Amdall Gallery

20 randomly selected posts about art from Amdall Gallery’s archives. These include normal graphite pencil or soft colored pencil drawings by Jon. Enjoy!

Subject Counts and Wife Solo Portraits (1/5/2019) - 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 most frequent subject was probably my wife. Because data is fun, I decided there was no point in just assuming or guessing - better to crunch the numbers and find out for sure! I copied some data from my site anniversary spreadsheet, added information for more recent posts, and generated entries for every subject of my artwork. The idea was include a tally each time someone appears in artwork, whether… Read More

Art Prompts from Pinterest Part 2 (11/19/2018) - 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 the site can be for generating drawing ideas. This weekend, I decided to finally dive into my art prompts Pinterest board and try a few subjects. I selected some expressions/photo series of Shaquille O'Neal, John Malkovich, and a non-celebrity model with the intent of putting together a few planning sketches of each, along with a larger portraits. As it turned out, this was an overly ambitious plan. On several previous occasions (1 & 2, 3… Read More

A Tribute to Faith No More, the Greatest Band of All Time (12/16/2017) - Around 1999, as I was finishing high school, some guys I started hanging around with (who would become lifelong friends) introduced me to Faith No More. I had heard the band before; most people are familiar with the song Epic, and at the time a couple singles from their 1997 album were getting radio play. But these guys were major league fans of the band, so I was exposed to the full catalog. This was a breakthrough discovery for me, because I fell into a new world of incredible, genre-bending music that, when viewed as an entire body of work,… 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

Mike Patton Portrait Oil Painting (5/19/2023) - https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cnr2ybHhDTP/ Mike Patton, oil on paper. The subject of this post is an oil painting I did of my all-time favorite musician Mike Patton. Patton is a man of many bands and projects, including Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, and quite a few more. I've drawn him in colored pencil a couple of times, and in those posts I discuss why I like his music so much - so I won't go into depth again here. But I will say at least that, in my opinion, his vocal talents and diversity of styles are peerless. I've posted all… Read More

Geralt and Ciri Art From The Witcher Netflix Show (1/1/2022) - 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 and my fondness for the Witcher 3 video game. That game is one of the best open world RPG experiences I've had, right behind Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma, so I already had positive opinions about the franchise. Watching the first season of the Netflix series though brought my appreciation to another level; after finishing it, I was immediately ready to dive back into the game...and to watch more of the show. Unfortunately, I… Read More

Holiday Portrait Gift (12/25/2019) - In what is apparently becoming somewhat of a tradition, this post is a delayed one. What I mean is, it was actually written at the beginning of December, but I'm just now publishing it on Christmas. The reason for the massive delay is the same as a similar one from July; the featured artwork is a gift! I don't think any family members are keeping a tight surveillance of my website, especially during this busy time of year. But on the off chance my mom happens by, the artwork here is a gift for her, so I didn't want to… Read More

Guitarist and Busker Mariusz Goli (9/3/2021) - Like a lot of people, my primary method for visual music consumption is YouTube. In the absence of an actual television channel dedicated to music videos (what a novel concept), it's definitely the go-to method for enjoying official music videos. But it's also a great venue for watching live music recordings and for independent artists in unique genres. One niche that I've always enjoyed the solo guitarist shared content, including virtuoso demonstrations and street performance (also called "busking"). I've got a few favorites that I watch every so often; Mariusz Goli, Tina S, Andre Antunes, and a few others. I… Read More

The Dark Tower Villain Sketches (1/14/2018) - I've given significant sketching time to the heroes from the Dark Tower, but haven't done anything on the villains. Actually, maybe villain isn't quite the word for all of them. Certainly, the Crimson King is villainous, but Mia is more of a single-minded, selfish antagonist. Anywho, I decided to do a series of drawings for some of these folks working against Roland and his Beam-saving crew. Words of warning: I will discuss a bit on how the story ends for these creeps, so there will be spoilers! Abandon now if you want to remain spoiler-free about the Dark Tower. In… Read More

Author and Travel Show Host Rick Steves (8/12/2022) - 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 make another voyage overseas - this time with a couple of little ones along for the ride! I am planning a full write-up on this trip, to include some lessons learned...but I think that post is going to take some time to formulate. I want to share some photos and thoughts about the places we visited, but trying to tie all of that together probably isn't fit for one writing session. In the meantime, I… Read More

Portrait from the August Giveaway (9/29/2018) - 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 the one year anniversary of getting back into this website, my inspiration to draw started fading. I'm really not sure why...did I burn myself out? Do I need a new challenge, like trying a new medium? Whatever the reason, that spark to put pencil to paper has faded from when I was churning out several sketches a month. I've been wondering if the big issue is that I'm simply out of ideas. Thinking of subjects… Read More

Chrono Trigger Painting | Magus and Schala in Zeal Palace (3/15/2026) - For the sixth oil painting in my classic RPG series, I painted another scene from Chrono Trigger, this time featuring Magus and Schala in Zeal Palace. The Zeal plotline in Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite parts of the game, following Magus' journey through time and his search for his sister. You could argue that Schala's role and Magus' journey are central to the entire story, shaping events and connecting time periods. I felt like this would be a great scene to attempt, but a challenging one. Trying to capture the right emotional tone was definitely at the front… Read More

Dua Lipa Portrait Oil Painting (5/17/2023) - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoA7OFHjxIb/ Dua Lipa, oil on paper. The subject of this post is an oil painting I did by request of my kids - it's a portrait of one of their favorite musicians Dua Lipa. She has a couple of songs they really love, specifically Don't Start Now and Levitating are two they most often belt out at high volumes. After I painted one of my favorite musicians (Mike Patton), they asked if I would do a couple of their favorites - a great excuse to try something new! This post is my first attempt at a more condensed and shorter… Read More

Art on a Shopping Cart (2/2/2019) - 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. You know the type; usually brightly colored, sometimes with steering wheels for the kids, but always giant-sized monstrosities. They're probably annoying to other shoppers because of how much space they take up, but they sure are useful when you're carting around a couple of children. We're also to a point where both kids love riding on them, and specifically ask to go to the store so they can climb aboard.… Read More

Getting Back into Art (9/2/2017) - Even though I have always enjoyed it, it's been years since I've actually sat down, got focused, and drawn anything. I've sketched friends, family, self-portraits, and my wife, but never my two little ones. Is it a coincidence that I have a toddler and infant and somehow haven't been able to dedicate a few hours to drawing? Yes, I'm sure it is totally unrelated. Anywho, now that they are getting a little older (relatively speaking), it's getting a little easier to do things other than just laying around. Our toddler enjoys just hanging out with me by the computer desk,… Read More

Tribute to Dragon’s Dogma, My Favorite Game (5/27/2018) - 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 "ever-turning wheel," and how a hero and a dragon keep the wheel moving. The question at the core of the plot is, what do you want your hero to be? Will you accept the cycle and your place in it? Will you become a cowardly king, a lonely god, a monster, or a memory held by the next hero? It's a deceptively deep story; on its surface it appears simple, but unwinds into something quite… Read More

The Witcher Art, Geralt of Rivia (6/19/2020) - Somewhere towards the beginning of the new COVID-19 home quarantine reality, I finally forced myself to sit down and watch The Witcher Netflix series. I'd heard a lot of positive things about it, and enjoyed playing The Witcher 3 video game, so this seemed like a sure-fire thing. It actually seemed like it could evolve into a similar situation to Stranger Things; something I would almost certainly enjoy that I would procrastinate watching for years. Amazingly, probably in large part to the extra time at home, I didn't wait quite so long to check out The Witcher. It feels like… Read More

Non-Stop Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting (6/17/2021) - Moving to a new home naturally comes with an adjustment period. I guess everyone's timing may vary, but eventually that sense of newness wears off and most people fall into some comfortable routines again. My family and I have a few months now under our belt in our new home, so we’ve had a good opportunity to settle in at this point. We've slid into new routines, and part of that has developed from an accidental discovery. One day recently, I was trying to set up an antenna I bought for our game room television. It's a Roku TV, so… Read More

Melina Elden Ring Oil Painting (12/14/2022) - This post is centered around an oil painting of a character from Elden Ring named Melina, who acts as a guide for the player during the course of the game. She's a fascinating and mysterious character in one of the best games I've ever played. But, since I've already discussed the game itself in great detail through four previous posts, I'm not going to go wild talking about it again. In brief though, obviously I'm a huge fan of the game. It's essentially an open world hybrid, combining the deep, intense combat of Dark Souls with the sprawling world of… Read More

Improving with the Tablet and Sketchbook App (6/7/2019) - In the previous post, I discussed my purchase of a Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and decision to try digital artwork again. My first experience with a tablet designed strictly for drawing in conjunction with a computer screen (XP-Pen Deco 01) did not go smoothly, and I pretty quickly abandoned the experiment. This time though, I felt much more comfortable using this Samsung tablet. As I mentioned in the last post, I think this is primarily due to the immediate visual feedback from pen to tablet screen. Since I've already discussed the basics of my impressions on using the new tablet… Read More