Don Quixote and His Giants

A commission piece for my friend, Catherine, who thoroughly enjoys reading.

The idea for this piece came up during a furious brainstorm several days after she commissioned me to do a piece for her. Without a strict sense of direction I stormed for any theme/idea that would be within Catherine's realm of interest. For some bizarre reason I finally landed on Don Quixote, a book I've never actually read but was kind of acquainted with thanks to an episode of a show called Wishbone.

For those of you who are curious Wishbone was a TV series broadcasted in the mid 1990's about a Jack Russell Terrier who iterates classic literature while imagining himself as the protagonist in each tale he tells. Educational plus you get to see a Jack Russell Terrier dressed up in cute little outfits, although I doubt the dog enjoyed it that much.

Moving on, the theme of this piece is about imagination, which is illustrated through Don Quixote's battle with the giants. In the book the "giants" are actually windmills. Many artist like to to paint the scene with Don Quixote fighting real windmills, however I thought it would be an interesting approach to paint what he seeing so vividly in his mind. Four attempts and two years later, here is the result.

Unfortunately I don't have access to a scanner, so this was the best available option.
The camera just doesn't do the piece any justice.

A caption within the piece if you will. An excerpt taken out of the book.

What I imagine Don Quixote's face to be like.

Don Quixote's Giants. Clues about what they actually are can be seen on their legs,
the ring leader's axes and on various articles of clothing.

Pieces inspired by trees

Connectivity

A piece created for myself rather than an assignment. The main theme revolves around our human bodies and how on a cellular level it's functionality and appearance is similar to that of trees. The idea came about when I was just coming home from the gym one day, my mind focused on muscles and nerves working away to allow us to move, when my eyes landed on the branches of a couple of trees.

Created with acrylic paint and oil pastels.

An interpretation of a last name

One of many assignments in drawing class. The primary purpose of this assignment was to give an interpretation of your specific last name without actually spelling it out. Students were expected to place a lot of thought in which mediums they were going to use and were encouraged to go with their second or third idea rather than their initial idea.

The piece was created on watercolor paper and made with ink,
bits of printed on paper and conte.

Favorite Art Pieces

With drawing class completed, I now have twenty pieces nearly completed and nineteen of them which I kind of like. Overall I found the course to be very inspirational and educational in the non-traditional sense. Brian Flynn is one of the best art teachers, not because of his ability to teach but rather his ability to challenge students to push their comfort zones and explore new and breaking grounds. Listed below are two of my most challenging but favored pieces from the course.

Mosaic life figure

This piece was designed around having the artist focusing on the process rather than the end result. Not only was this piece time consuming but required lots of concentration and skill in order to get the proportions of the still life correct. It paid to do contour sketches prior to starting the piece.

Dimension: 32in by 41in.
Medium: Acrylic painted paper

Moroccan Midnight

A piece designed around using the perspective points of Giorgio de Chirico's Melancholy and Mystery of a Street. Due to my lack of interest in the original I had a hard time actually starting. Near the deadline I decided just to go with what I found inspiring, Moroccan architecture, specifically the Hassan II Mosque and somehow incorporate Melancholy and Mystery of a Street. The result is below.

Dimension: 32in by 41in
Medium: Watercolor, Acrylic, and conte

Conclusion: Had a rad time painting and playing with all sorts of mediums.