portrait of a man

When I was young I was so amazed by my grandfathers portrait works that I only dreamed I could ever become as good as he was so one day after school when I was about 13 years old I told myself I'd draw at least one portrait a week in a drawing pad someone bought me for my birthday. I collected photos from out of my mothers magazines, particularly ones with a strong light sources coming from the side, and began drawing them each week in pencil. I eventually filled the pad with portraits and really just began to love portraiture. It has been the most difficult thing for me to try to master, especially portraying the true likeness of a person.

I drew this one from a photo on deviant art

Click here to see

14X18 inches
black&white charcoal on light blue mi-teintes paper

Thunder 5 revolver

I started this about a year ago and never did finish it until today. There's so many unfinished works sitting in my art room I figure I'd better start getting 'em done! I used mechanical pencils and micron pens. I think it I were to start something like this now a days I probably add something to the background. For my taste lately this is a little too technical looking.

Eye 2 Eye

I thought I'd practice drawing single facial features and I thought what better than the eyes themselves. I've always wanted to master the affect of the lids wrapping around the eyeball so I'm going to keep practicing. I used myself as the model.

5X8 inches charcoal on toned paper

Nude Female VI

Just another nude study, I used red conte, white pastel, and a touch of black charcoal on sand colored toned paper.

The Sluggard by Rita Foster

It's been a while since I've drawn something and paid attention to the fine fine details and undulating forms of the figure. In my mind it is very rewarding to learn from the old masters. Thats why I chose to draw another of Frederic Leighton's sculptures. I just love the turning and twisting of the torso and how that affects the muscles in that general area. I'd say this drawing took me a total of about 15 hours to complete.

19.5x25.5 black&white charcoal on sand colored paper.

Self Portrait with hands

I got the idea of using red and white pastel on a cool colored toned paper when I was looking at one of my former instructor's website, Douglas Malone. I loved the affect so much I just had to try it. This is my second attempt at it, myself as the model.

Red & White Pastel on
9 x 12 inch flannel gray mi-teintes paper

Athlete Struggling with a Python

This is a drawing I did from a bronze sculpture by Frederic Leighton, it's called,
"Athlete Struggling with a Python".

19.5 x 25.5 inches
Black & White charcoal on dark gray paper

Bernese mountain dog

Commission pet portrait
12X12 inch oil on canvas

Cat in a bag

I will never understand why cats love paper bags so much but it sure did make a cute picture!

Pastel on black pastel paper

Hercules and Cacus

I was told in college that it's important to draw from sculptures by the great masters and I completely agree. It is somehow so much easier to study planes of the face this way. I plan on drawing some full body sculpture drawings soon when I have time that is, The beard on this one took a while! 12 hours total I think. I drew this from a photo of "Hercules and Cacus", a sculpture done by Bartolommeo Baninelli 1543. I would have drawn from life if I had the chance but this ones in Florence Italy, top of the list of places I want to travel to.

Male Anatomy 7

Black&White Charcoal on Mi-Teintes paper

Self Portrait 2

I believe that drawing self portraits are a great way to practice portraying the true likeness of a person through an art piece. It has been a few years since I've done a self portrait and also since I have drawn strictly on white paper with charcoal. I usually like to draw on toned paper with white chalk as well but I think it's important for me to work with different papers and medium to avoid becoming too stagnant and repetitive as an artist. I added my hand into the drawing because I feel it adds interest.

12X16.5 Inch
Charcoal on white charcoal paper

Calida

I liked painting the last kitten so much I decided to take up the photographer's offer and paint another. Please see the original photo here--->(Original Photo)

10X10 inches
Gouache on Illustration Board

Maine Coon Kitten

I found a photo of these maine coon kittens on deviant art while I was browsing one day and one kitten in particular inspired me to get my gouache paints out again. After getting permission from the photographer I started painting away and am satisfied with the outcome. I dabbled with bolder brush strokes for the background to add some more interest. You may click on this link to see the original photograph (Original Photo)

8X11 Inches
Gouache on Illustration board

For Mary

I just finished this commission portrait a few days ago. It is such a sweet picture and I really liked getting creative with the background. I chose to use blue for the fabric to help separate the figures from the background with a contrast of warm and cool colors.

18X24" Oil on Canvas

Female Anatomy 1

I drew this in 2005 when I was studying anatomy in college. I really love the pose so it's always been one of my favorites.

Male Anatomy 2

I am still trying hard to perfect the art of rendering human form and it ain't easy but I still like to try! This is black and white charcoal on toned paper. 19.5X25.5 inches

Male Anatomy 1

I thought it was about time to brush up on anatomy. It's been a few years since I've drawn the human figure which to me is the most complex combination and variety of form there is. This is a subject that I feel needs to be exercised often in order to be able to draw it accurately. It is so easy to forget the exact placement of muscles throughout.

.357 Magnum

I drew this up as a gift for someone who I thought would appreciate the subject matter. This is the first "technical" drawing I've ever done of something that I had to have exact dimensions for, and although it took me a while to get everything right I did really love seeing it all come together the way it did. I plan on creating a gun series that will all be drawn in the same medium and technique. I think it will be great practice for me in keeping a very steady hand while drawing those straight machined edges. I used .005 tip black micron pens and mechanical pencil.

14X18 Inches
Pen&Ink on Illustration Board

Stano's Girls'

Here we have another commission pet portrait of two female Dachshund's. They are the daughters' of "Stano", who I have also painted a portrait of, both done in gouache paints. I played around with texture and blending a little bit more in this one for more experience using this medium and although difficult to handle it turned out to be very interesting to work on. I found myself layering paint quite a bit but I think it was well worth the trials and errors.

20X24 inches
Gouache on Illustration Board
SOLD!

Anton

Anton was a model at the College I attended so I have many drawings and paintings I've done of him. This one here is one I happened to come across in my old portfolio that I have no recollection of drawing at all. It seemed to pop out to me though, it has somewhat of a sculpted quality to it.

Stano

This is a commission pet portrait I was asked to paint for someone who misses their Dachshund very much. I really loved painting this because she gave me a lot of freedom when coming up with a background. I thought blue would compliment Stano's beautiful orange coat best, plus there is almost an equal amount of warm and cool colors which I think balances things out. I decided to go with fabric folds partly because I have never painted them before, I've only ever drawn them in charcoal. So I looked at it as more of a challenge but also thought it'd add more to the painting without distracting the eye from Stano, the focal point.

20X24 inches
Gouache on Illustration board
SOLD!

"Lucky" Revised

This is actually a commission pen drawing. I was asked to re-create a copy of "lucky". I really enjoyed spending more time on it and being able to produce a professional looking drawing on illustration board rather than in my sketch pad. It is 16X20 inches.

SOLD!

in the green

This is another one done from life. I was looking to make the apple look as 3D as possible and I thought the best way to do this was to paint with complimentary colors along with a strong contrast between the darks and lights.

5X7"
Oils on canvas

Anatomy of a hand

Here is a drawing I did a few years back for anatomy class. The assignment was to draw the anatomy of a tensed hand. This is pen and graphite on paper.

Missy

Missy was one of my dogs growing up that we adopted when she was only 3 weeks old. I'll never forget the first time I met her and how adorable she was. Being half wolf and then a mix of australian shepherd and husky she had beautiful hair patterns and an enormous curly tail like that of a husky. She was also very timid and shy, I'm pretty sure that must have been the wolf in her. This painting is of a photo a snapped of her years ago before she passed away, it was always one of my favorites because of that tongue. What a perfect moment to catch! She was a sweet heart.

8X8"-3/4" Thick
Oil on Canvas

Dog portrait commission

This is a commission I just finished for a woman and her husband who loves their mastiff's. This is kind of a memorial portrait because the top row and middle dog on the bottom row have passed on so they want to remember what beautiful dogs they were. I actually really enjoyed this one because I used gouache paints, which I really haven't used since I got out of college. Plus I just love painting animals because each one has their own unique expression just like people do.

Gouache on Illustration board
20X30"
SOLD!

Shultzn

Rocky

Tank

Tassie

Boulder

Cherry Bowl

One weekend I was at a garage sale with my parents where they were selling antique funiture and glassware. A thick glass bowl with a sterling silver base caught my eye right away, even though it was amongst other beautiful cups and bowls. I knew I had to include it in one of my up coming paintings. Considering that beautiful reflective base, I wanted to fill the bowl with something vibrant and colorful to reflect off of it. I chose cherries, first because of the color and then because I have never attempted painting cherries so then I knew I had to challenge myself once again.

8X8"-3/4" Thick
Oils on Canvas

Billie

This is a portrait of my cat Billie. Growing up, I only ever had dogs as pets so I was never into "cat art" before but then a couple of years ago I rescued this homeless stray kitten and thought she was just adorable. She has grown up to have quite an attitude at times though and sometimes her facial expressions just crack me up. I end up wanting to paint these crazy pictures I take of her. I'm sure there will be many more to come!

5X7"-3/4" Thick
Oil on Canvas

Exaggerated Grapes

For these grapes I was going for more of an exaggerated color scheme. I'm not used to doing things like that so I'm sure I could have pushed it a lot more but I'm satisfied with the outcome. I wanted very much to use analogous colors with a touch of complimentary as well.

8X8"-3/4" Thick
Oil on Canvas

Green Thumb

I actually painted this a few years ago for class. The assignment was to paint a still life subject from a birds eye view. Now this is not exactly a birds eye view but pretty close.

16X20"
Oil on Canvas Board

Crystal Grapes

I have been painting with complimentary colors quite a bit lately so I thought I'd change things up and paint with analogous colors. What better subject than purple grapes on blue? And of course I had to throw in the glass because you know how much I like painting glass. I really didn't want anything distracting the eye from the subject so I tried not to add too much texture in the background, just enough to make it appealing.

5X7"-3/4" Thick
Oil on Canvas

Framed Daisy

With this painting I went for more of an illustrative style towards the daisy. I really liked the frame idea I had for the sunflowers so I thought I would do it again. This flower was strictly from imagination so I liked feeling like I could give it my full attention without ever having to look away. I will be painting some more of these small sizes with several different flowers hopefully in the near future, I've been so busy with projects lately, I have 'em stacked up!

5X5"-3/4" Thick
Oil on Canvas

Colt 45 M1911 Oil Painting

I really enjoyed painting this mostly because of the challenge. I have never painted anything like wood grain before so this forced me pay attention to all those little details and tones. This is a painting of a real gun I have that my father recently handed down to me. It originally belonged to his father who was in WWII. It is a Colt 45 M1911. I have not shot this gun yet, although I've shot one like it and has quite a kick! Not as much of a kick as the remington 870 shotgun though, now that has some power! My shoulder was sore for days afterwards.

8X10" 1.5"Thick
Oil on Canvas

My Own Two

I painted this from a photo reference of my own hands. I don't usually paint this loosely but I had fun using just one large sized brush for the whole painting. I painted this a few years ago for an assignment in a class called "heads&hands" and it was in that class that I painted for the first time in my life. I took so much knowledge from that class about how to paint human skin tones and how to compare warm and cool colors in light and shadow. This painting I had actually left unfinished for some time but just recently I decided to finish it and then apply a coat of gloss varnish to really finish it off.

11"X14"X3/4"Thick
Oil on Canvas

Habanero Chili

I love working with complimentary colors because everything is so bright and intense. Those are two Habanero chili's in a shot glass. I was thinking they almost resemble little pumpkins! I had fun with the glass, there's so many colors in there, I also had fun practicing my ellipses. I played around with some textures for the background because I haven't really tried that in many of my paintings. All in all it was a fun project.

5X7" Oil on Canvas

Kitty Toes

I was messing around one day snapping pictures with my camera when I noticed my cat sleeping sound on the couch. Originally I wanted to see how much detail I'd be able to see when taking a close up of her feet. I uploaded the photo and soon was tempted to paint it too, she has such cute feet!

5X7" 1.5"Thick

Oil on Canvas

Blooming Sun

I painted this blooming sunflower as a gift for my mother (she absolutely LOVES sunflowers). I used photos from the internet as references. These are 3 separate 5X5 gallery wrapped canvases.

(Not for sale)

Carl

I used black and white charcoal on this 19X20 inch portrait of my grandfather, the late Carl Raymond Martin, an artist who first inspired me as a child. Although He passed on nearly 22 years ago I can still remember him teaching me things about art. Once, he placed a few droplets of brown ink onto a piece of paper creating a small puddle and then he handed me a red coffee straw. He demonstrated blowing that puddle of ink across the paper with the red straw in various directions, creating a design that resembled much like that of a tree. I was so excited I had to show all my friends.

If you'd like to view his art simply click here http://carlraymondmartin.blogspot.com

Compliments

Some of these paintings I created during art school for my portfolio so alot of times I grasped at anything around me in order to create a setting. The object of this assignment here was to practice complimentary colors and reflective surfaces. I snatched the brass lamp off my desk, the red teddy, the green sheet as back drop off my bed, and the cup off my night stand. Quick and Easy!

A Self Portrait

It's tough to recognize myself through my own drawings so I spent a considerable amount of time on this one but all in all I think it turned out nicely. I just love the effect white charcoal has on a gray surface. Even through all those painstaking hours in anatomy class using this technique, I really do have a new found love for it after all.

Still Life

I remember feeling absolutely STRESSED OUT during this assignment because I had no idea what to paint. Everything I managed to put together just didn't seem right. Sort of like an artists block I guess. The assignment was painting textures. It was then that I remember the hat I got from Chevy's after they sung happy birthday to me. I remembered the incredible texture and weaving the hat had and I suddenly just had to paint it! Thank god I had some veggies to throw in there.

Wake

One evening I was talking with my father, he was telling me about his rough day at work under the light of the kitchen light above him. I had my camera in hand so I took a snap shot. I'm such a sucker for that dramatic lighting. This painting is a bit unfinished because I decided to use it for yet another assignment, my final in fact, for oil portraits class. I call it "wake" because of the messy hair, implying that he just "woke" up when in fact the messy hair was only from the hard days work. Wasn't quite sure how to put that into a title...

The Anatomy of Feet

These here feet are actually mine. I've drawn many feet but for this assignment in particular I needed some feet that would show defined bone structure for yet another anatomy assignment. It is so interested how knowing what lies beneath can help you out with the surface forms. If only I could remember everything about human anatomy. I think it's the kind of thing you need to exercise in your mind before you forget it again. You know, kinda like math.

Sunflower

I really enjoyed painting this one although the yellow squash still seems kind of awkward to me in a way. This was to practice reflective surfaces and how they affect their surroundings through that reflection. I think my favorite part to paint in this picture was the vase. There are so many different colors hidden in there that I think I spent the majority of time on that alone. I did have a lot of fun with this. It's mothers favorite!

Minors Cottage

This is the Empire Mine Cottage located about a block from my house. Mining gold was huge in Grass Valley around 1850 and this cottage was the vacation house of William Bourn. I quite enjoy drawing these small pen and graphite pictures. In sunny situations I feel that the tone of the graphite acts as more of a cool one next to warmer colors. It's also so much easier on me to shade with a pencil rather than with ink. I've never really been all too good shading in ink style.

Lucky

I call this one "Lucky" because this is the lucky daisy I picked out of hundreds at the empire park! I used the ink and graphite method once again, I usually do when drawing in my sketch pad. The scribbly technique I used for the background has kind of an interesting story behind it. During the time I drew this my tattoo artist brother was in town and was teaching me a thing or two about how to tattoo. He taught me that when shading a tattoo you would want to use a circular motion and fan out. I think that I had this in mind when drawing this one in particular.

Agony

This is just a drawing I did for an assignment on sculpture study of the old masters. I don't do black charcoal on white paper too often but this one was pretty fun. I liked the edginess to it. All the angles and chiseled edges were pretty easy for me to see and understand how light might fall on them.

The Dancer

"The Dancer" has been a long time favorite of mine because it was when I began to paint it that I realized things like toes, ears, and noses have a much redder tone than the rest of human skin. I also really liked painting all of the tenseness and creases in one foot and then jumping back to the other more relaxed foot. I didn't plan out the compliments of cool verses warm in this, I actually think it was more of a subconscious decision I made. In any case, I just enjoyed painting this all around because there were so many things involved that I learned throughout the semester. Such as, reflective surfaces, and losing edges. Losing edges has been so helpful in creating depth.

Anatomy of Ears

The ear seemed so intimidating to me for some time until I realized that the ear is not just a jumbled mess of shapes but that all ears have the same shapes within them, just different proportions. I was not only interested to learn about how to draw an ear but what roles all of the different parts play in a persons hearing. Anatomy was so interesting to me and not only in the artistic sense.

Tea for her

This painting really tested me on my ability to understand how much a white object absorbs it's surrounding colors. Also my ability to paint a convincing ellipse and other situations, like the fact that the warm light coming from the right hand side will produce a cooler red within the tablecloth as it recedes from the light. This was another of my favorites to paint, I threw in the spoon just because I like painting reflective surfaces.

Surroundings

This is another one of my favorites because I just loved how the copper turned out. It was during the still life class that I painted this for that I picked up a brush for the very first time. It seems that every single assignment intimidated me but during every one that I painted I realized everything is a series of colors together. You just have to know what to look for. First I laid down a middle value color for the pot and then basically layered other thicker tints and tones of that basic color on top. The only thing I would have changed is the set up. I feel that things are a little bit too in line with one another.

Tear

Black charcoal on
white strathmore paper

The Patient

Oils limited palette
18X24 Canvas