Head of a Youth

I did this drawing for the Rhinebeck Elementary School Whale Watch auction. Every year, the 5th grade goes to Cape Cod on an educational & fact-finding mission to look at whales & other stuff. This year, I'm going with my daughter.


Head of a Youth, 2010, ink & acrylic on card, 11" x 8.5".

I was just going to do a b/w drawing, but then I thought some color might help...

Closed Soul

I haven't been able to get into the studio much over the last week due to all the snow that fell. We also lost a tree or two, some branches, etc.

Anyway, here's a new ink sketch:


Closed Soul, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Orpheus in the Underworld

A new small painting that overlaps the Orpheus cycle of paintings (ongoing) & the Hell images:


Orpheus in the Underworld, 2010, acrylic on board, 10" x 8".

Landscape Head With Horns

I just bought some new ink (Speedball Super Black India Ink, it says here on the box), so to try it out, here's a new Hell ink sketch of a head. Or a landscape.


Landscape Head With Horns, 2010, brush & ink on card, 11" x 8.5".

Hell: Dweller in the Shadows

New Hell sketch:


Dweller in the Shadows, 2010, brush & ink wash on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Fire Elemental

Hell drawing:


Fire Elemental, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

In Darkness

New Hell series drawing:


In Darkness, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Wayward Soul

Another new Hell drawing (see post below):


Wayward Soul, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Hell

I've started on a new series of Hell drawings...I've done this before & never been totally satisfied with the results. Maybe this time...


Daemon, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

More to follow.

Another sketch of the Tree Man

Here is a drawing (sketch, I guess) that I did yesterday & put on my other blog (the one that focuses more on older work), but I thought I'd also put it here. It's another version of my tree man theme, which probably comes from Hieronymus Bosch's tree man in the Garden of Earthly Delights right-hand "Hell" panel, that I used to see when I would visit the Prado.


One Man Forest, 2009, artist marker pen on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Sketch of a Head with Eyes Raised

I was just fooling around with a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen (or so it says on the pen barrel) & did this little drawing of a head at the dining table while my kids were doing their homework...came out quite well for a sketch. Maybe it'll become a painting or something sometime.


Sketch of a Head with Eyes Raised, 2009, artist pen on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Unraveling

After spending the morning shooting old work for this & my other blog (see below & here), here is a new drawing:


Unraveling, 2009, china marker & india ink on paper, 16.5" x 12".

This started as a sketch using china marker (those pencil/crayons that will make a mark on anything; plastic, china, glass, etc.), which I finished using a brush & ink. I've left the construction lines in, as they're almost impossible to remove.

The Devourer, 2003

I was just poking around in my hard drive (as you do), when I came across this brush & ink drawing from 2003:


The Devourer, 2003, brush & ink on paper, 25" x 20" approx.

This was a piece that I pretty much had forgotten about, until I saw it again just now. At the time, I guess I didn't think too much of it, but now it strikes me as quite good & worth posting here. It's kind of a combination of Arcimboldo (who made heads etc. out of various objects) & Breughel the Elder, or Bosch. Anyway, here it is.

Head In Eternity

A brush & ink drawing of an aging head surrounded by mountains:


Head In Eternity, 2009, brush & ink on paper, 14" x 11".

A familiar theme...maybe I just like drawing heads and mountains...

Head Fused With Rocky Landscape

Since I finished the Silverpoint a Day blog, I haven't done many of those, so here is a new one:


Head Fused With Rocky Landscape, 2009, silverpoint on prepared card, 10" x 8".

I like heads & I like rocky landscapes, so it's only logical to combine the two.

Sketch of a Head with Long Hair

This was originally a throwaway sketch I was doodling the other night:


Sketch of a Head with Long Hair, 2009, pencil & markers on paper, 11" x 8.5".

However, I thought maybe there was something there, so I reworked the original pencil/marker drawing with a fine-line marker. I think it's an interesting piece.

Head of Leda ink drawing

Another variation on the Leda theme:


Head of Leda, 2009, brush & ink on card, 10" x 8".

Another possible image for my upcoming small exhibit (see below)...

2 new ink drawings of heads

At the moment, I'm generating a series of work to be edited down for a small local show. Here are the 2 latest ones — small brush & ink drawings of heads. Each one is 10" x 8". Whether they make it to the exhibit remains to be seen — I'll select the best ones when the time comes. I have about 4 days...





These don't even have titles yet.

Ferocity

Here's a new silverpoint drawing of a feral head:


Ferocity, 2009, silverpoint on prepared ground, 10" x 8".

It's drawn on card gessoed with 2 coats -- the first one of magenta, which was too deep & rich to be really useful, the second with a pale Mars Yellow. I like the subtle texture this gives the ground.

Not intended for the silverpoint blog, which is almost done, but possibly for my upcoming show in Rhinebeck alongside my friend Jim Stevenson.

Head of Venus

This is a detail of today's upload to the Ayton Artwork a Day blog:



To see the entire drawing of the Petrified Venus, you'll have to click over to that blog. Tricky, eh?