The Art of the Diguise

Halloween has always been a fun holiday for me, so to write about it in January, well, it seems just right to set the year off to a good start.

Around the corner from the new Chinese New Year, being the year of the horse, many people will be in disguises celebrating wildly as the Chinese welcome the new entrance for the astrological year.

Drawing disguises is always fun as the design can go ultimately any direction you want.  If it is a job you are working one, best always to communicate your ideas to the contrator as they will be more on board with your additions as I have always found them to be when I have approached them.

I love Illustration Friday.  The ste is a personal challenge to me to either locate a drawing I have created or create a new one, however this weeks word of the Friday was an easy selection process for me.  The Pirate elephants.I drew this as a concept for a sculpture, it would have been interesting to see the piece completed, alas this was not the case.  But I do love pirates.  Drawing an elephant pirate made it so easy as these are magnificent creatures and worthy of the pirates life.

SO with pencil to paper, I drew this with minimal reference materials and straight off the blank sheet of pare to what you see here.

The original piece the pirate had a patch over his eye with a hook lifting the patch.  The client asked to alter the drawing and to remove the hook - too scary for little kids. (I so wanted to say, have they listened to Grimm fairy tales yet - not that is scary!) so a beer hoist was the best solution, drunkerds are so much better than missing body parts. (LOL).

Enjoy the drawing. You can also now purchase it on line, click the link. More work is located here and I love, repeat LOVE to draw. It is so peaceful to my soul. Hope you like

REFLECT: Illustration Friday's challenge, Answer: "Rita"

In a nutshell, when I saw the word of the week, this image came to mind.  Her faced summed it all up for me.  Drawn from a live sitting, (gosh I miss those days), Rita was a great model.

Been super busy, so I am so sorry to have been away for so long, (last post was back in March), but that would predict my absence should be for good reasons…yeah, it was.

The best to all who visit here, may 2014, be gentle, however I do not think 2014 will go that gently into this good night.  So enjoy my drawing of Rita and thanks for stopping by!
--JP

"Keep on swimming, swimming, swimming." as Dora would sing in "Finding Nemo".  This illustration has some inspiration from that movie, mostly the friendships and the lyrical ways water moves us around.

     My entry to this weeks IF Word of the Week!.  Been busy and absent, however, today I am back!

Feeling Good Movies and drawing...

Been working hard to keep good attitude and so I have been going through the tissue boxes with my movie choices, all of them great movies, all of them deep in spiritual character.  The last one I just wrote is called, "Listen To Your Heart" -a really feel good movie, so bring tissues.

As such I have been also thinking of doing a risk, by putting it out there, I am going to listen to my heart; I am announcing the creation of a drawing class to be held in Ventura, on Main Street in California.  I will provide a one hour class to anyone, all ages may attend, to teach you how to Draw.  You walk away with a drawing, which YOU DREW. No materials needed, except you and your good attitude.  $5.00 at the door, no reasonable donation refused, no one will be turned away.  I am following my heart, and that is to draw, so let me show you how easy it is, in just one hour.

Comment here, back to me, to be included, as I will be private messaging true wanna-be artists. To be included to where and when, make some noise at me.  I am counting on you and your desire to learn how to draw, so don't be shy, even if you just like this comment, you're in. There's more to come.

Check out what I have drawn in under an hour here.  Now I cannot promise you that you will achieve the same results, but maybe you will, you will have to show up to draw at my class first for this to happen.

IF Word of the week: WINGS

What an appropriate word for the first month of the year.  It carries so many meanings, mostly the feeling of freedom, release and happiness.  To soar and glide through the air is such a feeling of release.  And then there are the wings of an angel, and this month has seen too many of these with all of the shootings on schools specifically as this takes the lives of innocents and lives that have yet to begin their journey's of wonder.

I respectfully submit to Illustration Friday, my drawing of wings titled "Deco Wings' as I vaguely remember drawing it back in Junior college and discovering the fun of the Art Deco period, a world transformed following visits to Egypt by explorers  (the 1920's), seeing the art from a place where Gods walked the Earth and then these modern visitors brought back this culture and called it Art Deco.

May all of our dreams be carried on the backs of wings, so they can soar and travel to places we only hope to see knowing one day we will get there.

Glow for me, Girl.

Wow, just under the wire and this is my submission for Illustration Friday's word of the week, "Glow".

Get your glow on, girl and the sounds of Led Zeppelin come to mind.

Cropped from an unpublished work for a contract job, this is my take on the essence of glow.  The creature is a hummingbird and the book is inspiration focused.  The colors resonate the core of glow as it is a gazing word.  A word I associate with extended long looks.

Enjoy the glow!

12-21-12, my snow submission to Illustration Friday.  I hear it's snowing in the mid US.