Painting For My Muse: 2018

Friday, November 9, 2018

Amare (The Angel of Love)

This illustration is the second of a triptych series of Angels: "Peace, Love, and Joy". My influence for this series was the stained glass works created during the Gothic period of art and the angelic art of the 15th century.

Medium: Watercolor, Ink, & Pastel on bristol paper
Dated: 2018
Original size: 9"x 7"

Monday, November 5, 2018

Pacem (The Angel of Peace)

This illustration is the first of a triptych series of Angels: "Peace, Love, and Joy". My influence for this series was the stained glass works created during the Gothic period of art and the angelic art of the 15th century.

Medium: Watercolor, Ink, & Pastel on bristol paper
Dated: 2018
Original size: 9"x 7"

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Halloween Doodles

These sketches were done in an art journal I had during my my high school years as a teenager. My photography instructor had us keep a journal and we had to turn in a minimum of 5 pages every week. The idea was to get your head in your creative side daily. It was a great exercise, one I should do more often. I walked on the "darker side" of life during these years and like Ministry's famous song, Halloween was everyday for me.

Medium: Graphite, prismacolor, watercolor, and ink on sketch paper
Dated: 1992-1993
Original size: 8"x 6"

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

This illustration was done as an extra credit assignment for my English class during my sophomore year of high school. I was one of the few students who loved reading Shakespeare and I jumped at the opportunity to illustrate one of my favorite poems. I also used Patrick Nagel's style to draw the woman since he was a huge influence for me during these early years.

In case you didn't know, the opening line on this illustration is also a lyric in Sting's song Sister Moon from the album Nothing Like the Sun.

Medium: Ink and prismacolor on sketch paper
Dated: 1991
Original size: 14"x 11"

Friday, October 12, 2018

Anatomy Face Study

Basic anatomy drawing is important to all artists and most of us start with the human face. The eyes, nose, and mouth have a unique symmetry to them. Lots of practice is required in order to bring them from the model to the page.

Here are some of my early studies which I sketched in the journal I kept as a teenager in high school.

Medium: Graphite on sketch paper
Dated: 1991-1993
Original size: 8"x6"

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 5, 2018

Letter Transition: V for Vampire

This illustration was done in my Commercial Art class. It was a "transition" assignment starting where I had to start with a letter in the alphabet and transform it into an object. I loved this assignment and went with a vampire theme.

Medium: Ink and prismacolor on sketch paper
Dated: 1991
Original size: 4"x 10"

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Still Life Organizational Line Drawings

Organizational line drawings provide a structural, analytical framework for a drawing. These lines take the measure of an object's height, width, depth, and spacial relation to any other objects next to it. Typically the lines are rough and the edges are unfinished. I don't really like messy lines, so on all of my drawings the lines and edges are cleaner. The samples below are some that I did during my Drawing I class in 2011.

Medium: Graphite an Newsprint and Sketch paper
Dated: 2011
Original size: varies

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Monday, September 10, 2018

Divine Irony - Concept Sketch #2

This sketch was inspired by DC Vertigo's comic book series Lucifer, a spinoff of Neil Gaimon's The Sandman series and by Dante Alighieri's novel The Divine Comedy.

Lucifer Morningstar is a handsome devil dressed in a tuxedo shown reading and being amused by Dante's novel.

This sketch was the second one I did while trying to figure out the composition I wanted for the final painting.

Medium: Graphite on vellum
Dated: 2018
Original size: 14"x 11"

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Gaudium (Joy) - Ink Drawing

This illustration "Gaudium" is the third and final in my triptych series of Angels: "Peace, Love, and Joy".

Watercolor is next!

Medium: Ink on bristol paper
Dated: unfinished
Original size: 9"x 7"

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Vanessa

This illustration is another tribute to one of my early influences, Patrick Nagel. I loved the challenge of seeing the world through Patrick's eyes and his style helped me to better understand both composition and anatomy.

Medium: Ink on vellum paper
Dated: 1995
Original size: 12"x 9"

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Pokemon Pikachu

My oldest daughter brought home a few Pokemon cards one day, about 2 years ago, and things haven't been the same since!

At my daughter's request, I did a drawing of her favorite character, Pikachu, in sepia pencil. I used her stuffed animal of Pikachu as my still life "model" and here is the result:

Medium: sepia pencil on sketch paper
Dated: 2015
Original size: 12"x 9"

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The Goddess Demeter - Watercolor Underpainting

This illustration depicts Demeter, the goddess of the harvest who presides over the bounty and fertility of the earth, waiting in her temple at the ancient city of Eleusis for her daughter, Persephone.

The story goes that Hades, the younger brother of Zeus and Poseidon, fell in love with Persephone and abducted her, taking her to the Underworld to be his wife. Demeter searched relentlessly for her daughter and the seasons came to a halt. With the earth at the brink of starvation, Zeus sent Hermes to fetch Persephone. Hades would only release her if she had not eaten anything while in his domain. Alas, poor Persephone had eaten a few seeds of a pomegranate and so was partially bound to the Underworld and Hades for certain months of the year, hence Fall and Winter. The arrival of Spring means that Demeter will be reunited with her daughter and so she waits anxiously in anticipation of that meeting.

Here is the original watercolor. I am repainting this in oil.

Medium: Watercolor on Crescent™ Cold Press board
Dated: 2010
Original size: 20"x 30"

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Gaudium (Joy) - Sketch

This illustration "Gaudium" is the third and final in my triptych series of Angels: "Peace, Love, and Joy".

Here are the previous designs

Medium: Graphite on bristol paper
Dated: 2018
Original size: 9"x 7"

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Depeche Mode: Flexible

This is a song illustration that I created for Depeche Mode's song Flexible from the album Catching Up With Depeche Mode.

Medium: Prismacolor on sketch paper
Dated: 1990
Original size: 14"x 11"

All images are ™ & © dba Albrecht Illustrations. All rights reserved.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Durer Study

This was done as a quick portrait sketch from one of the portraits which Albrecht Durer painted. It is always a good thing to study the masters which came before you.

Medium: Graphite on sketch paper
Dated: 2004
Original size: 12"x 9"

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Aphrodite of Melos Statue

In 2011, my Drawing I class went to the Blanton Art Museum located at the University of Texas campus. We spent a few hours in the sculpture gallery to do figure drawing. I have a passion for ancient history, particularly Greek, Roman, and Egyptian history, so this was my favorite part of the field trip that day.

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Sarah

Medium: Ink on Canson marker paper
Dated: 1995
Original size: 12"x 9"

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Vampire the Masquerade: Brujah

This illustration was done for a female vampire character of the Brujah clan in the Camarilla faction of White Wolf's RPG, Vampire the Masquerade. The chess piece is a symbol of her rank in the vampire society.

Medium: Graphite on vellum paper
Dated: 1993
Original size: 10"x 8"

Monday, July 2, 2018

Deadly Beauty

With her latest victim's blood splattering the wall, you would be wise to keep a distance from this female vampire should you meet her in a dark alleyway!

This illustration was the second to be done for my gothic vampire series, Red Death, drawn exclusively in black and white with a touch of red. This image was used by DNA Publications as the cover of the Spring 1997 edition of the magazine Dreams of Decadence.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Depeche Mode: Sometimes

This is a song illustration that I created for Depeche Mode's Sometimes song from the album Black Celebration.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Force of Nature - Sketch

This was a lot of fun designing. I knew that I wanted to depict a druid while casting a spell and I thought what better way to illustrate it than to show one while summoning forth the power of the wind. It was a challenge to get the gust of his hair and robe just right, but the end result is that the composition flows well with the movement of the leaves.

I am currently painting this in oil.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Still Life Contour Line Drawings

These still life contour line drawings are done slowly and by drawing a one continuous line that captures the outline of an object or figure to emphasize the mass and volume of the subject rather than the detail. The drawings below are some samples that I did while in my Drawing I class.

Medium: Graphite an Strathmore sketch paper
Dated: 2011
Original size: 10"x 8"