Mill City is Done!!!!!

Well after weeks of working on the Mill City painting, I can officially say it is done. I have cropped the painting to show you what it will look like when it is back onto its stretcher bars. I have also gone and lit the painting a little better so you get a clearer image of it. Hope you like!

What is home?

Well this is a little color sketch that I did when someone posed the question of "what is communty? and what does it look like?" The sketch is done with ink in the background and oil pastel above that.

Working in the storm

How great it is to be in the studio and look out at the storm of snow and wind outside. And to think we were around 50 a couple of days ago. Crazy how the weather is. Anyways, I have worked more on the big mill painting and am getting close to done. I will hopefully post a finished version by Tuesday or Wed. this upcoming week. The Hooked on Reading event this morning was alot of fun as well. It was nice to see the families venture out in the weather to come and visit with us in Chaska and the kids where having a good time with all the activities around. Now it is time to get ready for the workshop at the end of march and some other upcoming deadlines. Never a dull moment that's for sure!

NIght of promotional work

Well tonight ended up being a very productive one with some promotional work getting done. I also signed up for a portfolio slot at portfolio.com which is a great place for artists of all sorts. The link to my section is portfolios/shawnmccann. I also worked a little on the Mill City painting but will wait to post an update on the image till tomorrow.

Wed work

The mill city work continues with more details being added here and there. This one has alot of things that need to go into it and will be happy when I can start putting more finishing touches on it. I am really finding though that I love working at this size and hope to continue on other paintings in the near future with similar measurements, maybe even bigger if possible. In other news, I am currently developing some classes that will be offered in the twin cities this summer and fall. I will be sure to post the news as soon as I can get some finalized dates and times set up.

Mon. Mill City progress

Here's the progress of the Mill City Painting. I managed to get alot of the tower ground colors laid in and will be able to start addressing the ground colors of the ruins themselves a little more. The biggest challenge is trying not to work in a specific area too long and bringing the whole painting along with it. But for the time I've put in so far I believe the piece is coming along nicely.

After a hiatus

After having this painting on hiatus for the last number of months I have finally decided to finish it and get it off the wall. I have about two weeks before the official move and would like to have it finalized by then. The only problem is it is huge. Measurements are 52 inches wide by 64 inches tall just on the image, not the canvas sizing. But I know I can get it done and have a good closure to this studio space. The image itself is of the Mill City Museum which is on the banks of the Mississippi here in Minneapolis. I really like how they have constructed this beautiful new museum out of the ruins of an old grain elevator. It is definitely a must see if you are here in the cities at all.

Another one bites the dust!

Here it is. The final of the 36" x 48" Grand Canyon piece. Finally I can put this one away and start in on the others. Let me know what you guys think!

Wed. work

Well I worked on the painting some more and am getting there slowly. I think I might actually be done here in the next couple of days. We'll see though as I always find areas to work on. Sorry for the funny glares on the painting too. It is hard to find an angle with the camera that doesn't show the wet paint. I think you get the just of it though.

Planning out the May show

As I am looking at the upcoming works that I am going to be doing the next few months, I took the time tonight to layout the tentative planning of the show coming up in May. I am currently looking at having around 18 pieces in the show and of those there will be 11-12 paintings and 6-7 drawings. So with that, I have taken a look at the overall images and possibilities and am excited to get these done. There will be a few in the show that are already done, but know this will be a large group of unseen pieces. As for the images that I have attached, they are some sketches that I did during lunch today listening to some blues music with a harmonica player in the lead. It is funny how listening to things can bring so many images to mind and I had some fun with sketching them!

Large painting update

Finally I can get a progress report posted about the large canyon painting that I started a few weeks ago. The painting itself has been thickened up with layers and is starting to take a more finished approach. It still has a ways to go, but hopefully you can get a good sense of what the final painting will start to look like. Other than that, i have been working on another digital illustration that I will hopefully get a chance to show soon.

It's even colder here!

So I made it to Wahpeton, North Dakota and it is even colder than the -2 F temp it was when I left the twin cities. I think it is supposed to get to -14 below tonight. I knew I made it home when I saw a couple of snowmobiles sitting in the parking lot to the restaurant in town. Nothing like going to grab a bite on a snowmobile. I also noticed that one of the town's landmark(and tallest) buildings was being torn down so that was a little depressing, but still it is good to be home and will be back in the studio tomorrow after I return to the Twin Cities. I will finally get another image posted then when I get back to a scanner!

Off to the Dakota's

Finally the weekend has come and I am getting ready to head up to North Dakota tomorrow. It will be nice to get back home and see everyone. As for yesterday's news, I went and visited the gallery space out in Waconia and am getting things ready for a May 7th thru June 11th show. Tonights work has included woking on a project with some calligraphy and will soon be working on the paintings that are staring at me on the easel. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I will try and get a post done tomorrow as well.

Final touches on Blues Poster

After a week of tweeking the image here and there, I can finally say that the blues poster is complete. You will notice that the text is abscent from the image and I did that on purpose since the image won't be judged with the text in place. This is by far one of the largest files of a digital illustration that I have worked on at a little over a gigabyte and my Mac came thru with flying colors. I am really glad that I decided to upgrade to a quicker processor because with my old computer, I would have never been able to handle a full gig file. The cool thing is that if I wanted to print this image It could be printed as large as 4ft by 5ft and still be as crisp as the full 22" x 28" it is. So with that, I look at the rest of the pieces that need to be finished and am trying to figure which one is next. The good thing is I can look at the ones that need to be done the soonest and pic them that way.

Catching up on submissions and all

Happy Monday to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl last night and didn't party too hard! Today has been a catchup day of sorts with lots of submissions stuff needing to get out into the mail and other odds and ends. I figured what better day to take care of those than a Monday. I did get a little time into some sketching so it wasn't a wasted one at that. Now hopefully tomorrow I can be a little bit more productive in the studio. I thought I would still attach an image for your enjoyment. It is the study I did of the "Kolb studio" painting I am currently working on.

Hooked on Books event

Saturday is here and it started off in fine fashion. I just found out that I will be apart of the Hooked on Books celebration in Chaska coming up on the 24th of February. It looks like a great event for the family and will be excited to come up with an activity that the kids can learn what an illustrator does for a book. It will also be featuring other writers and artists as well so if you are looking for something fun to do, it will be held from 9:30 to noon at the Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center in Chaska. I've also attached the promo poster for the event. In other news, I will begin the process of packing up soon to get ready for the move. But don't worry, the last thing I pack up and the first boxes opened are my art supplies. So there will still be plenty of art making thru the move.

It continues...

Well here is tonights effort into the poster. I added more detail to the wall behind him and also tried some different locations and ways to utilize the fonts. Any thoughts on what you guys think about the text?