BYU Illustration Alumni Show
Jun/102
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- Me standing with Richard Hull – He inspired and pushed us every day!
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- William Whitaker talking to Doug Fryer – one of my favorite teachers..
These pictures are from the currently showing BYU Illustration alumni show, showcasing 30 years of BYU graduates work. William Whitaker was there, and spoke to us at the dinner – along with Paul Mann. It was such a treat to see all my old professors again, Richard Hull, Doug Fryer, Robert Barrett.. and to be in the show along side such excellent artists. Others who are showing work here include Mitch Baird, Joe Brickey, Jason Bowen, Dave Malan (finally got to meet Dave! Yeah!! – his work is so awesome).. Also Chris Creek, Marty Haverson, Richard Russell, and many more.. it was a blast.
Portrait of my boys
Jun/101
Portrait of 2 boys in red
This is my latest painting. These are 2 of my sons, Eli and Garrett. They both decided to wear red shirts, and I kinda liked the idea. I ended up pushing a lot of green into the fence to compliment the red. I think it turned out pretty well.. although in the painting they look older than they really are.
On this one, I was trying to go pretty tight and really go for the realism. I had been looking at some of the wonderful portraits from the portrait society of America. These get me really excited.
It’s definitely the best skin tones I’ve done so far. I’ve also been looking a lot at Bouguereau lately – the master of figurative painting. Neutral grey is the key to painting convincing skin tones. I have relied too much in the past on burnt sienna, which is a wonderful earth tone red – but is on the orange side. Here I’m mixing naphtol red with b. sienna – and that is better. But you have to temper everything with grey.. that’s the key.
Garrett’s face (on the left) was repainted 3 times, and Eli’s was done twice. It’s challenging because it works best to paint the face in one sitting – while the paint is still wet. So you have to nail it in one shot. It’s really hard to make adjustments later, because you can’t blend into what’s there once it’s dry. I haven’t quite got the blends perfect, but I’m getting closer.
Added some new drawings
Feb/100
I’ve had many of my sketchbook drawings scanned in for a while, and have been wondering if I should show them on my site. In the end I finally figured – why not, I like ‘em. I know they aren’t perfect and polished, but I think they’re pretty decent.
http://www.wheelercreek.com/gallery.php?cat=Drawings
I’ve also started going back to a life drawing session every week – it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately it’s in the evenings and I find I’m kinda tired & it’s hard to concentrate. It’s really fun, but I’m only good for 1 or 2 sort-of decent drawings in a session. Drawing is hard work!!
Gallery on conceptArt.com
Dec/090
Finally added my art gallery up to ConceptArg.com. I didn’t realize that was free and fairly simple. Their site has a few php glitches but I was able to make it work..
http://www.conceptart.org/index.php?artist=wheelercreek&cat=updated
I actually debated being part of that site for a long time. There’s so much absolutely amazing work up there, really phenomenal, but also there’s a lot of sex/violence and offensive content. Well, I guess you just need to use your own judgment in what you look at…
As an artist I take a lot of inspiration in seeing what other artists are doing, in terms of light, color, characters costuming, all kinds of things.. but I’m aware that I have to be really careful too because of the standards I’m trying to live by.
