Kestrel

It is about that time.......the dead of winter when days are short and I get stuck inside more than I want. Well, I got the itch to start painting some and did this Kestrel last night with some titanium white and payne's gray. It was nice to kick back and only worry about using two colors. I actually did this bird for the cover of a birding phamplet which will be in black and white. It was a good warm up piece for me and got me anxious to start on some paintings. I've got some good ideas for my paintings this year.......a bedded buck in snow, strutting turkeys on a steep meadow, and such. I'm going to give the fish a break and concentrate on some mammals instead. Check back in and maybe I'll have something to look at.

Illinois 2010

Just got back from the Land of Lincoln and it was good! The wind blew hard for 4 straight days but the temperatures stayed cool and allowed for some pretty good action. I saw alot of good bucks with most of them coming to the rattling horns, which makes it even more exciting. I was able to pursuade this buck that my rattling horns were more interesting than the doe he was cutting and chasing.

If you want to see what a true monster whitetail looks like then check out this buck taken by Adam Laverde.

It was a real gift being able to put my hands on something like this. It's not very often that you get to see something like this in person. Keep your eyes open because more likely than not you will see this deer again somewhere. Congrats to Adam for tagging a once in a lifetime buck!



Strokes of Genius 3

About 2 months ago I submitted artwork for the next edition of North Lights Book called Strokes of Genius 3: The Best of Drawing. Well guess what.......I got a package in the mail today and was pleased to find out that my "First Cast" scratchboard made it into the book. The book will be available in October 2011 and I can't wait to see my work inside along with the best artists around today. I wished I had sent more than one entry in, but figured I would save some money and just submit that one. I feel confident now that my artwork has reached the level I wanted it to, and I feel more comfortable now embarking on more artistic challenges. The book should be a great one and I would suggest buying one even without my artwork being in it. I will keep you posted next year when it comes out on the stands.

Field and Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge

The last thing I ever wanted to do was have to compete at a Field and Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge regional qualifier in order to get my ticket to Dogwood Canyon in Missouri for the finals. Having placed 4th at the finals last year pretty much forced that hand I didn't want to play, but I was happy with the outcome at the regional in Nashville, TN this past weekend. I tied with 1st place, but ended with 2nd after the tie-breaker. This guarantees my ticket to the finals and a shot once again to reclaim the title. It's not going to be easy with the competition that the event is drawing, but with a little luck who knows. I've been really focused lately on the South Holston Flyfishing Festival where I will be the featured "starving" artist. I have been too busy to do any art, and for those hoping to see some, I'm sorry. You just might have to wait until this winter to be totally honest. How can I get all the good reference material unless I'm out there doing it? Hey, I hunt/fish then do art. Not the opposite.  

River Smallies

Not much to say here......except it's that time of year we wait for.

2nd Place at Delaware Trout Stamp Competition!!

I've got some good news for those who were wondering how I placed in the 2011 Delaware Trout Stamp

Competition. The brown trout above got 2nd place and the brook trout I did made it to the second round! I know, if you ain't first your last...but I was merely hoping to get a top 5 finish, and that in itself is tough considering the amazing works from very accomplished artists that enter each year. I want to thank Charles Craumer again, owner of 307 Outfitters in WY, for the reference photo. If you want to catch one of these big browns give him a shout http://www.307outfitters.com/ . I really wished I could have been there to see all the incredible artwork. I am really honored that my artwork was thought good enough to receive second place and the first place piece by Jeffrey Kleinfelter was just awesome. I have alot of respect for these great artists and I'm honored just to be thrown in the mix with them.  Now I must begin my ideas for the 2012 competition! I would like to enter the duck competitions, but I really enjoy getting reference material for fish.............if mallards start taking a clouser on the swing, then we will see.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Here has been my spring in a nutshell soo far......the white bass run was good, turkeys have been better, and the best is yet to come-Roanoke river stripers. I got me a good bird on opening day and went the following Saturday with my ole buddy Walker. We didn't here any birds at daylight, so we proceeded to get that knot in our calves that all serious turkey hunters know about.  If you've never had it then you've either gave up too quick or your one of the lucky ones that live in the "flat country". I'm glad I had Walker with me this morning because I usually go solo and find myself rambling out loud about how I wished these turkeys were easier to get to, or how nice it would be to hunt down east on some flat ground. But there we were, barely able to talk after a rushed and long "ascent" to the top of the ridge chasing a faint gobble, when Walker stopped and made me aware of the amazing view that awarded us. Sure, I've been on that ridge before but I have always been soo focused on looking for unturned leaves, black football shaped moving bodies, and anything with the color red, blue, or white. So there I was this morning, soo thankful to be chasing turkeys in the mountains. I almost feel sorry now for those that have to walk miles on flat ground with no view to ponder and no mountain spring to quench your thirst. So here I am now, vowing to have a different perspective on mountain turkeys and taking more time to stop and smell the umm............... ramps! 

paulthompsonart.com

My website is finally done! I will continue to post updates on my blog here, but with warm weather approaching don't expect to get much out of me. I will be spending most of my time acquiring references for future artwork. By this I mean chasing musky, slinging flies at whitey, stripers, smallies, with a little shooting me some turkeys thrown in the mix. In the meantime go to paulthompsonart.com and have a look. I'll check back in to let you guys know how the trout stamp competitions are going.

Heavy Metal

I've got a long way to go on this painting, but I thought about posting it so you can check out the progress.
I'm going to drop a big heavy streamer in front of his face, hence the title "Heavy Metal". The streamer won't be stripped, but instead it will be on the fall head down like it just hit into the water.

Another Trout Stamp Entry

I've got to add the line to the fly, rework some bubbles, and add a few glazes to the background, but this is close enough to done for a posting. I'm going to submit this one and the brown trout to Delaware for their trout stamp competition.  OK- I finished everything on this one and and replaced the picture with the final.

Trout Stamp

I've been thinking about entering a state trout stamp competition coming up real soon and here is one that I finally got finished and might submit.

I've got to finish the one below, but I'm still thinking the one above will be what I submit.

 

Striper

This will eventually be a striper trust me. I know it kind of looks like some trash fish from your nearby power plant intake, but give it time. I'm going to try and put a silhouette of a boat above him and maybe drop a lure or something in the water.

I told you it would look like a striper. I was going for a 20 lb fish but it ended up looking like a schooly with out the school. Maybe I'll add 4 or 5 more of them? I've still got alot to do to it but at least it's started. I'm trying to get about 4 or 5 going at one time b/c if you don't you get bored with just one and end up rushing to get it done. A.D.D. doesn't help either.

Davidson River Brown

Walker and I started off to a bad start but we ended up catching some fish later on and I lucked into this one. I forgot my camera but ended up having this little pocket video camera made by Vado. It is the size of a cell phone and this was the first time I had used it on the river. I tell you what, I just might leave the camera at home from here on out b/c this thing does the trick. I highly recommend this gadget and it will be very useful for me getting good reference material. Oh yeah.... I don't want to get any e-mails from "that crowd" so let me state that I was not holding the weight of this fish by it's jaw. It was very well taken care of and took less time to reel it in than it took for me to get the fly out.

I was watching Jersey Shore last night and was inspired to do this. Your right...that doesn't make any sense and neither does the show. I wasted about 30 minutes of my life...actually an hour because I watched the next episode too. Are there not any fish somewhere near that boardwalk???

Musky

I had to take a break from the smallmouth and decided to get a start on the musky I've been wanting to do. I think I'm going to have him busting up a pod of bluegills or maybe ramsacking a school of suckers. Just depends on what mood I'm in when I get there.  This is a close up of the head, but the whole board is 16x20.

Below is an update on the musky. He is starting to take shape. What is interesting about this one is the fact that I'm pretty much using one tool which I hate with a passion....and it's what we call a fiberglass brush. I hate using them, but it seems to represent the texture of a musky's head pretty well. Sorry for those who wanted to see that smallie get finished. I'm actually waiting for some tools to come in the mail before I get back on it.

Dude looked bad hungry so I had to give him something to eat. I'm thinking about adding some more bluegill and maybe some background...but it might look better just blacked out.

I've still got along way to go now that I've decided to do this one in color.

Smallmouth work in progress

Here is the start of a smallmouth that will have an underwater scene probably with it eating a clouser or one of Walker's flies which I can't say the name here. Not because it is some secret, but because it's not the type of language you use on a blog. Anyway, this piece is a white clayboard that I inked the fish onto and then began the scratching. I will more than likely add color to this board, but will have to wait and see. I would rather leave my boards without color, but the mood might strike. It won't be long before I'll have the boat out on the river throwing flies at these jokers. By the way this is the piece that I was going to update more frequently so you can see how these are created and the time it takes to accomplish one. What you see here took about 5 hours.

Here it is with about 2 hours of laying out the scales. The bad part here is that I'll have to go back over each one to get the tones right. I'll usually go back over it several times before it looks right.

Here's what I've got so far. I've run into some problems with the background, but I think its fixable. Just going to take more time. So far I have about 18 hours in it total. I 've got to fix the background, add a clouser, and then some more vegetation. Plus, I need to get all the values right. Lets hope all goes well because the fish itself started out really well.

This one is pretty much done now. I'm going to do a few little things to it, but you would probably not even notice. Now all I have to do is come up with a title.

 

Got a little more done on this board. I need to go back and do some final work to it before I consider it "done". The back of the trout got some ink washes added to it and looks a little grey, but once it is sealed that will go away. In my mind they are never truly done, there is always something I could do to it but you have to be able to say enough is enough and let it be. This orginal doesn't have anybody's name on it and will be up for sale.

Brown trout in ink work in progress

This is the beginning of a brown that I will do an underwater scene with. I'm thinking a fly, crawfish, or minnow is about to get eaten but I'm not sure. I've been using Bombay india ink for the washes and acrylic from the tube for highlights. This is being worked on watercolor paper and size is 9x18. If anybody has got an idea of what would look better as to what he's going to eat let me hear it.

Trout in acrylic ink

Here is another quick trout done with acrylic ink on watercolor paper. 9x18

Rainbow in ink

This was an experimental piece to see how I could use Bombay colored india ink on some smooth paper. It worked out better than I thought and kind of wished I had spent more time on it. I plan on developing this technique more due to the fast drying time of the ink. Once again I have no patience for watercolors and being able to finish one of these in short time is a bonus. The reference I used was from a trout out of Looking Glass Creek in Transylvania Co. NC.

Close up

This is a close up of the rainbow work in progress and it shows the fleece of the left arm right behind the fish. This might give you guys a better idea of what I mean when I say "scratching" a board. What I'm going to do with my next piece is take pictures of the progression so you can see how it unfolds. Just hang with me because this blog will get more interesting when you can watch me scratch.

Rainbow work in progress

I've been working on this one and trying to get it done, but get distracted with paintings. I have to give a big shout out to Charles Craumer for the reference photo. I wished I had caught this pig, but I'm happy enough just scratching it out. If you want to catch one of these toads go to http://www.307outfitters.blogspot.com/  and give him a call. Take a good look at some of his killer photos, you might get to see them again as Charles was kind enough to let me use some as reference. I've still got alot of scratching to do on this one but hope to have a finished board for you real soon.

Brown Trout

I did this trout in pen and ink and still have it in the original that way. I just took a copy and added some color to it to see how it might look. I think I'll have some prints made of the pen and ink and then do one in color. Doing pen and ink is what I actually cut my teeth on in art. I wonder why......well lets see here hmmm maybe because all you needed was a piece of paper and a $2 pen? That was the kind of budget I liked.

Scratchboard Art

 

"First Cast" original board 8x10

"Salmo trutta" original board 9x12

 "Southern Charm" original board 11x14

"Nocturnal" original  board 11x14

"Spots" original board 8x10

Brook Trout

This is a brook trout I painted using acrylics. To get the look of watercolor, I diluted the acrylic paint with water. I have very little patience for watercolors, so I find myself using a faster drying medium like acrylic and ink. The giclee prints of this fish are done on watercolor paper and it has always been one of my favorites. This print looks great in an old barn wood frame.