Finished chalk board dragon.

This is the finished project. Now it is up to the kids to have at it with colors.

Chalk board dragon.

So I started this chalk board dragon Tuesday for the Museum. It is about 9 feet long. This photo was taken at the end of day on Tuesday. Still lots to do. This is all just the line art so next will be adding white highlight elements and that sort of fun. I did several sketches and I thought this was not the best but I am glad it was the one chosen as It looks wicked cool now in the space. The reason to have this done was so visitors could color it in and have some fun.

So this large acrylic on stretched canvas is under way. The pencil is sealed on the canvas using some clear spray affix which I let dry for a few days then covered with clear gesso. Once the gesso is dried and lightly sanded I can start blocking in base color. I really enjoy using a restricted pallet and building the colors I want in stead o getting distracted buy trying to choose between to many color choices. Although once in a while I will use something out of the usual pallet to add a bit of punch.
It will take a few months to accomplish some of what I am planning for this. I will try to post the process often over the project.

Finished this fella a few months ago. So much fun trying to stay loose but to show the different types of fur. Shaggy, woolly, to short. I learned a great deal from this critter.
This another acrylic on canvas using a very restricted pallet. The piece is about 3' X 4'.

A few more images with a fun black and white of T-rex and friend. 

Once in a while cool mammals like this make it into the blog. I love these guys. Massively cool and fun to do in a bit of a comic book style.

Been a long while since posting to this site. Been working to define a good working illustration style.
I tend to work with acrylic on canvas board. I am most recently enjoying keeping the color application very thin to let the pencil line show. This is a good example of just that.

This is another fun piece done for the Museum. 

Several sketches on the way to getting it right before getting it on canvas. 

This is a cool bit by the folks at The Great Big Story! Check it out!

Golden eagle. Modern Dinosaur.

Feathers are being found to belong on more and more dinosaurs. This illustration allowed me to play a bit with lots of different types of feathers.

New Year holiday break in the art studio. Styracosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Stegosaurus. Playing with thin washes that allow for the pencil under-drawing to show.

Been working as much as possible in the studio. These are some acrylic on canvas board pieces from last week.

Jurassic paint

This was finished for a museum publication. the original is 3' x 4' acrylic on canvas.

So it has been a while. I have been involved in two great projects over the last year that have kept me from posting much by way of new art.
One of those projects is my coloring book "Dynasty of Dinosaurs" which was penned by Jason P. Schein. You can find it here,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932926429?keywords=dynasty%20of%20dinosaurs&qid=1445876875&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

The other is a young audiences roll playing book that I will post more about soon.

In the time between projects some other paleo art has happened in my studio and I will share some of that here. Both are 2 feet by three feet and done in acrylic paint on canvas.

Enjoy.

Cheers,

 

More dinosaurs from the studio.

I have been playing with the size of paintings and levels of detail. The image on the bottom is huge and when complete very detailed. The second one is a bit loos and much smaller where the first is a bit of a happy mix of detail and smaller size. The two smaller where nice projects that could easily be done on my desk. The large one has taken quite a bit of time and has needed to be done mostly vertical. They are all acrylic but the larger one is on illustration board.

A smidge more art. Dragon, dinosaurs and a bug for fun.

These are all acrylic paint on canvas board. the photos are from my phone sooo the color ma be a bit off. It is nice to step away from your comfort zone when painting. Bugs have always amazed me in their structural beauty and complexity. Painting them is amazingly fun and challenging.
The internet has loads of photos to use for reference but getting outside and finding a subject is the best!!!
The snow is melting. go outside and take your sketch book with you.

Cheers,
~JP 

Four More full color all done with a limited pallet of five colors.

More color illustrations. The first picture is a fun piece to try to spot all the critters. Six dinosaurs, one turtle and a few pterosaurs. The others are images that I have posted as unfinished in their finished state.
I have been asked by the museum to do a Tiktaalic painting for an upcoming exhibit so stay tuned for the sketches and pencil layout. I will try to post the painting in progress just for fun.

Cheers,
~JP

These are pieces that I finished early last month. The bottom is a detail of a painting that was still in progress but has since been finished. I have been geeking out on reflective water even if there are just hints of it in a picture it can be fun and challenging to get it to work. The top image is a large painting with a bit of reflective water and many animals. It took a while to do. There are several things going on that where fun. The dust kicked up by the masses of walking dinosaurs was a fun effect as was the glistening guts of critter being fed on by the young rex. You may also notice a repeating theme in the paintings. I love fungus that grow on decaying wood. I have always loved the look and even the smell of fungi, fallen trees and ferns.

Cheers,

~JP
 

Sketches at the Museum

These where done last weekend at the museum for Paleo- Palooza at the Academy of Natural Sciences. The image on top was for one of my daughters school friends for her birthday party which was a "dinosaur fairy princess party"!! how cool is that. I want a "dinosaur star wars skateboard party".
The two black and white images are done with an audience watching and each takes about an hour to do.
I am going to be doing the same thing for an adult event at the museum "Adult Safari Overnight" this coming weekend. I am excited to be doing this with an all adult audience. Should be fun.
The images are blue sharpie marker sketch lines with black sharpie finished ink.
If you have never sketched large like this there are a few things to remember. put up a few sheets of paper to keep the marker from bleeding onto the wall (Cause Mom or Wife or Husband will kill you if you mess up the walls!!) Stand up while you draw so you can step back often to see how it is all working. use lots of blue lines to get the under sketch right, they will fade back as you use the black marker to do the finishing lines. Don't worry about getting the sketch right just keep tweaking it until you like it the blue is just a guide.
I like to do this sort of sketching when I am working on a new animal. It lets me think with my hands to work out anatomical stuff as well as mood and setting.

Have fun!!

~JP

Been having crap tons of fun in the studio and at the museum this past month. This is a photo of a dinosaur near and dear to my heart. It is the first dinosaur that I ever excavated. It is called Suuwassea and is in the collections here at the Academy of Natural Sciences. This painting is my first color reconstruction of Suuwassea. Just last night I put the final highlights on it (not shown here).

The painting is a bit more painterly than my more graphic style. I will be doing this a bit more in the future as it has been really fun to play with one subject for an extended amount of time.

Enjoy,

~JP

pushing paint.

So the studio has been a great place to be and I will soon be spending even more time there. So look for more posts and new images. Check these out from this past weekend.

This is just at the pencil stage of the project which will be in large a monochromatic piece. 

This in my first shot on a fuzzy critter in paint. Lots of fun and a great challenge.

I feel like I should explain this. It came from a silly sketch made during an event at the museum.

for the coloring book project. 

Weekend in the studio.

Two days of manic creativity and squishing paint. I am now sleepy and bespeckeled with various colors of acrylic paint. Seven paintings in one state of finished or not and I still have tomorrow to paint before I go and teach my drawing dinosaurs class at the museum.