4-5-26 Painting: 2 Birds & 1 Owl

 April 4, 2026  Painting: 2 Birds & 1 Owl

 

 Well, I'm back!  I guess I took a hiatus.  I admit to not being the most prolific artist, or should I say not the most consistently productive.  If you do follow my blog, I appreciate it.  Since I don't know who, if any one, is reading my blog, I suppose I do this for myself, in a way.  

My wife wanted me to decorate a dresser that she had decoupaged many many years ago, and it had sustained some damage/wear and tear over the years.  She wanted me to paint something bright and cheerful.  See picture #2.  

She then wanted me to paint a 24" x 36" painting to go in the same room and that would 'relate' to the dresser.  I started off with a thumbnail sketch.  It's kind of light; I didn't go in and darken or develop it, as I had enough information to ahead with laying out the painting.  As you can see, I drew a grid on the sketch in order to more easily copy the composition onto the canvas.  

Picture #3 shows how I quickly laid out the composition and painted in blocks of color loosely.  At this point, I was thinking, "How am I going to make this all work?  This is going to be tough."  Why?  Because I wasn't sure about what areas should have what colors, or what shade of colors.  An analogy might be... you have to walk up a steep hill.  You glance up the hill and think, oh groan, and finally, hopefully, you decide to just stop looking at the top of the hill and to just look at each step in front of you.  I would just have to figure it out step by step as I paint.  An interesting thought: sometimes, when you first start off a painting, your first go at hitting that blank canvas, you have a surge of adrenaline or excitement, like diving into a pool that nobody has been in, where there are no ripples.  You get to make that first splash to break the calmness of the water.  Staring at a new white canvas and preparing to paint is just like that.  Back to the idea of one's first foray into starting a painting, there is often a vibrancy, immediacy, energy, and sparkle to the painting.  Many students and artists may be tempted to call it finished, because it looks so good, so alive.  I've seen this before with some students I've taught.  But you have to continue working on it, even if you risk-and you are taking a necessary risk-of ruining the painting, or losing the aliveness of the painting.  You just have to take that risk.  I think I mentioned in one of my first/other blogs, that, as an artist, you have the right to 'blow' a work, screw it up.  You learn that way.  Here's the another aspect of this issue.  If you only paint to a certain point-the first 'splash' or session, and stop, you will never get any better than that first point.  You won't grow as an artist.  

Picture #4.  I'm trying to figure out what kind of blue to make the water in the background, and what kind of yellow, or yellow orange tone, to make the background and middle ground land areas.  Also, not sure about the green in the left foreground area....what kind of green.  

Picture #5.  Here, I have to figure out the tree the owl is sitting in.  I needed to make it fuller, adding more leaves and texture and color.  The background needs further developing.  

Picture #6.  Here, I'm messing with the orange of the flowers.  I was having trouble settling on what orange or red orange to use.  

Picture #7.  Here's the finished painting.  Hope you like it.  Thanks for reading.   

 

 

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 October 27, 2025

 

I apologize for my absence; I guess I apologize to myself as well.  I haven't been in the mood to create this past year.  I don't know why.  I wonder if it has to do with the current time we are living in.  Maybe, I just needed a break, or maybe I just got lazy.  Anyway, no excuses.  

These two drawings were done either earlier this year or at the latter part of 2024.  I've just been 'sitting' on them since.  I'm just finished working on my 2026 Calendar art.   I will probably put that up after Thanksgiving.  The drawings are just part of my fantasy world.  Both drawings were started without any preconceived ideas.  The drawings developed on their own.  

I was thinking that I have always been drawn to using pen and ink.  I seem to have a facility for using black ink pens, be it technical or fountain....and sometimes using a brush.  I'm hoping that 2026 will find me back at creating again.  I been having an idea for a painting, a more abstract or non-objective painting, but we'll see.  Happy holidays.  Russ Eng

P.S. I've given up my website, or rather I discontinued having it managed.  I can be reached at 

tngodncr@hotmail.com 

 

 

 

July 10, 2024

         I worked on this drawing over several months, starting, stopping, putting it aside, etc.  I was stuck on this drawing.  I thought it was a mess and thought seriously of just throwing it away.  Maybe the fact that I kept working on it off and on, was because I thought maybe I can make this work out okay.  Sometimes, it's good to 'take a break' from something, and then come back later to see it with fresh eyes.  One might think that my drawings (several?) are a bit busy, but I am trying to create an intimate, safe place to hang out in, a little 'secret garden'.  Anyway, I hope you like it.  Thanks for reading, Russ

https://studioeng.com/index.vm

 

 

 June 22, 2024

 

Here's the finished drawing from my last post.  I think I'm finished with it.  Sometimes it's hard to decide when to let the work go and be born, for good or bad.  I'm glad I didn't chuck this drawing at the beginning stage.  Did I save this drawing from the trash?  I don't know.  Or, was it just part of the process of creating?  Overall, I like the results, save for a couple of minor issues.  Unlike a pencil drawing, where you can erase any mistake, an ink drawing is like carving in stone.  There usually isn't any 'erase' options, not usually, unless you are able to turn a mistake into something else acceptable.  That doesn't happen that often.  I realized that with the couple in the bed, the woman's head is not correctly juxtaposed with the man's neck.  Yet, somehow, it still seems to work, I think.  The other thing is the mouse in the upper right.  I didn't know if I should have done more with that element.  I decided to leave it alone, as I wanted some open space for the viewer's eyes to 'rest', especially since the drawing is pretty busy.  I guess I like to make my drawings have intimacy on some level and be a safe space to hang out.  Thanks for reading.  

Russ Eng

StudioEng.com
 

Another in my apparent Fishbowl series

 

 

6-8-24

 

This is an unfinished drawing that I've been working on.  I just realized that this is another drawing with a fishbowl in it, so I guess it's another in a series.  I wonder what the significance of the fishbowl is.  It probably goes back to my youth.  At the risk of repeating myself, my uncle used to have a fish tank with a mass of plants and floating plants with tons of guppies and guppy babies.  I often spent time in front of that fish tank.  I would watch the small guppies taking refuge in the mass of floating plants, protecting themselves from the adults.  I  used to imagine myself being able to swim with the baby guppies in the mass of plants.  

I almost tossed this drawing.  I started this drawing and it seemed absolutely awful to me.  I was not happy with the way it was progressing.  I didn't like the emerging composition or the other elements.  I was a 'hair trigger' away from ripping the drawing out and tossing it.  Then, I started thinking about my own advice that I've given out, that  we often have good ideas, but we don't push it far enough to see what's there.  I reluctantly decided to continue.  I told myself that at the very least, I would try and learn as much as I could from pushing this drawing, even if I ultimately tossed it.  I also thought that maybe this was one of those "you have to go through the crap to get to the good stuff."  

Anyway, after struggling with this drawing for sometime, I started to make some positive progress and began to like what was happening.  I'm glad I listened to my inner self and that I didn't toss the drawing.  

I'm still working on this drawing, and I will post the finished drawing when it is done.  I haven't decided if I will add color to this drawing, maybe a color wash.  

Thanks for reading.  Russ Eng

StudioEng.com
 

 

 December 1, 2023

I can't believe it's that time of year again, the holiday season.  Where has the year gone?  It seems like the older I get, the faster a year goes by.  I remember as a kid, about 8?, that the summers seemed really long.  In a way, I wish for those carefree days, days that were innocent and fun, especially compared to the world we are all living in now.  Now, we need to actively search for or create our little islands of peace, love, safety, fun.....and the list could go on, right?  

Getting or doing this year's calendar art was a scramble.  I confess to getting a late start.  I didn't feel I had the luxury of time to slowly develop an idea.  Feeling the pressure of a deadline, I told myself, "All right, time to put the 'pedal to the metal'.  Just do it and don't take your sweet time!"  

Anyway, so here it is.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.  I started one thumbnail sketch and that was it.  I 'had' to make it work.  All or much of my work is about creating a safe, fun, and whimsical space for one to take refuge and be in.  Hope you like it.  

Thanks for reading.  Russ

Calendars are available at ArtstudioEng.com  >fine art gallery>calendars

 

November 9, 2023

Attached is my latest in a series of 5 x 7 drawings.  It's funny that I never know whether to title my work  or leave it as 'untitled'.  If I name it something, I will no doubt forget in a day what I named it.  Maybe this one could be 'Couple in Tub' or 'Couple of Tubbies'. : > )

When I began this drawing, as I often do sometimes, I just let the drawing develop itself.  I draw random lines and shapes and try to let the drawing develop on it's own.  As I worked on the drawing, I did not like how it was going, the direction it was headed.  I thought to myself, I should just tear it up and toss it.  I just didn't like the drawing.  I probably would have done just that, but a thought bubble came into my head, one that I may have mentioned before.  I have known and often pointed out to my students that you get or should get potentially good to great ideas, but what so often happens is that we don't take or push the idea far enough.  In other words, at the point you find your drawing looking 'bad', you want to chuck it, but if you spend more time with it, continuing to work on it and see where it goes, you might just come up-or is it out?-with a pretty decent work of art.  You might not, of course.  You might still wind up chucking it, but, at the very least, you will have learned something, grown internally, added to the sum total of your knowledge.  All the work that you do now, is the result of all the 'things' that have come and gone before.  Something to remember.  

Another point is that some people are not going to like or respond well to your work.  You, yourself, might heavily criticize your own work.  In a way, every time you put your work out there, you run the risk of getting slammed.  I wish I had thicker skin.  I guess the bottom line is you just have to keep going.  

On occasion, I find myself looking at some beautiful piece of work, and I think, "I could never do that."  And, maybe I can't, but have to remind myself that I can only do what I can do.  I like to think there's room for everyone at the party.  Life would be so boring, if we only had a handful of artists in this world, like eating your favorite dinner everyday.  Even if you love eating it, you would soon get bored with it.  

Something else that comes to mind is this: we focus and learn what we like.  If you like portraits, then you probably spend a lot of time on it, and hopefully, getting better and better at it.  And, if you like landscapes, or fantasy, or whatever, then that's what you are focused on learning and getting better at.  So, if you find yourself not being very good at a particular area, because you haven't spend a lot of time on it, that's okay.  Let your work stand on its own.  The viewer can choose to like it or not.  Try not to let negative feedback 'ruin your day'.  Maybe an hour.  An artist tends to be (maybe always to an extent?) sensitive to comments, etc.  That perceived 'weakness' helps makes you the artist that you are.  

Lastly, regarding the attached drawing, I haven't decided whether or not to add color to it, or leave it as a pen and ink drawing.  Hmm.  What do you think?  If I add color, I'll post it here.  Thanks for reading.