Monday, July 31, 2006 - Keith Jarrett sketch

I've been a jazz enthusiast most of my life, and I was watching a Keith jarrett video and did a sketch of him. He's an amazing piano player and the king of improvisation. I did the drawing freehand using Corel Painter IX without cloning. It's always more of a challenge that way. (Click to see larger)

Saturday, July 29, 2006 - My Apologies

I've been busy with various projects and have neglected my postings will be back on Monday, July 31st. Have a wonderful weekend! John

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - Laguna Canyon

This is a really cool spot in Laguna Canyon, near Laguna Beach, California. It looks pretty prehistoric, and the rock in the forground is probably 60 feet in length. It was right after some heavy rainfall so everything was incredibly green. I did it in watercolor on 140 lb. paper. (click on image to see larger version)

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006 - Pen and Ink Fantasy

I think this was in 1990 - I can't read the date on the jpg - but I was doodling with a fine line marker and came up with this drawing. Sometimes it's fun to let your mind and pen do their thing........

Monday, July 24th, 2006 - You Say Tomato......

Came back with a tomato painting, because I'm trying to ketchup....(sorry)...........This illustration is an older one that was done in Photoshop 6.0, I believe.

Weeks Vacation - be back on July 24 -

Sunday, July 16, 2006 - Battlefield Earth

I thought it would be fun to put an old illustration that I did for the official Battlefield Earth calendar. This is the only jpg I could find of it so it's not as big as I would like.

Saturday, July 15, 2006 - All in the Family

Hooray! I got my DSL fixed and wireless network running better than ever....thanks to Jed of the Geek Squad. Here is a pencil drawing of my two nephews that I did a while back....

Friday, July 14, 2006 - Internet Problems

I've been having Internet problems yesterday and today. The Geek Squad is coming out tomorrow to fix everything. Sorry about that! John

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Abstract Nude Painting

This was an experimental painting that I did the week after Andy Warhol died. I was thinking of his working in squares and I decided to divide a canvas into six inch squares and see what happened. A bunch of artists from Warner Bros. had a life drawing session after work and I did most of the painting in a couple of sessions there and finished it back in my studio.


I used acrylics, oils, pencil, and lacquer on this canvas. I remember that one of the artists had a son who brought his guitar into our painting session and played some beautiful classical guitar, while we worked.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Cottonwood Clouds

Here is a painting that I did last year. We have a grass airstrip that is near our house that is a super vantage point for viewing skies. I used a new type of synthetic oil paint that never dries until you apply heat to it. It's very practical for artists that have sensitivity to turpentine or other solvents. You can buy it from DickBlick.com (look up Genesis Systems).

Sunday, July 9, 2006 - Road Trip

I'm taking a trip to Grass Valley for a couple of days. It's interesting scenery with lots of rice paddies and long spread out vistas of California farmlands and orchards. Should be nice. Will be posting another drawing on Tuesday.

Saturday, July 8, 2006 - Fun With Oil and Escher

I took a scan of Escher's famous eyeball and brought it into Corel Painter IX. I did a quick clone of it and selected an oil brush cloner (Wet Oily Blender). Controlled the brush size with the [ ] keys and did this nice little oil sketch. (click to make larger)

Friday, July 7, 2006 - Greco-Roman Ruins

I did this drawing a few years back using charcoal pencil on heavy paper. It's a fairly large drawing (maybe 24x30 inches) and I used an old book on Greek and Roman Mythology for reference material. I always find broken things are more interesting to draw - maybe because you get a peek at the underlying structure. A fitting caption might be: " I was almost certain that I used my Right Guard this morning...."

Thursday, July 6, 2006 - And Now For Something Completely Different...

I went through a phase of doing some ad illustrations a few years ago and came across this drawing that was done for a Sunday brunch ad for Hilton Hotels. I think that I may have done it in Photoshop (6.0). It was fun to do, but as you probably know, revision is the name of the game. (Please click on the drawing to see a larger version.)

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - A Bit of Whimsey....(or The Great Train Robbery)

Digging through the archives...I found this scan of a whimsical train that I sketched (mixed media on board) a few years ago. I sold it to a gentleman in Washington and it was stolen in the mails. The person that liberated it took it out of the parcel and neatly taped the parcel back and the package was delivered empty. Must have been an inside job......

Tuesday, July 4, 2006 - I Stumbled Upon Terregen...

I was surfing yesterday on Stumbleupon.com which, in my opinion, is a goldmine of creative and interesting websites. I found Terragen, a 3d landscape generator that you can download for free and play with for hours. You can check it out here. I played around with it for hours and came up with this computer generated landscape:

Monday, July 3, 2006 - Luminarium

In the early 80's I made a computer graphics program from scratch called "Changing Patterns" for the Atari 800 computer. It got reviewed in Analogue magazine. You would feed a few numbers into it and it would draw a geometric design based on those numbers. Some of the patterns were impressive, even though limited to the Atari's 16 colors. When I upgraded to an IBM computer (256 colors) I did another program called "Luminarium", in 1993, which did some animated things and you could take snapshots of something that was happening on the screen at that moment, and save the file. I thought I would put up a little poster of 'Luminarium' as the drawing of the day. More info