Night of the Hunter

Here is the finished version of the Night of the Hunter painting I hinted at in the last post, along with the process images. As you can see, I toyed with using a different head at first. Night of the Hunter has been a favorite film of mine since high school, and the scene with the burlesque dancer always stuck out to me as being particularly strong. I've been wanting to do a painting inspired by that scene for a while. I'm happy with how it turned out. My hands served as stand in models for Robert Mitchum's. 

Sneak Peak at the latest Work in Progress

Here's a glimpse at a painting I'm working on right now, trying to finish up in time for the Society of Illustrators student competition deadline. I should be done soon, and I'll post the whole thing when it's finished.

Oil Sketch of Angela

Angela was kind enough to sit for some photos for me last time she was here so that I would have some head reference to practice with. I did this quick 8"x10" on canvas board the other night from one of the photos. It also gave me a chance to take my nifty new bamboo easel (Christmas gift from my parents) for a spin. Sure beats sticky-tacking my canvases to the extra chair I stole from the kitchen to paint on all last semester.

More Ideas for Comics that People Won't Like (Possible title for my Autobiography?)

I joked with my girlfriend awhile back about drawing a superhero named the Crimson Avenger who ensures the continued existence of menstruation for women all over the world. I drew him while waiting for class to start this morning. There is a decent chance that he'll be in at least a one-pager soon. Keeping earth's women women, one woman at a time.

20 Minute Skull study

This was a really quick light study I did last night while watching "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with my girlfriend Angela. I did it over an old color comp, 8"x10" on masonite. I'd been wanting to paint the neat little ceramic skulls Ang bought for me last Halloween, so I covered my desk lamp with yellow felt and gave it a shot. This most likely will not be the last color sketch I put up with these little guys.Though the light side of the skull looks like a cold yellow green, I used only Cadmium yellow and white. The old painting underneath was a mostly green composition, and my thin painting allowed the colors underneath to show through, creating the glowing green effect. It was also quite an adventure trying to mix correct colors in a relatively dark room, my main light being bright yellow. Good practice, though SPpOOooooooooOOKKY!

Illustration 2 Final Project

The final project in Bob Barrett's oil painting class was to create an image with at least one figure, somehow interrupted by another element of the composition, based off of the Golden Mean and executed with a split complimentary pallet. After much hemming and hawing, I came up with this idea. I really love old mens' adventure magazine illustration, so I went into this with the conceptual and technical spirit of Joe Bowler and Basil Gogos. My buddies Charlie and Ian were nice enough to be my models, and props from the BYU production of "The Elephant Man" provided scenery. The color and quality of the top image (of the finished painting) leave a bit to be desired, but I had to turn the painting in this morning, so I'll replace it with something a little more true to the painting as soon as possible. The bottom three images are all 8"x10", with the final piece at roughly 17"x25". I trimmed a little off the right edge in the final composition, as well as trading in a new head and dropping some detail out of the guard for the sake of atmospheric perspective. Good end to the semester.

Final Project for Narrative Class

Our final project in my narrative class was to create an illustration for Stowaway, a travel magazine run by BYU students. The requested illustrations were very broad, so the produced illustrations were also very broad. It was a fun project, though. This is gouache and india ink on illustration board.