rlnelson

Put a dog in it

I’ve used dogs as subject matter in many of my illustrations. It wasn’t a deliberate decision, I just noticed that they were showing up frequently. Growing up in rural Kansas, on a farm, dogs were just natural companions. They kept things under control with all the wildlife that came out at night. We raised sheepContinue reading “Put a dog in it”

Indian Lookout

There is a rock formation about five miles south of Delphos, Kansas that has been a local feature and tourist destination since the settlers arrived in the 1870’s. Of course the Indians of the area knew about it and used it as a lookout over the valley. Hence the name. It is a relative highContinue reading “Indian Lookout”

Finger story

These two digital illustrations were inspired by student speculation as to how I lost my ring finger. There were multiple stories circulating around the art department. My favorite Involved a paper cutter and another student. Also at the time, several students were attempting to develop their skills in graphic novel artwork and I thought thisContinue reading “Finger story”

Homegrown

Homegrown is work that I developed in graduate school. My overall emphasis for my graduate thesis was in traditional illustration. I wanted to better understand water-based media, a topic that was ignored in my undergraduate studies. At that time, I was experimenting with a variety of new media – I was sick of acrylic, oilContinue reading “Homegrown”

The demo birds

I am going to use the blog feature on this site as a means to include detail about my illustrations. I have already blogged two short posts about couple of recent pieces. This post is about the little watercolor birds you’ll see on this site. They are the result of in-class watercolor demonstrations in myContinue reading “The demo birds”

More of an introduction

OK, so now it is WordPress for my website. As I stated on the Hello page, I’m using this platform to dust off my html skills and bring my CSS knowledge up to speed… to remain relevant. I started this WordPress site a couple of years ago when a colleague at work began using itContinue reading “More of an introduction”

Half-Jack

I have done many illustrations with my grandfather as the subject. This watercolor is the most recent. He was called Half-Jack by a custom wheat cutter back in the days of C.B. radios. It became his C.B. handle and stuck to him long after craze died away. This image was from a trip to CanadaContinue reading “Half-Jack”

Sicilian montage

This image was inspired by the trip my wife and I took to Sicily. This sculpture and the architectural elements were at a Catholic church in the city of Modica. The media is gouache in a subtractive, pick out technique.

Lesotho landscape

This is a watercolor of the site where my daughter was posted in Lesotho, south Africa while in the Peace Corps. She was in a remote area and lived on the Tiping School compound where she taught high school math. This is looking north and the small buildings in the foreground are latrines and theContinue reading “Lesotho landscape”