Finished Christmas Painting

Here is the finished annual Christmas painting.
Painted with acrylic paints on watercolor paper.
The original is framed and haning on our wall.
Christmas cards were made and sent to family and friends.
Each card had handpainted highlights (for example different colored ornaments on the tree) plus signed and dated making each an original work of art.

5 New Paintings

The start of five new paintings. All stretched canvas; range in size from 20 x 40 cm to 20 x 50 cm and a 30 x 40 cm.
Eventually headed for galleries in Germany.

Christmas 2006 Painting Sketch

Every year I create a Christmas-themed painting to hang in our house and make a very, very limited edition Christmas card from it for friends and family.
After printing the Christmas card, each card has parts that are hand painted making each a unique painting. It is signed and dated in pencil. These one-of-a-kind cards are works of art ready to be framed and hung.
Above is the preliminary sketch of this year´s card.

Brown Eyes and Brown Hair

Size: 30 x 30 cm
Acrylic Paints on Stretched Canvas.

Woman with Wine

Size of painting: 60 x 80 cm.
Acrylic paints on a stretched canvas.
Signed and dated front and back; with title on the back side.
Currently on exhibition in a gallery in Berlin, Germany.

Plant Painting sketches

A couple of sketches for paintings with cacti and other plants.

Rough Sketch for Painting

Rough sketch for new painting idea.
Lots of new characters.

Three Cups A Day

A new painting in my series of coffee and tea cup paintings.
This painting has a more pastel look in paint and uses some bigger graphics in the background than my previous works.
See more here:
http://www.charleskaufman.com/newart.html

Eye in the Front and Back

Painted this 2-legged character on a crushed Coke can.

Before and After

I first painted the girl on the left using acrylic paints on a stretched canvas (20 x 20 cm).
After I was finished I did not like her nose...it made her look a little too bird-like.
So I made a smaller rounder nose as seen on the right.

Sketch Idea and Finished Painting

Click to see larger view.

A comparison to see the difference between the original sketch idea and the finished painting.
My sketches are usually small (this one is about 2 inches wide) with just the basic composition details of the objects.
I prefer not to have a very detailed sketch, I just want the germ of an idea so that the painting can evolve, change and take a life of its own as I put the paint on the canvas.

For example in the sketch the woman has shorter hair (and I was thinking a brownish color); however, in the finished painting it´s longer, blond hair.
And the dinosaur on TV? It just happened at the end of the painting process.

New Characters

Four from many new character ideas along the lines of these.

Lunar Boy Gallery Invite

My painting was used for the invitation to the current Lunar Boy Gallery group "Apparitions" show.
Don´t miss my paintings in the group art show "Apparitions" at the the Lunar Boy Art Gallery in Oregon.
Click here.

New Sketches - Bug Character Ideas

These are some new character sketch ideas for an animaton project I am working on.

"Ghosts from the Boneyard"

Here is a new one-of-a-kind, origianl painting at the "Appartions" group art show at Lunar Boy Gallery.
"Ghosts from the Boneyard"
Acrylic Paints on Canvas. 15.7 x 15.7 inches.
Signed and Dated front and Back.

The art show goes until November 10th.

Don´t miss my paintings in the group art show "Apparitions" at the the Lunar Boy Art Gallery in Oregon.
Click here.

Going to Pictoplasma!

Going to Pictoplasma in Berlin!
October 11- 14. See you there!
Pictoplasma.com

Art Painted on T-Shirt

Here is a painting of a character of mine I did right on a t-shirt.

Detail

Here is a detailed section from a painting I did some re-work to.
The painting is 19.8 x 39.6 inches in size on stretched canvas.
Title: "One Moment in Time".

Toasters

Imagine a land where toasters are 10 stories tall....
Here is one of my newest in my series of toaster paintings. You can see more on my painting website.
Size: 31.5 x 39.6 inches / 80 x 100 cm
Acrylic paints on canvas.

Three Bears

The Three Bears - 60 x 90 cm.
Acrylic on stretched canvas.
With real fake, plastic cherries and bananas!

Six Views

Here are some photos of another character that is made from clay and then after the burn painted with acrylic paints.

Hand sculpted and painted Ceramic figure

Here is a sample of one of a series the ceramics I have been working on for a while. Finally took some photos and thought I would post.
The character is handsculpted by me out of clay, then burned and painted with acrylic paints. I have not come up with the final name for the line of characters but they are to look like they are made out of wood. Wood fairies, elves, or something like that.

Here are some photos from other angles.

Sketch Idea for Painting

Here is the sketch for a painting I am working on for the upcoming group art show at the Lunar Boy Gallery in Oregon.

More Bugs or Are They Insects?

Couple of bugs quoting Einstein...

More Bug Character Ideas

Some more bug sketches from a comic book idea I am working on...it´s about bugs and insects - they are the same, aren´t they?

Bug Character Ideas

Just a few sketches of some bug ideas.

Fuzzball Bird

Round, fuzzy, yellow bird with fly-like wings that lets it float around like a humming bird made of sweater lint....all painted on a crushed Coke can.

Sweet Apparitions - Finished Art

Here is the almost finished painting with the title of:
"No Matter How Hard She Tried to Conjure Up Prince
Charming, All that Ever Appeared Were Apparitions of
Desserts Eaten Earlier that Day..."
The painting is created with acrylic paints on a 23.6 x 23.6
inch (60 x 60 cm) stretched canvas.

Sweet Apparitions

New sketch idea for a Halloween art show. A Witch stirring up her pot.

"Toast on the Horizon"

"Toast on the Horizon"
27.6 x 35.4 inches / 60 x 80 cm
Acrylic paints on stretched canvas.

Women Sketches

Probably my favorite subject to paint is women. I have sketchbooks full of drawing ideas for paintings I never have time to complete.

Purple and Green

Two sketch ideas for new characters. I have about 40 more in a similar style that I need to do some color testing on. And do a bit of animation testing.

New Animal Ideas Part 3

A couple of new ideas for animals - these are kind of a cross between a rhinocerous, beetle and fish.

Robot Character Sketches

Robots, robots, robots. Here are a couple of sketch ideas for a new robot comic idea.

"Another Day, Another Volcano"

Acrylic painting on a 40 x 50 cm stretched canvas.
A woman enjoying a glass of red wine while watching three volcanos erupt on the horizon.
Title of the painting: "Another Day, Another Volcano".

New Animal Ideas Part 2

New Animal Ideas Part 2 - What do you get when you cross a rat and an elephant? A Rat-ephant.

One of Many

I´ve been doing quite a few sketches of my new characters. Working on a comic idea and more paintings.
Click on this link for a larger view from my sketch book.

New Animal Ideas Part 1

New Animal Ideas Part 1 - An 8-legged, 2-arm, blue platypus with porcupine quills.

"Harvest Time"

Here´s a new painting I finished up yesterday.



"Harvest Time"
Acrylic paints on stretched canvas.
15.9 x 19.8 inches

Nothing On TV

I usually sketch out an idea or two of a certain subject before I start to paint. The sketches I do are fairly small (these below are maybe and inch and a half wide each) and not real detailed. I don´t like to plan out my drawings in precise detail, but rather go with the main idea and then when I start on the canvas let whatever happen happen.
Here are the two sketch ideas I was working with for the painting:

As you can see the finished painting looks a bit different than the sketches.

You can see a larger view at this link.
Note I added a TV on the right hand side for the woman to rest her arm on and the second TV is in a chair - note the legs on that TV. And the perspective is a bit different than in the sketches. My initial sketches are mainly about the idea (in this case woman sitting in room by herself with TV) and then I adjust the perspective and other elements to make them a little less bland, straight on looking.
I am thinking of doing one or two other paintings probably following more closely my sketches.

"Rotating One´s Options"

This is a new painting I did today titled, "Rotating One´s Options".
It is 19.8 x 19.8 inches (50 x 50 cm).
You can see a larger view of this one and others below here.

Re-visiting My Old Sketch Books

I´ve been going through my sketch books that I have created over the last 17+ years and re-visiting some ideas I drew, but they never got past the sketch book phase.

Here is a sample of this type character I sketched out over 17 years ago:

And today I painted a couple of the ideas - these were done with acrylic paints on canvas; sizes 60 x 80 cm and 50 x 100 cm:

The Stare Bears

I´ve been working on sketches for "The Stare Bears" for a while now and started painting some of the ideas.
The Stare Bears don´t say much, but they like to look at things a lot.
Here´s a link to see more sketches and paintings:
The Stare Bears