Pastel Pencil Birdy

Sketchbook Pastel Pencil Photo Study

As mentioned in my last post, I feel a recharged after taking some time off over the last couple of months from drawing / painting every day.

And since the governor of my state has relaxed his Covid-19 'stay at home order' - I've FINALLY been able to get out to do some drawing as well.

Today, I put the finishing touches on the pastel pencil attached below at a local coffee house — and it's felt good after several weeks to be looking at something besides my same ol' walls.

Not to say that I haven't been getting out at all.

In fact, since the first of the year I've been walking almost every day — and thankfully our governor declared that exercise was an 'essential' activity.

So I've been able to continue walking around my neighborhood and having a few 'social-distancing' appropriate conversations with other walkers — which as been really nice.

Still, it's been great to be able to go to a coffee houses or restaurants in just the last week or so — and sit and do some work outside mi casa for a change.

Anywho — I was looking for something to draw — and came across an old pastel pencil of the little birdy that I had started LONG ago — and decided to finally get around to finishing it today.

I used an awesome photo as a reference — so a big thank you to that photographer!

Pastel Pencil Birdy Photo Study - Copyright 2020 - Jephyr! - All Rights Reserved

Thanks for stopping by.

Look for more artwork soon......

Happy Mother's Day And Pastel Pencil Froggy

Hi,

Here in the US we're celebrating mothers today.

As I just wrote to my niece (who has 3 kids and is always kept busy looking after them):

"I know mommas work their fingers to the bone and don’t always get acknowledgement for all their hard work — so I hope you are feeling a special warmth and Blessing from your family and the Lord today!"

So if you're a mother too — whether your kids are grown and out on their own — or you're still wiping noses and bandaging scraped knees — I hope you feel loved and appreciated today!

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I've been feeling a little recharged in the art department myself after taking some time off from drawing and painting all the time.

Recently and somewhat naturally I began making art again — and I feel refreshed by taking that time off.

In my last post I shared a pastel pencil portrait I did for a nephew — that kinda got me started again.

https://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2020/04/birthday-pastel-pencil-portrait-sketch.html

(Also, I've been working with 3D animation software and hope I can share some of those efforts soon too)

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Today I'll share a pastel pencil photo study I just finished.

In the past, I've always really labored over my artwork and recently I've been feeling more relaxed and am working way more quickly than before.

Years ago I heard an expression, "Perfectionism is the enemy of art" — and the more I work at this thing the more I understand that.

Anywho — here's my draw'ring.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Frog - Pastel Pencil Photo Study — Copyright 2020 — Jephyr — All Rights Reserved

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Thanks for looking in on my little corner of the world.

See you again soon......

Birthday Pastel Pencil Portrait-Sketch

Howdy!

Just finished a quick birthday pastel pencil portrait sketch for my nephew.

His family had sent an Easter package to me — and his momma and he and his siblings had each done some awesome color pencil sketches they'd enclosed for me.

I was planning on sending my nephew a birthday gift and at the last minute — inspired by their great artwork — decided to do a portrait of him to include with it.

So the night before I had to send his gift package out, I sat down and drew sketch of him using pastel pencils (you can see a few along the bottom in the photo below).

Anywho — thought I'd share a photo of my draw'ring with y'all too.

Birthday Pastel Pencil Sketch - Copyright 2020 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon..........

New Pastel Pencils And An Oil Pastel

All links in this post are designed to open in a new browser window

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Hello!

I've been praying recently for some direction about "what to do next."

If you've been to this blog before you know I post a lot of sketches that are original concept designs for creatures and characters.

Here's a recent post with that kind of work:

 https://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2018/01/lotza-new-drawings-character-designs.html

I've also done a lot of digital work — hand painted using computer software and a Wacom Intuos tablet interface — generally focusing on hyper-realistic portraits and caricatures.

Here are a couple of those recent efforts:

https://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2017/12/new-digital-caricature-painting-robert.html

https://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2017/07/new-digital-paintings-pelosi-caricature.html

Lately — I've been thinking a lot about emphasizing my efforts at "real world" art and painting — rather than digital.

In the past, when I reflect on my life — I conclude that those kinds of leadings are always answers to my prayers.

Anywho — As a result I've been trying out pastel pencils and more recently oil pastels < these links will take you to the ones I purchased on Amazon)

Today I'll post a few of those more recent efforts — all "photo studies" from images I found on-line.

"Horned-Bill" Photo Study - Copyright 2018 - Jephyr - All-Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^   Yes — I still enjoy drawing birds!  : ) 

I love the wacky look that Horn Bills naturally have — and had a lot of fun doing the guy above — using pastel pencils.

"Startled Monkey" Photo Study - Copyright 2018 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ I'm not sure what kind of little monkey the guy above is — but when I saw the original photo of him I thought he might be fun to draw.

I really like his "startled looking" expression — and loved using pastel pencils to render all the color that was naturally present in the original photo.

"Vulture" Photo Study - Copyright 2018 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^   What's not to love about this guy's expression.  : )

Even in the original photo he looked a bit cartoonish — and again all the natural color present in it — made it an fun image to create using pastel pencils.

"Baby Buzzard" Photo Study - Copyright 2018 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^   There is something about birds that I think often gives them comical expressions.

I think the photo I referenced above is of a baby buzzard — and I thought his "tough guy" look was just awesome!

This was my first attempt at using oil pastels — and I didn't put a lot of "finishing touches" on it as I normally would — but kinda like the rough look of it anyway.

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I enjoyed using the oil pastels so much I went out and bought some small canvases and started on a tiger photo study (which I'd previously done in digital - and posted here a year ago).

On the buzzard above — I simply used a stump stick to blend the colors because I wasn't sure if the paper I was using could hold up to an emulsifier like turpenoid.

But for the Tiger — since I'm working on a good canvas — I'm using turpenoid and paint brushes to help blend colors.

I hoping to finish that soon and will post it then.

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Well — that'll be all for today.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

See you again soon...............

Tiger: Digital Painting And Time-Lapse Video

Hi,

After creating several "real world" pastels recently — I had an itch to do a digital painting.

I'd kept a very cool photo I'd found of a tiger in my "image bank" and decided to make that my next piece.

I knew up front that painting all that fur and his stripes would make an interesting challenge — and as I got into it — that definitely proved to be the case.

But — after all the recent drawing and pastels — I found myself really going quickly —which is something I've been working on (getting faster that is).

I'll attach the a look at the finished painting and embed a time-lapse video of the painting process below.

 Thanks as always for stopping by!

Tiger - Copyright - 2017 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

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See other Jephyr! digital paintings—as well as links to other artwork at jephyr.com.

New Pastel Pencil Drawing Of A Vulture

Hi!

As I've said many times before I love sketching birds—and for some reason am "drawn" to the odd, (perhaps) uglier ones—although I think this actually makes them beautiful in their own way.

I found an awesome looking BLUE vulture photo on Pixabay — a site that posts images under a creative commons license which allow the free use of them.

It's a good place to find images for artistic reference and I've collected a couple of folders on my computer of images from Pixabay and Pexels—another "cc" image site.

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In my last couple of posts—I mentioned that I bought some pastels pencils and a couple of different sketchbooks with grey paper and have been having a good time learning how best to use those new tools.

Faber-Castel FC112136 PITT Pastel Pencils In A Metal Tin (36 Pack), Assorted

I've found it rejuvenating at a time when I was feeling a little stagnate—just using white paper and graphite pencils for sketching—as I've been doing for many, many years now.

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Even though it's a bit expensive these days—I frequently go out to various restaurants and coffee houses and work there.

The upside is that it attracts some attention from those around me and I get to talk with a lot of interesting people.

I get so many encouraging comments as well—especially lately for the pastel color-work I'm doing—and that's a big plus too.

: )

Anywho—I thought I'd share another pastel I finished yesterday—and a related pencil sketch from a while back.

"Polly" - Copyright 2017 - Jephyr - All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ ^  I'm not sure what kind of vulture this guy is—but he was blue in the photo reference I used too.

I love how it looks like he's wearing some kind of feather coat or something (and looks completely focused on finding his next meal).

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Funny story about the pastel above:  Today I was working on another new pastel at a Chinese restaurant—and apparently my waitress told the other staff there that I was an artist—and soon I had a steady stream of people who worked there coming over to see what I was up to.

I was showing one young server—who spoke very broken English—some of my other pastels—and when I got to the one above—she reached out her hand a rubbed her fingers across it before I could stop her.

I was a bit horrified—until I saw she didn't damage it—but I'll need to tell people in the future—up front—not to touch the pastels!  

: )

Pencil Sketch: Wack-A-Doodle-Do — Copyright 2017 — Jephyr — All Rights Reserved

^ ^ ^ ^   One night last December I was sketching with Valen and came up with this wacky guy—began as a scribble sketch.

I showed it to Valen and he and I both agreed it was a little more over the top than most of what I do.

When I finished the vulture pastel above—I remembered this sketch—and since he's "vulture-like"—I decided to post them together.

Looking at him today I think I might want to do a color version with the pastel pencils—but time will tell if I get to that.

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Well—that's it for today.

As always—I appreciate you stopping by.

Hope to see you again soon.

Sketchbook - Eagle Pastel By Jephyr

Hi!

Recently I picked up two sketchbooks with Grey Paper—rather than the plain white paper sketchbooks I normally use for sketching.

I also bought a Faber-Castel pastel pencil set and have been working with both the new sketchbooks and those pencils.

Faber-Castel FC112136 PITT Pastel Pencils In A Metal Tin (36 Pack), Assorted

Thought I'd share one of those recent images—a photo study of an Eagle that I started yesterday and finished today.

Although I've used pastel sticks before—the pastel pencils have proved to be a bit more challenging to use.  In fact, I used some of my regular pastel sticks to finish this piece off—in part because I was finding it very difficult to get the whites "bright" enough.

Eagle - Sketchbook Pastel - Copyright 2017 - Jephyr!

Thanks as always for stopping by!

God Bless!

My Newest Portrait

Hi,

Back in October, my friend Valen and I were sketching at a nearby Whataburger in Mesa, AZ, and I noticed a man standing near the door.

The guy had an amazing face with loads of character—and I told Valen wanted to do a portrait study or caricature of him.

So I asked Valen if I could use his phone and wandered over to the guy and we spoke briefly and he was very cool and allowed me to take some pics for reference—and agreed to let me paint a picture of him.

I settled on doing a more formal portrait and have been working as time allowed—hand painting it into software using my Wacom Intuos Tablet Interface.

I just put the finishing touches on it this morning.

As with everything I tackle when it comes to art, I learned a lot by doing this one and am eager to do like it.

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BTW—I neglected to get this man's name or email to let him know that his portrait is done—so if you know who he is please share this link with him.

If you're the subject—thank you again for letting me snap some pics of you for this.

"Whataburger Guy Portrait" - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr

Here's the original snapshot I used as a reference

And here is a look at some of my process steps as I painted the portrait above

"Whataburger Guy Portrait" - Process Composite - Copyright 2016 - Jephyr

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Any who—that's it for today.

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Ciao fer now

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See other Jephyr! digital paintings—as well as links to other artwork at jephyr.com.

Early June 2013: Jephyr's Most Recent Sketchbook Drawings

Hello,

Hope your summer is off to a good start!  We've already been having 105 to 111 degree days here in Phoenix.

I'd promised myself that I would tame the jungle in my yard as soon as the spring semester ended so I've been working both early in the morning and late in the evening...avoiding some of the heat...to accomplish that. 

I'm nearing the half way point...at least on the initial go-round...but these temperatures are ridiculous.  Whew!

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Fortunately, as I wrote in my last post on 5-22-13 I've still been finding a lot more time to work on my own art since school ended too.

I have several digital "paintings" I'm working on...and have been enjoying drawing a LOT in my sketchbook.

It's pretty interesting to discover how quickly I get rusty if I don't draw all the time...and then how rapidly it seems to comes back once I start up again.

Today, I thought I'd share some more of my latest sketches:

^ ^ ^ ^  Not to sound like a broken record...but this guy started out by using the "scribble technique".

I just begin putting down some random scribbles on the page and then look for patterns in them.

Once I start to "see" something in the scribble I begin to work that into a final sketch.

Since the human eye is fine tuned to see faces many of these wind up as my cartoony/caricature people like the guy above

In this case I kinda saw Keith Richards at first and worked toward that. 

Later I began to see more of F. Murray Abraham's, "Salieri" (from the movie Amadeus), and finished it with more of that in mind.

- BTW...as I sat in a coffee house finishing this drawing two separate guys came up to me to talk about it.

When I mentioned Keith Richards and the movie Amadeus, neither of these two 20 somethings really knew who/what I was talking about.

That made me feel ancient...like some old codger when I was a kid going on about a silent movie star I'd never heard of.

OUCH! 

LOL    ;)

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I wish every drawing I did was as easy as this guy!  ^ ^ ^ ^

 

I started with another scribble and immediately saw that magnificent profile.  As I worked on it...it was like it was almost drawing itself!

 

I'd just watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and clearly had pirates on the brain.

 

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^ ^ ^ ^   Not a whole lot to say about this guy...just another chance for me to play with exaggeration and "caricature" of the face. 

If this was going in a portfolio...there'd be a lot I'd tighten up.  But I called him "done" so I could move on.

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^ ^ ^ ^  I tend to like drawing craggy old male faces because they can be a lot of fun to exaggerate...shading and rendering all those nooks and crannies.

But for this one, I decided to draw the face of a young woman I'd seen in an old movie on TV.  She had amazing eyes...and so I set out to capture her from memory.

The final drawing above ain't even close representing her...but I was enjoying just letting this drawing "happen"!

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Man did I sweat over this one!   ^ ^ ^ ^

I call it Prisoner Jx-25.

I met with my friend Elkanah to have some grub and draw...and was scribbling on the page to get started.  At first I "saw" an astronaut type guy in a space chariot and kinda sketched some of the details in.

I kept saying that I wasn't happy with it at all but Elkanah said he was confident I'd figure something out.

I found that to be very encouraging...and so over the next few days kept working on this page.

Finally a weird head with horns all over it began to emerge.  I still wasn't very happy with it...but as I eliminated some of the horns...I began to see a wart-hog type head...and at last I felt like I had something going on.

Then I began to add the body...and later even used some reference photos and anatomy books...trying to make the musculature, though exagerated, a little more legit (although I still took a lota liberties in the end).

The last piece of the puzzle fell into place when I was looking at this drawing across the room and realized I had it's eyes too high on the head.   Once I moved them down to where you see them now...this sketch/character design finally felt right to me.

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Well...that's it for now.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Art 202 Pareidolia Animation Storyboards For Adobe After Effects Assignment

Edit:  You can see the finished animation this post refers to in today's update:http://artmusicpoliticsfaithhopeandlove.blogspot.com/2013/03/finished-assignment-pareidolia.html

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Hello,

Our spring semester is really flying by in my Art 202 - Digital Art Survey class.

We're already working on the second project of four...a Pareidolia Animation.

A "pareidolia is when a vague or random image is perceived as recognizable".   

(I found that definition on flickr and you'll find a few examples if you follow my link there)
 

Probably the most common example of a Pareidolia is seeing faces or animals in clouds.

Our assignment is to make a 1 minute minimum pareidolia animation using Adobe After Effects to assemble it.

We can use other software like Photoshop or Illustrator to create the images and our instructor will be covering rotoscoping soon...something I've always wanted to know more about.

The storyboards for the project are due today.  I've always resisted doing them...because I'd rather jump right into creating...but discovered I really enjoy the process of creating them and it really helps you put together your ideas.  So I'll probably find myself doing more of them for my own work.

I may or may not use the exact sequence or scenes from them...but I thought I'd share what I'm submitting in class today:

As you can probably see on this last group I moved away from "narrative" and got more experimental as I went along...something our instructor will probably like to see.

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Well that's it for now.

As always thank you heaps for stopping by!

Jephyr: Life Drawing - Centurion Costume

Hello!

I went to another life drawing open session this week hosted by Dr Gingher Leyendecker at Mesa Community College.

Most of these sessions are with un-draped models but this time we had Jesse, one of the "regulars", wearing a Roman Centurion costume.

Centurion Jesse - Longer Pose - Jephyr 2012

I've developed some confidence when drawing the nude human form...but found myself challenged when drawing from a costumed model where you're not able to see all the "landmarks" of the body you'd normally use as reference points.

My conclusion: I definitely need to do more of this!!

Centurion Jesse - Short Gesture - Jephyr 2012

Thanks as always for stopping by!

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You're always welcome at Jephyr.com