I saw some art from an artist recently that I just loved. It was a drawing of a bear with a little girl. The artist is Graham Franciose and you can see his blog here. And you can see other artists I love on my Pinterest Boards here.
I love illustrations like this and it got me thinking about my art. I personally think that my style looks a little like carved stamp impressions. The texture work that I am doing now has that etched/carved look. And it reminds me of an illustration style similar to what Graham is doing.
Now, I know it's not anywhere near the same. The medium, subject matter, style, etc. But similar to my eye all the same.
I decided to try my hand at some more whimsical/surreal styled birds. The first image came to me at once. A bird in a tree swing. The original drawing took up the full page of my sketchbook.
I chose a long, tall dark piece of wood to put the glass on, so the finished piece had to cut off a little of the tail and a lot of the tree, but it still tells the story.
You can see how the drawing, while detailed, does not have the texture and depth that the finished piece has. That is all done in the shading stage of my painting.
I am having so much fun with these little birds. They can be doing so much! This idea came to me while running on my treadmill the other day. It originally had a regular umbrella, but it didn't look 'right', so I made the umbrella from leaves and it works now. A photo of this one finished will definitely become a greeting card.
This one titled "Warm and Dry" is in the first stage of painting in the kiln right now. I painted this one on a large square (8" x 8") that I will frame when it's done. The birds appear to be floating in mid-air here, but rest assured, I placed them on a twig-lined pathway in the final picture.
This one is called "Fly Away Home" and shows my bird relaxing at home with a good book. This is an example of the "reverse-ness" of my art. You can see the title of the book had to be written in reverse so that when the image is complete and turned over, it is correct.
This one is actually also in the kiln now. This photo was taken before the nest was finished, but the final piece is a smaller oval and that portion of the nest and most of the leaves will not be in this finished glass painting so it didn't matter for now.
Can't wait to see these last two designs "fleshed out" as well!
