Mrs. Kindron

Finally, the last of the teachers' portraits for the year. Next year I'll try not to kill myself by putting these off until May. I hate stressing about whether or not I'll be able to complete the last one.

Mrs. Ball

Here's one of my youngest's preschool teachers, Mrs. Ball.

Mrs. Gutowski

My youngest son's preschool teacher, Mrs. Gutowski.

"How I Make a Picture" by Al Parker

For a long time, it frustrated me that I couldn't find much information about Al Parker, one of the greatest illustrators of the 20th century. I'd seen enough of his work on Today's Inspiration and 100 Years of Illustration that I had to know more about this man and his art. Fortunately, Mr. Parker, the "Dean of Illustrators" was also one of the faculty of the Famous Artists' Schools, so several of his works are used to illustrate concepts in the lessons. I was excited to learn that Mr. Parker even wrote many examples in the lessons himself.

But that wasn't enough. What I wanted was a book on Mr. Parker. Forget a book written by Mr. Parker himself - I knew that didn't exist.

Or did it? Actually, it did and still does - if you are lucky enough to have access to it. Fortunately, I work for a university, and through our library, I'm able to get pretty much any book available at a library or other university in the United States. That's how I was able to get my hands on "How I Make a Picture", the book that Mr. Parker wrote as a Master Course for the Famous Artists' School. The book exceeded my expectations - it's 189 pages written by the artist, and gives a complete, and I mean complete, lesson on, well, how he made pictures. Thank goodness for libraries; otherwise, you're looking at $225 to $850 for one of these babies, and they're certainly not easy to come by.

I'm now in heaven. Not only did Mr. Parker write this book, but just about every founding faculty member of the Famous Artists' School also wrote one by the same title. Imagine picking the brains of Norman Rockwell, Jon Whitcomb, Robert Fawcett, Stevan Dohanos, Austin Briggs, Harold von Schmidt, Fred Ludekens, John Atherton, Ben Stahl and Peter Helck. That's what these books are like. Man, I can't wait to read them all.

Mr. Patterson - Final

OK, so I'm under a little pressure to complete four portraits for my children's teachers by the time school gets out. Here's the first one, Aidan's teacher, Mr. Patterson. He's got a great face for drawing - lots of character. Hopefully I did him justice. You never know how they'll react. Mrs. Gleaves remarked that I put in her wrinkles, but she still liked it. We'll see what Mr. Patterson thinks when I give it to him next month...

Amazing Pencil Portraits 2

Now it can be told: my portraits of Aidan and Cole are featured in the new book, "Amazing Pencil Portraits 2" by Platte Productions! I don't have my copy yet, but I'm very excited about it, and honored to be included with such great artists! I guess I'd better start drawing again...