phone: 845.514.9029
email: john@johndrago.com
email: john@johndrago.com
I love pencils. When I was younger (this portrait was done when I was 15) I could spend endless hours just working on a drawing. I just used a regular, chewed up #2 pencil – none of the fancy graphite pencils sets that run hundreds of dollars. Nope – a #2 and one of those fat, pink erasers. That was all I needed. Not sure who the girl in this picture was.
Here is another one – again done when I was about 15. You can see a lot of paper damage where I used the eraser a little too heavily along the sides of her face.
This is one of my best portraits. An old girlfriend. Bad memories – but at least I got a good piece of artwork out of the deal. Pencil (the fancy ones) on textured paper. Check out the HUGE signature I used to use.
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Digital Paintings
Although I grew up doing traditional art, using traditional tools- pencils, acrylics, oils and pastels - my love of computers has led me to the digital realm. With digital you have access to any brush you need, any color you desire, any kind of canvas, lighting - whatever - and you won't have to clean a thing when you are finished.Pencil Drawings
Pencils is what I started out with. I can remember my very first pencil sketch. It was in my kindergarten class at Church Street School in White Plains. I used to cry everyday when my parents would leave me in the class. I would run up to the door and cry through the glass side panels as I watched my mother and father walk away. One day as I was crying, my teacher - a Mrs. Wagner took me by the hand, led me to a table, sat me down and put a piece of paper and pencil in front of me and asked me to draw something. I drew an elephant - and for a 5 year old - I drew it well. And from that point I was hooked.Photography
I use a lot of reference photos when I do my digital work. Some people look at this as "cheating" - that a true artist doesn't need to look at photos. Well, if that's the case then I'm in good company. Even Norman Rockwell used photos as reference. Michaelangelo drew from life and used those sketches as reference for his paintings.