Practice from photos

I was going through a old shoebox full of photos about a month ago, and found some old photos which would make great painting practice. This is the first, I have no idea where it was taken, but I like it. I'm trading it for a ton of frames from a local cafe that I frequent. I had to play around with it in photoshop because my scanner isn't big enough for it and I took a picture of it in bad lighting. This is what it looks like in real life :p

Acrylic on canvas board.

Enjoy.

Because I Haven't Posted in a Really Long Time

I've been on vacation from art stuff this summer so far. Hopefully I'll begin painting again soon :) I've been preoccupied with other stuff, like working and planning my trip to Italy. Getting plane tickets this late is very frustrating.
Gogol Bordello is making it all better, though...
SO IN THE MEANTIME
Here's something that I found while cleaning off my desktop: Kyler as Gregor Samsa!
(Photoshop)

I like it.

Enjoy.

Digital Illustration Final

This is the final for my digital illustration class. I think it turned out ok. I did a sketch, then I used a brush pen and calligraphy ink to outline it. By sheer luck I was able to borrow a tablet and complete the project, but I think that if I had put more time into it, it would have turned out a lot better. I really didn't get to play around with the type, though I think that it looks ok. I don't think that the instruments clearly read as an accordion, a violin, and a bow, though I think that the violin reads ok. The background was kind of last minute.
Whatever, it's finally done, and it was the last of my art assignments for the term.

It's been too long since my last post....

Trying to post something every week has been failing due to finals...
So. Here are some of the things that I've been working on:

Cougar. Acrylic on watercolor paper.

Peregrine Falcon. Guache on bristol board.

Rattlesnake. Acrylic on watercolor paper.

These are for the final project for my Zoo/bot class. There were four, but the fourth one looks stupid, so I didn't post it. The idea was images for stamps based on the birds that we drew in class and during the field trip to the zoo.

Finals are almost over and I've weaseled my way out of going to any during week 11 so I can go home early. I'm really looking forward to actually being able to work on person projects rather than scrape out class assignments. I plan on fooling around with oils which should be fun. Or maddening. Probably both.... :P
I plan on keeping a sketchbook too and taking photos around town to paint/draw.
For those who are following this blog (not many probably, but whatever :P), I'm gonna be posting a lot of awesome pictures and other stuff in the fall and spring because I'll be in Florence, Italy.
So keep checking and hopefully you'll see some pretty cool stuff!

Random Sketchbook Stuff

This is a squid that I drew when I was bored a while ago.

Second Assignment for Zoo/Bot

The idea was 'plants that tell a story' arranged as if it was for a greenhouse or some other informational poster or something. Mine are Chinese medicinal herbs because I wanted an excuse to paint poppies because they're pretty.
I'm too tired for this right now..... It's three in the morning....

Papaver somniferum

For my zoo/bot class. Guache and digital.