New work

While the elk piece is on a wee bit of a standstill I did manage to finish up a smaller piece (12"x12")  I am usually pretty good with titles, but nothing is coming to me for this one so I welcome suggestions.

As most of you know usually eyes are my favorite part of the animal to do so I don't often choose photos where the eyes are not a prominent feature, but I really liked the curve of the neck into the head and then the tongue rounding it out.  It just makes a really nice circle for MY eyes.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Walking The Line - almost done

close to done with the big couger.  Not a good photo, but you get the general idea :)

And a bit more on the horse too

Art Fair Weekend and New progress on works

Last weekend was my first art fair of the season.  Unfortunately attendance was quite low and sales were low as well.  I did get to educate more people about scratchboard and still enjoyed the time I spent there.  I found some time to work on my spinning grey horse and made friends with my neighboring booths (a photographer and a glass worker).

Here is where the horse ended the weekend

And last week I started to color Charlie, the big mountain lion.  Putting that first bit of color on it was difficult as I have spent MANY hours on the board already and color is something that doesn't always go the way that I want it to.  Anyways I have already spent another 8 + hours laying in ink, rescratching, putting in more ink, more rescratching... and it is getting closer to me ding pleased with the color version of it.  I am finding it quite difficult to get a decent photo of it as it has many layers of ink now and some show through as quite shiny and reflective giving quite a glare.... so excuse the poor photos, but here is the progression of color work on it so far.  Still many hours to go.

First layers of ink with minimal rescratching at this point

Now a version with quite a bit of rescratching to lighten things up for more inking

And several more layers of ink and scratching to get to where it is at the time of typing.  You will also notice changes to the musculature of his shoulder, as I didn't like the way I had it

On the Prowl - WIP and Bending

I am working on a new mountian lion scratchboard that I have titled "On The Prowl" size is 12"x24" , which looks pretty close to cougar life size.  Here is my progress to date.

A close up look - I suppose maybe around the actual size, maybe a bit bigger.

And I guess I didn't post this one that I finished this last week too.    Well maybe not finished, I think I am going to work the tail a bit more.  This is a smaller piece 10"x8"  This ended up being a very tough angle to make look right!  Title on this one is "Bending"  It is colored with Ampersand Inks

I haven't given up ;)

You may (or may not) remember the graphite horse I started at the beginning of the year.  I have not given up on it and am still plugging away slowly in between scratching.  The mane has me a bit worried on how to do it... so why not save it for last... LOL

Here is a recent update.

And I finished off the front paw on the cougar, though will still mess around making minor changes. Now onto the background... fun, fun!

Its been a little while

Well it has been a little while since I have had an opportunity to post.  I was preparing for my trip to the Alamosa scratchboard show called "A Scratch in Time".  It was a great time with friends and a nice show.  The venue was very nice and we had a Q&A panel with myself and a few other scratchboard artists that came to the show with about 70-100 college students.  I did not know that they were judging the show and only had small pieces entered, but was delighted to receive 3rd place in the whole show (about 75 works hung) with my cat scratch I titled "In the Light".

Some of the out of state artists stayed with me after the show for a day or two and now its back to the scratching post!

Over the weekend I did a few demos- one with the cougar and one with a small 5"x7" piece that I will post when I finish coloring it.  A few more hours on the cougar today too, and finally enough for an update.

A visit to the Denver Stock Show

Yesterday I took the day to go to the Denver Stock show.  I was especially excited to watch and gather reference photos at the AQHA Ranch Horse championships... a competition that emulates more real working type events than most other horse shows events.  I missed the reining portion unfortunately but got to watch trail class, ranch riding and cutting.  Lighting in those buildings is pretty poor so I had to shoot high ISO and while not superb from a photography standpoint I gathered many usable reference photos for my artwork.  You can expect more horses soon!

Here are a few pictures, but as I said the light makes them not too great.  I'd love to photogrpah an event like this outdoors.

I also visited the Coors Western Art Show.  I am trying to get into this event again next year, so keep your fingers crossed for me.  This show always has outstanding western art and a good number of sales (about 70% were sold).  Gold frames seem to be "in".  For some reason I just have never really liked gold frames... but may give them a try just because they seem so darn popular. 

Here is the update on my cougar... hope to have an update on the graphite horse soon too, but what can I say I love scratching more than pencil these days!

Lines and Lions

OK, so I didn't get to my horse yesterday, but did spend more time on the lion.  Sometimes when you are in the groove it is easier to just stick with the same project than change mindsets.

Closer....

And CLOSER  (larger than life)...  Yes that is a LOT of lines!

More cougar

I have spent the morning working on my cougar (a title is still in the works) and will spend the afternoon on my roping horse.

Here is where I am at on the cougar and a close up on the face, which covers roughly a 10"x8" area I would guess.  Obviously still much work to do on all areas of this board.

Jumping Around

I have not given up on the horse by any stretch, but did start my large scratchboard and put a few hours into it already.  This board will be colored and it is a big'un at 36"x24" and much of the board will be covered with various elements.  This is only my 2nd board of this size... and my biggest challenge is figuring out how to hold it and manipulate to get where I need to.  I work most of my scratchboards with them in my lap.  I forget how big these boards are until I pull them out... twice the size of an 18"x24" (ok I know the math is simple... but its a lot of space to cover with scratches :) !

My primary reference photo was once again shot at Rolling Hills.  You could say that the SAA 2009 show opening was a great event for me on many levels... not only nice awards, the cover of the catalog and meeting great people- but a lot of wonderful and useful reference photos to work with!

Here is the start on her.  It'll be a fairly long journey with two projects underway, so hope you will hang on for the ride.  I'll take some close up photos next time I photograph it.  This is the whole board.