Memorial Day

Just a quickie to recognize the holiday today:

Mayday, Mayday!

Still messing around with the oil paints a bit. I used this old movie still as reference:

It looks like David Niven in some kind of war movie, but I'm not sure which one. Anyway, I wasn't going for an exact likeness, but more of an idealized kind of feel:

Still in a Frazetta Mood

I managed to squeeze in some time for a quick Frazetta tribute sketch:

Frank Frazetta Forever

Yesterday, Frank Frazetta, no doubt the greatest fantasy illustrator ever, passed away. He was 82 and had been in poor health for a while, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but there had been some very public infighting between his children over his estate recently, so I was glad to hear that he settled all of that before he passed.

I think it would be impossible to count the number of artists working today that were inspired by him to learn to draw and paint. I had the old Bantam paperback art books as a kid so I knew at an early age how high he had set the bar for the rest of us. Nobody had the imagination, confidence and ability to render raw power that Frazetta had - thunder and lightning came out of his brush.

I would like to have thanked him for setting me on the path of the artist - I hope I can find some of the freedom and fulfillment that it brought him.

Acrylic Fever

I'm still getting over the bad case of the flu I've had for the last week, but I did manage to get out for a bit this weekend and pick up some acrylic paints. Although I enjoy oils, I've been wanting to try acrylics, especially since they dry so much faster. I didn't have a lot of time or energy to do much with them, but I managed to get in a quick 20 minute sketch just using black almost like ink wash. I can't wait until I have the time to do some full blown painting with them.