Etch-a-Sketch Christmas Gift

A good friend of mine commissioned me to do an etching of his parent's home, the Vail's House on Peach Lake, NY to give them as a Christmas gift. I had a little over a week to finish it, as he was expecting to see them the day after Christmas. I finished it that day. Probably around 8-10 hours to complete. He said they enjoyed it, and that I saved Christmas (I added the last part.)

(Click to enlarge)

Thanks for checking out my Etch A Sketch art! Visit again soon for something new or check out my other pages online for things that might not appear here...

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Reddit Secret Santa etch

This year I participated in Reddit's Secret Santa gift exchange. Everyone who signs up is assigned a random redditor to buy/make/gift. Once you find out which user you've been assigned, it's your task to look through their comment and submission history and determine what would be an appropriate gift for your Secret Santee.

Once I learned who I was going to be sending a gift to, I looked through their history and learned through a question and answer session he had conducted that he's a 3rd generation carnival employee, so I figured something carnival themed would be most appropriate. I thought an etch-a-sketch would be a good gift for me to send, so I created this Reddit Alien Carnival. He seemed to enjoy it, here's his post.

(Click to enlarge) Thanks for checking out my Etch A Sketch art! Visit again soon for something new or check out my other pages online for things that might not appear here...

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Central Park pocket etch

(Click to enlarge)

Been a while since I posted a new etch. This one isn't my best, but it's finished.

Brooklyn Bridge pocket etch

More NYC pocket etching. Here's the Brooklyn Bridge. This one probably took me about three hours. I may do a postcard run of all my NYC pocket etches, this would be the second of the series. More to come.

(Click to enlarge)

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Union Square today

If you're in the Big City come visit me today, I'll be selling prints of my Etch-a-Sketch art for the very first time. Don't let me down, internet.

Empire State Building rough sketch

Did this etch yesterday at the park, didn't have anything to go by so it's not exact. Starting on a new city soon.

(Click to enlarge) Thanks for checking out my Etch A Sketch art! Visit again soon for something new or check out my other pages online for things that might not appear here...

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

The Mountaineer Restaurant

For the past three Summer seasons, I've been working at a restaurant in Lake George, NY called The Mountaineer. The place is owned by an 85 year old man named Bill, who likes to sing Bobby Darin songs on the megaphone to the guests. For the most part, he enjoys it more than they do, and it's probably bad for business, but I think he's a riot, so sometimes I like to create some art for him and his restaurant. This week is Classic Car week in the village, so I made this special for the occasion:

(click to enlarge)

I'm moving away, so as a going away gift I wanted to make him a custom vintage live music poster, advertising his performances at our restaurant/impromptu venue. So here it is. This is for you, Bill.

(click to enlarge)

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Sydney Opera House, micro-etched

(click to enlarge)

Years ago, before I started etch-a-sketching cities, I bought an etch-a-sketch pen in an arts & crafts store, which had a micro-etch affixed to the top of it, just like the one pictured here. I was happy with the results I was getting and the tiny little etch-a-pen piqued my interest, inspiring me to buy a full-sized version, which then became my New York City sketch. I found a two-pack of micro-etches on eBay last week. These are the results so far.

Record Shop

(click to enlarge)

Here's a sketch of my local independent record store, DiVinyl Revolution, located in downtown Saratoga. A fun spot to find old records or cds and sometimes you'll come away with a gem. Far too few of these places left.

[edit 9.4] new better picture.

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Etch-a-Cake

Just a small update today. I'll be starting on a new picture tomorrow. In the meantime I have to empty the sand out of a new etch. I'll be documenting the process from start to finish, so watch for that in the days to come.

A few weeks ago I left one of my jobs and my kind and wonderful supervisor, Sally, baked me this beautiful Etch-a-Sketch cake as a going away gift. It was so awesome that I took a picture to show to the internet.

Thanks, Sally!

Philadelphia FINISHED

Three weeks, probably 15-20 hours in and Philadelphia is finished.

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

Philadelphia near complete

It's incredibly difficult to photograph an etch-a-sketch, especially after the sun starts to set. This is the best I could get right now, hopefully the next one will be a little bit clearer. Still pretty happy with this etch, as I haven't made any major mistakes yet (knock on wood).

Philadelphia still under construction

I'm starting to see an end in sight, as there are now less things to etch than there are things etched already. Need to finish this soon so I can start on something new...

Pocket Etching at the Park

Had a day off today, so I went to a park and sketched some scenery. Pocket Etch-a-Sketch's drag tool/pen isn't as fine-pointed as the modern full size etch-a-sketch, so drawing things in great detail isn't as easy. I'm not too excited about this etch, but I did it, so here it is.

Philly 5

Fifth update featuring my current work in progress, Philadelphia. Should things continue to go well, I do believe this will be my best etch yet. But anything can happen, so we'll see...

Pocket Etch-a-Sketches

Sometimes I like to use pocket etch-a-sketches to do a rough version of my next work. Here's a quick rendering of Boston I did to get an idea of how to space things out. I was going for speed on this one more than precision. Probably about 10-15mins.

New York is a pretty nice state to begin with, but the town of Saratoga is an oasis of greatness in the middle of New York. No other town takes as much pride in appearance as the upstate horse racing city. There's one storefront in particular that is always spectacular. Yesterday I sat on a downtown bench for a while and sketched a random city block. I didn't fit nearly as much into this pocket etch as I had planned, so I'll probably do something more recognizable there soon. This etch came out awful, but they're for practice, so it's all right. About 20-25mins work.

Philadelphia progress 4

Did some more etching today while watching the Wizard of Oz. Sometimes I like to throw on a DVD to play in the background to occupy my mind while I tend to the tedious sketching. Here's Philadelphia, so far:

(click to enlarge)

Don't forget to follow the blog if you aren't already.

Finished etches.

Here are all the etches I've done so far. The first one is New York City. I did this over 5 years ago and it still has the sand inside of it, so I've been keeping it level for a very long time. Now I drill holes into the back of the etches and sift out all the sand before I even begin the drawings. The New York sketch looks different than the others because it was done from memory, whereas the others are all done off of a source image. Growing up in the suburbs, this sketch is a summation of all the things you see while going in and out of the city, via car and train. I started the etch on Yankee Stadium and then worked my way out from there, which is why the quality of the rendering is probably the worst of all my sketching. I hadn't etch-a-sketched anything since I was a kid and I would draw my local A&P supermarket. I hung onto this NY etch for years and would show it to friends, roomate's friends and party guests at my happening downtown upstate apartment. People were always surprised. I didn't do another after this for a very long time. Took about 4-5 hours over about three days to complete.

New York


(click to enlarge)

I did this Chicago etch for a friend who lives out there who didn't believe I did the NYC sketch, so this became a half a year late birthday present. 14-20hrs to finish over a long period of time.

Chicago


(click to enlarge)

And finally, Boston. I posted my previous etches to my favorite social media website, Reddit, and got a great response, which inspired me to continue doing these. Boston is the first etch I did based on requests, and next will be Philadelphia, also by internet request. 12-16hrs.

Boston


(click to enlarge) Thanks for checking out my Etch A Sketch art! Visit again soon for something new or check out my other pages online for things that might not appear here...

For my most up to date work, please follow me on Instagram!

Art Inquires, Parties & Commissions:
BryanLeeMadden@gmail.com

City Hall near complete

I get pretty upset when major aspects of the etch don't come out exactly as I'd like for them to. Luckily City Hall went according to plan. No major mistakes yet, still very happy with this sketch.

(click to enlarge)

Photo quality isn't great, took this with my phone while my battery charges up.

Philadelphia early progress 2

Starting work on my favorite Philadelphia landmark, City Hall. Had to stop at that point last night, as I was getting tired and didn't want to make any mistakes. I'll probably start back up on this Monday; the rest of my weekend will be dedicated to improving my skills at beer pong.

(click to enlarge)

Philadelphia early progress 1

Here's Philadelphia so far. Nearly two hours in. Still long a long way to go, almost ready to start working on the landmarks.

(click to enlarge)

A message to the internet.

This post was sent from the future to the past. It missed and landed here.