~Turtle~

Hi everyone. Sorry that it has been a while since I have updated. I have been a little under the weather. I am back though and working on my art. I have a new painting that I just sprayed the top coat on and am waiting for it to dry so I can post it. It is really cool!

This drawing is one I did in Design I. It looks a little warped for some reason. It doesn't look straight. I couldn't get it to look right when I took the picture for some reason. If you have ever used Prismacolor colored pencils, you know how tedious it can be. This picture doesn't do justice at all to it. It has many many layers of pencil especially on the shell. My inspiration was my little red-eared slider turtle, Myrtle.

~A Couple of Typography Projects~

These are only a few "Computer Graphic's" projects that I have done. Typography was my first real computer graphics class and I learned so much! But, I will be adding more of these later.ABOVE: This project was my favorite. This is an example of a public service newspaper add. We got to create it all. I wanted to do child abuse at first but we were supposed to have a picture in there and I just couldn't do that. Then I chose adoption because it is so important also. I found this family in a magazine. I wanted to make it look like the little boy wrote a letter above the picture and the information of the add. I wanted it to look just like a little boy would do it. The handwriting could have been much sloppier. I crumpled a torn out piece of paper. I tore it and made it a little worn. I misspelled a few words with his writing. I wanted it to look like the little boy used masking tape to tape it to the add. To do this, I had to do all the above, then use masking tape to tape it onto black mat board. I had to get the lighting just right and I took a million pictures (it seems like to get just the effect I wanted). I had no idea that it took this much but I am very proud of it.

ABOVE: I believe this was our first project we did in Typography and it was so much fun. We had to use ONLY computer fonts to make a self portrait of ourselves. It was so much fun to see everyone's because most of them truly looked like the person.

ABOVE: I think this was either the first of second thing we did in Typography. This was to be a small poster. We were to use only 2 colors. We could use different shades of the color. Looking back, I now could do this so much better but AGAIN, that is why I post these to remind us that we ALL get better with practice and learn from our mistakes.

~My Bottle...Using Stipplling~

This again was one of my favorite projects to do. I did this one my first semester in High School and it is such a tedious thing, our professor didn't make us do it so I really had no clue what I was doing at the time. I know more about it now. I still just love the way it turned out. The process is called "Stippling" and can be called several other things as well. The whole picture is made out of tiny close together dots (some closer together than others to get the different shades). Above: The above drawing was done on an 15"x24" piece of paper and literally took all semester long and one single marker to complete (if you can believe that.) My mom used to have a very dark green bottle that had grapes wrapped around it. I put the bottle in front of a window and the light variations were amazing. So, I first drew out all the different variations with pencil and then used 3 main shades that I wrote in with pencil. When I was finished with all the dots, I tried to do some blending so it didn't look so blotchy.

Above: This is just a close up of the piece of the bottle, and the grape vine going around it. You can really see all the dots here.

~Some Drawings from "Drawing I" (PENCIL)~

These are my drawings from my first semester of college. In the past, I had only done cartoon art so I truly didn't believe that I could actually do any other kind of art. And remember, these are my very first ones so don't laugh...
ABOVE: This was a fun drawing even though it looks like it is floating in the middle of no where. I have one of those crumpled up cowgirl hats that I looked at to make the hat. I am very proud of the way the hat turned out. The boot is my FAT BABY boot and I made up the rope. If I were to do this one again. I would put an old boot and an old rope to draw. I think that would make this drawing awesome.
ABOVE: Here I am trying so hard to grasp the concept of making things look real and not flat. You can tell here that I am a cartoon artist. That is exactly what it looks like. DO YOU SEE ANYTHING ABOUT THIS DRAWING THAT ISN'T RIGHT? IF YOU DO, WRITE ME A COMMENT!

ABOVE: This was a STILL LIFE drawing. Here, more than anything, our professor was trying to help us grasp the concept of "drapery." For yall who don't know what that is, it is drawing material, the way it drapes, whether it is a sheet, blanket, clothing, curtain, etc... It is really easy for some people to draw it. I still have a hard time with it but I need to practice. My professor sat down with me one day when I wouldn't leave class because I couldn't grasp this. He told me that he had to practice and practice and practice until one day, he just saw it and has been drawing it every since. I NEED TO PRACTICE. It really is a beautiful thing.

ABOVE: This was one of my first drawings in college. Our professor set up some things for us to draw. This is my basket. I learned a lot from this drawing. (NOT TO DRAW EVERYTHING I SEE...TO SIMPLIFY A LITTLE). :-)

ABOVE: This was another STILL LIFE drawing. I remember this one because a very dear friend and incredible artist I sat by in class, taught me about negative space on this one. To make the strings white and surround it with shading to make it look a little more real.

ABOVE: This is another STILL LIFE drawing. This was before I knew there was such thing as a blender. (SO NOT FUNNY!) A blender would have helped this one tremendously!

~My "Water Lilies" Pastel Drawing~

This was my final Design I project. We were to pick a famous painting and try to copy it to the best of our ability. Let's just say that I will never again say," I can do that" about any artists work again...not that I did that about this painting of "Water Lilies" by Monet.

The above pastel drawing is my finished product. By looking at it, you can tell what painting it is, but it was almost impossible to get it exact with the time we had to do it. I did pull a couple of all nighter's to do this project. I had never worked with pastel's before. I can say now that I absolutely loved working with the pastels and this project was one of the most rewarding projects that I have ever done!

The above picture is my work in progress. You can tell that I had never used pastels. But I love looking at it because I learn so much from it.

This above photo is my workspace during this process. I have tried to work on an easel but never liked it. With pastels, you almost have to work on an easel for several reasons. Pastels smear very bad so you don't want to be resting your hand on the paper which would also make it greasy. Also, pastels have a lot of powder that you need to let run off as you work. I just loved it!

And this above picture is Claude Monet's famous "Water Lilies" painting on the left
...and my "Water Lilies" pastel drawing on the right.

~My Very first Colored Pencil Realism Drawings~

These drawings were all done my second semester of college in Drawing II. I was very intimidated by them at first but I ended up loving the process. There is so much blending, highlighting and shadowing involved. I had no idea but it was very rewarding.
"Leopard Lampshade"


"Pepper Half"

"Tomato Half"

"Melon Half"

"Chili Peppers"

~Manikin Series~

These drawings were done my first and second semesters of college in Drawing I and Drawing II. Drawing these manikins have been really good at helping me see how the body moves and I just learned to have a lot of fun with my little manikin. Each drawing took VERY little time...I would say 2 minutes tops...if that much!
The drawing above is my favorite. This one was actually in the AC/WTAMU Student/Faculty Art Exhibit my second semester. I call this one "Dancing Manikin." The medium used here are Prismacolor Colored Pencils.
This drawing above I actually did way to fast. The manikin is actually supposed to be running the opposite direction but it is hard to tell this. But we all learn from things like this! The medium used is pastel.
This drawing above, I have to laugh at also because I ended up running out of room at the bottom and made his legs short. This is my "Success Manikin." The medium used is pastel.
The drawing above is called my "Stepping Forward" Manikin. The medium used here is pastel.
This is my "Praying Manikin." I wouldn't be where I am today and where I am going to be without God! This one is done in conte crayon.
The drawing above was also put in the AC/WTAMU Student/Faculty Art Exhibit. This one was done with Prismacolor Colored Pencils. This one is called "Manikin of Many Colors."

I would be willing to reproduce by hand if you happen to be interested. Just comment below or e-mail me at hdstokes2@suddenlink.net

~Artist Trading Card~

Front side...Back side...
This is called an "Artist Trading Card" I made in Design I. This was a really fun project. To learn more about Artist Trading Cards, you can google: artist trading cards and look at a wide variety of cards made by many different artists. They are really fun to look at.

Art made spring semester 2007

This is my Whimsical butterfly that I painted for my best friend's baby, Ella. The medium is acrylic paint heavily applied. It also has small rhinestones added to it. It was placed on black mat board with two bows at the top corners and her name painted down the right side on the black mat board. I will be selling whimsical paintings in the very near future!