A Mountain Retreat

This weekend, my church took it's annual trip to the mountains for a retreat. For the ten years I have been going, I've always brought work with me. This year, though, I decided to take a gamble and not bring any work with me. No grading, no homework, no cell phone (gasp!); just a couple of books, my Bible, and my painting supplies.

Ever since I got this new job, I have struggled to find time to make my own art. That's one of the things I want to make sure I make time for, so throughout the weekend I carved out time to work on two paintings (one below my original goal...)

Have a good week!

Waterolor Wednesday - By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea...

So...my attempt to do a watercolor painting each week sort of fizzled out, but for good reason. Shortly after I started Watercolor Wednesdays, I got hired as a high school art teacher! So the last few weeks have been spent prepping the classroom and lessons, though I'd love to get back to posting on a regular basis.

Over the last few weeks, I've spent a lot of time at the beach, and used those opportunities to work on landscape painting, something I love.

A Celebration of Disney Concept Art

Although I normally use my blog to showcase my own work, I thought I would take some time to show one of the biggest inspirations in my artistic life. As most people who know me know, I have a great love for all things Disney (some might say obsession).

July 17, 2015 is a big day for Disneyland; it's the 60th anniversary! On this date, Walt Disney opened up one of the first modern theme parks, changing the way millions of people were entertained. Behind all of the rides and attractions, there has been an army of artists and engineers, called Imagineers, who have come up with the ideas. So this post is a celebration of those artists, who in turn have given me and many others, a lot of inspiration.

On his television show, appropriately named Disneyland, Walt introduced the country to his dream

Concept art for the original Snow White's Scary Adventures

Pirates of the Caribbean concept art is some of the most imaginative of the old concept art

Original designs by Herb Ryman of Sleeping Beauty's Castle

The Haunted Mansion is a wonderful mix of the macabre and the absurd. This example, done by Rolly Crump, is an example of the absurd.

A lesser known piece of concept art (because the attraction never materialized). Rock Candy Mountain (artist unknown...to me) was supposed be made out of actual candy. Can't imagine why this never materialized.

I have a love-hate relationship with Pirates. I love the concept art, regardless. Marc Davis did some of the best work, including the designs for the bride auction. Say it with me "We wants the redhead!"

John Hench was (is) an amazing designer for Disney. 

Moving a little bit past early Disney art - Sam McKim's concept art for Splash Mountain

Main Street Station

Mary Blair deviated from the traditional way of doing concept art and instead embraced her own wonderfully unique style for "it's a small world".

Toontown

World of Color is one of the most beautiful shows ever produced by Disneyland, and its concept art is also some of the most beautiful

Finally, we come to the most recent piece of my favorite concept art. When California Adventures got remodeled, the entrance plaza was remodeled to look like 1920s Hollywood. The Cathay Circle Theater was where Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Why do I love Disneyland's concept art? I guess because it inspires me to push my work to this level. In one sketch, people like Marc Davis, John Hench, Rolly Crump, and others took an idea and said, this is what it would look like. Having seen some pieces of concept art up close and in person, I can say they absolutely take my breath away.

So, congratulations to Disneyland on 60 great years. Here's to Walt Disney for making his dreams a reality, and here's to the wonderful artistians, engineers, craftsman, the Imagineers, who are the real heart and soul of WED and Walt Disney Imagineering.

What are some of your favorite pieces of Disneyland (or DisneyWorld) concept art?

Watercolor Wednesday - A Small Landscape

This time, we spent time out in the backyard doing some landscape painting. It's something I consider to be one of my personal best.

Watercolor Wednesday - Finding an Ally

Hopefully next week I'll start being able to post these on a Wednesday!

I've been wanting to get together with one of my close friends here in town to work together on this whole Watercolor Wednesday project. We've finally been able to get together after a couple of weeks of trying to. 

First off, her house is chocked full of some of the most awesome stuff for painting. We decided to set up a still life. Hers looks amazing and I can't wait for her to post it to her blog when she's finished. Mine, well, I've been really trying to work smaller lately, so I stuck with my watercolor sketchbook. Normally, I either stick with a small still life or a complex one; I've never tried a complex still life on a small canvas. Still, I'm pretty impressed. 

So, we've entered the third week of Watercolor Wednesday. Actually, it'd be really cool if others joined us, even just by sharing watercolor pieces once a week!

Watercolor Wednesday...Posted on Friday

(Ok, so this week has been hectic, but I really want to try getting this weekly watercolor series off the ground...or at least past the first post)

Enjoy and keep sharing my blog with others!

Watercolor Wednesday - A Simple Start

Since I'm no longer taking art classes as part of my education, I'm trying to use this blog to help me keep improving my skills and most importantly, to keep drawing.

Over the last year, I've discovered that watercolor is one of my favorite mediums to work with  (probably second only to charcoal), so I decided to start filling the pages of my watercolor sketchbook and simultaneously keep improving my skills. I was partly inspired by my participation in last year's Inktober to try to find a theme to work with to accomplish this. Hence the "Watercolor Wednesday" idea.

For now, it just means that I'll devote a little time each Wednesday to working in watercolors. Who knows where I'll end up taking it though!