More Portraits

Hey you Guys,

I've decided to post a couple more of the portraits I've been working on this week. We have a girl with child and a dog named "Eddie." Eddie was quite enjoyable to paint because the whole time I'm laughing at the pup's expression. The girl and child was more of a challenge. I had a tiny picture to work from that did not have the best lighting and had to make it a 16x20 painting. It is always tricky to paint teeth and smiles, one centimeter off and the person looks deformed. I've got another little girl portrait I'm working on in Baroque style which I'll be posting soon. The Baroque period is by far my favorite in terms of style. I'll be attempting to concentrate on dramatic lighting and expression with this next one, we'll see how it goes.

Oil paintings

Hi guys, been very busy in the art field these last couple months. I've decided to post a portrait of a dog named Sky that was commissioned for a Christmas gift this year. This dog was painted with oils on canvas panel. I'll try to keep posting the other portraits I've been working on because I have been slacking with my posting!

finished mural

The last three days I've been working at The Harvesters church off of Transit and Seneca completing a Children's themed Noah's Ark mural. Just finished this mural yesterday and still washing the airbrush paint off of my body. This mural was created with acrylic and airbrush paints and was designed to match the original mural that was destroyed when the room was renovated. I have to say this was a fun mural, it didn't take too long to complete and it should makes some kids happy. I also got to paint a little portrait of my parrot Smeagol in the design. The funny thing is he is the only animal in that whole mural that does not have a partner. If you know Smeagol, he doesn't get along with many things and would never board a ship with another parrot of his kind. If you are looking for him he is on the up most top of the giraffe's head on the left.

new Halloween mask

Here is a new edition to my Halloween costume collection. This mask should be finished soon and will be for sale in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/jdhorst in the next few days, if I don't decide on keeping it for this Halloween. The little pumpkin guys on top light up with tea lights. I still have to name the mask.

back to oils

I had a long run with acrylics and found some great advantages with the dry time of the paint and the ability to do washes and layers. Recently I just ordered over 100 tubes of some really good Grumbacher pre-tested oils to divert away from acrylic and go back to my roots in the oil paint world. I just finished a portrait which was the first oil painting I've done in about 3 years. Now that I have worked with the oils again I don't think I'll go back to acrylics.

Erie County Fair Plein Air painting contest

Thanks to all that came to visit me while I was painting at the Erie County Fair in the Plein Air contest. I had between the hours 11-4 to paint something on the fair grounds. I was going to paint the midway, but thought there may be too many people painting in that area, so I painted the cows. I really never painted cows before so I thought this would be a nice change. I made some nice farmer friends and got to learn a little bit about the behind the scenes of farming. It was way too hot of a day and even a few of the painters dropped out. I battled through the heat and finished a pretty decent cow painting. After all was said and done I placed 3rd which was fine I guess. The painting will be displayed in the creative arts building till the fair ends.

The Weekly Sketch

This had been a busy week in the art world. I've decided to post another finished piece that you may see the next time you visit your local Buffalo based library. This piece was created for Read to Succeed Buffalo, a local organization that promotes reading. I'll try to keep a better track record for my weekly posting, apologies!

Another Goonie Adventure

Wow, my plan to keep posting about our Goonie adventure failed when I realized there was no physical way I could keep up with all the stuff going on in Astoria. It was 4 days straight of me wearing a Sloth costume running around town taking pictures with hundreds, possibly thousands, of fellow Goonie fans. My brother, wife, and myself had the best times of our life. Seeing the Goonie house and Haystack Rock was truly inspiring and well worth the thousands of miles driven. I never would've imagined the town of Astoria to have become so saturated with the movie. I ate Goonie themed food, drank Goonie themed beer and couldn't walk into a single Astorian business without hearing something about The 25th. I felt at home and made many friends. I was blessed to have my artwork used in the event and all the positive emotions felt in this trip will fuel future works of art.

David got signed by Jeff Cohen,"Chunk," Sean Astin, "Mikey," Corey Feldman, "Mouth" Richard Donner "director," and will now retire on my coffee table until I can get the rest of the Goonies to sign him. My Sloth mask will be packed away until the Astorians decide on having a 30th, I may have kids by then, but you can damn well rest assure that they'll be well versed in the classic!

Another Goonie Adventure

Dave is getting around and is excited because in another day he will be in the Goon Docks...he doesn't like the truckers looking at him though.

Another Goonie Adventure

It's been a long ride up to this point, but has been adventurous. There has been some interesting folks we've met along the way. We got some free coffee from a chip wagon in Penn, nice guy working with his kid for cub scouts. We stayed at a super 8 in Wauseon, Ohio on the first night "Friday." pretty scary place, but was cost effective. Saturday we drove through Indiana,Illinois,Iowa but went right though Chicago and crashed in Omaha Nebraska, Man if you like corn fields this is the place to be! We passed where they filmed field of dreams "which is for sale." Sunday we ventured through Nebraska, again many corn fields trains and Horses, beautiful sunset. I saw a cow convention which was nice, no tornado's though...which sucks. We then crashed in Wyoming where I sit now writing this blog. I tried ordering a Godfather's pizza in honor of the Goonies, but they were closed early on Sunday. I was really hoping I could eat my weight which I think has increased on this trip. We'll be going through the Rockies today. Happy Memorial day! Nicole + Jesse Horst. Jeremy too.

Another Goonie Adventure

The Goonies 25th anniversary party in Astoria Oregon is all I have to say. We're driving across country to be part of the action. I'll attempt to post pics of our adventure along the way. Never Say Die!

The Weekly Sketch

This week I didn't sketch anything, I've been a little busy. I decided in place of a sketch to post a pic of a painting I worked on this week. It is a Jellyfish emerging from the water in the night sky. I usually do not paint sea life, but I enjoy the Alien quality of the Jellies.

The Weekly Sketch

Sorry, I was so busy last week I didn't post a sketch. This week I was outside working on the garden when the stupid neighbor's dog comes out and starts barking at me through the fence. Like Clockwork, this dumb dog comes out right when I'm feeling nice and relaxed and barks the most annoying sound you've ever herd. The owner sucks too, to get him to stop barking she yells all these double negatives at him and sounds like a sea hag in the process from all the years of smoking. I can't stand double negatives. I decided to draw a representation of them real fast when I came in the house.

The Weekly Sketch

This week while sitting in the car waiting for my wife I picked up the old sketch pad and drew the tree that was in front of my car. I'm not too impressed with this doodle, it is actually pretty boring, but I had to find one of my sketches to post. the only other thing I sketched this week were preliminary drawings for paintings I have to finish. I did draw a Frankenstein creation of an owl mixed with a cat and a raccoon, it was a garbage sketch though, maybe I'll post it next week if I feel like it. By the way, the tree outside my car actually did have a face, I didn't make that up.

The Weekly sketch

This week's post is a drawing I made of a octopus feeding a fish to a tree. I'm not sure where I was going with this theme, but it is very interesting.

The Weekly Sketch

This week I'm posting an Easter egg I finished a few hours ago. I was asked to make a Jesus face for my grandma in law. I had basic egg dye and a Q-tip to accomplish this holy task. I think it looks Jesus-ish, the picture is pretty blurry though. Last year I made Jesus on an Easter egg and it looked like Charles Manson, so that didn't work out too well.

The Weekly Post

This is the Female shirt design I made for dyngus day. It's really hard to illustrate "lazy" in a design. I guess the pierogi could have been sitting on the couch watching T.V. or something because drinking martinis is hardly being lazy. I guess what illustrates lazy is the expression in the pierogi's face and that she is sitting on the text. I think it's pretty funny though even if it is not the best example of laziness.

The Weekly Sketch

Apologies for not posting last week. I had to finish a portrait for my Grandma in laws 80Th birthday and time was short. I decided this week to post a design I was working on for a dyngus day shirt. Buffalo takes dyngus day very serious and I enjoy going out to celebrate the festivities. I visited the Broadway market this past week and saw many Polish pride t-shirts, many in which I felt were pretty generic for my taste. I remembered a while back that I coined the term kill basa as opposed to kielbasa and even went as far as saying I'll kill you basas. I've decided it was time to put a design to this and place it in t-shirt hands. Here is what I came up with. Friday I'll post the ladies t-shirt design. Sorry for the watermark, I need to watch out for image pirates!

The Weekly Sketch

This weeks post is a little different. I slightly went off track because I got caught up with a new program. I just started getting familiar with the new Corel painter software, I've previously only worked with Adobe products. This Corel painter program is really interesting, it has simulated paint and brushes to act as if you are really painting. I personally enjoy the real deal, but it is neat. I get to use palette knifes and bristle brushes along with whatever digital oil paint color I desire. This digital painting took almost no time to create and looks pretty finished as far as abstract painting is concerned.

The Weekly Sketch

I amaze myself. I thought by now I'd be bored of repeating themes in the majority of my work, like for instance, faced moons, and perched owls. I however find myself this week drawing another perched owl with a personified moon floating above. This drawing was very fast and I used a thick piece of graphite on white paper. I completed this sketch in around 10 to 15 minutes. I scanned the drawing and applied a rough filter in adobe illustrator. I sometimes alter my drawings with photo programs just to see what happens. I think the subjects of my vintage Halloween collection have taken over my brain not allowing me to create anything that doesn't have some tie to Halloween.....that's fine with me though.

Apologies for last week's post, I was very tired and left some spelling errors. Anyone who knows me personally knows how I love trees. This week's sketch I drew on regular white paper using one of my favorite drawing mediums "pen." I know the fine art world has not included the average ballpoint into the artist's medium list yet but I love them. The ballpoint pen has a nice feel and I can achieve dark and light tones just like any other fine art ink. The subject here is a tree singing to a Raccoon on a swing. I've been personifying trees for as long as I can remember. 90% of my paintings with trees have a face or some kind of human-like quality. This tree seems to be singing a heartfelt song while the Raccoon is swinging away. I've been on a Raccoon kick recently for some reason. I think the tail does it for me, I am a big fan of stripes. I completed the sketch in around 20 minutes. With trees, I could spend hours completing every branch. This tree just came out of my head, most of the time I do not use references when working with trees. I enjoy the tree that comes purely out of mind, it may not be scientifically accurate or even belong to a species, but at least I can say I grew it. What song is the Tree singing?

The Weekly Sketch

This is an interesting drawing I whipped up in my sketch pad. I really don't understand the subject myself. It appears that I drew a girl/boy in a clown like suit holding a devil head. I seriously don't think when I draw, I just go with the flow, and this is what comes out. I'm really tired because I just came home from my friends house so I really can't generate a good critique of this sketch. I will say though that the majority of my doodles are bazar.

The Weekly Sketch 2/12/10

Tuesday was Denny's free Grand Slam day from 6am to 2pm. If you came between these hours you could get a free Grand Slam. When things are free, people from all walks of life come out of the woodwork to receive their prize, even if they have to wait 2 hours for a $6.99 breakfast. I went to visit my waitress mother during this promotional event and made sure the customers were treating her right, because if they didn't, my brother and I would lay down the law.

I was handed an entry form to win 52 free Grand Slams. I came to the realization that I would not enjoy a year of these meals, so I used the back of the form to make the drawing. I was also given a baby pencil to fill out the form, which I used as my tool. It seems that all my random drawings have this zombie-like feel. I really don't think about what I'm going to sketch, rather just jump into it. The people to the right of me were watching me draw, which always makes me feel uncomfortable. They're probably wondering "what's wrong with this guy." I decided to name this character Denny after the restaurant. I added a cute portion of pancakes with a cup of coffee. The people to the left of me were yelling " Miss, are they coming around with more coffee." My mom should have splashed hot coffee in their face, but decided not to. I think that is why I drew Denny yelling, because of the clowns next to me. The fork and knife were the last things I drew before my Grand Slam was laid on the table. Usually when my food comes I forget about my doodle and leave it forever. I almost never take my doodle with me, unless it was done in a sketch book. I found out that some waiters actually grab my sketches and keep them. One restaurant has my random scribble on their bulletin board. To bring this sketch home and scan it into my computer is definitely new for me. I think it is too late to submit the entry form now, this damn blog cost me 52 Grand Slams. Check back and see next Friday's sketch, talk to you later.

The Weekly Sketch

My name is Jesse Horst. I'm a professional artist and have recently decided to start a blog about my work. My goal is to draw something every week keeping it fairly open and free. I may post complete sketches or little doodles I draw on a napkin while waiting for my food in a restaurant. I will post this sketch on the Friday of every week and talk about my work. Greater thought will now be given to the random sketches that end up collecting dust in miscellaneous sketch books and/or garbage's. Hopefully, this internal critique will enlighten me. I complete many finalized paintings, but this weekly post will only focus on the sketches created for no concrete purpose. I will take you on my personal adventure every week in the quest for greater understanding. Come back Friday the 14th for my first drawing, it should be very exciting!