A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

I like to show some of my "Work in Progress" photos, so other can see how I work and steps involved.  For my drawings, there is a process that I follow which involves: Taking a photo of what I want to draw. Add it my "To Do" list in the "Art" photo album on my iPhone / iPad / Mac. Crop (if needed) the photo for what size I'm going to draw (landscape/portrait, etc).  (Edits on the iPhone are non-destructive so I can always revert to the original) Setup my iPad and my paper on my table and start drawing.  Ink pen first. Then grey markers, till done.  That's it. Take photo of finished drawing and name and place into my artwork photo. Maybe show on Facebook, but otherwise update my ToddBlackley.com site. Repeat. They are not all winners of course but my "Good" rate is about 80%. I'm getting good at this process for my drawing and getting quite a few drawing under my belt. Park City Mine Series I've got my Barn series and I've been...

I'll never be able to drawing and paint with realism, so I don't try.  But how to present effects to the viewer of something that I can't draw or paint? The good thing is the mind is really good at filling in the blanks of images and provide the viewer with with they think they are seeing.  In my latest painting, it's fur.  Fur is not something that I look forward or even know how to draw fur, so I punted and it worked. So taking the cat image from my drawing last time, I did an ink & watercolor painting of the same image. With only a few lines here and there and then only using a couple of colors (yellow, brown and grey) the effect is completed.   The resulting image is a Cat, with hints of depth and fur and texture.  All without being able to draw or paint a realistic image.  I'm sure glad the brain can fill-in the rest to allow my rendition to present the look and feel of this cat. Next on my list of to-do's is another mine building from the Park Cit...

Did an interesting "Cat" drawing today.  This came from a friend that wanted to see what I could do with a photo of their cat.  Now cats are hard.  Lots of fur, blurry edges and the like, but I had fun doing it. I put it in a frame for them and I'm planning on trying a watercolor of it and see what happens.  I'm using some COPIC grey scale (neutral) markers which I like, but they are pricy.  The good thing is that they are refillable and that helps bring the cost down.  It's the 10...60% markers that get used up the most because of their usage early in the drawing and the lightness of the shade. I had made a tracing of the image so that I could re-used the basic drawing (basic lines and shading only) for a watercolor version.  Works great.  I don't have a light board but I used the technique of taping the tracing on a window (or door) with the sunlight behind it and that is plenty to shine through the watercolor paper over it.  Amazing how br...