migraine headache that I'm sure contributed to my irritated mood.
And as if to underscore feeling sheepish about it...as I was gathering my things up the father of the children said:  "I'm sorry about the noise.  We've seen you sketching and have tried to keep the kids quiet."
* sigh *  So maybe I'm not perfect after-all!  ; )    ]

---------------------

Later did a few sketch studies of some illustrations and photos of various Jesters I'd found on-line on-line.

---------------------

Then one afternoon I sketched a Jester I kinda liked...and then took it to the next step and decided to digitally paint it.

At that time, I got a lot of the color and background blocked in but then like a lot of things in my life it was relegated to the unfinished file.

Recently I decided at long last to put some polish on him and move him to the "it's finally done" file.

: )

Here's a look at some of the steps I took along the way...from the original sketch to the final painting you saw above:

---------------------

I'm in the final stages of putting together an 8 minute "time-lapse" video of the painting process  for the Jester and will post that as soon as it's done.

Edit:  It's finished!  Please go to my May 18, 2012 post to see it

---------------------

Thanks again for stopping by.

Visit Jephyr.com from more of my artwork including oil and acrylic paintings, charcoal drawings, photography, videos and animations, and more!

Super Moon: The Bightest Moon Of The Year

Me again!  How ya doin'?

Over the last coupla days Phoenix news was reporting that tonight at 8:35 pm we'd see the brightest and largest moon as it passed by closest to the earth this year.

I thought it might be cool to check it out...but like most things in my busy life that thought had been long forgotten.

For some reason I looked at the clock about 8:25 or so...and it popped into my head.

So I grabbed my Cannon Mark EOS 5D II...and hoofed outside for a look.  It was indeed bright and large even though it was competing with a little haze in the air and some clouds.

Here's a look at one of the pics I took right at 8:35 pm.

Coincidentally and for comparison, I'd snapped a pic of a bright moon back on Feb 9th, 2012 at 8:50 pm.

--------------------------


Thanks as always for for stopping by!

--------------------------

Be a good egg and stop by my web-site...won't cha:  Jephyr.com

: )

Arizona Artist Jephyr posts a couple of Life Drawing Charcoals

Howdy!

Recently I attended two Life Drawing open sessions held by my favorite instructor over at MCC, Gingher Leyendecker.  It had been a while since I'd done any Life Drawing.

I've been using Canson Steele Grey paper for life drawing.  The paper becomes the middle value and it makes it easier to push dark and light values across it using charcoal and black conte for the darks and blending white conte for the highlights.

 I was a little more ambitious for the one above and attempted to do more of the model.  But I was late to the open session and got just this far in a little over an hour of drawing.  I'm afraid I didn't definitely didn't do justice to our attractive model.  

: /

BTW...if you want to learn how to draw I highly recommend Mesa Community College...especially Gingher's Life Drawing and Anatomy classes!!  (For as often as I tell folks that...you'd think I was on the payroll : )

Well...that's a quick update...thanks as always for stopping by!!

---------------------

Feel free to stop by my website....I'll leave the lights on for you!

jephyr.com

Bye for now

Jephyr posts various, recent sketchbook graphite drawings!

Hi again,

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.  I've had a busy 2012 already!  Some good...some bad.

Bad:  I'd been slowed down over the last few months by some annoying little injuries and some external issues that needed my attention.

Good:   Recently I had a dream that caused me to re-evaluate my priorities and life and know I need to spend more time creating art and figuring out ways to market and sell it.

Anywho...I've gone over my recent sketchbook drawings and decided to post some here...something I've not done much of on this blog before.  Usually I've been sticking to posting only completed artwork...and usually stuff I've created digitally.

I've been using something called a "scribble" technique in my sketchbook recently.  It's valuable when your feeling stumped for ideas.

Lately I'd been feeling like I was doing the same type of sketches over and over.  So I started many of these by simply scribbling on the page...and then looking for lines that helped lead me to coming up with the final drawing.

Case in point:  The sad eyed guy above started as a scribble.  : )

It's a fun technique and I'd recommend it if you're feeling a little stale.

Another scribble drawing ^ ^ ^

A kinda cartoony doe, moose, dog thang.  : )

My scribbles helped me create this guy ^ ^ ^

I've been fascinated recently by water buffalo from Africa.  This guy is kinda a chimp / water buffalo with piercings, an Egyptian beard and Keith Richard type dread thingy's.

A scribble that became a self portrait ^ ^ ^  hahaha

I used some frog pics I found on-line to reference his face, hands and feet a bit.

A scribble that led to this Bot guy with hooves  ^ ^ ^

I drew this buxom lady's legs first and then had to figure out how to fit her upper body on the page ^ ^ ^

Solving these kinds of problems as I draw helps me understand movement and I think keeps my characters from becoming stiff.

Sometimes it's valuable to paint yourself in the corner.

This drawing was driving me nuts ^ ^ ^  (which is becoming a shorter and shorter drive!! : )

I went to a very cool coffee house in central Phoenix.  It's filled with young hipsters and I just couldn't get my groove on when it came to drawing anything.

Believe it or not this started as some kind of cow / buffalo thang with short squat legs.  I worked it and worked it until I finally gave up....and erased most of my lines.

I mighta been trying to hard to impress anyone who was looking over my shoulder (man there were some beautiful women there!!!).

Anyway...I returned to this over the next couple times I sketched and slooooowly this guy emerged.

Sometimes creating art is so much fun and other times it's like pulling your own teeth!

: )

------------

Well...anyway...thanks so much for stopping by.  If you have any questions or comments feel free to post 'em!

Oh...and swing by my website if you get a chance:  Jephyr.com