Buried at the end of my last post, I posed the question, “How do you digitize your artwork?” I embedded a crowdsignal poll with some
Shuffled Posts from the Archives
Painting Without Planning – Using Up Leftovers October 21, 2022 One of the many unexpected questions that arose as I started learning to paint was, what do I do with extra paint on my palette when I'm… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Mother’s Day Portrait May 11, 2020 A bit of a delay writing this one, but this post is going to be dedicated to Mother's Day and sharing some related artwork. It's naturally been… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Geralt and Ciri Art From The Witcher Netflix Show January 1, 2022 Recently, season two of Netflix's The Witcher series debuted. Back in the summer lock-down months of 2020, I wrote a bit about my impressions from season one… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
The Latest Blog Posts
Portrait of Morrigan from Dragon Age
The next artwork in my recent parade of oil paintings takes us back to the topic of video games, which is not an unusual one
Underpainting Practice – Andre the Giant
As I discussed in my last post, I’m making an effort to push myself more when it comes to artwork. A huge part of that
Freehand Painting Goals
A couple of specific things are at the forefront of my mind right now when it comes to painting. The first is that, in a
Holocaust Survivor Portraits, Remembrance Display
Recently, I was approached by a co-worker to ask if I would help out with a display featuring Holocaust survivor portraits for an event called
Size Constraints on a Princess Bride Painting
With my 9th painting, I ran into a bit of a conundrum and drove home a good lesson for myself. To this point, I feel
One Month of Oil Painting – A Self Portrait
Perhaps this post will trigger a bit of deja vu, as it’s a topic that I’ve already covered somewhat recently. This is all about self
High Contrast Challenge – Antje Traue Portrait
As I continue on clearing my backlog of paintings that have yet to be shared, now I’ve come to the fourth of five paintings done
Portrait of Comedian Eric Andre
This post continues the discussion of a wild painting weekend I had in October, during which I somehow churned through five paintings. As I’ve mentioned,
Bob Ross Style Landscape Painting
This post will be an interesting one, at least from my perspective. If you’ve browsed this site, you can see pretty quickly that I’m all
Oil Painting Portrait of My Wife
Lately I’ve been discussing my recent journey into the world of oil painting, having shared my first attempt, a portrait of my kids, and an
Painting Without Planning – Using Up Leftovers
One of the many unexpected questions that arose as I started learning to paint was, what do I do with extra paint on my palette
Amdall Girls Painting – First Solvent Use
A few weeks ago, I finally made the leap to attempt painting for the first time. I’ve long admired the “painterly” look across the different
Drawing from Stock Photos and Memes
I’ve talked about my affinity for stock photos on many occasions. In previous posts, I’ve written about royalty free images, photo spamming on social media,
Dirk Nowitzki Portrait with Trophy
This is going to be yet another piece of artwork dedicated to Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki. Considering this is now the fourth drawing I’ve
First Attempt at Oil Painting
This post is about my very first attempt at oil painting. Well, really first ever attempt at any type of painting, which to my surprise
Art from Stranger Things Season 4
As with my original post from a few years ago, I am once again a bit late in writing about Stranger Things. This time though,
European Travel via Mediterranean Cruise – Tips and Thoughts
This write-up covers some tips and thoughts regarding European travel, specifically when taking a Mediterranean Cruise. Like a lot of the world, we haven’t traveled
Author and Travel Show Host Rick Steves
Somewhere in the neighborhood of a decade ago, my wife and I took a honeymoon trip to Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, we decided to
Summer 2022 Portrait Giveaway
When I shared my last custom portrait giveaway, I mentioned that I had somehow let a year go by between these artwork raffles. I thought
Delayed Portrait Giveaway Artwork
In my last post, I wrote a bit on the fact that my posts are often a bit delayed from when the artwork is actually
Blog Post Length and Total Views Comparison
There was a point in time, just a few years ago, when I typically referred to Amdall Gallery as both an art and data analysis
A Longtime Friend’s Wedding Portrait
I am often slightly backlogged on writing blog posts. It’s something that I’ve mentioned previously and is probably fairly common for many artists who write
Elden Ring Art – Ranni the Witch, Blaidd, and Iji
I’ve finally beaten Elden Ring, which feels like quite a milestone for someone who isn’t a particularly skilled gamer (I can’t tell you how many
Elden Ring Art – Millicent, Hewg, Alexander, and Turtle Pope
As I’ve discussed quite a bit, I am a big fan of Elden Ring by From Software. The challenging and deep combat of Dark Souls,
Travel Art – Drawing on an Airplane
The question of what to do during a long flight is much easier to answer than it used to be. Our kids have been on
In Memory of Javier Garcia
This post is written in memory of Javier Homero Garcia. Javier, my wife’s father, recently passed away. We were fortunate that we were able to
Elden Ring Malenia Radahn Artwork
Apparently Amdall Gallery is turning into an Elden Ring fanart site, because I just couldn’t move on yet without getting into some of the interesting
Elden Ring Spirit Ash Drawing
I thought I had sufficiently scratched the Elden Ring artwork itch with a couple of drawings I shared last week, but apparently that is not
Elden Ring Art – Tarnished, Maiden, and Grace
Like many people, I’ve been completely transfixed over the last couple of weeks by Elden Ring. The game is basically like wild mashup of Dark
Drawing a Mirror’s Reflection
I am often amused by the strange processes that seem to govern how I decide what to draw. Personality-wise, I tend to be a planner
Poll: Best Drawing Time-Lapse Method?
Buried deep towards the end of my last post, I posed the question, “which style of time-lapse drawing progression is your favorite?” I embedded a
Art Show Entry, Dallas OAC ART214 Exhibition
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2022, in addition to the usual “eat better” and “get more exercise” items, has been to enter a
Yennefer Artwork, The Witcher Show and Game
Just recently, I rambled on and on describing my approach to sharing multiple related drawings. Over the course of several paragraphs and almost a thousand
Stargate SG-1 and Original Movie Discussion
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a bit on some of my recent viewing habits. Over the last year or so, I’ve been watching
Sharing Multiple Drawings – Another Geralt and Ciri
My habits when it comes to artwork typically involve sporadic bursts of motivation. I often tackle one drawing at a time, spending a couple of
Geralt and Ciri Art From The Witcher Netflix Show
Recently, season two of Netflix’s The Witcher series debuted. Back in the summer lock-down months of 2020, I wrote a bit about my impressions from
Thoughts on Portrait Requests
First and foremost, happy new year to all! It feels like we’re stuck in a bizarre time loop in some respects. I definitely remember thinking
Weekend Relaxation and Unfamiliar Movies – Pandorum Drawing
One of my all-time favorite things is a nice lazy Saturday with the family. It’s a fantastic scene from my perspective: We’re all upstairs and
Self Portrait Comparisons
Every once in a while, I find it’s nice to attempt a self-portrait. After all, what face are you more familiar with than your own?
Art Backlog Thoughts and Cousins Hanging Out
At the moment, I am quite backlogged in terms of both finished portraits I haven’t yet written about and ideas for future drawings. I’ve written
Narrated Walkthrough, Drawing Process Discussion
One of the early pandemic projects I started was to transition from progression .gif slides of my drawing process into full time-lapse videos. I created
More Random Selections from the Archives
Another Try at Digital Artwork (6/6/2019) - Just over a year ago, I wrote about my first ever attempt at using a tablet and digital pen to draw. I bought an XP-Pen Deco 01… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Dark Tower Drawing – Campfire Outside the City of Lud (10/8/2017) - In my last post, I discussed an idea for a drawing related to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I wanted to sketch Roland and his crew outside… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Mass Shooting Post-Vegas Data Update, Frustration with Politicians, and Some Ideas (10/3/2017) - Once again, we have to face another horrifying mass shooting event. This time, it was the worst mass shooting event in U.S. history. It's frustrating to see… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Self Portrait, Shadow and Contrast Struggles (12/22/2018) - I came across a really interesting article a few days ago called How to Be an Artist - 33 Rules to Take you from Clueless Amateur to… (click to read more of this randomly selected old favorite)
Historical Timeline
4+ years of blogging on Amdall Gallery
The very first blog post. Site was abandoned fairly quickly afterward until 2017.
Returned to the site, started analyzing data. The beginning of continuous blog posts for the next 4 years (and counting).
First artwork post, returning to drawing after over a decade. Didn't know at the time this would become a major hobby.
Early attempts at using colored pencils. Initial efforts were rough and poorly blended.
Artwork started to feature a thicker layering and blending style, which has been refined during the last couple years of practice.
Published my first book! Essentially about my experience returning to art after being away from it for so long.
Rejected by a local art show. A bit of a setback, but didn't impact me as much as I expected.
Start of the pandemic, stayed busy publishing a new book, drawing, and getting organized.
Launched a YouTube channel to show progression videos instead of .gifs.
Launched a new website focused on product impressions and reviews.
I have shown improvement over the years, but know there is still much to learn.
What's next? More drawing for sure. But will I attempt to enter another art show? Finally try painting? Perhaps get some formal training by taking a class? All great ideas - we'll see!
