~Grungy6669

Mike Lewis

Hello Friends!

Journal Entry: Sun Apr 13, 2008, 5:20 PM

What's New

So my newest projects that I have been working on are the studies of well known artists. My first one that I worked on was good old Dr. Seuss for my son. After reading the books and exploring his artwork, I felt I was ready to try out telling his stories with two paintings I did for my son.

Both of them turned out very well I thought considering I haven't painted in a couple of years. Both I used a heavy acrylic creating lots of brush strokes and a thin sharpie to create the detail of the characters.

The first picture on the left, I got the background from one of Seuss's art pieces and used the Cat and the Hat with his small Cat in the Hat boy following my son reading an over sized book. The main view behind this was that Dr. Seuss's characters motivate my son to read more and give his reading a more enjoyable experience.

The second picture I had done was mainly because of my son telling me that he wanted other characters from stories he enjoyed reading. So I created the space theme because he is really interested in the universe. On each planet I made each a story book. The first planet had the Sneetches with their "Star off/on Machine" in the middle. The next planet was "The Lorax". With the factory on the left and the Lorax standing on his log as the animals walk away from the polluted land that was once their home. The third planet was a mixture of two books. I put Yertle the turtle on the top of this water planet with two fish from "One Fish Two Fish" on each side surfing their way around the planet. And as always Jonny reading his over sized book to read with the sun as his night light.

What Else Is New

The second study I worked on was Salvador Dali. I have always enjoyed his art and thought they were crazy looking and it must have taken a lot of drugs to think up of those things. I wanted to have a Dali piece hanging in my house but there were so many pictures I liked of his, and my walls aren't that big. So I decided to study his artwork, see the techniques he used and see the way he composed each picture. I was very intrigued when I saw that most of the pieces that started with his surreal side was int he 1930's and most of them he repeated certain features and images into other paintings. I decided to use four of his pieces to come up with one picture form my wall. But also I wanted something big. My biggest piece as I have done. I finished the piece which measured 29" x 49", and I am sure after I frame this bad boy it will take up the computer wall very nicely.

So I used "The Elephants, 1948", "Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus, 1935", "Sugar Sphinx, 1933" and" The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, 1934" from his collection to create this piece.

So What's Next

So my current study is Boris Vallejo. I have always enjoyed his artwork since I was a teenager. I am sure it was all those nude bodies then but now I have a real admiration towards his realistic fantasy style and hope I can do the same justice.

The two I am planning on doing are "Vampire's Kiss, 1979" and "The Dryads, 1991". I have started working on "The Dryads" but work is very slow because I can only work on it when Jonny is sleeping and won't come in to see me working on it.

I would like to show some features of artwork from a mixture of mediums of some friends here on DA

Thank you for the free coding for the journal. It works like a charm