Dale's Blog

2011-12-02T17:24:00.001-05:00

I am Artist of the Month at the Cornerstone Coffeehouse in Camp Hill, PA. Eleven of my works will be on display through the month of December.

2011-09-28T00:25:00.005-04:00

African model in a sarong.

New Works

2011-09-12T00:14:00.000-04:00

My works will be on display at the Cornerstone Coffeehouse in Camp Hill, Pa. during the month of December 2011. Stop by and see them.

2011-04-29T16:47:00.003-04:00

This picture won third place in the Lancaster County Art Association 2011 Spring Membership Show.

Dancing Elf

2011-04-29T01:22:00.003-04:00

Here is my latest picture, titled "Dancing Elf."

New Favorites

2011-03-09T00:06:00.003-05:00

I have changed my list of links to favorite websites. Echo Chernik has brought back art nouveau with her beautiful images. Amy Martino has interesting, almost abstract figures. Patrick Nagel did pictures inspired by art deco for Playboy magazine in the 1980's and unfortunately died too young. Hiroshi Tanabe is winning awards for his simple, but attractive pictures. Sophie Leblanc caught my attention because her art is very similar to what I was aspiring to: nice line drawings with good composition and attractive colors. Her style is cute and goofy.

2011-01-15T11:24:00.001-05:00

I won Honorable Mention for this in a show by the Lancaster County Art Association

Back to Art

2010-11-09T20:51:00.002-05:00

I am back to making art. There is a huge backlog of sketches that I can make into prints.

New Artworks

2010-06-22T02:24:00.002-04:00

Two more.

2010-05-20T02:46:00.003-04:00

I have created a new art gallery at Corel Painter magazine's website. So far my pictures are getting perfect 5.0 ratings!

This website has galleries for over 8000 artists, nearly all of whom, I would guess, work digitally. Corel Painter is a computer program for creating digital art.

Today, May 20, 2010, my gallery on this website was rated in the first page of the "Top Rated Galleries" and is one of 88 galleries having a perfect 5.0 rating. The image you see in the post "Art Deco Lady" was listed as one of the website's "100 Best Images."

New Website and Gallery

2010-05-17T14:25:00.003-04:00

My new website is coming along. I like Intuit much more than Yahoo because it has more capabilities but is easier to use. All I have to do now is transfer my domain and figure out how to get my e-mail.

I created a new art gallery at the Painter magazine website and have already received a few comments. So far, the pictures are rated 5-star by other artists!

Exhibit

2010-05-15T17:37:00.002-04:00

I am planning some exhibits of my art as follows:
July 23, 2010 - Art in the Park, Columbia, PA
August 29-September 26, 2010, York Art Association Annual Fall Members Exhibit
December 2011 (all month) Cornerstone Coffee House, Camp Hill, PA.

Art Deco Lady

2010-05-06T20:10:00.001-04:00

Just an ordinary art deco flapper lady, about to go out for the evening.

2010-04-07T19:17:00.002-04:00

Author and artist James Gurney years ago created the fantasy of Dinotopia, a land in which humans and dinosaurs live together in harmony. The theme was a popular culture smash hit, spurring more than twenty books along with television series, several video games, and an animated film. The Delaware Art Museum currently has an exhibition of Dinotopia paintings by Gurney.

Gurney's works strike me as both exceptionally imaginative and technically expert. I was a little surprised to find that they are somewhat small, mostly under 8 square feet, even though many are panoramic with many dinosaur and human figures. Despite (or perhaps because of) their size, the paintings have impact. The human figures, even when tiny, are properly proportioned and have highly realistic faces.

2010-01-21T00:17:00.002-05:00

An earlier version was shown in another post. I merely decided to finish it off.

2010-01-14T18:33:00.001-05:00

Here we go with a simplified art nouveau image. Some day I might try making a really fancied-up picture like the ones Alphonse Mucha used to make

2009-12-27T17:50:00.002-05:00

While researching on the Web for this digital image, which was done in Photoshop, I learned that my name in Chinese is apparently "Wang Da Li," or in English "Wang reaches an advantage."

DAZ Studio

2009-11-29T13:21:00.003-05:00

I started experimenting with a remarkable new software gift from DAZ Productions. I say gift because the software is free. It is a virtual photography studio in which you can place digital models and props, pose them in any position, shine lights on them, look at them with cameras from any position, and, when the scene is complete, export to photoshop or other software for additional painting.

In the picture is Victoria, my favorite digital model, dressed as a fairy and ready to be posed for a new picture. Victoria can be posed in any position a normal human can assume. Using controls, I can change her facial expressions and body type. I can change her into a black woman, a man, a fat oriental woman, etc., etc. She has a large wardrobe and her skin can replaced with chrome, lizard scales, and so on.

Besides Victoria, I have many other digital models, including men and children, as well as animals. For props, I have guns, bugles, umbrellas, and all sorts of objects that can be placed in a scene.

New art works

2009-11-16T00:19:00.003-05:00

Two different color schemes for the same image.

2009-11-15T16:40:00.002-05:00

I spoke with a wildlife person who has been watching this rare sand hill crane since it showed up near Mount Gretna, Pa. Although it seems OK physically, there is something unusual about it since it allows people to come right up and touch it. The wildlife person expressed concern that coyotes might get it

Snake

2009-10-28T17:26:00.004-04:00

After five years of living in this area, the only snakes I have seen are black snakes and garter snakes. Black snakes are very slow but garter snakes, like the one shown here, can take off like a rocket and disappear into the weeds.

Coyote

2009-10-12T17:01:00.001-04:00

I saw a coyote today on the Greenbelt just north of the Harrisburg State Hospital. It was in plain view just 50 feet away and it seemed startled when I came around the curve. It turned sideways and stared at me for a while, then when I was fumbling to get my camera ready it jumped into the woods.

Donkeys

2009-09-12T02:12:00.003-04:00

Not all of my scientific experiments have been going as planned.

Looking at the calendar I notice that September 11 has come and gone. It has been eight years since the attacks, and the World Trade Center is still a hole in the ground. Why? Who is in the way? What are their names? It seems to me that replacement buildings should have been completed years ago. I think the people should demand to know exactly who has been doing what for EIGHT YEARS, and what benefits to the public have been achieved due to this activity. We should know this already. Why don't we?

New pic and thoughts about pastels

2009-09-07T21:13:00.003-04:00

This is my new creation, now on sale at ImageKind.com.

I have been looking at my pastel collection with the idea of using them for a new artwork. Although I have several good brands, my favorite are Nupastels by Prismacolor. They are very hard compared to other brands, but you get far less dust on your hands and clothes. You have to do more work to get the pastel on the paper. My favorite papers are Canson Mi-Teintes. I discovered that one side has more texture than the other, and for me the less textured side works out better with the hard pastels. I have used Winsor & Newton Artists' Workable Fixative, which causes little or no change in the colors. "Workable" means that you can apply more pastels on top of the fixative. This brand also works with charcoal and pencil.

About Pencils

2009-08-24T21:44:00.002-04:00

I bought a pack of 18 Ticonderoga #2 pencils, lured by "The World's BEST PENCIL" on the package. The claim is credible, based on my experience. The pencil makes marks smoothly and it erases cleanly.

By far the worst #2 pencil I have ever used is the Paper Mate American. It is noticeably gritty and the eraser makes a dark smudge on the paper instead of removing graphite. I threw most of them in the trash.

For artists, an interesting pencil is the Staedtler Mars Lumograph in 8B, which is extremely soft. This pencil makes marks that are very dark , almost black, and much less shiny than most other soft pencils I have tried.

Another completed artwork

2009-08-24T21:41:00.001-04:00

Another view of Victoria in the same jazz dance pose.

Imagekind Gallery

2009-07-25T17:55:00.003-04:00

I am starting a new gallery on imagekind.com to sell my prints. Their prints are supposed to be much better than what I can do at home. I will be using this service to make prints for myself, but anybody can buy them.

This is Victoria, my digital model. I put her in a jazz dance pose, made a digital simulation of a pencil drawing, then colorized it with Photoshop filters

Hawk Mountain

2009-06-20T14:17:00.005-04:00

I visited Hawk Mountain this morning. Since it was raining hard I decided to not climb the mountain but to just stay in the visitor center. A woman and her daughter brought in some birds, including a huge european eagle owl they called Big Mama. These things are all feathers. I stuck my finger into her head quite a long way before reaching her little skull. The lady described how they can kill and eat small deer.

There were two other owls, one of which was small and had to be kept away from Big Mama to avoid its becoming lunch. There was also a raven, which had a lot of fun playing with paper napkins. The 12-year-old daughter, shown here, is named Talon and is able to make bird sounds.

There was a chart showing that on one day fifteen bald eagles were seen here. They also spot golden eagles, ospreys, and a lot of hawks.

2009-06-01T01:46:00.003-04:00

I am back to making artworks. This one is the culmination of my research into ways of coloring line art in Photoshop. With my method I can quickly change any of the colors to find a color combination that works.

Another eagle sighting

2009-04-22T23:45:00.001-04:00

I saw an adult bald eagle again today. This one was carrying something - a squirrel, I think - and had several crows after it. I was wondering if the crows were trying to get rid of the eagle, or were trying to get its food.

2009-02-27T14:22:00.003-05:00

Eagles are coming back. This one was in Lewisberry but I only had ny cell phone camera.

Rare Animal Sightings

2009-01-13T21:12:00.002-05:00

I recently saw two rare animals at Pinchot Park. Today (Jan. 13, 2009) I saw a herd of 7 deer, one of which was piebald (having a lot of white patches). They all ran away, the piebald being, significantly, the last to flee. Piebald deer, and perhaps piebald animals in general, have a reputation for being very tame. The theory is that they have very low levels of epinephrine, the fight-or-flight hormone.

On Jan. 6 I saw a bald eagle at almost the same place. It was standing in the middle of the lake, probably on a rock, and flew away when I got out of the car. I got a good look at it, though.

McCain Campaign Headquarters

2008-10-29T17:10:00.007-04:00

I was driving near McCain's headquarters in York County and noticed a lot of people dressed as skeletons, devils, and so on. So I dropped in and while I was there we got a visit from Sen. Fred Thompson, actor Robert Davi, and Abraham Lincoln.

Lines and Colors blog

2008-10-14T18:55:00.001-04:00

I found this interesting website for art: www.linesandcolors.com. Check it out.

Fountain Pens

2008-10-12T01:00:00.002-04:00

I like sketching in Moleskine sketchbooks with fountain pens. Here are my experiences so far.

My Namiki Falcon pen was horrendously expensive, but works reliably and makes a nice line. Its nib is supposed to be very soft, so that you can control the width of the line by pressing harder or softer. This is true according to my experience, but really you don't get much line variety. I am using the ink cartridges that came with the pen. This ink is supposed to be waterproof, but it's not. It came with a converter so that you can use other kinds of ink.

My Waterman Phileas Writing Set was a complete disappointment at first because the ink simply did not flow. I replaced the cartridge and it worked reliably afterwards. This ink is not waterproof. It came with a converter.

My Lamy Safari was cheap (about $30) but works very well and is the pen I have come to prefer. I filled it with Noodler's black ink. This is really great ink. I got some on my hands and it washed off easily; but when it's on paper it reacts with the cellulose and becomes waterproof so that you can use a wash over it.

My Ackerman crow quill pump pen doesn't work unless it is kept very clean. I filled it with Higgins Black Magic. It makes an extremely thin line, almost the same as that made by a Micron in the .005 size. I would just as soon use the Micron.

More Books

2008-10-09T21:58:00.000-04:00

I am adding two new books to my list of favorites. Fashion Illustration for Designers (2005), by Kathryn Hagen, has almost 600 pages of excellent drawings of clothed people, along with a great deal of instruction. She is very good at simple line drawings that seem to represent real, attractive, people rather than cartoon characters. She also does very nice cartoonish people. Her earlier book, Illustration for Designers (2000), is similar but has less material.

Another book, Illustrating Fashion (1977) by E. Sloane, shows a variety of styles and demonstrates that a fashion illustration can be appealing even if some of the faces and figures are not even close to realistic.

Current Work

2008-10-06T23:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture that I am currently working on in Photoshop. It needs a lot of work. Maybe I will add jewelry, more hair, some other details.

Kathryn Hagen videos

2008-09-27T02:17:00.000-04:00

I found these videos showing how Kathryn Hagen makes fashion illustrations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29HIzU2YPSA

Art Books

2008-08-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

I have many, many books about art, but just a few of them are exceptionally instructive. Here are some of the best, in my opinion.

1. Books by Andrew Loomis. These books are long out of print but can be found online.
Figure Drawing for All It's Worth
Creative Illustration
Drawing the Head and Hands
The Eye of the Painter and the Elements of Beauty
Successful Drawing
Fun with a Pencil

2. Jack Hamm, Drawing the Head & Figure

3. Bert Dodson, Keys to Drawing

A few years ago I visited the Frank Frazetta museum in East Stroudsburg, Pa. Frazetta is one of the greatest fantasy artists, perhaps even the creator of this genre in its present form. I always thought his works are visually impressive when reproduced in books and magazines, but the actual paintings really pop. If you are anywhere near the museum I recommend visiting it. Frank's wife Ella was fun to talk to, and it is said that Frank himself sometimes appears.

Another great museum in eastern Pa. is the Brandywine River Museum, in Chadds Ford. It features works by the Wyeth family. I went there about a year ago with members of my family and we were shown around by Victoria Wyeth, granddaughter of Andrew Wyeth. She is very attractive and personable and did a great job talking about the art works. The museum also has works by other artists, such as Howard Pyle and Alma-Tadema.

Things I Saw in Rural Pennsylvania

2008-08-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

One camel
Several alpacas
A large Revolutionary soldier carved out of a tree
A sign saying "We sell life jackets for dogs"