Winter Stroll

Okay, I actually painted this a few months ago, but it seems more appropriate to post now (with the 14" deep blanket of snow currently in my front yard). It's a small watercolor sketch (2.5 x 3.5 inches) on Strathmore trading card paper.

Contemplating Christmas

Here's an illustration I finished a few months ago for a local author, but for some reason I had never posted it online. I call it "Christmas Eve", and it is meant to capture the moments before the birth of Jesus Christ. I wonder what emotions and thoughts Mary had as she prepared for the birth of the Christ child?

Posemaniacs.com

A friend made mention of www.posemaniacs.com in his blog, so I checked it out. It's a really interesting site for figurative artists. It provides nearly 20,000 figure poses that artists can use for reference. The figures are not actual photos, but digital constructions showing basic musculature and anatomy. The figures can also be rotated for viewing from multiple angles. While I would much rather draw from life, Posemaniacs offers a very a nice alternative for when models and time are not readily available. I am interested in knowing what other artists think of it.

The Latest

Yesterday, I spoke with John Erickson, an art professor at the University of Utah. I'm going to take a "Figure Structure" class from him in January. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been able to do as much life drawing as I would have liked over the past couple years, so I'm anxious to get going.

In the meantime, I'm illustrating a new card/board game for Alderac Entertainment Group. I had basically removed myself from the illustration scene for the last several months, but when I got the proposal on this project, I just couldn't pass. I'll provide more details when I can.

The Learning Curve

Right now, as far as painting goes, I feel like I'm pretty inept. I've spent most of my "art time" these past 5 or 6 years doing digital commercial art, and now I feel like I've forgotten how to move oil paints around a canvas. But I'm hoping to change that this coming year. I'm planning to return to school to pursue a Masters degree at the University of Utah. If accepted into the program, I will begin classes Fall 2009. In the meantime, I have been accepted as a "non-matriculated" student and plan to begin a couple of graduate courses in January. It seems a bit nuts to go back to school at my age, but I can't seem to kick the idea that maybe I'll actually become a good painter.

Here's a recent painting. I'm not thrilled with it, but they say you learn to create good paintings by doing a whole bunch of bad ones.

Small Works (very)

The other day I was given a trial set of Golden's new OPEN brand acrylics. The set included only three colors: red, blue, and white. I had not painted with acrylics for a long time, but thought it would be fun to test out this new product, and even funner to do it with such a limited palette. I painted this small portrait on a 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece of Strathmore Artist Trading Card acrylic paper. For info on OPEN acrylics: http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/color/open/index.php. For Strathmore ATC paper: http://www.strathmoreartist.com/atc.php.

Changes

As you've probably noticed, kevinwasden.com is going through some changes. The new website will focus more on my efforts in "fine art" instead of illustration. My illustration work, comics, and other similar projects will be found at www.splintered-mind.com. I haven't worked out all the details yet and will probably be making a lot of changes to both websites. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.