I have finally  gotten around to overhauling my website. it should be finished in a week or so. in the meantime here is a new painting for you to enjoy.

Some resent work.

Wow has it been forever and a day since I posted here. Long store short there have been a lot of family issues that have taken up a great deal of my life. Things are returning to "normal" again. Time to get back to work.

One of the things I have been working on lately is the idea of working from out of a cigar box. Artists have a long history for using them as portable studios. They are light, portable and you can fit a bunch of stuff in them.

For this project I limited the size of the piece to some thing that would fit in the cigar box as well. My materials were clay board, watercolor, litho crayon, black prisma pencils and a soft pencil. Other supplies included a razor blade, a metal scribe and a eraser. Here are some pics. For more pictures check out the studios Facebook page. Enjoy.
- Eric

New Study up for sale on my main website. And it is a heck of a buy right now.
www.brokenroadcreativestudios.com

This study of a was done on a whim just for fun but it turned out fantastic. I have not done a mixed media piece in years and the other day I had the urge to break out as many mediums as I could, litho crayon, colored pencils, india ink, water colors and the kitchen sink and throw then all at a piece of illustration board. This was the final result.

Time to dust off the blog

Wow it has been forever since I have posted anything here.
Sorry about that. Life has a way of getting  us caught up in all sorts of things.
How about if I post a new painting to start things off.
 The title of this painting is " Traveler"











To learn more about or to purchase this beautiful little painting click here.

So where have I been?

Wow, has the summer gone fast. I have been busy at he studio the last few months with class and commissions. In the next few days I will be working on updates to my main website and this falls class schedule. There will also be some new post for this blog as well. So check back later this week.
If you are interested in commissioning a painting from me shoot me a email at : brokenroadstudio@oh.rr.com

Happy Memorial Day

Oil Painting of a Marine F4U 5N Night Fighter.
These planes and their pilots served during the  Korean War.

New Rubber Stamps Designs

http://brokenroadcreativestudios.com/store/

Bald Eagle

I have been working on the oil painting off and on for a long time.

Not because its a complicated painting or because of it size. Originally it started out

as a painting just for me. I'm not sure I have ever done one of those. I finished it today. This pic is from yesterday almost done except for a few last details.

The funny thing is that my eight year old son has decided that is his. Ha ha, guess I took to long to finish it.

A commisioned painting.

For this bear painting I wanted you to feel that the bear was a force of nature.

 As indomitable and timeless as the land it's self. I used

both dry brush and wet into wet watercolor techniques.

Finished oil painting

Sorry about the banding. My scanner is not what it used to be.

Start of a new painting

New Little Watercolor

It has been kinda rough getting back into the swing of things. So I decided to kick things off with a quick little drybrush painting. More to come soon.

White Throated Sparrows 6x10 inches

Yes, I am still here. Been a bit distracted.

Wondering where I have been? Me too. Between delays at the new studio, a cold that wouldn't go away a car accident and a bunch of classes most of January has been a blur. Literally. But I am back and ready to work. The studio will be opening next week no matter what it looks like or if there is anything on the walls. I will be offering classes there and the will be listed on my website. www.brokenroadcreativestudios.com

Stop back tomorrow I think I might get out and do some sketching in the A.M. if I do I will post them in the evening.

My new website is up and running.

Finally my new website is finished ( well mostly ). My new line of rubber stamps are available there and in the future I will have new paintings availabe for purchase there as well.

Stop by and check it out.


http://www.brokenroadcreativestudios.com/

"Cross Roads" oil painting is finished

The " Cross Roads" painting is finished. It is the biggest painting I have done in quiet awhile at 20x30 inches.
It also proved to be a tough one to photograph. The light outside today is terrible for taking pictures and I don't have the room inside to set up a place with good lighting to take them in the studio. Something to add to my wish list. This picture was the best of the bunch  and it has a hazy glare in the bottom right corner.

Cross Roads Oil Painting

Progress! I have most of the painting roughed in now. Still developing the background,

New Painting and some News

I know I have been away for awhile. I have been making lots of changes here at the studio and expanding what I do. For a long time I have wanted to combine my love for illustration and story telling with my wildlife art. The trouble has been that my illustration work has always been very different from my fine art work. Even though the same techniques and thought processes go into both types of work I have never been quite comfortable in bringing the two together in one place, a bad idea I picked up somewhere in art school. Something about high and low art. But through some soul searching and encouraging from some wonderful people ( even if they did not know that's what they were doing at the time) I have come to realize what a dumb and uninformed idea that really is.

Art should always be what it is to us as it is to children, a free expression of thoughts and ideas. Kids draw things they love or things they think about, good or bad. They are expressing ideas and emotions. It doesn't matter if they are drawing pokemon, dragons, people, flowers or something that they make up. Whether the drawing of them and their Mom and Dad looks realistic or like three squiggly potatos holding hands it doesn't really matter to them,as long as the people they made it for like it and get the message it carries.

So what does all this mean for my studio? Well it means that I have spent the last few months illustrating and learning to make a fun line of rubber stamps for the studio that we are making entirely in house. A website will be up and running in a week or so that will feature both my illustration work ( rubber stamps, character illustration, illustrated stories, and a blog for rubber stamping ) and my fine art work ( watercolors, oil paintings and drawings ) some sections will be added over time, but new stuff will be added frequently to all sections.

The new painting I am starting has been a bit of a challenge. Not technically, but the concept for it has been evolving for several weeks ( that means I have painted over it and started over several times ). So I went out and did some sketching and took some photos. Today the concept finally gelled into a simple design that I hope will convey a story for myself and others. Here is the sketch for it.

"Cross Roads. A Change in Direction."

More rubber stamp illustrations

I was asked to create a line of stamps for Stamplistic, a local stamping and scrapbooking store. Jennifer, the owner thought she wanted to do something fun with mailboxes. She wasn't exactly sure what so she turned me loose on the idea. After a few sketches this is what we came up with! They are great for dressing up the front of envelopes but they make terrific cards too.

We also made some matching postage border designs to go along with the mailboxes.

Some samples of what I have been up to.

Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. I have been very busy with some freelance illustration work for Stacy Rich at StacyStamps. I recently completed several pen and ink drawings for her of  some common backyard birds. Two of which are taken from previous paintings. The stamps will be released to the public for sale on September 25th.

Just a quick sketch post.