Hector Homestretch

Some images from book two with author Patrick Jones.  All are ready for the character colors and backgrounds plus a few tweaks here and there and it will soon, kinda-sorta-maybe, be done. 

Link to the first books site. Patrick does a lot of school visits and even dons a Hector-esque cape! 
https://www.facebook.com/HectorsHeroicDay/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf.


All images are cropped from 2 page spreads and are in various stages of completion. In this book Hector deals with a bully. 

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NUTMEG BALLET Oct 2 2016

Back at the ballet sketches. 

Thanks to The Nutmeg Ballet and
Five Points Gallery for continuing the opportunity


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Snippets from the second Hector book

Rough to 3/4 sketches to establish all of the visual content so that it depicts the emotions and narrative of the text. 

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Pastel in stages

I drove past this area in Torrington often. I was drawn to the overgrown trees and the variety of color they added to the scene.  As with my landscapes I like to show mother nature gaining ground. 

I walked by several times but did not get the same inspiration as I did when I drove by so I took the reference image as I drove.

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The photo reference lacked the dynamic image held in my mind as I drove past so I set the reference aside and charged at the blank surface with some bold lines.

I kept developing the composition with black, white, and greys so I could push the drawing around


I added some local color to establish some perspective and get a feel for the pallet to be used

I knew I wanted the tree colors to be bold and opaque and thought it would be problematic to add the bits of detail need for the houses behind so I roughed them in 

Goodbye houses hello tree color as you can see the bits of houses work in between the branches and leaves 

I rounded out the color throughout, working on all areas but the trees

I lightened up the road, I find it is good to begin darker or lighter than you intend then work toward the intended color, to bring the focus back onto the big red tree

Recent plein air landscapes

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A Walk Down Memory Lane

Revisiting drawings made on Matinicus Island Maine circa 1989

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These two were preliminary drawings for etchings

Art Coma: Day Two

Another visual onslaught.

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Ballet rehearsal

Latest Nutmeg Ballet Session was during a rehearsal and was a nonstop blur I tried to capture on paper... ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,  ha, ha, ha, ha. 

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Pastel In Process

A work in Progress kinda thing...

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The reference (don't look at it!)

(Ok so you looked now checkout the street view to see what I revised) 

 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8104998,-73.1294531,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sy2RtW8L8E4bPdn3KjMAcxQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The two tone block in and white

Mid-way muddling

The Final (maybe)

Calling this one done.

Reworked from quick sketch

16" x 26"

5 min. sketch

Ballet Smetch

How to fix a "Smetch"

"Smetch" is how I misspelled sketch in the subject line when I emailed myself the two images below. The misspell sums up the correlation between the two as well.  I never, NEVER, draw on the back of any figure work I have ever done, EVER.  Except this once.  It happened during the Nutmeg Ballet sessions I recently attended and have been posting here as well. I will forever refer to any future double uses as a "Smetch".

BUT, this afforded me an opportunity to do something I have wanted to try since forever.  Work a larger more finished rendition of a quick figure sketch.  

Below the "Smetch" (select image for larger view)

Below the re-rendition. (select image for larger view)