Art Update

Here is a progress shot of my Princess of Mars painting. My goal is to block in all the figures to the same levels as the central thark by the end of saturday. If I can manage it by friday, even better. Then I'll have all of next week to finesse the details and fine tune things, even though next week will be hell at work. Also here is a sketchbook page of a head and hand study for a painting I want to try and get done for the show at the Spirit Gallery in September. I'm putting the martian painting as well as my phoenix painting for sure, but if I can manage to put in a third piece that would really be killer. Anywho, critiques and comments are welcome.

HOT SHIT

This is the image I really had wanted to work on at the Master Class but was too afraid. I really didn't enjoy working on the composition I had so I felt that for my mental health it would be better to scrap it and start this one. I'm going to transfer it to canvas today and begin painting tonight. I am so much happier with this and I have a reeeeeally good feeling about the turn out for this piece. I think it'll be my first true showcase portfolio piece since graduating art school. It will be done by the deadline on september 1 and for the show at Spirit Gallery in CT. I might even do a smaller painting too since I'm on an art high.

Princess of Mars

These are the sketches and final comp for my Master Class painting. I'm still working on it and I hope to have it along with another painting done by the end of July. I'll have sketches, ideas, studies, and other smaller things to post throughout the month as I'll be planning a lot of my summer art while I paint. Without further ado, here are the finished drawings of John Carter, Dejah Thoris, the Great White Ape, and a little bonus picture.

Phoenix Reborn

Better quality photo of the finished painting.

Pending finish

I was told last Wednesday I could submit art to the faculty show. Great! I thought. Then SHIT!!! I had nothing I felt proud of showing off, or that could display any skill in my working medium. So I started this painting. The drawing had been done for several weeks. Many milestones in this painting. First and foremost this is the first painting I am proud of working on since I graduated art school almost a year ago (tomorrow is one year, YIKES) And for those who know me, its also the first painting I actually finished since art school haha. Now, as far as "finish" is concerned, the image you see is not the actual finished painting. I'm going to work on a few of the small areas that are kind of glaringly off, and I'll work on them today. Also, the big bird in the back needs somein...its kind of blah. For the sake of the show though, I'm only going to touch up those few things. When I get it back I might go to town, I do want to have something nice to show for the master class coming up in June. The photo is also not the best, but anyway, I am very proud of what I accomplished in four days. I didn't paint friday, I felt the need to be a social person and went to a bar/club hehe.

Finished painting (gasp)

Yes, a finished painting. Albeit its only 5x7 inches, but a painting's a painting. Its the head study from the last post. Clayboard grows increasingly more forgivable the more one adds paint to the surface, but it still manages to dry fast. There's a little smudge mark that got on her near the corner of her lip, I'll paint over it so its presentable. But this is the finish. I'm really happy with the paint application and the fact that it remains smooth, but the paint strokes are there and visible. Enjoy :)

New

Just a small 5x7 head study i'm working on. I'm going to finish it tonight at work. Its on clayboard which is a pretty interesting surface to paint on. It sucks up all the moisture and oil from every brush stroke I put down, which is really annoying. But the upside of it all is that its pretty dry to the touch within a couple hours. I did almost all the color work last night from about 11 to 1 in the am and I was able to scan it without it leaving any marks or wet paint on the scanner. The reference is from stock photo courtesy of faestock.deviantart.com. I suggest checking her stuff out, she has a lot of cool photos for everyone to enjoy. Just an FYI- I'm not trying to follow the colors exactly, hence the really in your face purples. I'm working on another painting in the studio that I'll photograph maybe tonight or tomorrow. Time to go wash the obscene amount of pollen on my car, lest I die while I drive to work.

Random

I work the front desk at the museum from 5-10 in the evenings now. With all that time leftover and nothing to do except for the occasional classroom change, I use this time to draw. Tonight I flipped thru an issue of Aperture, found a really intriguing photo by Sybille Bergemann and proceeded to copy it into my sketchbook. This drawing is the kind of drawing I do that makes me sad I can't paint as well as I draw. Sometimes I want to take a break from drawing, so that my painting ability can catch up. I know its silly, and considering how much I have learned about painting in the 10 months since graduating, but I still get down on myself for that. But whenever I feel like this, a renewed vigor takes over me and I want nothing more than to prove myself wrong, which is what usually ends up happening. I have been a huuuuge slacker for the past month and change, I haven't accomplished much art, haven't been able to come up with any ideas. I'm kind of dry now, but I'm slowly coming out of it. Looking thru old sketchbooks I found a couple pages that had some interesting ideas that really drew me into reconsidering making them actual pieces. So we'll see. That phoenix piece I have in mind will definitely be completed. It looks sweet in my mind's eye. Without more ranting, here's the drawing of the photo :)

Moleskins

These are a few of the better pages in my moleskin that I started a couple months ago. Some hands and random poses montaged on top of each other, some figure drawing, portrait, armor design and my first good phoenix. The phoenix has like 6 pages devoted to it, sketch after sketch, study after study. This is final working design #1 that I am happy with.

News

So i uploaded my newly designed web page to the web. Its a bit boring and kinda conservative, but at least it looks professional in comparison to the color fiesta I had before. Its the same name as before, tejeraillustration.com i have to fix one link, the apollo and dionysus painting, as it is a bit on the non-working side. In paint related news, I spent about 4 hours working on the dragonflower painting, the bulk of which was spent on the head. Although i spent a tad longer than usual on one, small 2 inch area, I think I've come across my paint application style. Donato is probably my favorite painter and illustrator alive. I look at his work constantly and wish I could see it in person again and more often. Bouguereau is my second favorite "master" namely for his finesse and modeling of the flesh. I don't want to paint like either, don't want to be a Donato/Boug clone. And I think I've succeeded. Because even though I have Bouguereau paintings as well as Donato paintings around my easel/studio to look at for technique's purpose my own paint application has turned out to be much more painterly and loose, but handled with precision. I'm very happy! I think the next several paintings will be very crucial to the development of my technique (not to be confused with my style, i'm a realist). Expect a Lord of the Rings painting within the next couple months. Can't wait. Weeeeeeeee