Random Art Posts
20 randomly selected posts about art from Amdall Gallery’s archives. These include normal graphite pencil or soft colored pencil drawings by Jon. Enjoy!
More Video Game Characters – Secret of Mana, Original SNES and Remake (2/4/2018) - I mentioned in a post last week that video games sometimes inspire my sketches. I'm not great at drawing from my imagination, but if I get a spark to do so, it often comes from video games (books play their part too). Previously, I've done sketches inspired by Final Fantasy and Warcraft, but another favorite is an old Super NES game called Secret of Mana. There's a remake of this game coming out in a couple of weeks, so I've been thinking about the game quite a bit lately. The original Secret of Mana came out in 1993 in the… Read More
Hometown Series, the Unfinished One (3/25/2018) - 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 of friends from my hometown, mostly from old (really? 10-15 years is old?) photographs I have. I sketched some of us in a football huddle, a couple guys chatting, and a group shot. One common complaint I shared in those posts is I just don't have that many photos. This was mostly the pre-smartphone era (except for the third in the series), so I didn't have a million sources of inspiration to choose from as… Read More
Current Shading Process, Portrait Flow (3/24/2018) - 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 there has been an improvement over time. From August 2017 until now, after about seven months of practice, these sketches seem more confident to me. Especially when it comes to color; skin tones seem more realistic than they did early on, and I'm laying down color in thicker/more complete layers. There's still tons of critiques I have (weak ability to draw straight lines, laziness on backgrounds, unimaginative creation, etc.), but I'm glad to see progress.… Read More
Yennefer Artwork, The Witcher Show and Game (1/20/2022) - 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 words, I philosophized about how much I prefer to see drawings split into several posts so I can come across them again individually on the shuffled front page. And yet, here I am with a post that is going to break all of those rules! Ever since watching season one of Netflix's The Witcher series, I've wanted to try to draw several of the main characters. Of course, Geralt and Ciri have been on the… Read More
Meme Art, Sergeant Mittens is Ready (4/15/2020) - I'm entering a very unusual artwork and post writing phase. If I've ever been in this situation before, I really can't remember.Essentially, I have now completed multiple drawings and haven't shared them - a backlog of finished artwork. Normally having art that's done is the limiting factor, not the writing side. I think the reason is twofold; one, I'm just enjoying creating things. My daughters are wanting to draw a lot too during the quarantine, so it's a fun thing for us to do together. The second is that I'm sort of running out of writing topics for posts! Not… Read More
Healthcare Worker Portrait Request (5/3/2020) - As you can tell from the homepage, Amdall Gallery has a custom portrait raffle going right now. We've got about 12 days left on the contest, so if having some artwork similar to what I share on this site is something that interests you, give it a shot! I've done these a few times before, but one difference this time is obviously the fact that I'm running the giveaway during a global health crisis. I also mentioned that if a healthcare worker happens across the raffle and wants a portrait, that they didn't need to enter: If you’re a healthcare/essential-categorized… Read More
Big Kid and Her Apple (10/20/2018) - 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 about how I hadn't drawn much lately. But that wasn't last week...it was last month! Once that thought hit me that October was headed towards its Halloween conclusion, it was enough to push me into action. In my last post, I mentioned my intention to continue drawing occasionally to keep myself in the habit. Essentially, I don't want to drift into another long period without art. So, why not keep myself rolling with one of… Read More
Digital Drawing is Really Hard (6/3/2018) - 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 wild idea based on something I read, get really into it for a little while, then abandon it forever after a few weeks. A great example is when I briefly got into messing with Raspberry Pi and made a Recalbox. I built the thing, played some games with it for about a week, then haven't touched it since. Along those lines, I've had in my mind for months now that I wanted to try digital… Read More
Relaxed Pose Capstone Figure Painting (5/23/2023) - https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cohul96jrjx/ Relaxed Post Figure Painting, oil on paper. When I started this painting, I had some vague notions of treating it sort of like a capstone project. Although I've done over 80 paintings now, at the point in time when I painted this one, I had done somewhere in the mid-40s. I really felt like I was starting to get into the groove of things, and was seeing tangible improvement in technique, color selection, and just generally making human beings actually look human. That's a fair amount of painting in four months, almost like a painting boot camp in some… Read More
Yellow Shirt Guy, March Oil Painting (10/6/2023) - Going back in time to March 2023, here is an oil painting I did around that time based on when it was shared to the Amdall Gallery Instagram. This post will include a static image of the piece, an embed of the time lapse video, and then some verbiage from when I wrote about the painting on social media at the time. So, keep in mind what's written here is a bit of a time capsule. Let's go back then and see what I had to say about this painting... View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jon… Read More
Sketch of the Entire Family, No Planning (11/4/2017) - Last night, after putting the kids to bed, I was smacked with an urge to try to draw my entire family. I've drawn my wife and I together, and I've drawn our girls a couple of times, but I haven't done a sketch with all four of us as a group. Usually for something like this, I'd draw a grid to help me with proportions, but this time I wanted to dive right in. I really wasn't sure how that would work out, because it's outside my normal process. As I started, I thought about all the great advice I've… Read More
More from the Witcher, Ciri of Cintra (6/26/2020) - This is a continuation of my post last week about the Witcher Netflix show and game series. In that first post, I discussed the show in detail and shared some artwork featuring Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher himself. I mentioned that, unlike with Stranger Things, I actually caught this show during its peak popularity. Something I didn't touch on though is that there is a downside I didn't consider to being "on time" for a great show - the wait for more. I tore through all three seasons of Stranger Things in a massive binge, but it still took me… Read More
Purple Hair Woman, March 2023 Portrait (11/19/2023) - Going back in time to March 2023, here is an oil painting I did around that time based on when it was shared to the Amdall Gallery Instagram. This post will include a static image of the piece, an embed of the time lapse video, and then some verbiage from when I wrote about the painting on social media at the time. So, keep in mind what's written here is a bit of a time capsule. Let's go back then and see what I had to say about this painting... View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jon… Read More
Portrait of Lady in a Dark Room (5/25/2023) - https://www.instagram.com/p/CosPOVUDm9K/ This painting of a woman in a dark room is another portrait study in my efforts to practice specific areas that aren't my strongest. There are a few aspects of portrait painting that come to mind, but one in particular goes back even to my colored pencil days. I've talking about this before in more depth, but for a long time I've relied on measurement for portrait proportions. I have a long term goal in mind to eventually try to paint from life, so as a step towards that, I want to get accustomed to painting freehand and trying… Read More
Contest Drawing – Tiny Art (9/8/2017) - A co-worker told me recently about an interesting art show coming up; it's called the 2nd Annual 5x5x5 Show Miniature Works at the River Oaks Square Arts Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. This guy makes custom fishing lures, and entered some in last year's show. Even though I've never in my life entered anything into an art show, I suddenly had this wild idea to go for it. I've still got this itch to draw, so why not give it a shot? More information on the River Oaks 5x5x5 Show, check out the Call for Entry: https://www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=4449 River Oaks is inviting… Read More
Skeleton Pirate Painting (10/18/2025) - This oil painting of a skeleton pirate was a commission earlier in the year (or maybe it was even at the end of 2024) that I thoroughly enjoyed. I tend to stick with specific themes and subjects, mostly in alignment with both things I enjoy creating and specific concepts I want to practice and improve upon. So, most of my paintings are alla prima portraits of people, often head and shoulders views or figurative poses. But this commission was a more unique, inspired concept! The client specifically wanted a skeleton painting, in keeping with a theme of art she collects.… Read More
Poor Planning Left Off Subjects, Turned Us Into Ghostbusters (3/9/2018) - 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 with some old friends chatting. The next sketch I started with was a close up of a couple of guys, but I realized it once again featured my buddy who was already in the first two. I'll definitely finish it later, but I decided to move to a different one with a new cast for the next post. As I've said, I don't have all that many photographs with scenes to reference. I've considered just… Read More
Practicing Scenery Through Video Game Art (1/9/2021) - If you've followed this blog for long, you may have read me roasting myself about various art-related weaknesses. Every artist, amateur and professional alike, has certain things that come easier and others that just don't click. I'm not trying to beat myself up - it's just part of life! And I believe that discussing art-related challenges can be a productive thing to help work through and figure out how to improve. In my opinion, my "wheelhouse" is drawing head and shoulder portraits. I'm not an expert or anything, but that is what seems to come easiest to me. There are… Read More
Three Year Painting Anniversary (10/10/2025) - It's hard to believe it's already been three years since I started learning to paint! I first picked up a brush back in September 2022, and since then I've painted 260 portraits. Although my pace has slowed considerably from that somewhat insane first year pace (averaging more than 10 a month), I'm glad I've continued to steadily continue this hobby. The fact that I paint alla prima and finish most of them in one session really helps - it keeps subjects fresh and lets me get more repetitions on certain things I want to practice. The featured painting in this… Read More
Delayed Portrait Giveaway Artwork (6/25/2022) - 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 finished. As I said previously, it's probably a fairly common phenomenon for many artists to delay sharing something by a month or two. But there have been times when those delays stacked up quite a bit more. That wedding portrait was a solid example of this, which was at least six months after the fact, but now I've got one prepared to completely one-up myself! Let's travel back eight months to October 2021, which is… Read More