This is a colorful mixed media artwork using a black ballpoint pen complemented with a rainbow gradient painted with watercolor paints. I created this artwork on November 11, which is why it's titled "Angel Numbers."
I look at way too many carefully decorated spaces on Pinterest, so I painted one of them and then opened up the room to nature. Also a way to experiment with "gouache painting" in Adobe Fresco.
About once a year I set aside a page in my sketchbook, or bullet journal, to do a marker test. I go through every pen I own including Sharpies, highlighters, Bic Permanent Markers, Crayola markers, Stabilo pens, Expo dry erase markers and everything in between. I document the quality and determine whether to keep or toss the utensil. I find it’s easy to collect art materials, especially when you’re like me and switch mediums regularly. It’s important to know that when I reach for a certain pen or marker, it’s going to work the way I want it to. I do keep a page at the back of my sketchbook open for testing mediums, but it’s an important part of the process of creating art to go with the flow and just draw.
I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
Part of a personal project I'm working on right now, to experiment with unfamiliar art styles and practice lettering skills by drawing animals. This is my first foray into cubism-inspired artwork (definitely don't claim to be an expert on actual cubism)--it was way more fun than I expected! I think I'll be trying some more...
A working page for a book i am developing about vampires. i starts with a raw ink sketch, gets scanned and i work them up on a xp pen tablet - but this is just experimental - and not final.
I've been experimenting with colour pallets and line width. Also trying to do LESS - my natural tendency is to add everything so cutting back is quite hard, but I think works better.
