Arizona Artist Jephyr (aka Jeff Curtis): March 2019

Friday, March 22, 2019

New Drawings! March 22, 2019

Hi!

In my last post I shared about getting a nasty infection to a wound and seeing the Doctor about it.

I'm happy to report that after taking nearly all the antibiotic I was given—it looks like the infection is GONE—thank you Jesus!!

: )

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I still managed to get a couple of drawings done while I was recovering and will share two with ya today.

^ ^ ^ I had so much fun creating this one. I'd said another quick prayer before starting it but REALLY struggled to get going.

I'd drawn something (can't remember now what it was) and added a couple of mushrooms as part of a background for it.

I worked and worked in that direction and finally gave up and erased EVERYTHING < fortunately the sketchbook paper I use is VERY forgiving and takes a lot of abuse : )

After a break and with a clear head I set out again to sketch something I'd be more satisfied with.

The idea for the mushrooms was still percolatin' in my noggin'—so I quickly redrew the two larger ones—and then on a whim—drew the little prospector guy peeking around the one to the left.

I had some sweeping lines left over from experimenting with some other ideas—and at first tried drawing a big ol' monster type character—creeping up on the little dood—making it fill up most of the page to the left.

Nope! That wasn't working at all for me.

Then—as I scribbled other ideas—it occurred to me to add a mine entrance (and one off in the distance) and some wee pals for our little friend—and finally everything started to feel right.

The last step was adding the focus of their attention—two claim-jumping varmints on either side of the page.

: )

^ ^ ^ If you visited my March 2, 2019 Post—this one may look familiar.

It was originally scanned and shared to this blog straight out of my sketchbook—and although I liked some aspects of it—there were some things about it that bothered me.

Here's a look at that original sketch. See the larger version in my March 2 Post.

'TWEET' - Original Sketch (Small)
Copyright-2019 - Jephyr - All-Rights-Reserved

Anywho—while I was recuperatin'—I took the scan into computer drawing software—rolled up my sleeves—and started sketching away at it (aided by my trusty Wacom Tablet Interface!).

As you might note—I altered the background the most (and added a couple of feathered friends)—and also sketched darker values into the entire image.

Over-all, I ended up being happy with the changes and feel it improved on the original idea.

Hope you'll agree.

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BTW—I prayed before starting 'TWEET' as well—and highly recommend the practice!

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Thanks for stopping by.

See you again soon!

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Digital Painting Preview - March 12, 2019

H!

I'm headed to a doctor to see about a lovely infection that developed over the weekend.

In case they put me in the ER—I wanted to share an image I've been working on.

It's far from finished but it's been fun to work it all out—and hopefully I can finish it soon.

I call it, "Keep It Down," and it shows a little country church with people praising God (visible in the door and window)—and underneath it all a devil hitting his ceiling/floor of the church with his pitch-fork.

I'm still altering and finalizing the church—and will probably make the window to the right much larger so I can show more people—and will paint an appropriate fire and brimstone background for the 'accuser of the brethren' underneath it.

I'll probably be changing the scale of the annoyed baddy in relation to the church to as well—right now he looks YUGE in comparison to the congregants. Although art historians call that hierarchical proportion to emphasize important aspects of a painting.

OTOH—the Bible calls Satan a defeated foe—so I'll still have to work out how large or small to make him.

Anyway—wanted you to see this in case I'm out of commission for a while.

Now—I'm off to see the Doc. See update under image *

God Bless you all!

UPDATE: So the Doctor gave me an antibiotic to take for the next 10 days—and I have an appointment scheduled with a surgeon next week—but if things don't improve my Doc said go to the ER for emergency surgery.

Life is fun sometimes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Saturday, March 2, 2019

March 2, 2019 - Mo' Sketchbook/Art Schtuffz

Howdy,

Hope you're doing well today. I've had a great couple of days myself and am happy to be able to post some more new artwork.

Most of the images you'll find below are from my sketchbook—but one is a digital-piece I created for my Awesome-Stuff Blog.

Anywho—let's get to it.

: )

^ ^ ^ I'm kinda tired of all the "dark" artwork that people are doing these days and admit that I'm as guilty as anyone of following that trend.

So I'm trying to change that in my own efforts recently and have been doing more cartoony character designs—along with more complete figures and backgrounds.

As I wrote in my last post—recently I've been praying again too as I start some of my new drawings—asking God to help me create some light-hearted images that reflect His Light—and did just that before beginning this one.

In the end—while it took some time to get to the final look of this timid little guy exploring a scary cave—once I did the background elements practically drew themselves.

: )

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BTW—the title of this sketch is based on a fantastic painting by professional illustrator Jeff Preston of Excalibur Studio, in Nashville, Tennessee.

His painting called—'Any Old Tramps Down There?'—caricatures Don Knotts from the movie, The Ghost And Mr Chicken, and I was more than a little inspired by his awesome piece as I drew this one.

: )

Painting: Jeff Preston - 'Any Old Tramps Down There?' (left) — with scenes from the movie 'The Ghost And Mr Chicken'

Also it turns out that in addition to being a celebrated illustrator and award winning artist—he does Christian themed paintings as well.

Here's a video I found about Preston:

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^ ^ ^ It took me a while to get this drawing happening too.

I'd prayed about it just before beginning this as well—but sat and sketched and scribble and erased ideas for a LONG while.

So, I took a break and when I came back to it with a clear head—I began to "see" our chef friend in my scribbles and became more happy with this sketch as I went along.

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BTW—while I worked on this one—I was sitting in a restaurant after a meal and it sparked several conversations with my waitress and people around me.

One woman asked, "Which Chef is that?"

I tapped my forehead and said, "The one up here," and she and her companions laughed.

: )

^ ^ ^ In the last few days I went looking for a copyright free image to use as an illustration for a post about some stupid criminals for my AwesomeStuff blog:

Two Tales About Bungling Criminals

I found a cool looking cartoon criminal dood I wanted to use—and went snooping around the site to find the usage rights info.

I looked around for a bit—and began to feel frustrated that I couldn't find it.

Suddenly I thought—wait a dern second, Betsy—I'm a dang artiste' and can make my own!

: )

Quicker than you can say 'Bob's yer uncle'—I had digitally painted the baddy above.

This image also makes the first time I used "color flatting" for the greyscale values—and extensively "locking transparent pixels" on those layers—and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more of that with future digital paintings.

It really speeds up the process, for sure.

^ ^ ^ Just a silly cartoony boid I enjoyed creating after another quick prayer.

The late Disney "story-board" artist and children's book author and illustrator Bill Peet is one of my influences—and I looked to his illustrations from his charming auto-biography for inspiration for some of the background elements in this one.

^ ^ ^ This one was a lot of fun to create—but a royal pain too—because it took a long time to work everything out in it.

Also it may seem a little "dark"—but once you spot the little guy in the fishing boat to the left—you may see some of the humor in it as well.

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That'll do it for t'day.

Thanks as always for schtoppin' by.

See you again soon.

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