Chain Maille Chess Set

My son, Matthew, just completed this chain maille chess set. He has spent approximately 500 hours over the past 2 years creating the individual chess pieces and chess board. The rings are aluminum, copper and black anodized aluminum. The framed artwork is approximately 24"x46".

He is extra creative and decided to frame the chess board to save table space. The shelves are glass and he hand polished the edges smooth.

He has this at his office and there is a continual chess game going amongst his co-workers.

This is truly an beautiful and unique piece of functional artwork. Not bad for an aerospace engineer ( aka rocket scientist!!)

Detail of chess board:

Sample of the knight and pawn pieces: One set of chess pieces:

Clouds Breaking

There are days that the sky is so blue and crystal clear with soft cottony clouds billowing up. We've had some beautiful cloud formations this summer, typically an indication of thunderstorms brewing. I could watch these clouds all day long! Enjoy!

Red Rock Lake

Red Rock Lake is located just west of Pella, Iowa. This section of the lake is the Elk Rock State Park area. We've spent quite a bit of time camping here and I love sitting down on the old driftwood logs listening to the water lapping the shores.

The shoreline is rugged with lots of jagged rocks and driftwood. Iron and coal deposits run through the bluff creating beautiful rusts, creams and charcoal colors with the backdrop of deep green trees.

This drawing is on mellotex paper. It's a smooth paper that accepts graphite well. It's easy to build layers of graphite and the sky was very easy with just a bit of graphite smoothed with a chamois. Time: 2 hours.

Size: 8 x 12 - Leads 4B, 2B and F.

Diane

New Book - Drawing LifeLike Subjects

Walter Foster is releasing July 2009 a new book featuring highlights from 4 artist authors from the Drawing Made Easy series. The four artists are Diane Cardaci, Nolon Stacy, Linda Weil and Diane Wright. This book is 8-1/2"x11" and so the artwork images are twice the size of the Drawing Made Easy books. I will not be selling this book directly but if you use the link to Amazon on my website, I will receive a small commission.

Tehachapi Mountain Park - A Bit of Paradise

Tehachapi, California is a wonderland of different landscapes. This little rocky area in the park is an artist's dream... I could spend days exploring all the possible rock and tree groupings. The rocks are rough with lichen and moss covered. But I concentrated on the shape of them. I opened the path up just a little bit. Enjoy!

Tree Bark

I started this drawing several months ago and set it aside unfinished. After such a break, you see it with fresh eyes and with a few hours more of work, I can call it completed.

This is a study of oak tree bark. The rich deep furrows, the rough textures and the movement of growth around the scarred limb cuts were wonderful to explore.

Enjoy!

Diane

Drawing - Structures and Buildings

Buildings can create interest and diversity to a landscape. It can be the focal point or it can be a supporting actor. It can create a scene that tells a story, it can help put people or animals into perspective or create a backdrop for the scene. Buildings are one of the easiest ways to identify geographical regions. From urban skylines to country cottages, fishing shacks to barns, mines, mills, churches and historical architectural wonders - they are an endless resource for artists

COMPOSITION CONSIDERATIONS.

How much of the building do you want to include? Perhaps it's just a window, a door, or a corner of a building is used to create an interesting composition.

A part of the structure or the entire building may be drawn. But even if the building is the focal point, the surrounding landscape is just as important. It should complement and embrace the building.

Be sure objects are of the proper proportion. Checking the size of windows and doors to match the height of people, animals or other objects is important.

How to lead the eye through the scene? A road or a path can lead and control the viewer's direction into the scene. The sway of the grass or a branch can also bring the scene together.

PERSPECTIVE

Drawing realistic buildings requires an understanding of perspective. If perspective rules are ignored, you will find the building will not 'sit' in the scene correctly. My book "Drawing Made Easy:Beautiful Landscapes" briefly touches on the subject. Two other good books include: Perspective (Artist's Library series #13) by William F Powell and Drawing Scenery: Landscapes, Seascapes and Buildings (The Art of Drawing) by Giovanni Civardi

Using perspective is fundamental to making a building structure look correct, but it should not dominate the artwork. Diligently drawing straight lines to perfect perspective sucks the life right out of the piece and the artwork will start to resemble illustration or architectural drawings. My preference is to use a t-square to confirm or correct my sketched outline. I will then deliberately freehand over a ruler line to breathe life back into the edge.

Perspective is used to create a sense of depth for the buildings, but paying attention to placement of objects, overlapping of objects and aerial or atmospheric perspective also have key roles in the success of the scene.

Consistent light source. Identify the direction of the sun and create the shadow angles consistently. This will create a solid 3-dimensional structure. Try doing thumbnail sketches to change the light source direction from early morning, to noon to late afternoon. Changing the direction of the shadows may create an entirely different mood or feeling to the scene. It can also help you understand the value composition better.

NEW v. OLD BUILDINGS

New buildings - The window frames and angles need to be sharp and crisp. On an older building these can be relaxed slightly, but they are still critical to the success of the building. On old buildings, perspective still applies. Unless the building has an intentional lean or ready to fall down, the vertical lines are still vertical and the side angles still converge to a vanishing point.

TEXTURES

This is where the fun begins. Bricks, stonework, shingles, window trimmings and old wood are just a few of the wonderful textures to explore when drawing buildings. I don't attempt to draw every brick or every stone in a building so I am always experimenting with pencil strokes to find just the right pattern to 'represent' the texture.