I’m really enjoying playing around with graphite. I wanted to post a few of my latest pieces since I hadn’t posted anything much lately. Some I spent more time on than others, but with everything I draw, I learn something new. My entire pencil gallery can be seen at http://gallery.creationsings.net/albums/Art/PencilSketches
Well, I’m still in ArtRage mode for my paintings of late. It is such an enjoyable and addicting program to work with. Since I hadn’t posted anything lately, I thought I’d share my latest works using that program. I am particularly proud of these three paintings since I did not trace or clone a photo. It is all hand painting from scratch using a photo for reference only. I was pleased with the way they turned out. As you can see I was in a fruit still life mood. 
My most recent digital works have been done using the program ArtRage 2. They’ve just recently updated from version 2.0 to version 2.2 and added quite a few new features. This has prompted me to start playing with it again. It’s a great piece of software…and best of all, it’s VERY affordable. There is also a free version that is a great way to get started using the software.You can see my entire ArtRage gallery here.
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve put anything new on the site. In this post, you’ll see why.
On December 7 - 10, Highland Baptist Church performed it’s annual Christmas Musical Dinner Theater. This was my first time to be involved in it and I had such a good time. The musical was a hit and we served dinner to over 400 people and had over 600 total that attended the musical. I sang in the choir and had fun doing that, but that’s not what kept me so occupied. I also was part of the team that painted the set. So instead of doing digital art, I spent every day (starting the Monday after Thanksgiving) doing real art on a very large scale. There were probably an average of 8 people on any given night working on it the week and a half before the opening night.
The musical was titled “Christmas on Main Street,” so for the set, we had a main street with four shops facades on the stage and two full structured shops on the side. One of the structures even had an upstairs “apartment balcony” sturdy enough to support people.
On the Wednesday of our dress rehearsal, I grabbed my camera and arrived early to take some pictures of the completed set. If you’d like to see all the pictures in the gallery, click here or click the thumbnail image.
I’ve been doing a lot of digital art lately. Because of this, I’ve started a quest to improve my basic art skills. A friend recommended reading a book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards. This book has renewed my interest in sketching — and I mean with real pencil and paper…not a computer program.
The book has several different exercises as you work your way through. This picture was one of the references to use to practice drawing. Click the thumbnail to go to the picture. From there you can navigate around the gallery to see my other skectches. There are three from my recent attempts and several from a couple of years ago. I’ll post more when I get a chance.