Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sometimes I Draw More Than Flies

I have mentioned once or twice that I do a little art. I've said in the past that I'd never put anything I've done out on the interwebs because that basically gives it away to the world.

After mentioning it once before, there was an overwhelming flood of comments asking to see some of it. Well, OK, one person indicated in a comment that she'd like to see it. Given that request and given that I'm a narcissist, I decided to rescind my rule and share with you some of the things I've done, since I suspect I won't be giving these away or trying to make a buck off of them.

A couple of caveats: 1) All of my best work has either been sold, given as gifts, or is framed and hanging on my walls. Things that are framed and hanging on my walls do not photograph well nor do they work with my scanner. Therefore what you'll see here is not necessarily what I consider my best stuff. 2) Speaking of my scanner, it's a little, inexpensive, HP thingy that only goes to about 8 1/2 x 14. Most of the work that I do is somewhat larger than that. 3) And still speaking of my scanner, please bear in mind that as it's a small, inexpensive, HP thingy, the quality and color that it provided when I scanned these may not necessarily be reflective of the actual piece.

OK, now that I feel that I've sufficiently given myself a long enough list of outs in case these are badly received, on to the drawings.

First, I really like flowers. This is a rose that I thought was just about perfect when I cut it. It's done in colored pencil on aqua-colored art paper:



I also love to work in pen & ink. Next up is an old friend of mine from The Carnivore Preservation Trust in black ink on white bristol board:



They say that the mark of a good portrait artist is that the portraits look better than the subjects do. I don't do many portraits because I'm almost never happy with the results. Never the less, here's a photo of Meryl Streep:



And here's a pointillist piece that I did of her many years ago. I think that it's still recognizable as Ms. Streep, but it's a complimentary image:



I've probably never mentioned this in my blog, but I really love dragons. This is one of the earliest pieces I ever did, again back to the colored pencil:



And one of my very few forays into the land of watercolor was another shot at a dragon:



Finally, a couple of years ago I for some reason got enamored with tree frogs. They're colorful and they're cute, and I ended up doing a series of 12 or so of them. Here are a few:







If you got this far, thanks for taking the time to look. If you don't care for them, I've already got my excuses (see above). I haven't actually created anything in some time. Perhaps this will inspire me to sit back down at the old drawing table and crank out some more stuff.

We'll try to get back to our usual inanity in the very near future.

You owe me cookies. You know who you are.

23 comments:

Cyndy said...

Those are great! You have awesome pencil skills and the drawings have a lot of personality as well. I'd be happy to see more, but I understand about "giving it away" on the internet. So thanks!

Gilahi said...

cyndy - Thanks! I really dithered about whether or not to publish these. Don't know why, I never hesitate to show them off to people who come visit my home.

Sean said...

Very cool! Thanks for sharing your work.

Gilahi said...

sean - You're welcome! Glad you like it.

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

If that's just the so-so stuff, I can imagine that the good stuff is actually great! Because these are great! Wow. Very impressive. I can't draw myself out of a square.

Gilahi said...

Yeah, but you take excellent photos. Me? I'm a lousy photographer. Thanks.

Mike said...

I watch the painting guys on PBS every once in awhile. In a half a hour they've cranked out a painting I could never do in a lifetime. I tried one time to do a painting the guy on TV was doing. His was a landscape. Mine looked like a scene from startrek on the plant xenon.

I have done some abstact art paintings though.

Gilahi said...

Yeah, some of my "photorealistic" stuff turns out pretty abstract, too.

fiona said...

I draw in charcoal but like you kinda lost my way. Your art work is wonderful, thanks for sharing, I'm re-inspired!

Gilahi said...

fiona - Good! Now you have to post some of your work to reinspire me!

Herb said...

WOW! Those are great! I especially like the tree frogs and the rose.

Thanks for sharing and let me know who I need to slip a virtual dollar to to help pay for the cookies!

rachaelgking said...

I LOVE these- especially the tree frogs! I saw them everywhere in Costa Rica, bright blue and green with spots. They're absolutely lovely. Thanks for sharing :-)

Phil said...

If you would buy a better scanner, I could print these for free to decorate my home.

Gilahi said...

herb - Thanks! The person who mentioned it may not even recall it, as there was an "art for cookies" deal mentioned in a comment on another post a while back.

lilu - You're welcome. I think it may have been after my Costa Rica trip that I drew these. I came home with a Blue Jean Frog T-Shirt.

phil - I'll see what I can do and let you know.

Kate said...

Really enjoyed those. Thanks for sharing them with us! You are an artist!

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

I don't know. My photography can be defined by three words: pure, dumb luck!

Gilahi said...

kate - Thanks! I'm no Prince, but I do enjoy sometimes calling myself an artist.

j.m. - I had a friend at one time who used to always say, "I'd rather be lucky than good any day."

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Yeah, I hear you on that. My grandfather use to say, "Bad luck is better than no luck at all." (Or maybe that was Groucho Marx. I can't remember.)

Gilahi said...

Maybe your grandfather was Groucho Marx?

Anonymous said...

Even though the only thing I draw well is butter, I do appreciate good and interesting art. Do you know where I can find some - budumbump, thank you ladies and gentleman tip your waitresses, I'll be here all week.

Seriously, I dig your stuff.

Gilahi said...

Hey, people have said much worse things about some of the work I've done. Thanks!

Hannah said...

Those are beautiful! What kind of pencil crayons do you use?

Gilahi said...

Hannah - Thanks! I prefer Prismacolor or Spectracolor whenever I can get them. If I can't find those, then I'll go with Berol.

 
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