We wrapped up our trip with South of the Border, the schlockiest, most-borderline-offensive Mexican-themed South Carolina rest stop of all time. Then we hit Raleigh's art museum, and went home. The last few sketches of my sketchbook were me flipping through my photos and drawing a few favorite things I hadn't gotten to drawing yet. Thanks for traveling with me!
Tribal Hillary - I find her face fascinating and never the same from one time to the next. Sort of like every wrinkle and line telling us what she has been up to on any given day. I see a lot of fighting spirit in her, which inspired this portrait.
This started as a pencil drawing (see the 2nd image) that I scanned and put into Photoshop. I tried various filters including: Smudge, Ink Outline, some Splatter, changed the Exposure and added a Sepia Photo Filter. After a couple of hours of playing (I’m not very knowledgeable about digital possibilities and just use trial and error) I ended up with a dramatic image with which I am quite happy. The reference was a magazine advertisement.
One of my high school friends went on a family trip and returned to find his girlfriend obsessed with a dead bird. She had found it, extensively photographed it, and kept it in a box. He broke up with her. I cannot, for the life of me, get over this story, even though it happened almost 20 years ago. I want to hunt this girl down and ask her approximately one million questions.
In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus, is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. --Wikipedia
11” x 17” Original ink and watercolor painting on Arches 140# hotpress watercolor paper.
Signed by the artist. Unframed.