Snowy Day in Africa?

Click to animate.

Animated Polar Bear

Yes, it is animated, but you have to click on the photo to see the animation.  It is not animated right there on the page.

5 Digital Versions of One Bear

Original

Cool Colors

Charcoal

Cartoonized

Watercolor

Van Gogh man and leaf monsters

It is very quiet in the blogosphere these days.  I like blogs better than Facebook or tumblr or twitter, but it seems that people are all about the social networking sites these days.   It may not seem like I do like blogging so much, as I haven't posted much at all, but I feel like I am posting to nobody and that defeats the purpose.  I don't know if I'm going to continue blogging, but I may just come around and post once in awhile, just as I have been doing.  So, here is a post, whether anyone is going to read it or not.   First I will post my Van Gogh man (the book is across the room now, so I can't post the actual name of the painting, as that would involve getting up or googling and I appear to be too lazy tonight to do either).  He was done with my Staedtler pens which are fine point, so this is quite different from the Sharpie version that I posted on an earlier date.  I do think that this guy (well, the guy that this guy is based on, anyway) is my favorite of Van Gogh's portraits.  

And next I am going to post my leaf monsters.  When I was out walking one morning, I was crunching through the leaves and thinking about how much I love walking through them and wondering if I could use them for some sort of art project.  I picked some up, brought them home, and inspiration struck.  I love drawing faces on things.  If you look at any of my college notebooks from my undergraduate years (and ridiculously I still have one or two), you will see that I drew eyes and faces all over the margins.  And I see faces in everything--in campfires, in peoples' clothing, on floors, on ceilings, etc...  So, I drew faces on the leaves.  I only had a limited number of leaves, as some shriveled and died before I got to them and were too fragile for me to use.  So, I was limited to three and only ended up liking one of them--the one in the middle.  

So, the one in the middle (we'll call him Goldie Leaf) had to go through a photo shoot of sorts (well more of a scanning) where he got to hang out in Van Gogh's paintings.  I did a bunch, but will only subject you to two of them for now.  

You may recognize the masked man as the source of inspiration for my Staedtler pen sketch.  

And I thought he looked like he belonged in this painting.  He visited the more famous Starry Night painting as well, but I like this one better.  But, upon thinking about it, I might as well post Starry Night with Leaf Monster too as he looks like he is flying.

Whew!  This turned out to be a long post.  

A pen sketch

Hello blog buddies, if there's anybody out there.  I was pet-sitting earlier and wanted to sketch and having the Rembrandt exhibit from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts fresh in my head, I decided to sketch a Rembrandt.  I guess I can call this one Rembrandt after Rembrandt, as it is after a Rembrandt painting of Rembrandt himself.  Not a good likeness, as it was done with a pen, so no erasing, but I rather like it as a sketch.  I am really glad that I made it to the Rembrandt exhibit, despite the crowds that stood in the way of taking a good long look at most of the paintings.  Really, nobody painted portraits like Rembrandt.  He was quite the master.  I was able to get a close look at some of his sketches and etchings (people were more into the paintings) and I really liked that.  As much as I like paintings, drawings and sketches can sometimes be even more interesting (or just as interesting) to look at and they are never appreciated as much.

Contemplative polar bear

Tonight I just have a little sketch to share.  It is another sketch of one of the Como Polar Bears.  It felt good just to do a little graphite sketch.  It is either Buzz or Neil.  I hope it is Neil, as I have already painted Buzz and sketched Berlin.  I don't want Neil to feel left out, as I know he must certainly read my blog.

Buzz and Berlin

OK, here are two polar bear efforts.  As the title says, they are Buzz and Berlin and they both reside at the Como zoo.  Buzz lives there with his brother Neil (or is it Neill?) and Berlin is a temporary resident, as her home in Duluth was flooded.  Anyway, Buzz was done in acrylics and Berlin is an Inktense pencil sketch.  Thanks to jb for letting me use her fantastic photos.  That's all.  Nothing more to say this morning.