Greetings From Seattle
 

Hello Everyone!

I'm so glad to be a part of the SOG Forum! As an artist and appreciator of art, this is without a doubt one of the coolest places on the Web Planet I've ever seen! Such a magnificent portfolio of gifted and prolific people. :exclamati

I am spankin' new at the beginnings of doing portrait work. I've been a sign painter/designer for the last 30 years. I've done everything in the sign business from hand lettering to pictorial work on billboards and walls.....working in many different cities in a few different states. It's been a great life and has always "paid the bills".

In the last 3 years I began a side hobby of doing graphite portraiture as gifts for family and friends. The "word-of-mouth" advertising has gotten around and I now have several paid commissions on the boards in my home studio. I've also just started a new oil portrait as a slight departure from the seascapes I've been doing in the last year as well.

I have loved the study of the FIne Art created by the Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens for as long as I can remember. I've seen their work in the galleries of San Diego and San Francisco, California.....where I've been dragged away by my lovely wife, Julie......who's had to rescue me from sitting and staring for long periods of time with tears running down my cheeks. :o

Best Regards,
Geary

Welcome Geary,

You'll find this forum to be much different than the others, you'll receive much better feedback than "ooh, that's pretty, how'd you do that?" There's a very high probabaility that they know how you did it. :) Hope you enjoy your time here, and find what you're looking for.

Hi Geary!

Nice to meet you and welcome to the Forum. Nice to see another graphite portrait artist! I really like the pieces you posted, especially the first one - great subjects!! I look forward to your participation on this Forum and hope to see more of your work in drawing critiques, unveilings, etc.

Hello Geary.

Welcome to this Forum. I have seen the start of your portrait of your daughter. It

Welcome to the Forum, Geary! Glad everything is now set up for you to post. I look forward to seeing more examples of your stuff online, and reading more of your posts. (I never was able to open those jpegs of your seascapes you sent me. Who knows why!)

Sunset wave
 

Oh, hi Michele!

Looks like you've got the night watch in Seattle.... :D I'm in my studio right now when I heard the "chime" on my email notification.

Hey....Yeah, weird stuff with my jpgs going through on emails lately. You're the second person who's not been able to open. Hmmmm....must be my "Mac thing". :(

At any rate.......THANKS.....it's sure great to be here. I've already learned about 'two semesters' worth of tips in about 2 days!

Hope it's ok to show you a detail from one of my seascapes right here. If not......I'll remove it.....K? It's one of two details I have that look halfway decent. The shot of the whole piece just didn't come out at all.


-Gear

Strictly speaking, we want to keep the Forum to just portrait images, but I think since it's in the "Introduce Yourself" section, it's probably ok to post it here. Nice color by the way!

Geary,

Welcome to the forum. Being mostly a land lubber I can really appreciate those seascapes, yours looks very nice. I tried one a few years ago with a burning sun on the water, it really looked bad. I ended up cutting the sun and sky out of the center and framing it.

Thanks Mike.

I still need to reduce the intensity of that sky, though! One of my favorite seascape artists of all time is Byron Pickering. He told me that two of the easiest mistakes that most "seascapers" make is making the sky with too much color and darkness. I'm seeing that this one still looks like I've blown it on both accounts! Guess I better rerturn his lesson CD....;C He's on the Oregon coast about halfway down the state and here's his website. http://www.pickeringstudio.com

Michele: I'll try opening up those shots in another program and send them again. (I have no idea why that works sometimes - I thought a jpg is a jpg is a jpg.....) :bewildere

Wow, I went to Pickering's website and got seasick just looking at his beautiful paintings!! Forwarded the site to my son, who is in the Coast Guard - he will love them.

Hi Geary,

Welcome to the forum from yet another newcomer. I really admire your graphite talent. Sorry for the belated timing. I was among the first to see your introduction, and then my phone line failed before I could respond.

I look forward to your posts.

Garth

Hello Jimmie, Patricia and Allan.....thanks for the welcome and compliments.

Thanks Garth. I've just begun reading through your own intro and many deserved respones. I'm still reeling from the all the talented members of this community. It's like being in Foyer of Art Heaven!

Gear

Hi Geary,

Just wanted to add a quick welcome to the forum. I love the range of values and the subject matter of your introductory graphite piece.

Your seascape makes me miss the ocean - my husband and I are from the northwest and now live in Arizona. He spent 40 years in Paulsbo and Bremerton and is loving the sunshine. I like the heat, but can do without all this brightness.

Thanks Heidi,

I grew up in central Cal so I do miss the sunshine sometimes when we have winters like this......LOTS of rain! But, it suits me fine. The weather here is cool 'n cloudy......just like my favorite beer......Hefeweizen! :)

I just have to tell you that I don't get how you great sculptors do it. I have taken classes in sculpting a couple of times. I still don't have the FOGGIEST idea how you do such marvelous workmanship. It's very accurate and so.......what's the word.....ummm.......TACTILE...yeah, that's it! :sunnysmil

Cya 'round,
Gear

Hello Geary!

Nice drawing indeed.

Would be happy to study the details of the texture,
and hope to see you eventually in Seattle.

Thanks Sergio,

Here's a try at a close-up of the drawing. The overall dimensions of the Bristol board are 11" x 14". Just a bit smaller than what you like to work with......haha! :D

Geary