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!

Two Concurrent Sketches, Dad and the Girls (3/29/2018) - 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 improving, I decided to sketch two scenes concurrently. This was not my best idea, as I felt compelled to finish too much too quickly. The smaller sketch suffered in quality partially because of that. The larger drawing, though, I think actually turned out well! As I mentioned in the other post, things started out fine. I appreciated having some variety, and being able to switch back and forth. As I started layering color, I could… Read More

Saved Side Profile, 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

Fezzik and Inigo from the Princess Bride, A Warm-Up (4/17/2018) - 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 busier than usual lately, so I haven't had much of a chance. In the interim, I was able to finish up a subscriber thank you post and one on website stats, but I was traveling and didn't have any art supplies with me. I really felt like I was on a roll in March, so I was worried I might have lost some of that progress. I wanted to get a sort of "warm up"… Read More

Thoughts on Portrait Requests (12/31/2021) - 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 last year at this time, "hey maybe this pandemic business will finally settle down next year." Well, I have the same wish now - hopefully 2022 will finally see COVID become background noise instead of in the middle of everything. 2021 has had its bright sides though; we finally found a place to live after searching for like seven months. We've gotten pretty well adjusted to being back in our hometown after being away for… Read More

Jason Witten’s Retirement – The Secret is in the Dirt (5/5/2018) - "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 ability and for practicing more than his contemporaries. I've discussed my relationship with the Dallas Cowboys a bit in a previous post; they've been my favorite sports team (along with the Dallas Mavericks) since I was a kid, but I am beaten down by two decades of team mediocrity. I'm sure I will always cheer for them simply because I have so much personal history and nostalgic energy tied to them. But, unfortunately team owner… Read More

Late February Oil Paintings (9/29/2023) - I admit, my idea of making posts simpler/shorter to catch up on sharing paintings did not at al work. I'm about 70 paintings behind, which is a deficit that's only increasing. So, I'm going to try some batches of paintings again. I can probably group some based on when they were done. I've got three that seem to make sense together chronologically, so here are a few from late February 2023. Let's go back in time to half a year ago and see what I wrote about back then... View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jon Amdall… Read More

Underpainting Practice – Andre the Giant (11/26/2022) - 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 obviously is trying oil painting for the first time around two months ago. But I am also trying to flex some artistic muscles that I haven't used much. I described this in some depth already; although I enjoy drawing, I can see that I had become somewhat stagnant in a sense. Yes, I was getting practice. But I really wasn't trying to learn anything new with it. I had a process that worked for me,… Read More

Secret of Mana Painting | Game Art in My Style (12/21/2025) - I recently painted the characters from the classic SNES game Secret of Mana - this was such a fun project, but definitely came with some challenges. The original game is one of my all-time favorites and triggers fond memories, particularly when it comes to the music. The game's art featured a more cartoonish design though, so I had to try to adapt the characters to fit my oil painting style. I'm not really a realistic portrait artist, leaning more in the impressionist direction, but I do prefer a more grounded depiction over the animated look. So, painting this game art… Read More

Bright Light Depiction in Oil Painting (1/27/2024) - My latest painting is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. With this one, I tried to really emphasize a bright light source behind the subject. I think I was able to accomplish this for the most part, but I can see it's something I need to practice a bit more. I'll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some of the verbiage I used on social media. Then, I'll embed the YouTube video that features this piece. EPSON scanner image View this post on Instagram… 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

New Kids Book ‘Robot Family Adventures’ (4/5/2020) - Apparently, the beginning of April is book publishing time! Last year, I released a book called Pencils and Process. That one took months to write, and was a 150ish page personal account of my experiences returning to art after having been away from it for a decade. This year, my April book release is a kids book called Robot Family Adventures: Moving to a New Home. Right now, it's only available on Amazon (ebook and paperback) because it's the easiest and least expensive path available. I also want to get a hardcover distributed to other retailers like Barnes and Noble… Read More

Almost a Sketch Request, Sam Carrying Frodo (4/20/2018) - 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 responded with "Sam and Frodo." This comment was pretty exciting, because I thought it was a request for another sketch! As it turns out, he was joking (which should have been obvious in hindsight), but I already had in my mind to move forward with it. I responded by saying that I would do a sketch featuring the true hero of Lord of the Rings, Samwise, carrying that lazy hobbit Frodo up a volcano. And… Read More

More Stranger Things Artwork (3/4/2020) - A couple weeks ago, I shared some ramblings about my late discovery of Stranger Things, and how it turns out everyone was right about how much I would love it. I managed to keep that post mostly spoiler free, but I've decided in this second post to abandon that plan. From the start, I wanted to do a couple of Stranger Things related sketches. I finished the second one a few days ago, this one featuring Chief Hopper and Joyce Byers. Considering the spoiler megaton bomb that dropped in the form of a Stranger Things trailer just before my last… Read More

Video Game Characters, 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. It included a collection of game characters, including Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Tom Nook, and Minecraft Steve. 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… 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

How to Make Progression .Gif Images (11/15/2019) - 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, but I guess they add up over time. Through all of that text about artwork, it seems I've developed a pattern to my writing. I hope it doesn't come off as robotic, but I do have certain marks I try to hit in a standard post about a drawing. Typically, it goes something like this: Topical introduction, possibly referencing the last post.Discussion of something I thought was interesting. Sometimes it's directly related to the artwork,… Read More

Cotton vs Linen Paper for Oil Painting (1/15/2025) - The vast majority of my oil paintings are done on Strathmore 400 series oil paper, which is a treated linen that feels somewhat rigid like canvass. I am very much a creature of habit, so part of it is that I'm used to how it feels and how paint acts on it. But it's also pretty cost effective, and storage is much easier than canvass. With the painting that is the subject of this post though, I tried something new - a softer cotton paper called Stonehenge Oil made by Legion Paper. It's definitely a different experience painting on this… Read More

Woman in Green Dress Oil Painting (12/2/2024) - The subject of this post is another figure study on 12 x 12 oil paper. I'll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I'll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I'll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos. Woman in a Green Dress, oil on paper. Shop link related to this piece: This portrait really had me… Read More

Portrait of an Older Guy Pondering (7/20/2023) - https://www.instagram.com/p/Co2WyQsDz0F/ I'm so incredibly far behind now in sharing paintings, and it seems like there's not much I can do to address it. I've tried batching multiple into one post, and I've tried simplifying my posts as well. But it just seems I am vastly more interested in painting than I am blogging. Not really a problem exactly - I am enjoying myself immensely. But I feel bad paying for website hosting that I'm not using much. Anyhow, to this specific painting. It's from about 6 months ago, which frankly is an eternity in this context, because I've gotten so… Read More

First Attempt at Oil Painting (9/21/2022) - 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 was actually done this past weekend. I feel like I've been talking about this for years, but I've had "learning to paint" in my back pocket as a long term goal for quite sometime. It's always been an undefined, vague goal though - I might occasionally say I'd like to learn when I retire, or possibly take a class when the kids graduate, something along those lines. I've kept this idea at arm's length for… Read More