Drawings of People by Brantley Phillips

Graphite: "photorealistic" drawing 

Portrait of a friend
Brantley Phillips loves to draw people, and I wish I could share more "people" drawings with you but as of now he is, in order to learn, mostly copying drawings that he very much admires. These, above, he did on his own, and he will certainly be doing many more in the future as he enjoys drawing people so much.

I am making one exception, adding a drawing that he drew from a self-portrait by Rembrandt, but it's a very special picture for him, and I understand completely how he feels about it. Also, it's not a drawing of a drawing, but a drawing of a painting.

At the Webmuseum site, you can see the painting that he drew this picture from.

Charcoal: Brantley's Muse - Rembrandt The drawing above is, of course, from a self-portrait by Rembrandt. This drawing is very special to Brantley, as for him it is an inspiration, to have "Rembrandt himself" (though Brantley's wife says it looks more than a little like Brantley) watching him as he's drawing.

Says Brantley: "It's true...there's a little of us in all of our artwork, don't you think? :)

"I do have a very sincere reverence for portraiture. I get all giddy and stupid and have fun with drawings of landscapes, animals, airplanes, whatever . . . but when it comes to people, my spirit quiets down a bit and awe sets in if what I'm looking at is done really well. I can think of no higher calling for an artist than to draw or paint portraits. That's just me, personally . . . . but to see the vibrancy of John Howard Sanden's work, or the energy in Casey Baugh's charcoal drawings . . . or Henry Yan, who can breathe life into a charcoal drawing in 20 minutes or less . . . if I could do what those gifted masters do . . . wow . . . . Like Robert Henri said, 'Yours should be the drawing of the human spirit through the human form.' These guys have achieved that. I want to achieve that, too.

"That's one reason I like my Rembrandt drawing so much . . . I drew it because I admire Rembrandt a lot . . . he pioneered chiaroscuro and loose painting at a time when the establishment wanted polished paintings. But he was sure of his abilities and no one could deny his pure, raw talent. He did the polished paintings, of course, but my favorite paintings of his are fresh and not overworked. Like his self-portraits. So I wanted to do a portrait of him in that same style . . . . sketchy, fresh . . . Hey, that'd be a good nickname for me and where I want to go with my art, wouldn't it? Just call me 'Sketchy Fresh'... :)"

In the last month or so I've put up three posts on drawings by Brantley Phillips, and this is the last of this little series. The other posts are on his aircraft drawings and his dog drawings. In January, there was a post on his art workspace. I wanted to introduce not only his artwork but also Brantley himself, so there's quite a bit about him on all these posts, as well as samples of his drawings. I hope you've enjoyed these posts as much as I've enjoyed . . . I was going to say "as much as I enjoyed writing them" but the truth is that Brantley has written them along with me. It's been a pleasure.




Brantley and his wife's boat
'Bye just for now, BrantleyYou're so awesome, Jean, thank you! . . . and yes -- 'bye, just for now. :)"

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Brantley Phillips - Dog Drawings

Graphite Drawing: Moose

Graphite Drawing: Lilly

Graphite Drawing: Two Dogs

Brantley's wife skating ahead, their dog Adak pulling Brantley (who took the picture)

Brantley Phillips lives in Alaska. Here's an earlier post, on some of Brantley's aircraft drawings, in which you can find out more about him. "He's a stud, just take our word for it...(Jean, don't you dare post that on your blog!)" Okay, Brantley, I promise I won't post -- What was it you didn't want me to post?

As you can see, Brantley's dog, Adak, is not a homebody. Brantley loves his dog (and obviously Adak thinks of enough of Brantley to willingly tow him across a frozen lake), and he loved drawing his friends' dogs shown in these pictures. Brantley adds:

"That day on the frozen lake was literally one in a million. The lake (Portage Lake) is huge, about 5 miles long and 2 miles wide, and because of perfect temps and (lack of) precipitation, it had frozen perfectly and had the surface of a wet-mopped ice rink. Carrie was going to skate, I was going to use the kicksled (basically dog mushing without the dog), and Adak was going to trot along beside us in his little ice booties to our intended destination, Portage Glacier on the other side of the shore . . . but 5 minutes into it my feet were freezing and I didn't think I would make it. Carrie, however, had recently taught Adak how to pull a sled and he loved it (Rottweilers are traditionally working dogs; they are at their happiest when they have a job to do, like pull, herd, carry packs, whatever) so she suggested we hook him up and let him pull me on the sled. I had never done this with him before but was certainly willing to give it a try . . . He was so excited as we readied his harness . . . He kept looking back at me with this child-like anticipation . . . When he was secure I yelled out "Hike!" and he took off, ripping me across this gorgeous landscape, and all I had to do was steer the sled and enjoy the ride as this surreal scenery went whizzing by . . . That day was amazing . . . We got to the glacier and people were playing hockey, setting up tents . . . it looked like an Antarctic block party. When we started back Adak kept running up to me and looking at the sled, he wanted so bad to "play sled" again . . . so, of course, I hooked him back up and I don't even think I got to yell out the "go" command this time . . . he just saw me step on the sled and zip! Here we go again! He was such a blessing to me that day . . . and he was actually disappointed when we got back to the car and made him get in for the ride home. From that day forward I had a new-found respect for my dog...."
"I do love animals, by the way. How can you not? As we speak I have our cat, Chess, sitting in my lap, purring . . . or snoring . . . I'm not sure which . . . :) I'm not an animal activist or anything, but I just can't help seeing an animal in the wild, or meeting someone's beloved pet, and not feeling a respect and appreciation for them . . . long live the furry creatures of this world . . . ."

Moose outside the window at Brantley's house

It's no wonder Brantley's dog drawings are so sympathetically and sensitively done.
It's so easy writing about Brantley and his artwork, as I hardly have to write a thing - His pictures speak for themselves! Also, Brantley speaks very well for himself. His pictures, though, have not been seen on a blog or website before and I'm proud that they're first being shown here.

There will be one more post coming up on Brantley and some of his drawings, as I want to make sure I include different subjects, confining each post to just one. The last post was on his aircraft drawings.

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Aircraft Drawings by Brantley Phillips

Graphite drawing: A6

Graphite drawing: A10

Graphite drawing: Blackhawk

Graphite drawing: Chinook

The artist: Brantley Phillips

Brantley Phillips is an artist, a pilot, an outdoorsman, a lover of fine food and a gourmet cook, a happily married man with a terrific wife, and a really friendly guy liked by a lot of people, including me. He gets a lot out of life and he gives a lot back. In my next few blog posts I'll be writing more about him and showing more pictures. In this post I want to tell you about his love of flying and show you a bit of his aircraft art.

"Thank you [says Brantley]! Although I really don't know if I'm much of an outdoorsman ... to tell you the truth my favorite outdoor activity is slow-cooking barbecue ribs while smoking a cigar.

"I used to do these pictures after I hung up my wings and became a dispatcher for the company I flew Medevac for. I worked the night shift, which I loved, being a night owl...but you'd go for hours with nothing happening so I'd bring my art stuff and draw these pictures in the wee hours. I wasn't looking at real aircraft for my models, unfortunately, just pictures of airplanes off the internet, but it was great fun and a most rewarding way to pass the time."

Brantley and his wife live in Alaska now, but they started out in the "Lower 48." In his first year of college Brantley attended the University of Georgia but he had always loved airplanes and got his private pilot's license in his senior year of high school, so when he learned that you could major in airplanes at Florida Institute of Technology he transferred there after his freshman year.

After graduation he moved back to his home state of South Carolina and worked at a few aviation jobs. "I got to fly turboprops, teach others how to fly, loved it all." He got married and he and his wife decided to move to Alaska where Brantley got a job as a copilot on a Lear jet flying Medevac patients from small towns to Anchorage for medical care. "For three years I got to see every inch of Alaska, from Ketchikan to Barrow to the tip of the Aleutian chain, I got to see it all. I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world."

Eventually, however, he realized he'd seen everything he wanted to see and decided he wanted something with a better schedule. He is now working at a desk job and "happy I get to sleep in my own bed at night and I don't get called out to fight blizzards on some remote island at 3 a.m."

Final approach to the small island town of Sitka in Southeast Alaska.

To be continued. (More on Brantley and more pictures in my next post.)

January post on Brantley's art workspace.

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Brantley Phillips' Art Workspace

Brantley Phillips' art workspace has grown to fill an entire room. It looks comfy, spacious, and well-lit. He says it's "messy" because he uses it! Quoting Brantley:

"I think back to all the pictures I see of other people's [art workspaces], and things look so organized ... and I think, is that what your room looks like after you've been working in it for several days? What does it look like the moment you just got through with a huge project? Where's the mess on the floor? Don't you have like, a bunch of pencil shavings everywhere? Where's the little wad of eraser crumbs that you've swept off to one side of your table?"

Hmm. Brantley, if I didn't clean up before taking a picture of my workspace, you wouldn't be able to see the workspace, as it's so small; it would be buried under the mess! I salute Brantley for being the first of the "messy" artists I know to show us the truth! (Did you see my post showing artists' workspaces in videos? Some are super neat and some -- okay, many -- are messy. All are what the artists feel comfortable working in.)

Brantley draws a lot with charcoal and with pencil, but he also paints with acrylics. The reason you don't see his painting equipment in these pictures is that he does most of his painting away from home.

"That, and I don't have any more room on my table. :) Actually the arrangement on my table changes depending on what I'm working on, but this is pretty much what it all gravitates back to."
 

Note that he has a stack of CDs on the table. Music to listen to while drawing?

"Yes, definitely...I love to have music playing while I'm drawing or painting. It gets the wheels in motion. Sometimes it's the more sophisticated flavors of music like Andrea Bocelli or Miles Davis, but it could drift off into Led Zeppelin, Creed, Linkin Park...heck, it could be the Muppets Christmas CD, who knows. But sometimes I work in silence. It's then that the brain seems to work on autopilot and the art starts creating itself."

It looks like he has everything at his fingertips -- All he has to do is swivel around in that comfortable looking chair.

"Yes, it's like being Captain Kirk on Star Trek...I sit in my little chair and navigate the universe before me."

Brantley and his wife live in Alaska where they enjoy fishing, boating, camping, hiking, motorcycling, and getting together with friends -- among other things. What a great place it must be to live, if you don't mind the cold.

"Actually the cold's not that bad. But then again, I like cold weather. The dark gets old sometimes in the Winter, but then you get paid back in Summer with eternal daylight."

Brantley's first art space (the kitchen table)

Brantley doesn't have a website or blog so I'm going to show some of his artwork and tell a little more about him in upcoming posts.

Also see Brian McGurgan's Art Workspace.

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