Clouds

I tried to capture the sun before it disappeared behind a bank of rain clouds. I'm not sure I succeeded in painting the effect correctly, but I did manage to high tail it inside before the rain hit.

Rusty (Read: Beautiful) Old Things

One of the places I like to go to sketch, or to just sit and chill, is a hill not far from my house. There's a footpath halfway up one side with a rusty chain link fence running alongside it. I've sketched the fence in the past, but it was fun to have another go at it with my DS.

While I was scribbling away, an old woman passed by with her dog and asked my why on earth I would want to paint a rusty old fence. I told her I wasn't painting the fence, but rather doing a painting of the fence. I thaught I was being amusing as a way of breaking the ice, but she just pulled a funny face and continued on her way.

When she had gone some distance up the path it occurred to me that the lines at the sides of her mouth were rather beautiful, but I am certainly glad I didn't tell her that as she would have probably given me a clout round the head. At least her dog found the fence interesting - particularly the post I was painting. :-)

Abandoned Military Subway

Pets

Experiment: Place a bag in the same room as a cat. Leave the room for 2-6 minutes. Return and locate cat. Record results.

Orphan

I found this little guy discarded on the side of the road and stopped to take a picture. but then I felt sorry for him so decided to take him home and stick him in the wash. His left ear needs some attention, but with a little TLC he should be happy again in no time. Hooray! :-D

Quaint View

Another study from the Conquistadores series. And although this is a Spanish fort built in South America, it could quite easily be some quaint picture postcard from England. Even the light matches the dusk of a late English summer.

DS+5

I was watching the 4 part BBC documentary, Conquistadores, by Michael Wood, about the conquest of the Americas, and from the begining was struck by the high standard of the photography. I've always loved Wood's series but hadn't watched any since rediscovering my interest in art, so to watch them again was hugely satisfying from a visual point of view. I managed to knock up a quick study of one of the shots, but couldn't do more as I was caught up in Michael's own enthusiastic dialogue.

DS+4

Another quick DS sketch.

DS+3

DS+2

More DS

More DS love in the form of a futuristic mountain hideout and a bad portrait from the film, Dune.

Pocket Paint Thingy

I have a new toy in the form of a Nintendo DS Lite. I baught it primarily for Colours!, which is a simple digital paint program, and I've been enjoying the freedom of painting on the go.

http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/

Pirate

Creatures

Obligatory Bad Guy

Today I finally got some time to work on some of the stuff I have had on the back burner. Here's a WIP of a character from the Dragonlance Saga (a score of light fantasy books I devoured as a kid) I am doing for the Dragonlance Nexus' Lexicon. It's fun to try and illustrate a favorite character from a favorite book. :-)

http://www.dlnexus.com/

SKulls II

Another skull for the pile.

Diving Equipment II

Back to the sepia sketch pages today, and another deep sea diver.

I actually found a rather cool story about the guy in the helmet which I was going to post, but now I can't find the darn web page. :-(