Tuesday, December 6, 2011

New website fun!

Okay, I know it's been pretty much forever since I've posted, but music school is keeping me on a short rein so there's been a severe art lag from my end, which usually happens this time of year anyways... however, there is some EXCITING news.

First of all, we're going under a new name: Custom Commissions by Mel Shwanke

Pretty riveting, I'm sure, but everyone continually thought I was simply calling the sites "Mel's Portraits" instead of "Mel S. Portraits" which just so happens to be my first name followed by last unfortunate initial. It didn't have a very good ring, so, we now have a fancy title with a great acronym to go along with it: CCMS.

I'm also featuring a new logo. Originally it was the white background with blocky, black text and a tattoo design of a galloping Pegasus.

But I've since done some computer editing/fun framing and have come up with:




Also, on top of all this, my website has undergone the most complete re-design you can imagine. Just today I spent hours rebuilding my gallery, and I'm pleased to announce I have figured out how to make my images "pop out" of thumbnails without making the window switch over, for easier viewing and less accidental window closes (sorry for that, by the way).

So, really, just a good, refreshing update all-around! I do have some fun and fancy new works to show off sometime in the very near future, though very near may be a week from now. Or two. It's finals, and all. Thanks for sticking around!



EDIT!

CLICK HERE for the new and improved website!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Face Study

I can't remember if I posted a poorer-quality image of this, but here's a better picture than the one I had before, if I did.


First two portraits in a five-part series

Please forgive the poor picture quality. These portraits are 4x8 inches, so quite small but still turning out nicely. I'm selling them for $50 each but am offering the full five-part series for $200. They will all be the same size.
Done on matboard.

Finished the dancer

This was an interesting portrait. I don't know if I consider it a personal portrait or a commission because it's a re-design of a sketch I had done that someone was interested in purchasing, but in all I am very pleased with how it turned out. Appologies for the dark pictures.



Here's more of a close-up of the detail



I have to say, I am more than happy with the result. This portrait turned out simple yet attractive and it's on my list of favorite designs.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Starting a "Series of Series"

I meant to post this yesterday but my internet completely died so I wasn't able to:

"Now I'm on a painfully slow internet connection at this moment, but hopefully tomorrow I will be able to upload the first two parts of a five-part series, which is the first series in a line of art series I am doing. Crazy!

Over the next month, for the sake of widening my gallery and upping promotion, I will be working hard to get a number of personal portraits done between commissions. The series aren't connected to one another, but I want a few series to add to my library.

The one I am currently working on doesn't have a name, but it's a series of colored pencil portraits featuring a different animal in each one, but only the section between the forehead and down the bridge of the nose, obviously showcasing the eyes of the animal. So far I have completed a leopard and an elephant, and plan to move onto a whale next. The other animal will probably be a domestic dog, though I'm not sure what the fifth will be. In one direction, I pick another animal. In another direction, I do a human and design it to fit in the center of the series. I'm not sure, each has a different message. We will see where it goes!

Right now the other series I have lined up are a Christian series, a series on my friend Murray's face (good feature practice), a series on structural development over the past few thousand years, and an equine series on growth (starting with a foal and working up to an old horse). We will see how well this works out for my development!

In other news, thank you to a photo-owner (who would prefer to remain nameless) who gave me permission to sell a drawing I did based off of their copyrighted photo I found while Googling references. Originally I listed the work as "not for sale" because of this, but when contacted the photo owner said to go ahead. If you are reading this, thank you very much for your generosity! "

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Antelope

This is from way back in December and I just haven't gotten around to finishing it. It's two antelope locking horns, but I just have the one done. The background will come later. This is a big one and will probably be priced around $220.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New take on the dancer

So someone wanted to buy my dancer sketch from last post, except it's just a sketch and incredibly small so they're having me remake it, larger and better. This is a WIP:




EDIT:

Here they are, side by side for comparison.


Sunday, March 20, 2011

Dancing lady

Freehand drawing, just for fun in a half hour of my spare time. Which is hard to come by these days in the height of craziness a university, so I grabbed the opportunity and did a sketch. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Male face study

Okay so I admit to finding the reference pic on Google Images, searching "male face reference." So it's probably copyrighted in whatever sorts of ways, so I do apologize. Thus, I will take the time to mention that this isn't for sale.

At any rate, like I said, I just picked a random face and drew it because I do need to keep up in my practice. Rather pleased with the results, but unfortunately my camera is DEAD and thus all I can present is a very low quality cell phone picture. Nonetheless, I hope that you enjoy!