Capturing the spaces in between and amplifying them with a play on exposure and contrast to bring forth the beauty I see within the layers. This particular play is a flower I saved from a very special event I attended. I then dried the petals of this beauty. These special petals make their way to various projects, including oil and acrylic paintings and resin on canvas. More to come :)
Inspired by the Irworobong design (korean palace folding screen) during my Korea trip. Since I made the trip in spring, with flowers abundant, I thought to use the five mountain peaks as five petals to form a flower.
I have been binging on the older X-Men shows and had the urge to draw up one of their most popular mutants. But what's better than Wolverine? TWO WOLVERINES! Now, I wasn't really sure what I was trying to do with these two. At first, I tried to have them just do a handshake but then switched it over to them competing. Still not convinced on what these two are doing but it was fun to draw so all is good. Question for all the X-Men fans out there. Which version of Wolverine is your favorite?
My little cartoon fox-sona dancing with her pet reabbit Brandon, and look. She's sporting a new outfit.
How I followed the trumpets sound in the park and met one of the most famous trumpet player. 3 years ago, I had a conversation with him . Fascinating stuff.
Se riesco ad accettare che il mio mondo interiore può essere estremamente vulnerabile e che forse posso cadere mille volte, in cui mi sembra di essermi dimenticata tutto quello che ho imparato, ma altrettante sono le volte in cui ci provo, allora del fallimento poco importa. È solo una salita, e abbassando le aspettative verso la presunta performance che dovrei avere, posso perdonarmi anche quando proprio non vorrei, anche quando tutto quello che detesto di me viene a galla, anche quando cado troppe volte nelle stesse buche, quando penso troppo e la mente diventa un groviglio confuso dal quale vorrei scappare, quando mi deprimo troppo e respirare sembra insostenibile, quando perdo ogni speranza nella mia capacità di vincere le crisi, quando vorrei piangere, ma mi dimentico come si fa.
Sketch today, cleanup and color tomorrow? Translating Jim Henson's crazy detailed puppets from the Dark Crystal into what I feel would be an appropriate illustrative style for 2D was a lot of fun, and I might fiddle around more with it. Character is an OC Skeksis with the title of Therapist/Psychologist, so the little designs on his jacket are supposed to represent neuron synapses and the back... thing (which you can't see from this angle) would look like a brain.
Illustrated with Ink and/or Ink-Pens on Paper. . Urh.-Nr:1811955 . Copyright by Carolina Matthes
Title: Heart and Soul Medium: illustration pens on sketch book paper Style: surreal Category: illustration Created: Dec-Jan 2024-2024 Artist: Stephen J. Vattimo Heart and Soul This is preliminary drawing for a painting I am about to begin. The concept for this illustration started as a design for a pumpkin carving contest. I feel the message of the design is so important for people to hear, I decided to make it into a painting. The original design, done in pen and ink. The design only shows the two doors of the entrance to a fortress. It was designed for a live pumpkin carving event in mind. At this type of event, the carver must create their piece of art live on site with spectators watching and asking questions, and there is a time limit. The evolution of the design? I added a wall on each side of the entrance, with matching pillars. Explaining the design of the pillars The triangle top: the triune God. Representing three persons of God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The cross shape opening in the pillars: The cross is the only path to God, to have the debt of sin satisfied. To reconcile humankind back to himself. To be released from being a slave to the Devil. To be a new creation empowered by God Spirit. Explaining the design of the entrance way(gate) The top of the entrance is in the shape of a heart, represents the seat of human passion, ambition, and allegiance. The cultic three petal flower is used to represent God in three persons united. The symbol inside the flower: God’s ministry toward humankind. Crown: Highest authority Cross: God’s loving salvation and restoration plan. The dove: Spiritualty made alive, fellowship with God, empowerment to weather the storm of life, and equip for service to God. Change in the design of the door. In the original design, one door had roses carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. The other door had a grape vine carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. I modified the emblem on the doors by making them smaller and simplified, so I could place them inside heart shapes, so the new images would more clearly communicate what they are meant to represent. I also added color to the emblems(color pencil) to make them clear of what they are, because of their size and the ink medium ,they were hard to interpret. Understanding the symbol of the two doors. The door with the rose inside the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are focused on the cares, worries, and abstaining riches of the world. Only giving God lip service. I chose the rose to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to the world, because roses are pretty, but you can’t eat them to nourish your body. They also have thorns that can cause injury to the body. So, the parallel point is, just as flower fade and turn to dust, so will the person who chases the thing of the world and has no time for God. For life is very short, we know not which will be our last breath on this side of eternity. But if a person leaves this earth without excepting the gift God offered them which is salvation from penalty of sin and given enteral life through the work that was done on the cross by God’s son. Then that soul will appear before Jesus, and just as they did not know him in their life on earth, He will tell them he knows them not. Into the lake of fire, they will spend eternity. The door with the grape vine in the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are for God. To know Him intimately, to obey His teachings, to serve his will. I chose the grapevine to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to God, because grapes are nourishing to the body. Jesus also used a grape vine in one of his parables. He paralleled the spiritual relationship he had with his disciples and the grapevine. He told them just as branches of a vine must depend on the base of the vine to live and bare fruit, so they must abide him to have abundant life. Abiding in Christ is not a religious act. It is outside of religion. It is an intimate relationship. Example: you can belong to a fan club of Paul McCartney and know a lot of things you have heard about him, but he doesn’t even know you exist. Where, if Paul is your father, and you have a good parent to child relationship, then you know him intimately. So, abiding in God, we commune with him through read his word and living by its teachings. It is spending time in prayer. Sharing our hearts with God and spending time listing to him. Trusting in him as our provider and giving thanks for his provision. Living our lives, with the purpose of pleasing him with the work of our hand and loving our neighbors in the workplace as well as in the community. Just as a healthy grapevine continues to grow and produce much fruit. Having an imitate relationship with God should be more and more evident in the way we live our lives. So, when the angel of death pays you an unexpected visit, he escorts you to Jesus’s throne, you know for certain he going to welcome you with loving arms and said welcome home my faithful servant. Now to which door I chose for my life? It’s the one that is open. This bible verse one of a couple that inspired me to design this illustration. 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 King James Version 12 Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. This verse is not referring to the rebellious people who have rejected God, this is referring to people who are children of God, who failed to serve God faithful. Written by Stephen J. Vattimo. 3 Jan 2024 .
This study is for an upcoming painting about the life of Christ. The drawing itself took about two weeks’ time of working on it off and on. The research stage took about two months. This study is attempting to capture the spirit of being out on the water, walking with Jesus during a storm on the sea of Galilee. I hope the viewer can feel Peter’s anxiety as he is sinking into the lake as a fierce storm drains Peter’s faith in his ability to walk on water through the ability the Lord gave him. I wanted to show how compassionate Jesus is to quickly crouch down to rescue Peter from drowning and get him back to the safety of the boat with the rest of the disciples, which is outside of the illustration. Some people feel that I should have Jesus’s feet visible above the water so people don’t get the notion that Jesus is sinking in the water too. But if I’d done that, it would have altered what it would really look like in the natural world, because even if Jesus’s feet were on top of the water, this might not be visible to the viewer because the waves in front of Jesus might block the view of his feet. This illustration makes me think about trying to accomplish a task that the Lord has called us to do by depending on our own strength instead of the strength of the Holy Spirit. Then we find ourselves sinking instead of making headway, and we must call on the Lord to rescue us and put us back on the right track. (September 22, 2015
This is a pumpkin design I carved for the 2015 Chads Ford Pa. Historical Society's Great Pumpkin Carve. This years design was a upright dove with out stretched wing, and it's bottom portion becomes an upside down bat with it's wing outstretched . I entitled it Peace And Terror. It represents the two realities most countries around the world are experiencing at this time. This year I thank God for helping me discover the most effective tools and carving method that has finally made me a expert pumpkin carver competitor. I have carved three pumpkin this year, and each one get better then the last. I have been in the past used the hammer and chisel method with wood carving tools. My new tools are clay sculpting tools using the shaving method. This design took me about 7 hour straight to complete . I did not get to chose or see the pumpkin I would be carving until the day of the competition. The carve is a live event,meaning you cannot bring a pre- marked or carved pumpkin to the event. This year I believe there were about 75 pumpkin artist who participated in the event. Written by Stephen J.Vattimo Oct 29, 2015
A linework ink drawing of the Gladekeeper, the dragon goddess of nature on dragon pet sim Flight Rising. Drawn for inktober 2019!
Jean is my clan leader on the dragon petsim Flight Rising, in-game she is a nature elemental female pearlcatcher. Her in-game profile is here https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/4025429 Lore outline: Originally born in the nature elemental lands she found herself enchanted by the stars above the canopy, and journeyed to the light territories in search of knowledge. But these dragons had little in the way of passion besides snobbery and a burning desire for truth. In her love of the night sky and shunning of the sun she did not fit here, and was bullied for it. One particularly bad episode altered the golden runes that her scales bore, covered her with patches of glowing gold - a permanent mark of the burning sun. But she did not only come to harm in the light flight, for it was here that she came across a clan of misfits just like her, formed by a guardian dragon who wanted to protect all those who were different. And then she, along with the clan, moved to the territory of the arcane flight - the home of curiosity, and those that loved the stars. They have been there ever since. Art method: I started with graphite and ink on white A4 paper, scanned it into the computer and set to multiply then used photoshop to add colour and further shading + a simple gradient for a background on the layers beneath.
This is a 3D pumpkin I carved at The Phoenixville Pa. Pumpkin Festival,for the experts carver's completion. This was my first time using the clay sculpting tool to carve with. I used the wood carving tool method for about eight years. The use of the clay tool give the carver more control to be able to do more detail . the wood carving method is chiseling away the pumpkin flesh where the clay sculpting tools method you scrape way the flesh. This the second pumpkin carving contest I have participated in in less then 5 day apart. Now that I have found a method and tools that work far better than my old ones, less see if my pumpkin carving skills can catch up to my artistic skills. Written by Stephen J. Vattimo Oct 24,2015
I highly recommend the book, Gender and Competition: How Men and Women Approach Work and Play Differently, by Kathleen J. DeBoer. In it, among other things, she elucidates that those with a conceptually masculine perspective (regardless of sex) are drawn to thinking of the world in hierarchies, which I have represented here with a triangle in the mind of the spotter on the left. She elaborates that those with a conceptually feminine perspective (again, regardless of sex) are draw to thinking of the world in webs, which I have represented here with a circle. Those that think more masculine-ly are more likely to expect beginners in a sport or field to prove themselves in the group. They will often not "hold their punches" (i.e. curb their ability) to make newcomers comfortable. All members of the group are expected to "earn their keep," in a sense. When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they move up in the hierarchy. Contrary to that, those that think more feminine-ly likely show acceptance and approval to beginners in order to foster an environment in which they will perform. They will often adjust their skills so that newcomers can more readily "keep up." When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they are expected to raise the status of the group as a whole. The playing field is "flattened" in that sense. I am not advocating for either perspective, but I will share that I have a more conceptually feminine perspective, and that I have previously left groups whose members have a more masculine perspective. Kathleen's book really helped me personally to understand the motivations of people that I genuinely did not understand prior to reading the book. It put a lot into perspective for me, and I hold fewer grudges these days. Cheers, fam~
We're thrilled to announce TEEZR’s First-Ever Halloween T-Shirt Design Competition, head over to www.tee-zr.com for more details, the winners will be selected by public vote and the winners will receive cash prizes !
A woman seated on her couch talking on an iPhone, with her baby looking up at her from the floor, declares that she will stick her child in the shed for the duration of a party.
This is a black marker drawing using Sharpie pens on white paper. The drawing is my cat posing like the incredible pet model she is. I miss her.