Amdall Gallery

Artwork, data analysis, and other projects by Jon

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Menu

  • Posts
    • Rankings
    • Randomized
    • Home
  • Gallery
    • Timeline
    • Shuffled
    • Process
  • Forums
  • Store
    • My account
    • Shop
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • Donate
  • Tech
    • Access and VBA
    • Excel Functions
    • Pivot Table Basics
    • Creating .Gifs
  • Alerts
    • Giveaways & Contests
    • Travel
    • Weather
    • Slickdeals Feeds
  • About
    • About Jon
    • About Amdalls
    • Privacy Policy
  • Mark Hearts and Kids at the Dentist

    In my last post, I discussed using Unsplash images as inspiration for artwork. Although I have a ton of backlogged ideas now, and many of my sketches in the near

    Read more »
  • Drawing from Unsplash Photos

    My free time has been pretty well monopolized recently, first with writing a book, and then with figuring out the ins-and-outs of independent publishing. Now that the book is out

    Read more »
  • Publishing on Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark

    As you may have seen on the front page or my ongoing forum thread, I published a book recently! It’s something that I’ve vaguely wanted to do for a while,

    Read more »
  • A Dark Tower Redo, One Year Comparison

    At the start of 2018, I finished what has become one of my favorite fiction novel series; The Dark Tower by Stephen King. If you’re not familiar, the story follows

    Read more »
  • Art on a Shopping Cart

    Any time my family and I take a trip to the grocery store or Target, we absolutely have to grab one of those bulky carts with the dual kid seats.

    Read more »
  • Subject Counts and Wife Solo Portraits

    Since getting back into drawing in 2017, I’ve generally been under the impression that most of my artwork has been of my family. I also had a feeling that the

    Read more »
  • Lost Dinosaur Timeline

    When I was little, I absolutely loved dinosaurs. I know most kids do, but I was sort of obsessed with them. I was all about any book or toy I

    Read more »
  • A 2018 Liebster Award for Amdall Gallery

    As you can see from the title, this site was nominated for a Liebster Award, which is given to blogs by other bloggers. So, right from the top, thank you

    Read more »

‘Pencils and Process’ Book is Out Now

April 5, 2019 17 comments

It feels weird to say this, but I finished writing a book…and it’s actually published and available now! The book is called Pencils and Process,

Preferred Medium, Process, and Frequently Used Colors

May 30, 2018 21 comments

Access and VBA Cheat Sheet

May 18, 2018 2 comments

Excel Function Cheat Sheet

October 4, 2017 5 comments

Luka Doncic the Surprise MVP Candidate

November 23, 2019 Leave a comment

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous sports-related posts, I am a huge Dallas Mavericks fan. Although I’ve always loved football, and am (sometimes regrettably)

How to Make Progression .Gif Images

November 15, 2019 6 comments

If my “archive categories” widget is to be believed, at this point I’ve written 115 art-related posts on this website. That’s pretty surprising to me,

Continuing Through The Backlog

November 13, 2019 5 comments

It took longer than I thought to finish this write-up, but welcome to part two of a series I started with last week’s post about

New Gadget Fun – Fossil Hybrid HR Collider

November 9, 2019 8 comments

Although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the last year of posts, this website is actually also devoted to tech and data-related interests. My

Working Through a Misfire by way of the Backlog

November 8, 2019 Leave a comment

I wrote a couple of months ago about an art show called the River Oaks 5x5x5, which I often refer to as the “tiny art”

Updating a Wedding Present Portrait

November 1, 2019 Leave a comment

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of an art re-visitation phase. I have been back into the drawing hobby for over two years at this

Video Game Museum Scenes

October 19, 2019 4 comments

A few months ago, during one of our periodic Texas visits, the family and I got a chance to check out the National Videogame Museum

Poseable Drawing Figure Research and Testing

October 9, 2019 14 comments

I am often thrown for a loop about the passage of time. I’ve written in many posts here about such and such amount of time

River Oaks Tiny Art Show 2019

September 28, 2019 Leave a comment

I’ve done a few posts lately somewhat focused on near-term nostalgia, particularly in comparing how my drawings have changed over the last two years. Right

Unfinished Art and an Unposed Portrait

September 9, 2019 7 comments

I had to double check because it didn’t seem possible, but it looks like it’s been almost a month since my last drawing. Time really

Hardcover Book Giveaway and EBook Discount

August 22, 2019 Leave a comment

It’s been almost five months since my book Pencils and Process came out. I’m proud to say that the book has slightly more than broken

Drawing Models and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

August 20, 2019 5 comments

One of my favorite things about browsing the Internet is how easy it is to randomly discover something new. That could involve stumbling upon an

Jon Stewart Getting Things Done

August 10, 2019 4 comments

I generally try to avoid wading into the political on Amdall Gallery. I’ve done it occasionally in the past, like my discussions and data analysis

Drawing Friends, Another Yearly Comparison

July 22, 2019 4 comments

I still feel that overall I am improving as an artist, which is nice to realize after two years of becoming re-involved in this hobby.

The Push and Pull of Artistic Envy

July 16, 2019 8 comments

I try to be as forthright as possible on this blog about my experiences with art. The site didn’t really start with a focused goal

Experimenting with Light Sources

June 25, 2019 10 comments

I surprised myself a bit following my last post by jumping immediately into another project. I hadn’t planned to do so, but I found myself

Back to Paper for a Coworker Request

June 21, 2019 7 comments

Following my brief foray into digital artwork, it felt like time to get back to my usual comfortable pencil-and-paper mode. At this point, I’ve got

Digital Painting Capstone

June 8, 2019 6 comments

Welcome to the grand finale of this series of posts on digital artwork! In the first post, I discussed my past struggle with digital art

Another Try at Digital Artwork

June 6, 2019 3 comments

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

Mark Hearts and Kids at the Dentist

May 18, 2019 7 comments

In my last post, I discussed using Unsplash images as inspiration for artwork. Although I have a ton of backlogged ideas now, and many of

Drawing from Unsplash Photos

May 10, 2019 16 comments

My free time has been pretty well monopolized recently, first with writing a book, and then with figuring out the ins-and-outs of independent publishing. Now

Welcome to Flavortown

April 27, 2019 Leave a comment

Is it Flavor Town or Flavortown? I’m actually not sure. Unfortunately, I don’t know Guy Fieri, so I can’t ask the Mayor of Flavortown about

Publishing on Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark

April 20, 2019 3 comments

As you may have seen on the front page or my ongoing forum thread, I published a book recently! It’s something that I’ve vaguely wanted

‘Pencils and Process’ Book is Out Now

April 5, 2019 17 comments

It feels weird to say this, but I finished writing a book…and it’s actually published and available now! The book is called Pencils and Process,

Book Status, January Giveaway Portrait

March 28, 2019 4 comments

Although it doesn’t feel quite so long, it’s been over a month since I’ve written a post. I have actually been furiously writing away elsewhere

A Dark Tower Redo, One Year Comparison

February 23, 2019 12 comments

At the start of 2018, I finished what has become one of my favorite fiction novel series; The Dark Tower by Stephen King. If you’re

Long Term Goals and Sketch Impulsivity

February 6, 2019 4 comments

At the end of my last post, I mentioned off-hand a few ideas for what I might draw next. I talked about finishing a Dallas

Art on a Shopping Cart

February 2, 2019 4 comments

Any time my family and I take a trip to the grocery store or Target, we absolutely have to grab one of those bulky carts

More Parks and Recreation Art – Leslie Knope

January 29, 2019 Leave a comment

Over the last week or so, I’ve been dealing with a fairly tough cold. As is usually the case, the kids and I all got

Video Game Art, Pillars of Eternity Group

January 23, 2019 6 comments

Lately, I’ve been playing a game called Pillars of Eternity II quite a bit. Even going back to when I was a kid playing our

Starting 2019 with a Portrait Giveaway

January 21, 2019 8 comments

What better way to start 2019 than with another portrait giveaway? Well, actually there are better ways…winning the lotto comes to mind. But, it would

Ron Swanson, The Simpsons, and New Parents

January 11, 2019 One comment

My most recent drawing is sort of a random one. I guess most of them are, but this was a very spur-of-the-moment thing. I was

Subject Counts and Wife Solo Portraits

January 5, 2019 5 comments

Since getting back into drawing in 2017, I’ve generally been under the impression that most of my artwork has been of my family. I also

Self Portrait, Shadow and Contrast Struggles

December 22, 2018 11 comments

I came across a really interesting article a few days ago called How to Be an Artist – 33 Rules to Take you from Clueless

New Phone Quest Revisited – Pixel 3 vs Pixel 2

December 20, 2018 Leave a comment

About a year ago, I wrote about my quest for a new smartphone. The general scope of this quest was to satisfy a few parameters;

The Laundry Basket Girls

December 7, 2018 3 comments

I’ve been all over the place lately with my sketches, jumping around to varied subjects like Ghostbusters, memes, Pinterest, and Einstein. I always come back

Advertisements on Amdall Gallery

December 3, 2018 18 comments

I’ve been thinking about the advertisements on this site quite a bit lately. The purpose of Amdall Gallery has morphed slightly over time, but it’s

Art Prompts from Pinterest Part 2

November 19, 2018 7 comments

Welcome to part two of this series of sketches based on Pinterest art prompts. In part one, I discussed some Pinterest basics and how useful

Art Prompts from Pinterest Part 1

November 19, 2018 6 comments

When I started sharing artwork on this site, eventually I decided to create social media profiles for Amdall Gallery on any platform I could think

Well, I’m no Albert Einstein

November 7, 2018 16 comments

This week, I worked on a sketch of legendary hair model Albert Einstein (I hear he also dabbled in some science-related stuff). As I was

Art from an Internet Meme

November 5, 2018 13 comments

The Millennial generation is known for many things, including craft beer, skinny jeans, and “destroying” seemingly every industry (if you believe cynical clickbait articles). As

Three-Quarters of the Ghostbusters

October 23, 2018 8 comments

Back in May, when I was in the middle of a flurry of sketches, I had an idea to draw characters from some of my

Big Kid and Her Apple

October 20, 2018 5 comments

Wow, has it really been another entire month since I’ve drawn anything? Sort of a surprising realization, because it feels like I was just writing

Portrait from the August Giveaway

September 29, 2018 6 comments

I haven’t been drawing much lately, which is pretty apparent looking at the site’s front page. It’s kind of an odd coincidence, but right around

One Year Site Anniversary

September 7, 2018 13 comments

It’s a little hard to believe, but it’s been a year now since I rebooted Amdall Gallery and really got rolling on this artwork and

Lost Dinosaur Timeline

July 28, 2018 8 comments

When I was little, I absolutely loved dinosaurs. I know most kids do, but I was sort of obsessed with them. I was all about

A Family Portrait from New Orleans

July 23, 2018 11 comments

It seems like I haven’t posted much lately, which is confirmed when I look at the monthly archive counts on my sidebar. Over the last

A 2018 Liebster Award for Amdall Gallery

July 21, 2018 13 comments

As you can see from the title, this site was nominated for a Liebster Award, which is given to blogs by other bloggers. So, right

June Portrait Giveaway, the Resulting Artwork

July 15, 2018 11 comments

At the end of last month, we wrapped up a custom portrait giveaway with some pretty solid participation. The winner sent me a photo she

Gift Sketch of Nana and the Grandkids

July 5, 2018 Leave a comment

This post will be a delayed publication; most likely you’re reading it in July, but everything here is actually from June. Not that it matters,

More Throwback Practice Art

June 24, 2018 8 comments

A couple months ago, I did some sketches that took their inspiration from the many “historical photo” Twitter accounts out there. One was a not-very-accurate

Drafting Doncic – The Mavericks’ Future is Bright

June 23, 2018 6 comments

The NBA draft was Thursday night, and I’ve been obsessing about it for at least a week. The 2018 draft was considered by many to

The Greatness of Mystery Science Theater 3000

June 11, 2018 10 comments

One of my favorite shows as a kid was Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). If you’re not familiar with it, MST3K was basically a show

Back to Basics, Paper Sketch of the Kiddos

June 3, 2018 3 comments

This weekend, I made my first clumsy attempt at digital art. And over the last couple months, I’ve been almost exclusively drawing fictional characters from

Digital Drawing is Really Hard

June 3, 2018 30 comments

I am generally very interested in tech-related things, and love to waste money on gadgets. I am the type of person who will have a

Preferred Medium, Process, and Frequently Used Colors

May 30, 2018 21 comments

A few days ago, there was a comment asking about which medium I use. This is a simple question, but a really great one – especially

Tribute to Dragon’s Dogma, My Favorite Game

May 27, 2018 6 comments

There will be some spoilers, so be warned. If you’re just here for art, scroll to the end. This is a game mostly about the

The Fifth Element – Gary Oldman’s Zorg

May 25, 2018 11 comments

Welcome to part two of this run of drawings from The Fifth Element. In the first one, I covered some basics from the film and

The Fifth Element – Leeloo Dallas Multipass

May 25, 2018 9 comments

Last week, I did a sketch from one of my favorite movies, the original Karate Kid. I like how the drawing turned out, but the

Mr. Miyagi and Daniel from the Karate Kid

May 19, 2018 11 comments

I’ve been home sick for a few days, and felt a bit like drawing…unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything, so I just lounged around instead.

Access and VBA Cheat Sheet

May 18, 2018 2 comments

As I’ve mentioned many times on this site, I am a huge fan of Microsoft’s data-crunching solutions. I’ve gained a reputation for it too; when

A New Type of Subject – My Sister’s Cat

May 17, 2018 5 comments

When we were visiting family Mother’s Day weekend, I was talking to my sister about something related to drawing. I asked her if there was

My Attempted Tribute to Emmitt Smith

May 15, 2018 9 comments

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about one of my favorite Dallas Cowboys players of all-time, who recently announced his retirement. Jason

Sneezing Lady (or Maybe Crying? Yawning?)

May 6, 2018 13 comments

As I was browsing around a few days ago, I came across this article about how to approach handshakes at work when someone (client, business

Jason Witten’s Retirement – The Secret is in the Dirt

May 5, 2018 3 comments

“The secret is in the dirt.” – Ben Hogan, responding to questions about the secret to his golf swing. He was well-known for his striking

Messing Up a Guardians of the Galaxy Drawing

April 29, 2018 9 comments

I’m sure I’ve said this in many other posts…but sometimes drawings work out, and sometimes they just don’t happen the way you want. Unfortunately, I

Star Trek’s Captain Picard, This Time in Color

April 28, 2018 13 comments

Back in December 2017, before I switched over to color drawings, I sketched a scene with my three favorite characters from Star Trek. It featured

Rock and Roll Beethoven, Historical Photo Account Part 2

April 22, 2018 5 comments

Continuing on with the second post in a two part series, the subject of this one is guitar legend Jimi Hendrix. In the first post,

Inspiration from Twitter, Historical Photo Account Part 1

April 22, 2018 8 comments

It seems I’m always on the search for art subjects lately. And since I can be somewhat creatively limited when it comes to drawing, the

Almost a Sketch Request, Sam Carrying Frodo

April 20, 2018 9 comments

In the comments of an Instagram post I made on my last sketch (Fezzik and Inigo from the Princess Bride), one of my longtime friends

Fezzik and Inigo from the Princess Bride, A Warm-Up

April 17, 2018 18 comments

Despite wanting to put pencil to paper, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve drawn anything. I’ts been on my mind, but life/work has been

Milestone Statistics, Unnecessarily Detailed Data

April 8, 2018 7 comments

Welcome to part two of three in a series of posts thanking readers, and taking a step back to review Amdall Gallery’s status as we

Subscriber Thanks, Some Artist Site Favorites

April 5, 2018 27 comments

To my continued surprise, this website has gained more subscribers than I ever would have expected. When I resurrected Amdall Gallery from the ancient blog

Radio Favorites – Loveline with Adam and Dr. Drew

April 1, 2018 5 comments

A couple days ago, I posted part one in a two part series on my favorite radio shows. I often listen to these old shows

Radio Favorites – Art Bell and his Many Shows

March 31, 2018 20 comments

Often when I draw, I’m also talking with the family, listening to my oldest make up stories, or absorbing the kids’ show-of-the-moment in the background.

Two Concurrent Sketches, Dad and the Girls

March 29, 2018 23 comments

Welcome to part two of this reckless “drawing two things at once” series. Basically, I was so pumped up from feeling like I’ve actually been

Drawing Two Scenes at Once, First Sketch of Grandma

March 28, 2018 5 comments

I’m in an unusual place with this sketching hobby right now. I can see improvement in the results to some degree, and it’s making me

Hometown Series, the Unfinished One

March 25, 2018 4 comments

At the beginning of this month, I started something I referred to as a “hometown series” of sketches. Basically, I tried to capture some scenes

Current Shading Process, Portrait Flow

March 24, 2018 8 comments

As I scroll through Amdall Gallery’s main page, I can’t help but notice how my drawings have changed. Not everyone may agree, but I believe

More Art from Ads

March 21, 2018 6 comments

Back in February, I did a couple sketches based on clothing ads I saw online. A couple weeks ago, I was flipping through my daily

Poor Planning Left Off Subjects, Turned Us Into Ghostbusters

March 9, 2018 6 comments

The next sketch on tap, as I mentioned in the last post, was another “hometown series” sketch. I’ve done a football huddle scene, and one

Hometown Series, Distinguished Gentlemen Chatting

March 4, 2018 10 comments

Continuing on with my “hometown series” of sketches, here’s part two. In the first drawing, I included a few of the guys I used to

Hometown Series, Football Huddle

March 2, 2018 8 comments

It’s been about seven years since I moved from the ol’ hometown, where I spent the first three decades of my life. During my 20s,

New Discussion Forums

February 26, 2018 2 comments

This website is a hobby, and one of the main motivations behind it is that I enjoy making tweaks and trying new features. In fact,

The Challenge of a Close-up Family Scene

February 25, 2018 10 comments

  This is sort of a part two from my post Friday night about drawing my wife, and the challenges of art involving people you

Working on More Realism in Family Portraits

February 23, 2018 10 comments

I have drawn four total sketches of my wife. From what I can see looking at these previous drawings, I don’t think I’ve ever quite

Mass Shooting Data Update, Ideas to Reverse the Trend

February 21, 2018 10 comments

This is going to be somewhat of a duplication of my post from October on mass shooting data, but with more recent numbers. After the

Random Art, One with Madmartigan from Willow

February 21, 2018 6 comments

I’ve got some random recent sketches on hand, so I thought I’d just combine a couple unrelated ones into a single post. My favorite of

Popular This Month

  1. New Gadget Fun – Fossil Hybrid HR Collider
  2. Continuing Through The Backlog
  3. How to Make Progression .Gif Images
  4. Luka Doncic the Surprise MVP Candidate
  5. Excel Function Cheat Sheet
  6. Publishing on Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark
  7. Working Through a Misfire by way of the Backlog
  8. Mass Shooting Data Update, Ideas to Reverse the Trend

Random from the Archives

Is it Worth it to Wait? Analysis of Home Prices in Booming Markets (9/26/2017)
Updating a Wedding Present Portrait (11/1/2019)
Sketch of the Entire Family, No Planning (11/4/2017)
Working on More Realism in Family Portraits (2/23/2018)
Improving with the Tablet and Sketchbook App (6/7/2019)
Dak Prescott and Jason Witten Sketch (12/9/2017)
Dark Tower Drawing – Campfire Outside the City of Lud (10/8/2017)
Publishing on Amazon’s KDP and IngramSpark (4/20/2019)

Follow Via Email

Enter your email address to follow this site and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,519 other subscribers

Stats and Social Media

  • 1229comments
  • 166posts
  • 29Forum Users
  • 414followers

Is there something you’ve ever wanted sketched? Amdall Gallery does take requests*, so if you’re interested and like the art style, head to the Forums and let Jon know what you’d like to see. Or drop by one of the social media accounts.

* Note: Free requests are at Jon’s leisure. If you prefer to lock it down, you can set up a paid commission via the Store or one of the Donation options.

Archive Categories

  • Art (117)
    • Animals (8)
    • Fictional Character Drawings (36)
      • Imagined (1)
      • Inspired by Ads (4)
      • Movies, Television, and Books (23)
      • Video Games (6)
    • Portraits of Real People (73)
      • Athletes (8)
      • Friends and Family (45)
      • Performers (10)
      • Stock Photo (6)
  • Featured Posts (6)
  • Front Page (143)
  • Other (18)
    • Books (2)
    • Food (1)
    • Giveaways (8)
    • Science (3)
  • Research (23)
    • Crime Statistics (5)
    • Investments (7)
    • Site Statistics (4)
    • Sports Data (4)
  • Tech (36)
    • Cryptocurrency (6)
    • Databases (2)
    • Gadgets (4)
    • Spreadsheets (8)
    • Websites (16)
  • Uncategorized (2)

Archive Links

  • Shuffled Archive
  • Random Selections
  • Random Art Posts
  • Rankings & Lists
  • Artwork Timeline

Archive by Date

  • November 2019 (6)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (5)
  • May 2019 (2)
  • April 2019 (3)
  • March 2019 (1)
  • February 2019 (4)
  • January 2019 (5)
  • December 2018 (4)
  • November 2018 (4)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (5)
  • June 2018 (6)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (10)
  • March 2018 (9)
  • February 2018 (9)
  • January 2018 (13)
  • December 2017 (7)
  • November 2017 (10)
  • October 2017 (9)
  • September 2017 (9)
  • August 2017 (12)
  • August 2011 (3)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (1)

Translate this Site

Recent Comments

Jon Amdall on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Jon Amdall on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Chris on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Jon Amdall on Well, I’m no Albert Eins…
Crismar on Well, I’m no Albert Eins…
Jon Amdall on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Jon Amdall on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Jon Amdall on New Gadget Fun – Fossil…
Jon Amdall on How to Make Progression .Gif I…

Recent forum posts

Twitter Deleting Inactive Account …by Jon Amdall2 weeks ago
Facebook Privacy News Compilationby Jon Amdall2 weeks ago
Steam Controller Discontinuedby Jon Amdall2 weeks ago
Ni No Kuni Remaster on the PCby Jon Amdall1 month ago
Pencils and Process Book Availabi …by Jon Amdall2 months ago
Coinbase Giving Away $10 in XLMby Jon Amdall4 months ago
Tales Series Gamesby Jon Amdall6 months ago

If you don’t use an ad-blocker, you may have noticed for the most part this site doesn’t have advertisements anymore. I previously had a few through WordAds, hoping the site could help pay for itself. Unfortunately, I received a pop-up ad on my own website! That wasn’t supposed to happen, so I just removed them. One exception is that you might see some Amazon affiliate links – ads I specifically built for products I use (like my favorite pencils) or created (such as my book). As long as they play nice and aren’t annoying, they can stay.

If you’re interested in supporting Amdall Gallery, there are plenty of ways to do so. The Store is probably best if you wanted to help keep the site running, since you would get something tangible out of it too. Anyway, thanks for visiting and I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

New book by Jon Amdall available now!

  • Pencils and Process (Amazon Edition)

    $25
    Buy on Amazon
  • Pencils and Process (Barnes & Noble Edition)

    $25
    Buy on B&N

All art featured on Amdall Gallery was made by Jon Amdall. Analysis in research articles was conducted by Jon, usually facilitated by Excel spreadsheets. Anything created with help from other sources is cited within the relevant post. Please do not use or distribute materials from this site without attribution to the author. Thanks for visiting!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,519 other subscribers