Pieces of Sky

2012-01-09T10:20:00.002-05:00

2012-01-06T09:23:00.001-05:00

2011-12-12T17:51:00.001-05:00

2011-12-01T06:32:00.000-05:00

2011-11-30T10:48:00.001-05:00

2011-11-23T14:39:00.000-05:00

Angel

2011-11-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

Lola

2011-11-15T13:18:00.000-05:00

Duke

2011-10-29T08:04:00.000-04:00

I'm going away to Vienna tomorrow. I'm excited, but also terrified as I'm definitely not a great flyer. I'm so happy though because I'll get to see paintings by one of favourite painters, Klimt. I used his painting The Kiss, in the last background of my student film Geirald.

2011-10-28T09:17:00.001-04:00

2011-10-27T08:17:00.001-04:00

2011-10-25T09:39:00.000-04:00

2011-10-24T09:53:00.000-04:00

Some initial sketches for locations from my brother's film.

2011-10-20T10:38:00.002-04:00

This is some rough work from my film. The film idea centers around an old man. I think I will call my film Thomas and Mollie, but I'm not completely sure. I'm in the process of writing, and researching and have been starting on concept work.

2011-10-17T18:09:00.002-04:00

2011-10-07T17:25:00.002-04:00

2011-10-03T13:03:00.002-04:00

2011-09-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

2011-09-11T21:50:00.008-04:00

Pieces of Hope on 9/11

2011-08-18T15:32:00.007-04:00

Mieka in June 2011

It has been a very difficult few weeks for my family and I, as we lost our beautiful Mieka as the sun was setting on Sunday July 31st. It is hard to explain how much she meant to me. Mieka came into my life at a time when there was only darkness and pain. She brought light and joy into my life again, and helped me through a lot of incredibly difficult times.

Mieka was a special puppy. She was very intuitive, bright eyed, and curious. She always had so much energy, learned tricks quickly (but only did them if you had a treat for her), and waited patiently for her 7 pm walks. She loved ripping apart newspaper, and having her picture taken (she was quite a willing subject when my brother and I took photography courses). She loved to eat watermelon, that was her favourite food. Well... one of the many favourites she had! Mieka always did her rounds, checking the rooms of the house to make sure everybody was in their place before she would relax and go to sleep. She did those same rounds everyday, right until the end.

These past few years since her diagnosis of congestive heart failure have been a roller coaster. I remember how we almost lost her on that March day, and how she fought to stay alive. The vets were not optimistic about her long-term survival-- but she proved them wrong! She made a miraculous recovery, and became her vibrant self again. Since I don't live with my family, I tried to visit her as often as I could, sometimes rearranging my life just so I could spend as much time with her as possible. I know it seems crazy, but it was worth every second I got to spend with her! She was a very special girl, and was extraordinary in life, as well as death.

She was my sunlight.

2011-06-23T19:00:00.004-04:00

These are from a comic book episode of Chuck. The backgrounds were painted, and the linework over top of the painting was kept so that it would resemble art from a comic book.

2011-06-15T16:53:00.004-04:00

2011-06-14T17:03:00.001-04:00

Here are some of the bg's I painted for The Adventures of Chuck and Friends. These were the first ones I painted.

2011-05-25T17:27:00.028-04:00

These are some lighting concepts for the film I'm working on with my brother. He's been hobbling around for 7 months now with a broken leg and I believe he's probably bored out of his mind. I feel kind of bad for him, especially since he has to have surgery in a few weeks. I did a bunch of rough thumbnail sketches, and then just did some quick lighting concepts. I naturally gravitate towards hotter, more saturated colours, but he prefers a cooler desaturated pallette. This is the final colour key below.

And lastly, I'm so happy, Mieka's celebrating her 15th and a half birthday on Sunday. Normally I don't celebrate half birthdays, but this one is special. She's my miracle.

2011-05-20T08:41:00.001-04:00

2011-05-02T19:03:00.000-04:00

These are a few pieces I did last year. I have quite a few projects on the go right now, and haven't had any time to do much painting outside of work. I've put my oil paintings aside for now and am focusing on my short film ideas. I have 2 film ideas I'm working on for myself, as well as collaborating on a film idea with my brother. For my own films, I have one simple idea and one that is more complex. I find working on two ideas instead of one gives me the chance to flush out both at the same time. I'm mainly focused on having pre production work for both, I'm not sure at this stage if they will get any more complete than that.

2011-03-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

I'm almost finished the horse painting I started last fall. This is the first time I've ever reworked a painting over and over this much. It still looks unfinished in these pictures. These are a few of the stages it's gone through, but hopefully I can finish it shortly, and put it aside. Also here's a picture of Lance eating a tree. Clearly he doesn't get fed enough.

This last one was probably a big mistake. It's a bigger canvas than I've ever worked on and I wanted to paint a very black horse on white. But how it looks in your mind is never how it turns out. I wanted a lot of negative space mostly at the top with a back view of the horse standing. So like the other one, this one I've been reworking and reworking and reworking. The backview turned into a 3/4 back view, the standing turned into a trot, the smaller horse turned into a larger horse, and now I'm debating my choices. The proportions look quite off, due to the angle that I took the picture at. I'm not sure if I'll scrap this one or if I'll continue.

2011-02-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

For the past month, I've been very unfocused, I feel like I have a million different things I want to do, so I've been unsuccessful at completing anything. So I painted some horses, came up with a plan, and decided to do a few things. First I decided that I'm going to make a short film. Secondly I would like to do some oil paintings that are different from what I've done before, something that means something. And thirdly I'd like to start working with pencil or ink again to do larger scale tonal environments. I have definitely been neglecting drawing, just because I would rather pick up a paintbrush. So over the next while, these are the things I will be working on.

2011-01-11T14:42:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! I've been busy updating my portfolio and doing other work and I haven't had time to do a lot of extra painting. This is from last year, and it's gouache. Also the show I painted on airs Mondays at 6 pm on Treehouse (if you're in Canada). It's called the Adventures of Chuck and Friends. I'll post some of my artwork from it once they've aired.

2010-12-18T07:20:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Things have been good: I completed my first contract as a background painter, Mieka turned 15 on December 12th and is still in good health, and I made a lot of new friends from my job. I was blessed to have two wonderful desk neighbours who constantly cheered me on, and made me feel better when I was having a tough day. I feel happy to have finished the year on a good note!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

2010-12-09T07:13:00.000-05:00

I had some spare time at work, these are just really quick paintings. The bottom one I had a piece of concept art open from the Jungle Book and I was just trying to mimic the colours without using the eye dropper tool.

2010-12-02T07:40:00.000-05:00

I did this painting for a friend, who needed a bg for her animation that she's submitting to a contest. It was drawn by Austin Cote, and it's a StarTrek bg that I painted pretty quickly. This is a similar style of painting to what I've been doing at work, very flat and graphic.

2010-10-26T08:19:00.001-04:00

2010-10-20T15:43:00.002-04:00

2010-10-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some quick sky studies. The first one is awful. The second one I attempted simplifying the structure before I began painting it, but its not much better than the first. It is nice though to be free with the paint. At work (which I love!!!) it's mainly using shapes and cutting them with paint in Photoshop which I've never really done before. So it's a huge learning process and I'm hoping by painting that way it helps me to simplify shapes better.

2010-10-14T08:33:00.000-04:00

sorry they're all the same :) It's my warm up paintings from work so I just paint out the window.

2010-10-13T07:58:00.001-04:00

2010-10-05T16:46:00.000-04:00

This is the second matte painting I had started before going back to work. I got very frustrated, and I'm thinking it won't get finished for a while if at all. With working all day, I'm finding I'm too drained to work on my own projects. Hopefully that will change soon, I plan on doing some more pastels since the trees are starting to turn pretty shades of red and orange.

2010-10-04T16:32:00.003-04:00

2010-09-03T10:17:00.002-04:00

I have great news! I finally got a job, and the best part is it's a painting job! I'm happy and looking forward to learning! So I've put my matte paintings aside, and a few weeks ago I decided to start a horse painting. (sorry for so many horse related posts) It's my first equine related painting in oils, and I've been wanting to give it a shot for a while, but have never had enough time to. Now that all my commission work is out of the way, I feel free and able to paint what I want. This is just a work in progress.

2010-08-20T12:32:00.001-04:00

I've been trying to do some matte painting, but it's definitely been a struggle. I've been looking at lots of tutorials, and trying to figure out how to apply it to my own work . Below is my first attempt, which I'm disappointed with, I have to remember that it's a start. I guess you learn from the mistakes and move on.

2010-08-09T14:56:00.001-04:00

Crabapple Tree Pastel

Lance and I had another horse show a week ago. I can't even believe how different he is now from 12 years ago. He acted like an old pro at the show grounds, and was very relaxed. On our test pages he even got a "handsome horse" comment. For Lance that's the most important thing, he's quite vain! He even got drug tested which was kind of funny. I'm so proud of him, I can't say it enough, he's just been wonderful, and I never would have imagined back then that I would have ever ridden him at a show ever because of how high spirited and difficult he is. It makes the journey so much better going through all those ups and downs. It makes me believe that you just can't give up. Ever! Time to get back to painting!

For Auben

2010-08-04T14:26:00.001-04:00

This is a painting of Rip chasing a ball (not a comet) and Olivia who's in the clouds watching over him. I hope she likes it!

2010-07-29T07:58:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was a very difficult day as a horse I loved passed away. Although she was never my horse, Amber was a sweet, mischievous horse, and I'm really going to miss her. I've known her just as long as Lance, and so I'd like to write a bit about her. I apologize in advance for the longer, off topic post.

Early yesterday morning, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to drive out to the barn. Something about Amber wasn't right, and as things progressed we knew it was her time. She laid down in the paddock outside her stall door. Joan and I did our best to keep the sun and the flies off her, and tried to put blankets under her to keep her comfortable. The other horses were out in the field, standing at the fences as a group, huddled together almost keeping vigil. Horses are smart and sensitive animals, they knew what was happening before we did. Every now and then her best friend Raj would gallop up to the barn from the field to see her, and see what was going on and then he'd gallop back to the group. Raj and Amber were inseparable.

We waited a long time for the vet to get there, we thought Amber would go quickly, but she was a fighter and determined right until the end.

I will miss her so much. Every time I went into the barn she always nickered at me, looking for treats or a pat on the nose. When I rode Lance in the ring, she'd always try and get in, sometimes successfully pushing the gate open and then prancing around the ring happily. She loved being in there. She'd always come over and just watch us riding around. She was the matriarch of the group and very independent. She loved going on hacks (trail rides) and always led the group, sometimes it was difficult for her rider to hold her back. She just wanted to run! I know her spirit is galloping happily and peacefully once more.

2010-07-22T08:07:00.000-04:00

2010-07-14T12:02:00.002-04:00

One of my digital backgrounds. This is the one that the file kept getting corrupted and took so long to complete.

2010-07-14T11:56:00.002-04:00

2010-07-07T09:07:00.002-04:00

This is just a colour script I wanted to try with pastels. It's just practice, and was a lot of fun. I'm still working on comissions, I have 2 more to finish. Hopefully within the next few weeks I can get them both done, I would like to work on some canvas paintings, but have put them off until I get everything else out of the way.

Things went well at the horse show with Lance. He was a little high, but he calmed down enough that we managed to stay in the ring during our test (this was my only goal besides keeping him calm). Everything went well, until his stablemate Ladybird left the temporary stall area to do her test, and then he freaked out and tried to climb his way out of there. Once he was taken outside and able to see everything he calmed down again and even almost fell asleep! I'm so proud of him!! It was such a wonderful day, and after it was over, I felt like I could do anything I put my mind to. I've been feeling so doubtful of myself for such a long time, that for something like this to go well means everything to me.

2010-06-21T09:06:00.004-04:00

Here's a painting that I completed for my portfolio, and it was painted with gouache. This week I'm taking a little break from painting, and focusing on getting Lance ready for the horse show next weekend. He looks funny though because one of the other horses chewed off his mane at the front. He looks like he had a buzz cut, until about 3 inches behind his ears, where the mane goes long again. I think it makes quite a statement!

2010-06-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

2010-06-04T09:20:00.000-04:00

2010-05-25T09:47:00.000-04:00

This last weekend was a great one. My horseback riding teacher has been unable to ride for the past year due to an incredibly serious injury. She had bought a young horse after selling me Lance, and for some reason that horse just went ballistic when she was riding him one day about a year ago. The young horse threw her off and somehow he fell on top of her. She ended up being told she would never walk again and very definitely she would never ever ride a horse for the rest of her life. She had broken her pelvis, cracked right through some ribs, and broke her spine as well. Within a month of the accident she was walking again, and even took a trip back to England (against the doctor's orders.) Every day she worked to get strength back to her muscles, and this past weekend she rode her retired dressage horse Raj for the first time since the accident. I will never ever forget the huge smile on her face!

2010-05-17T08:10:00.003-04:00

I've been working with pastel a lot lately. I had been doing plein air with oil paints but made a shift back to chalk pastel. The switch from oil was only because there were mass swarms of little black bugs, and I had to mercy kill a lot of them because they would fly into my painting and get covered with paint. There was no chance of them ever flying again. I don't like to kill anything, not even mercy killing. My grandfather taught me when I was little not to step on ants for fun because they have souls like any other living thing. Since then, I have huge problem with killing bugs, which is actually where my student film came from. There was a 5 legged spider living in my parents basement. I loved watching that spider walk around, he was so awkward! But then I found out somebody killed him... Devastating. Anyways the switch to pastel did cut down on the amount of bug killings, however there were still a few fatalities-- I squashed some bugs that I didn't know were trapped between the papers of my pastel sketch book... Now I have a permanent record of those deaths.

2010-05-04T12:16:00.002-04:00

2010-04-26T20:06:00.003-04:00

Things have been going well although some eventful things have happened over the last few weeks. Last week Mieka was rushed to the vet because she was having trouble breathing. However she was given an almost clean bill of health with her heart being almost back to normal if she continues the heart medication. I didn't know this was an option so I'm really very happy.

Lance on the other hand... My teacher and I were working with him on the ground a week ago, and he just bolted, galloping around the ring for 10 minutes bucking and kicking with the lead line dragging behind him, saddle on him and everything. I've never seen him run that fast. He has also been in the process of renovating his own stall. These are some pictures of Lance's destructiveness. He made that hole... With his face.

2010-04-22T10:41:00.003-04:00

The sky was so blue this morning

2010-04-21T19:52:00.002-04:00

2010-03-25T19:23:00.000-04:00

This is a quick painting, it's just a forest with lighting between the trees, sorry its' a bit abstract.

2010-03-04T11:44:00.001-05:00

Just a random sky painting. Eventually I will post portfolio pieces, when I feel more confident with my work. It's been tough, I just keep second guessing myself, and although it's been lots of fun to paint every day, it's been a struggle too.

2010-03-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

I was driving to the barn this past weekend and it was the day there was a lot of snow, but at the same time things were melting and I noticed the trees were so dark, because of the melting snow, and there were still leaves on the trees left over from last fall. I loved the greys and black with the caramel colour so I did a quick painting of it today. It's not quite the same, so next time I go out I may take some paint with me.

Things have been going well lately, I've finished a few paintings, and I finally finished that digital background painting that I lost... I'm happy it's done with so I have at least one piece for my portfolio, and finally feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things.

2010-01-27T18:37:00.001-05:00

This is from December, I didn't get to post it until now because I've been working steadily on my portfolio and that has to come first. It's taking a long time because I'm trying to be really picky about what goes into it. Since I don't have very much experience in the field I want to go into, the backgrounds must be the best I can possibly do. Which sucks because I'm unable to produce backgrounds I'm happy with...

2009-12-17T15:11:00.002-05:00

It's been going slow with my restarted background painting. I get somewhere and then I think of where I was before I had to redo it and I just get aggrevated. I think I need a bit of a break. So, here's a sky painting from yesterday, and some photos of what I gave as Christmas presents last year.

They're painted using porcelain paints, and cook onto the dishes so you can use them. Anyways, I'm leaving for holidays tomorrow, so I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I'll be back in January! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-16T11:58:00.003-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you want to throw your computer out of your window? For me, today is that day. The past few weeks, I have been working on a digital background, taking my time because there are a lot of details and it was going really slow, but I was starting to get somewhere. I was almost half finished.

Anyways, last night I got to see the Princess and the Frog and it was absolutely gorgeous! I was just so impressed with everything; the animation, the backgrounds. Being inspired, I woke up this morning and wanted to get straight to work. Well when I opened the file my computer froze. I restarted and decided to get rid of a lot of things, to create space. After I did that, I reopened my background file, and now it looks like this.

Yep. File corrupted. It is now a 300 MB file that has no layers, and looks like various shades of the rainbow. Definitely not what the painting was. The even more frustrating part is that when I open the file through Photoshop, it taunts me with a tiny little thumbnail of what my pre corrupted file looks like, but when it finally opens up it looks like this.

Of course, being the brilliant person that I am, I chose not to save different versions. Yes, I made that stupid decision all on my own. The smart thing would have been to save multiple versions... In the past I've saved 30 versions of the same background, but I thought, things will be okay this time. I'll just save it as one file. No, nothing bad will happen...

It's so aggrevating, and I guess I have to start it over. So that's what I'm going to do now. I learned my lesson.

2009-12-08T09:46:00.001-05:00

2009-12-07T18:35:00.003-05:00

The past few weeks I've been attempting to paint backgrounds, but then I found it difficult, because I thought I needed an idea to do background paintings for. But I haven't thought of anything so I did some small value thumbnails instead.

Because of course, small tonal thumbnails make it easier to do colour keys, right? So after the tonal drawings, instead of doing colour keys I just felt like painting.

The painting didn't go very well (see above) So I've put it aside unfinished with the hopes of finding some inspiration so I can revisit it... potentially. The last few days I've been working with pastels. I apologize for the blurry photos; the colour's not quite right either.

2009-12-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

It''s hard to believe it's already December! This is going to be a good month, obviously with the holidays, and on the 12th it's Mieka (my dog's) 14th birthday. It's going to be a bittersweet one. In March Mieka was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, with only a few months life expectancy. It's been a miracle how well she's recovered since then. I really thought she wouldn't be with us at this time, but she is like her old self again. She's even following me around, up and down the stairs which she hasn't done for a few years. Anyways, I'm very thankful.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to face my fears and compete next summer with Lance. We've known each other for 10 years since he was about 4 or 5. I competed with him back then and we did well, until one show when we were in the ring doing our test, and he decided he didn't want to be there. So he went ballistic, throwing a temper tantrum, bucking and then flying around out of the ring, jumping over the tiny dressage fences, and I'm pretty sure we would have attempted the 6 foot fence, but at the last minute he realized it was a lot bigger than him. Since that day, I haven't competed with him because he was too explosive. He's come a long way since then, and we know each other better now. So hopefully we can get him on the trailer next summer!

And lastly, I've been working on my own paintings with gouache and pastel. I'll post some maybe next week. It's going very slowly, and has been frustrating too, but that's why I love painting. It's problem solving and you can get mad but there's always a way to fix the problem--even if the solution is throwing it out and moving on!

2009-12-01T16:37:00.001-05:00

2009-11-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

This is a pastel painting I did in March while I was off. I wanted to try lighting it slightly differently than I usually do, by keeping the foreground lit instead of darkening it. I wanted to still have the focus be the cottage further back.

2009-11-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

2009-11-25T16:57:00.001-05:00

I wasn't going to paint tonight, but the sky was too spectacular not to. I find I'm always rushing to get the colours but they keep changing so rapidly, I never get it right.

2009-11-25T14:32:00.000-05:00

The sun came out after the rain today, I hope it stays sunny for a few days at least. Last week Lance slipped and fell in the mud because it's been so rainy, so hopefully some sun will dry that up so he doesn't fall again. Fingers crossed.

2009-11-23T16:29:00.003-05:00

2009-11-19T17:25:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry, I know posting quick sky paintings is quite uninteresting to look at, but this is currently all I have to post. Plus they're really fun to do (even if they don't turn out that well)

2009-11-18T16:57:00.004-05:00

I'm going to pay more attention to shape and simplifying from now on. Do you ever feel like the harder you try to get something right the worse it gets?

2009-11-17T17:24:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed painting tonight, until I realized that the best part of the sunset was difficult for me to see and paint at the same time.

2009-11-17T13:04:00.000-05:00

These were from last night, the sky was very muted. Also I finished the second painting I was comissioned to do.

I will be finished the third one this week and the fourth is going to take a while so I can split my time between backgrounds and that last painting.

2009-11-11T17:41:00.001-05:00

The sky was really pretty this evening

2009-11-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

My paternal grandfather was a member of the Polish Army during WWII, and got shot in the leg during the battle of Monte Cassino. My maternal grandfather was a part of the Canadian Air Force, but was never deployed. I always think of them on Rememberance day.

2009-11-10T18:55:00.001-05:00

I didn't really have anything to post today, as I've been busy working on 2 other paintings, so these are from my last sketching week at work before I was finished.

2009-11-05T17:45:00.002-05:00

I had absolutely no idea what to do for a quick painting today, and I looked out my window and the sky was amazing (well... isn't it always amazing?) so I painted as quickly as I could!

2009-11-04T19:56:00.001-05:00

2009-11-04T09:04:00.001-05:00

Here are some more thumbnail sketches, sorry some are blurry, but I took pictures instead of scanning them. I finally got to the library yesterday to get some books, which was good, but then I fainted while checking them out and bashed my head on their desk... Who said being an artist wasn't dangerous?

For Linda

2009-10-29T12:24:00.001-04:00

This is the final painting of Annie. I'm trying not to fix anything else on it, but I hope it is liked by Annie's family.

2009-10-28T18:18:00.003-04:00

This is another quick painting. I just want to say that most of these are 10 minute paintings. I just paint them only to relax. The composition and how they look doesn't matter. I post them anyways.

Next are some castle sketches. I desperately want to go to the library to get some books. Usually I'm just sketching mindlessly, but I think finding some inspiration will be greatly beneficial.

Lastly this is a drawing from a dream I had. I don't remember a lot about it, except for what is in this sketch. So I think when I'm done the paintings I'm working on now, I will start this one, but with some changes to the composition. I know it's quite busy looking but I had to get all the details in so I didn't forget.

2009-10-27T18:33:00.001-04:00

I wanted to try a very Hallowe'en inspired sky. Um.... and I think that's about it. Oh, I added a spider though because they're my favourite.

2009-10-26T17:12:00.002-04:00

This was simple but is more interpretive than anything. It is supposed to be the sea.

2009-10-22T18:43:00.000-04:00

This was a quick painting from out my window, I liked how the clouds were and wanted to paint, I know it probably looks like mountains in the distance with bushes, but it's the tops of the trees against a sky.

For the most part things have been quite hectic lately. I was doing two different jobs at work, I finished my oil painting, have been drawing a lot, and on weekends my days are spent with Mieka or rushing out to the barn to see Lance. This last weekend Lance suddenly decided he didn't want to eat apples or pears any more, which is strange for a horse that is constantly escaping his stall just to try and find extra treats!

Also tomorrow is my last day of work, which I have mixed emotions about. When I was off work in March, sad things happened, and I'm dreading this break, because I have a feeling the same sort of thing will happen again.

2009-10-20T18:43:00.000-04:00

2009-10-19T17:21:00.002-04:00

2009-10-15T18:36:00.002-04:00

2009-10-14T18:41:00.000-04:00

I made this painting with a cool palette, and a very vibrant tree, because I wanted it to seem like the tree was on fire in a bleak surrounding.

2009-10-13T18:44:00.000-04:00

2009-10-08T17:44:00.004-04:00

Autumn is my favourite time of year; I love it when the air is crisp and the sky is blue against the changing leaves.

2009-10-08T17:03:00.000-04:00

Last week's sketch topic was the circus. I really loved this topic, and did a lot of drawings in my sketchbook for it. This was the very quick drawing I posted on the wall at work.

2009-09-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

Last week Don Hahn visited Sheridan, and gave a really inspiring lecture. It was wonderful to hear him talk about different aspects of the animation industry, see some disney concecpt art, and watch the short film Lorenzo. I was very happy, and inspired to draw/paint after it, until I was driving home and saw a raccoon that had just gotten hit by a car... So that quickly changed my mood.

Anyways, here are some pictures, and thanks to Nathan, for taking them for me!

2009-09-24T18:56:00.000-04:00

One of the other paintings I'm currently working on just past the thumbnail phase. It's going to be kind of a whimsical piece. The client wanted a fun painting, something very playful and carefree to remember her dogs by. This is the most finished thumbnail and it will be started as a painting, hopefully next week. However in the final painting, the dog in the clouds will be placed lower in the screen so the composition is a little better. I originally wanted to do this piece in gouache, but the lady I'm doing it for prefer's canvas paintings, so it's going to be done in oils.

2009-09-17T18:28:00.003-04:00

We have a sketch wall at work. Every week it's a new topic, and for the most part I've either been too chicken or too busy to post anything. But when the topic of knights was chosen, I had to draw something since I'm a little horse crazy. I've been riding horses since I was 11, and a year ago I actually bought my first horse! His name is Lancelot and he likes pears and has taught himself how to escape from his stall.

2009-09-17T17:53:00.004-04:00

These paintings are from last year. They were painted in about 40 min on lunchbreak. They're done in watercolour which has a really awful way of making you unable to fix your mistakes. Which is frustrating but you learn not to make the same mistakes again. You make new ones instead!

2009-09-10T17:35:00.001-04:00

I have been really really busy the past week and a half, working on multiple things, so I thought I'd post a sketcbook page and one of the pieces I've been working on, although I'm not quite sure I want to post a painting that's a work in progress... but. I guess I'll do it anyways. Below is an oil painting on canvas panel, of my friend's dog who passed away last year. Sorry about the photo. It's blurry, but that's okay, when it's finished I'll take a better picture!

2009-09-01T18:15:00.002-04:00

Last summer I ordered a bunch of art supplies from the states, namely pastels (at a cheaper price than curry's) and some special pastel paper. I got straight to work, being inspired to try new things. This is a photo of the pastel that's now been framed (which is why it's kind of warped) and it's of my dog Mieka. The paper was wonderful to work on, however the problem is you can't get bright whites with it, and the pastel dulls within a day of being finished, even after being sprayed with fixative.