I was lucky enough to get to illustrate a beautiful Gorilla sculpture for Paignton Zoo. He took me 18 months to complete as he was under a purpose built awning at my house. Too hot and the pens dried up, too cold and my fingers froze! He now sits at the zoo and I miss him terribly! He Was decorated using acrylic markers on a white gloss base then varnished with car varnish.
Birds bikes and bells. It started as a quick bike doodle and then I got carried away. I kinda like getting carried away. I seldom know where it will end up.
This week, I've been doing pencil drawings of dogs---usually while listening to the news on my computer. Cardigan Corgi, Bloodhound, and Borzoi (Russian Wolfhound). Various graphite pencils on Canson Sketch pad paper. Random on-line photos as reference.
I was going for a surreal and moody feeling—dystopian, sort of not. Per usual, my inspirations are pretty noticeable. I am starting to get more comfortable being stylized. I am trying to put emotion in my landscapes. I used Rebelle 6
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“I Never Noticed The House Was On Fire” This is a painting for an upcoming group exhibition about memories. When I was a kid I grew up in a household where my parents were functioning alcoholics. They gave me toys, put me in front of the tv, and sent me outside to play to keep me distracted from what was going on. When I look back almost all of my childhood memories revolve around these things. I became obsessed with these imaginary worlds and I learned to draw by copying my favorite cartoons and characters from children’s books. It was not until I was much older, that the truth could no longer be hidden from me. The imaginary world of cartoons and books kept me shielded from the harsh realities of home. As I grew into an adult that form of coping grew with me as I created my own imaginary places inspired by the ones I loved as a child. A healthy place to escape.
Inktober2018day12-Whale. I’m using inktober to explore and improve my techniques. This time I wanted to try using more crosshatching. I’m happy with the result. Also, at first I had nothing for the whale prompt but it’s rewarding when you push through the dead space and a concept or idea comes to my head that I can be excited with.
When your own son calls you anonymous, you probably don’t exist. He likes to be funny on greeting cards. Hahaa! Usually my doodles are a one to two day thing. I continued adding to this one over a period of a couple weeks. Life has been a blur lately. It feels good to be able to post something again.
I drew these guys with a Pilot Custom 823 FA and Platinum Carbon Black ink. The FA nib has a good drawing width on watercolor paper - one of my favorites. It's a soft nib but I don't use the line variation, just some nice shock absorption with each downstroke. The Carbon Black ink is out-of-this-world good, though being pigmented I fear keeping it in too many pens.
This was drawn with a Japanese fountain pen, Japanese ink, and painted with Japanese watercolor. To be specific - I used Holbein watercolor and Platinum Carbon Black in a Pilot Falcon. This trio is perfect for me.
A special commission for a Christmas present, drawn on A3 medium cartridge using 0.03, 0.05 and 0.1 fine liners. This was a bit different for me but I loved it so much! Took about 28 hours in total.
In July of 2022, Brianna Grier died falling out of a moving police car while having a mental health breakdown. Since Brianna passed, I have been heartbroken for her twins and family but also reflecting on my struggle with mental health. Mental health needs compassion and empathy, not police and punishment. The brunch strokes are purposeful, but I completed them with empathy in mind. I want to keep the composition simple but filled with meaning. The color theme represents vastness and loneliness, but also kinetic energy found in warm orange tones.
My favorite way to eliminate the often paralyzing fear of "ruining" "good" paper is to just paint on any and all junk mail that comes into my house. Higher end catalogs are great for this, they don't use slick, thin paper (and even that gets used in collage or as a desk cover for other projects) and they're already bound for you. Just add marks! Carry it with you. Scan the pages you like. Cut it up later for making other art. It's "just" junk mail, so there is literally no pressure. I have HUNDREDS of these type of things and I run across them all the time, forgotten, in some old backpack or purse or drawer and it's a treasure to look through them again, and add new marks, paints and words.
I printed my black and white zentangle drawing on marker paper and colored it with alcohol markers. At first it was a bit to garish with too much contrast, so I painted a warm grey over the whole piece. That gave me what I was looking for. Of course, THEN I completely undermined that with making a bunch of wild colored ones (two shown here) by playing with them in Photoshop. I shall be using this (along with my Zentangle koi posted la while back) for printing blank cards that we sell for charitable (mostly foodbanks) organizations.