Highlights from Sketchbook 21

Intro

I finished off my 21st sketchbook this morning and thought I would post my favourites from it.

Something that's relatively new that I started in sketchbooks started when this was started, I have many that are usually in use since I began this practice, is watered down acrylics. Also, there is at least one watercolour in here.


Awhile back I got it in my head to do a couple of ballet dancers for my dear friend, Sean Winston, who is both a fan and a contributor to the fine art of ballet. However, I was having difficulty, and decided to break down the limbs of the dancers into more basic three dimensional figures. This is one of the results, and, perhaps, amongst my favourite results.

This is another watered down acrylic. I had borrowed a book from the DICC, which is a facility for foreigners in Daejeon, South Korea.

The book was on the history of art in China. Many of the samples were very beautiful. There is a calm beauty that I find very alluring in much of Chinese art.

The elegance of the lady on one particular page struck me as being particularly beautiful. Many attempts were made to capture the magic of that image. Of those attempts in this sketchbook, this one was clearly the best.

This is watered down acrylic. I cannot recall who the model was for this one. Sometimes random images come into my mind as I try to work on one particular aspect of painting. I cannot recall what in particular I was striving for in this painting. However, I like the colour and feeling in this painting.

It's paintings like these that I really like. The image I embedded on the page I tried to reapply to canvas with limited success. I really like this one.

She is a character in an unwritten story. She is warning the main character not to eat the lieberries. Though she is a scary and mean looking witch, her intention is to help the girl. The girl, however, is young and foolish and not interested in the wisdom or opinion of scary witches. She eats of the lieberries and is struck by their curse of never being able to tell the truth and always lying.

It is my hope that in the not too distant future I will be able to illustrate my own children's books.

This is amongst the first watercolour images that I've done. It is very simply flowers blowing in a gentle wind. While it is certainly no masterpiece, I actually quite like this piece.

A friend of mine, Ronald Dandy, told me that one cannot layer watercolours as one does with acrylics. That certainly adds a level of difficulty for me. However, the colours are very bright and have some interesting characteristics. For instance, a dried up palette of watercolours can be used again simply by spraying it with water. That's pretty cool.

This is one of those sketches that is pretty much where I'd like to see my art go, but more reliably. It's that place of fearlessness where thoughts and images come out of my hand with little if any inhibition, and end up looking much like I wanted them to.

The girl on the small bed is no one in particular. The room is no room at all, just one randomly selected from nowhere.

This sketch is of three girls in a locker room in their glorious naked skin. I really like this sketch. Normally I have a very difficult time with proportions and mixing multiple individuals in the same image. However, in this case, it worked out fairly well. I am quite happy with this piece.

This is a self portrait. In it I look older and my face is slimmer than it is in real life.

The image also reminds me of my deceased grandfather, Ferna. Though he was not my grandfather by blood, he is the only one I've known. The biological one having died when my mother was very young, leaving behind no image, there is no way to know what my biological grandfather looked like.

And that ends the highlights of my 21st sketchbook.