Sunday, July 17, 2011

Don Quixote Redux

I have always been fascinated by the legend of Don Quixote and have been enjoying the many takes on his legend in books, movies, and art. After pondering concepts for a year or so, I came up with my own take that was painted with acrylic paint and measures a whopping 24''x 48''. I snatched a few photos of Spain from my wife's photo album to keep the landscape of Spain fairly accurate, and then I brought the technology of Mr. Q either way forward, or way back, depending on your point of few.....

Quest of the Bumble...

I have been craving doing an environment piece, so I tackled this mountain landscape and couldn't resist dropping a character in there to give it a bit more story to this painting. The size is 8''x24''. I love that size canvas too, it is a challenge in design to space the elements out accordingly to keep it visually interesting.

An Homage of The Great Wave at Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai

I have always loved the wood block print of The Great Wave at Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, so I decided to do an homage with a bit of my flavor. It is 10'' x 20'' and created with a Faber Castell Brush Pen and watercolor.

Monoprint Madness!

I learned a new process of creating art a few months ago, and the product here is called the "Monoprint". Essentially, you roll a coat of black screenprint ink on a piece of plexiglass, and then scratch away with the instrument of choice. On these, I used a BBQ skewer, some cotton balls and a few other random kitchen tools. It is an immediate process that must be completed very quickly (in my case about 10 min. each). Once you have taken away the ink in the chosen areas, you place a wet piece of watercolor paper on the inked glass and burnish. Peel away the paper and then you have a mirror image of what you just created with the tools. After that, wait a few days to dry and then color in with watercolor. The paint does not stick to where the ink is still on the paper. A fun, fast process for sure!