Backlit San Francisco

Another study (8x10) based on a photo I took in San Francisco a few years ago. I like painting subjects that are backlit. It simplifies the shapes and creates wonderful atmospheric perspective.

Intensity/neutrality

This is a little 6x8 painting based on a photo I took a few years ago in San Francisco. Aside from the point of view and the interesting shapes of darks and lights, I was interested in the neutrality of most of the color with just a few accents of intensity.

Digital/Analogue Experimentation

A couple variations.

Painted a canal this AM

Got out and painted a canal this morning. Weather's cooling down so we can do this now. Bright sun glaring off water and the new paved bike path. I was mostly concerned about getting a color idea down and an interesting composition.

(shot on site: a little out of focus and some weird reflections that look like pixie dust)

New York Walker

2 sketches from the same reference I shot in New York a few years ago.

Harvest Moon over New York

My friend Brad Teare, art director at the Friend magazine (he's also an accomplished painter with a good blog) asked me to do a cover for their October issue. He said they wanted something that looked a little more urban than their usual pastoral settings. Also, that I might include something about the season.

The Friend is a publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (of which I am a member). For their covers, they assign an illustrator a month and let him or her come up with five or so ideas and they choose which one they want. It's not real often that I get that kind latitude. Thanks Brad!

Here is one of the reference photos I took of my grandkids.

Parched. A book cover

Claire Counihan, AD at Holiday House, asked me to do a cover. It's a book called Parched. The world has gone through decades of drought and is dried up, except for a domed city built by some of the surviving people. It has it's own biospher. This is the work in progress.

Superstition Sunrise

Between illustration jobs and teaching, I haven't had much time to paint. So I've started doing quick half our sketches of the sunrise looking east from my neighborhood.