Braids

One from my extreme color phase, done very soon after a Shanks workshop. It's quite simply a study of light, color, and human skin, and nothing else. It's fairly captivating nonetheless.

Drawing: Old Outsider

More graphite with chalk highlights. A quick study for a Sebastianesque figure that's part of a nine-foot composition that I'm currently working out.

Figure Study

A sketch from the Art Academy of Cincinnati that I did as a demo. I need to work with this kind of directness more often. The fluidity and chunkiness in the paint is delightful.

Drawing: Kelsey

I think this is a graphite drawing with white chalk for highlights. I find it emotionally interesting in the expression and the wisps of hair.

Man Covering Eyes

Another study for "Iconoclast", my Abraham and Isaac interpretation. Again, I'm borrowing strongly from the Roman sculpture "Laocoon and His Sons", part of the Vatican collection.

Laocoon, The Vatican

Lauren Standing

One of my favorite drawings from my old Cincinnati sketchgroup. To me there is a very old world expression in the head that I love, as well as a directness and economy of line. It's a graphite on two sketchbook pages which I later glued together.

Blindfold Sketch, Iconoclast, and Cupid Chastised

Here's a sketch for the Isaac figure in my painting, "Iconoclast". Although I didn't realize it, I was most certainly drawing from the memory of my favorite painting at the Chicago Art Institute, Bartolomeo Manfredi's "Cupid Chastised".

Bartolomeo Manfredi, Cupid Chastised (detail)

Bartolomeo Manfredi, Cupid Chastised