Little Surfer Girl...

Here is a 7 x 10 inch watercolor I did for my Publisher John Fleskes, on my last visit to his place.   I started in terra cotta pencil and finshed off in watercolors.  John was kind enough to scan the piece when I had finished the drawing, so you can see both stages.  There will also be a time lapse film of this some time soon, as the whole 3 hour process was filmed as I worked.  

Surfer Girl - Watercolor by Craig Elliott

Surfer Girl, preliminary drawing -by Craig Elliott

Saturday sketch~ Girl in pond

Here is a little sketch on brown paper with pencils~  

Horse and Maiden~

Here is a little commissioned sketch / watercolor of a nature girl and the horse she loves. :)

Little Watercolor sketch....

Watercolor on Arches  paper, 7 x 10 inches.  

New sketches~

Here are a couple new sketch commissions I have been working on!  both are on heavy rag printing paper in pencil and watercolor.  

Shy Hummingbird Girl

Devil Defeated by Love

T- Rex! Grrrrrr....

Here is a sweet T- Rex (maybe the only one in history?) and his gal-pal collecting some fruit up in a tree.... 

Watercolor and pencil on Arches paper. 8 1/2" x 12"

Winged fairy sketch~

Here is a little colored Pencil sketch commission a few months ago- Enjoy!

Nature Goddess~

Nature Goddess! 

Pencil and gouache on paper...

Waterfall sketch~

Here is a new piece done for Mark Theolosen of the Netherlands~  Pencil and watercolor on toned printing paper. 

Sketches from "Girls and Flowers" workshop with the Gallery Girls!

Here are a couple of sketches of Gallery Girls  Jennifer Fabos Patton, and Russia Hardy from the even on June 1st at Gallery Godo!   

We had wonderful costumes for the models, great music to be inspired by and lots of amazing artists working- I think there were 40+people at this event!  

Thank you Jennifer for organizing the event, and thanks to all those who came out to listen to me babble on about art and draw!  

 

Pigtails, Pails, and Peeping pals...

Sketches from APE 2011 and Breda, Netherlands

 
Here are a few commission sketches from some of this year's shows I have been a guest at.

The left drawing is a Costume sketch of Princess Amidala/ Padme.

The second is of a Japanese girl who got cancer because of the radiation from the Hiroshima bomb.  She was 2 years old when the bomb went off, and died at age 12.  She tried to fold 1000 cranes before she died, so she could recieve a wish, as the crane folding legend goes. She was not able to do so before she died.  She has become a legend in Japan and there are several statues in her honor. 

The third sketch is for someone who requested a "Bond Girl" or secret agent type! 

I hope to post more sketches soon, as I get time to resize the scans and color correct them...

"Music" Pinup painting beginning stages

In the first image is a color sketch I have done on top of the drawing from the last post- I just scan the drawing and paint over in photoshop until I get the colors I am looking for. You need a good printer to use this technique for traditional painting. This is because the printout has to be exactly the same as the sketch on the monitor, or it is of no use.

Here I have transferred the drawing to my painting surface. I am painting on Rives BFK paper that has been gessoed white, and then a wash of brown oil has been applied and allowed to dry. I do the drawing in hard colored pencil, and then start to block in the shadows with oil.  

Gallery Nucleus Presents: Poster Peepshow: The Art of the Pin up

I'll be in this show along with many other amazing artists!  Olivia, Dean Yeagle, Bill Presing and Robh Ruppel to name a few. I would go even if I wasn't in the show.  

I'll be posting some stages of the creation the painting for this show. keep your eyes peeled. Here is a sketch to start you off:

Gallery Nucleus Presents:
Poster Peepshow: The Art of the Pin up

February 05, 2011 – February 28, 2011
Opening Reception: February 05, 2011(7 pm - 11 pm)

Alhambra, CA – The pin up girl is sweet, yet equally a seductress, flirty as well as sexy, naïve but secretly naughty.
She embodies sensuality, youth, fun, and pleasure. Men and women alike have admired her for nearly 100 years. The
pin up girl could be found on the covers and centerfolds of thousands of magazines, calendars, ad campaigns,
and even decorated WWII war crafts; thereby, pin up art has become an integral part of Americana.
“Poster Peepshow” celebrates the pin up girl by featuring original artwork by contemporary artists and
pays homage to pin up masters such as George Petty, Gil Elvgren, and Alberto Vargas. Over the past decade it has
become impossible to ignore the growing popularity to recapture the nostalgia of pin up glamour. We are pleased to
contribute to the culture’s growing appreciation through this exhibition. 

FEATURED ARTISTS
Nathan Cabrera
Marcelo Dadolce
Olivia De Berardinis
Craig Elliott
Jenny Gase-Baker
Keron Grant
Shane Glines
Oren Haskins
Lawrence Noble
Ryuichi Ogino
Bill Pressing
Rockin’ Jelly Bean
Robh Ruppel
Marguerite Sauvage
Jim Silke
Stuntkid
Francis Vallejo
Barnaby Ward
Dean Yeagle

CLASSIC PIN UP ARTISTS
Rolf Armstrong
Al Buell
Art Frahm
Al Moore
K.O. Munson 

HIGHLIGHTS
Olivia De Berardinis Book Signing: 6pm- 7pm
Free Live Figure Drawing featuring the Suicide Girls

SPECIAL GUESTS
Lenora Claire
Julie Newmar 

SPONSORED BY
Grapefruit Moon Gallery
Suicide Girls
Sort This Out Cellars 

For more information, please see:
http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/263

Contact: info@gallerynucleus.com and jasmine@gallerynucleus.com

Ahh Paris! ~More art from my trip.

The left drawing is from a sculpture of Degas, one of my very favorite artists.  It was so good. All of Degas' self portraits, and photos of him come to life in this slightly larger than life bronze at the Orsay. It was like standing in front of Degas himself.  He posed for this when he was 50.  I never even knew it existed!   

The other sketch is from a bronze in the Gerome show that was also at the Orsay.  The show had just been in LA and I had missed it.  Oh well, I'll just go to France and see it... By accident!  The Bronze is not by Gerome but rather of a slave girl in a Gerome painting.  Gerome was a great sculptor himself, and I did some drawing of his work too.  soon to come!  

More Paris drawings...

Here are a few more pieces from the Orsay Museum of those wonderful earth clay caricatures by Honore' Daumier.  These little sculptures are really one of the highlights of the whole museum.  They are only about 3 -5 inches tall and roughly, but beautifully painted.  I wanted to draw them all!  but only got to 3 of them. Enjoy!

 

These were both done in colored pencil on stonehenge rag paper with washes of watercolor.... 

Some drawings from Paris

Here are some drawings I did in Paris last month when I was there for my Gallery show at Galerie Maghen.  Most of these are from the Musee D'Orsay, as I spent 2 days there drawing, viewing art and having some wonderful meals at their restaurant.

These are both done in colored pencil, the grey paper drawing was done on Rives bfk and the orange one is on stonehenge watercolor paper with a orange green wash of watercolor. 

Dean Cornwell rocks.

I did a couple sketches from some Dean Cornwell paintings last night and I thought I would share them.

 I always love the strength of structure that he puts in the heads he paints and draws.  they are exaggerated in character and simplified in structure.  all the right stuff!  

"I like Craig Elliott's artwork..." There's an App for that!

Well, soon there will be! I have been putting together a special collection of images for the iPhone and iPad this past week and just submitted the final set of pages and icons for approval:  

Bring inspiration and guidance on how to draw the female form with you wherever you are!  "Craig Elliott: Pinup"  is a collection of large studies, well suited as wallpaper images.  The studies have been rendered in many colorful mediums of expression such as watercolor, pencil and pastel. (31 pages, full color)

My hope is to continue to release these book Apps under different themes, as long as they do fairly well.  Keep an eye on this spot for final release dates etc.  I am shooting for a Comicon 2010 release! 

I went to Scotland... Or did I?

Last night and this morning I did a little world travelling.  On the internet that is.  There are a fascinating number of public webcams pointed at pretty places all around the world.  Paris, Alaska, New York Africa, Etc.  I thought that these cameras would make a fun way to watch light and color change in these distant lands.  Below are my first experimants of a town square in Scotland.  This is "The Cross" in Kilmarnok Scotland around 6 am (the cooler painting) and later around 5pm (the strongly light one). These took about 20-30 minutes each and are sketched in one brush with no pressure sensitivity in Photoshop.