Ronald with a Smile

Pencil. 14x17"

This one doesn't require much explanation. I did it this Summer and I like it for the strong lighting and the details in his wrinkles and facial features. When doing something with this much detail, it can be easy to ruin the facial expression, but I'm glad for how this one turned out. Enjoy.

Fishing

Pen and Ink. 11x13.5"

This is from a photo I took on the Danube. I hope you like it.

Portrait of a Dude

Pencil. 5.5x8.5"

 The one above is the one I like better of these two. But because I'm being honest with you that my artwork doesn't always look as great as it could, I'm posting the one below. You can see in the pastel how badly I messed up the mouth and hand area. The print I was referring to had bad lighting. So I began over again with the one above and used some photos on the computer which had better lighting to correct his profile. I decided that I wanted it to have a sketched feeling, so I scribbled for his shirt and did a lot of hatching to achieve this.

Pencil and Pastel. 5.5x8.5"

Trees against Red (2 versions)

Goache paint. 9x12"

Goache and acrylic paints. 9x12"

Here are two paintings of the same thing. I added different effects for things like bark and leaves. Several people have asked me why the bottoms of the trees are white and why I put red in the background. The answer is very simple. The trees were in front of a red building and Romanians paint the bottoms of almost all their trees white. I think someone said it was to keep bugs away or something. Please enjoy!

Romanian Scenery

Goache paint and pastel

 In the painting above, there was a slight shadow over the page when I snapped the picture, so the colors towards the bottom look darker than in reality. The colors are very soft, so I added some pastel to bolden them up a bit. This is a scene looking towards the south from a village called Roseti [ro-sets']. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous so here it is for you.

Goache and acrylic paints

 This painting was with goache, but when I didn't like how soft the colors were turning out, I turned to acrylic. In the process of making this, I felt frustrated because it wasn't turning out quite as I wanted, so you can see where I smeared whatever color I had on my brush over the bushes on the left side of the page. That's why they're such a light green color there. After it dried and I looked at it again, I decided that I do like it after all. It just didn't have the feel that I was trying to create. This is a scene looking out towrds the Danube river (Dunarea in Romanian). What looks like sky behind the trees is actually the trees on the opposite side of the river. I like this for the contrasts and the lighting involved.

Fishers on the Danube

Marker and Pen. 9x12"

This is a drawing I did while I was still in Romania. We were at the Danube River and there were some fishermen. The sun was going down so the silhouettes were exquisite. I asked a friend to take a picture of the scene so I could draw it later and I'm glad she did.

Romanian Villager

Charcoal. 5.5x8.5"

This is a man from the village of Chiselet. I actually have no idea who he is or what his name is, but I thought he would be a wonderful subject for a drawing. I want to do him in paint sometime too, but this should be fine for starters.

Enjoy!

Red Head

Goache painting. 12x9"

I was in Romania last Fall and I had the opportunity recently to finally draw and paint some of the pictures I took there. Now I've finally taken the time to post on my blog again. It helps that I finally have a camera again!

It feels good to be back and I hope you enjoy seeing my artwork again. I think I've grown in some ways and have been experimenting with new mediums. Also, I'm determined to work harder at my artwork than I had been before so I can produce better and lovelier things for your eyes to view.