Orrin Porter Rockwell

Fishing For Pukes- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

Orrin Porter Rockwell was among the most colorful characters in early Mormon history. Rockwell never fit the mold of other straight laced church goers right down to his beard and hair. He never cut it after LDS prophet Joseph Smith delivered a Samson-like exhortation that if he did not cut it, "neither bullet nor blade" would take his life. Later he did donate his hair to make a wig for a woman who had lost her hair to typhoid fever. He also gained the nickname "The Destroying Angel" as well as a reputation for being quick on the trigger after being acquitted of attempted murder. This illustration depicts a time when Porter was held in a Missouri prison for nine months without being charged. To amuse himself and the children outside the cell window, he would dangle some of his food, which consisted of barely edible lumps of cornbread called "corn dodgers", out the window. When asked what he was doing, he told the children he was "fishing for pukes" which was the unflattering nickname many from Illinois bestowed on Missourians at the time. This entertained the youngsters who would bring him more food since the state was not legally responsible to feed it's prisoners (go figure). Rockwell became a lawman in the Utah territory and he was either loved or hated depending upon which side of the law you happened to fall. This is another illustration for an BYU magazine article.

More on Porter Rockwell in this book

Adjusting the Color

Martha Hughes Cannon- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

Samuel P. Cowley- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

J. Golden Kimball- Graphite, digital by Greg Newbold

After a little contemplation, I decided that the background color on these portraits was competing a little too much with the skin tones. I adjusted the color by dropping the saturation and shifting the hue slightly on all three. I like them better and thing that this subtle shift lets the faces command more attention. Sometimes I think I have the tendency (as I am sure a lot of artists do) to overdo the color saturation when what is really needed is a more subdued touch. In this case, I think this shift makes for better images. Plus, I sort of like the feeling I get of hand tinted photos (scratches and all) which was really the goal all along.

See the previous versions here

Portrait Drawings Finished

Martha Hughes Cannon- by Greg Newbold
graphite and digital

Samuel P. Cowley

J. Golden Kimball

I showed the drawings for these spot art pieces earlier so I thought I'd show how they turned out. I had the option of just leaving these as black and white art, but decided to add some limited color and texture. I think they turned out pretty well and should fit in well with the other color pierces in this series. I'm still considering whether to desaturate the backgrounds behind the heads a little. These were all rendered in Photoshop.

Rough Trail

Jane Manning James was a Mormon Pioneer and also one of the first black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. As part of the article I am illustrating for BYU Magazine, I am illustrating little known stories from the lives of church members. The story is told of how Jane travelled several hundred miles of the journey with inadequate footwear. In an autobiographical sketch she wrote,

“We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground. We stopped and united in prayer to the Lord, we asked God the Eternal Father to heal our feet and our prayers were answered and our feet were healed forthwith.”

For this illustration I wanted to portray the hardship but also inject hope. The sage sparrow represents the Bible verse which teaches that not a sparrow shall fall without our Father knowing. (Matthew 10:29). Hopefully I struck the right balance of strength and faith here.

Congrats to My Students!

Haute Route by - Kelsey Datwyler

See How They Run - by Nathan Hardyman

I was pleased to learn last week that two of my students at BYU had work accepted into the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition. The instructor credits listed for Nathan's piece are incorrect in case you were wondering and in the process of being fixed (gotta ta all the credit you deserve, right?). Nathan and Kelsey join six other BYU students with works accepted (11 pieces total). Most of these students I have also taught or am currently teaching this semester. Way to go guys! Well done and well deserved!

See Nathan's Piece on the SI site
See Kelsey's Piece on the SI site

Portrait Drawings

Samuel P. Cowley- Graphite 4" x 5"  by Greg Newbold

Martha Hughes Cannon- Graphite 4" x 5"  by Greg Newbold

J. Golden Kimball- Graphite 4" x 5" by Greg Newbold

These drawings are part of a project I am doing for BYU Magazine. I'll show progress of the other illustrations as they progress. I will be bringing in some limited color to these and add some texture in Photoshop as well, but I like the organic quality of the drawings and will try to preserve it as I move along.

East of Midway- SOLD

East of Midway- 6" x 8"- oil by Greg Newbold

Just sold the last of the paintings that I had included in this previous post. East of Midway was done on location about 45 minutes up the canyon near the little town of Midway. It was one of those fun little 6" x 8" efforts that seemed to come together smoothly. I always liked it and now I am glad that it has a home. I still get a little melancholy about letting paintings go that have been hanging around the studio for a while, but I figure I will just keep painting more. That's why I paint anyway isn't it?

Here is the post I did about painting this on location