sketchingspirit

Wubben Hall Science Center Sculpture Installation

Two images of the panel installation on Wubben during the summer of 2012. Each panel is hooked onto a special attachment and then mounted in place with some heavy duty epoxy.

Wubben Hall Science Center Sculpture Concept Art

In 2012 I was asked to design artwork that would hide an unsightly patch on the side of a building.  The unsightly area had originally been a hallway that connected two buildings together. One of the buildings was torn down and the hole left from the hallway area was walled over. The result was an odd patched place on a very large gray stucco wall.



Inspired by the work of Paul Klee, I decided to design my own squares and pattern in a three-dimensional form. The end result was 52 large panels and one cube of powder-coated aluminum. (Each panel measures 3x3 foot or 3x6 foot and the cube measures 3x3x3.) The color scheme was established from colors within the architecture of surrounding buildings. The patched hole had obvious seams and I extended my design over these seams to make the artwork look intentional and not just a patch over a patch. 



My concept was growth. The building is on a university campus where the focus is always about helping students to learn and grow every day or in my case, to help them take their artwork to the next level. My design begins at the center of the patched area, and then "grows" out from that area extending all the way to the top of the building. One of my panels even "grew" or "popped out" from the wall and is sitting on the grass in front of the wall where it "grew" into a perfect cube.

Top Image: Concept Art overlayed onto Wubben Hall (Left) without color and (Right) with color.

Bottom Image: Concept Art without building to show color selection and overall shape.

My Ray Guns

These are my versions of a rendering assignment I give my illustration students as a means to learn some quick Copic marker and Prismacolor skills. The ray gun designs/diagrams are from the 1950s. I made mine lemon-limony and bubble gum pink!

four by six/six by four

The exhibit last February is over, but the images live on in this Blurb book created by a couple of my design students. My donation to the cause is included and that means I am published again.

Behance Portfolio

I gave my senior design students an assignment to create a Behance portfolio. In the spirit of never giving my students an assignment that I won't do myself, here is my Behance portfolio.

Plastic Dino Sticker Applied

My blue plastic dinosaur sticker applied and in action on one of my Muji Brand notebooks.

Plastic Dinosaur

This is a sticker design that I created last year of a blue plastic dinosaur. It was created just for fun and so I could share them with my senior students last year. The stickers are vinyl, 4.75" x 3.0" in size and are awesome quality. If you would like to purchase one, I will ship to anyone in the US for $3.75 each. Leave a comment on this post if you are interested and I will get back to you as soon as I can with the details for purchasing.

Spring is coming...

This is the view from my window at home that I sketched about a month ago. I had never sketched this view during the winter. It is a particularly grown up area with a lot of different trees and bushes. The scene is sort of complicated with all the diversity in what seems to be out of control foliage.

I will draw it again when everything blooms. I know spring is coming, but here in Colorado the winter is hanging on.

Little Studies after Demuth and Vermeer

The images here are a couple of studies completed this semester after Demuth and Vermeer. Each one is three-inches high and both are pen and ink with watercolor.

I am inspired by the blog of Nathan Fowkes, a concept artist for the animation and entertainment industries. He keeps a resolution to complete an extra study a day until the sun goes out. You can see an overview of his 2012 studies on his blog.

On a side note... this is my 800th blog post. Thanks for visiting!

The Yellow House

A little pen and ink with watercolor study after The Yellow House in Arles where Van Gogh lived for a while.