Pheasants

A few years ago, I decided to compete in the pheasant stamp design contest held annually by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The winner of the contest has their design made into a stamp which is sold to pheasant hunters. There are corresponding contests for turkey and duck stamps.

The first year I competed, I used a photo I had taken of a ringneck pheasant at the Oklahoma City zoo. It took fifth place! I got a certificate and everything!

That year, I took a photo of a taxidermy pheasant owned by the DNR. While I was photographing it, the camera did not adjust quickly enough to the strange lighting conditions, and I got quite a unique photograph! I decided to turn it into a drawing, which I submitted for the next contest. I did not expect to win because I have seen photographs of previous year’s winners, and my art does not look like those. In fact, part of the reason I submitted this drawing was to suggest to the judges that there exist other suitable styles! Surprisingly, I took second place and my piece was put on display for 10 days at the state fair!

It’s been a few years, but I have not yet drawn another pheasant. They are SO detailed!  Still, I have dreams of entering all three contests in the future!

Tin Lizzy

I have always liked antique cars. I finally decided to draw one. I had a photograph of a car that I had run across in a parking lot, and I figured that would be a great thing to draw. I wouldn’t even have to rely on someone else’s photo!

I was bored before I even finished the line drawing. As it turns out, I am only interested in a particular look, not antique cars in general. Although I liked the car, I did not love it. I ended up scouring the Internet anyway, looking for the right photo.

When I found this photo, I was very afraid of becoming bored again with the line drawing. For the second time ever, I actually asked myself, “what is most important?“ I decided that for me, the most important features of the car were the wooden wheels, the grill, and the lights. So I cropped the photo accordingly and got to work. The end result was one of my most technically impressive pieces. Probably also my favorite.

“Tin Lizzy”
1914 Model T
11 x 16″
Pastels on Pastelmat
Reference photo by Bob Adams

P.S. after I finished this piece, I joined a model T group on Facebook so that I could show it off. Imagine my surprise when the owner of the car, NOT Bob Adams, said that it was drawn from a photograph of his car! He did not show any interest in buying a print. 😕

The Handshake

This was a commissioned piece, photo provided by the client. It also is smaller than I should probably work for this type of drawing… I cannot get the detail I’m accustomed to getting, and it is difficult for me to place things just so.

I have a mild form of prosopagnosia, which means I have a lot of trouble recognising people using only their faces. Prosopagnosiacs learn to recognise people by their hair, glasses, clothing, gait, voice, and other such clues. It is not that we cannot see eyes, nose, mouth, etc., simply that we cannot discern the subtle differences in each individual. It’s similar to you trying to you trying to identify one guppy in a school. You can see all the features, but all the guppies look the same! Unless one has some very distinctive feature.

So imagine how I felt when this commission came along and I wasn’t even sure which man was standing in front of me.

Luckily, my proso is mild. This means that I can learn faces given enough time / exposure. It also helped that one of the men is famous, so I was able to find photos online to help me learn his face.

In the end, it was a success. The commissioner was happy, I was happy, everyone was happy.