True Love @ Woodland

     This was a great thing to be a part of.  I've received a lot of feedback that people were really moved by the experience, so the Visual Arts team at Woodland is working on several other ideas to keep the momentum going.
The paintings were a live onstage worship experience during the October 16th & 17th services.  The song is "True Love" written by Phil Wickham and performed by Andy Botts.  A very cool version of the song and some amazing artwork to go with it!  The original paintings will be on display at Woodland very soon, I'll post pics as soon as I can.

Enjoy the video (courtesy of Woodland, the Community Church)

New Open Studio Sessions

     Just wanted to let everyone know that beginning Sunday, August 15, from 2pm-4pm the Visual Arts Ministry will be starting open studio sessions hosted at Woodland the Community Church here in Bradenton, Fl.  These sessions will be hosted by myself and 2 other Ringling grads namely, Ron & Jen Borreson.  You can check out their work by clicking on their names in the "links" section.  The format is going to be fairly open, starting with some still lifes and possibly moving on to some figurative and/or en plein aire opportunites.  There will be individual instruction available if needed; so come on down and bring whatever media you're comfortable with or want to experiment with.  The point is just to get some artists together and have fun creating art.  I hope to see you there!

Sailboat teaser

Haven't made to time to post anything on here recently.  Got promoted at work and have been working longer and harder than I have in the last few years or so.  Anyway, here I am trying to get back into the swing of things.

This is a sketch I started a little while ago, that I should be wrapping up soon. 

Bashaw Elementary T-shirt design

     Here's a late post from the archives.  I was asked to design a new school logo t-shirt for my son's school, Bashaw Elementary.  After several different versions, we landed on one that was simple enough to be worn by everyone, could be put on any color, and still be an interesting design.  I wasn't interested in drawing a Bobcat this time around, but I definitly wanted to incorporate "Bob the Bobcat" into the design somewhere.  Pawprints seemed the most natural way to accomplish both.

Bashaw Elementary School T-shirt Logo c 2010

New book . . .

     I received a pair of amazing books for Christmas this (past) year.  The first is The Frank Reilly School of Art by Doug Higgins.  Frank Reilly was an incredible teacher who taught at the Art Student's League in New York for about 29 years among other very prestigious art schools during the 1960's.  Doug was a student of Frank Reilly's during the sixties and the book is an account of notes taken by himself as well as other students of Frank's throughout the years.  The content of the book is a wonderful journey about the fundementals of art, drawing, and painting.  It's simplicity and approachibility is wonderful and very easy to understand and apply. 
     The second book is The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed.  I'm currently about half-way through it so far, but I must say that this is one of the most informative books on drawing I've ever read.  It really breaks down how we see and interpret images and particularly how to translate that knowledge into drawing.  It was written by Harold Speed in 1917, which is interesting because this is right after the main Impressionist movement so painters like Corot and Monet were very fresh on the artistic scene.
     I highly recommend both of these books, if you are at all interested in learning about drawing and general art techniques.  I wish I had read these before (or at least the beginning) of art school.  Of course, saying that I wouldn't have really appreciated what was being shared at the time.  So, I am thankful for the opportunity to have read them now.
-Tom

Awards!

Hooray!  Here it is the first post of 2010.  I entered into my first show of the year: the Manatee County Fair Art Show.  Well, turns out I won awards on both of the paintings I submitted.  Here are the 2 pieces with their respective awards attached.  They are both First Premium awards.  "Sunday Morning" won a Blue Rosette and "Golden Creek" won a Blue Ribbon. 

You can visit my temporary website here to see larger versions of both pieces.  Thanks for checking them out.

Extension Mattes

Recently, I got the opportunity to do some extension matte paintings for a drama background done at my church. It's always amazing the things my wife can come up with for me to do to help out people in the church. So, on this endeavor I got to put my very inexperienced matte painting skills to the test.

Matte paintings, in case you don't know, are background paintings done for films or animations. The art of matte paintings is a film making secret that continues to fool audiences into believing that they are seeing far away places or places that don't exist at all. Nowadays most all mattes are done digitally, formally they were hand painted on huge pieces of glass and the live action shots were shot through them. The combination created was the final seamless shot of live action, a few well placed set pieces, and the matte painting.
These two pieces I'm showing here are extension mattes. This is when an original image is extended beyond itself. These were both from Walt Disney's Cinderella.
The images show the process: original plate - full extension - just the painting - full extension

Click on the images to be directed to larger versions.  Thanks for checking these out.
TTYL