This is my most recent work, just finished. I really had a lot of fun with this one. It didn’t turn out as colorful as I hoped but the contrast is spot on. If you’d like to give me a suggesting, i’m still trying to decide if i should fill the lower right chest area of the horse. It doesn’t make sense to leave it blank but i’m afraid changing it might ruin what I have. Any opinion is welcome! :)
45/100 of my nature illo themed 100 Day Project. I started my challenge drawing only on my iPad but hit some bumps when I forgot my Apple Pencil in Florida (I live in California). With that, I have been getting reacquainted with my sketchbook which has been set aside for a few months until now. Feels good to get back into it. Everytime I come back to painting, I wonder why I ever paused in the first place.
An article/rant/annotation to an illustration. A #Hackney bar and its flies.
This picture is not as sad and blue as it might at first seem, I promise.
It is early in the week and the pub becomes the territory of the most outspoken drinkers. Raised somewhere between Churchill and Harold MacMillan, a night such as this is time for them to spin out a yarn of nostalgic fantasy. Encouraged by the lack of a crowd and with space to fill, statements start to fly.
In the opening rounds the barman athletically hits back with factual blocks and reality-check haymakers; statistics and personal experiences are given. Two histories cross examined, one where 1982 means Thatcher and the Falklands, the other renders Reagan and the AIDS crisis. Stoicism and national pride vs mental health and realism.
In the latter rounds the barman is fatigued, swaying on the backbar, glasses begin to stack up as form begins to drop. The older men seem stronger than ever.
The barflies come in close now, they scrutinise his generations work ethic and make wild political comments on poverty, immigrants and the minimum wage.
The barman is close to sheer bloody despair, he maintains his defence and focuses on breathing while maintaining his professional stance.
But at the end of the night the barman knows HE will ring that bell, they will politely leave and they will return again in a week and maybe, just maybe there will be a change, common ground or maybe at least polite silence.
But what these interactions have given despite the salt in the eye is community and an exchange between generations, culture and class of those participating. No home is ever straight forward, no relative without their good and bad traits and in a world where we often slide into echo chambers online or in our physical environments, the pub is still a place where society is family, face to face, pint to pint. Or maybe it's just a room with alcohol on tap?
Quirky Botanicals and Friends Colouring Book. My first colouring book, all hand-drawn illustrations that started off as doodles -- as a way of destressing and relaxing, taking breaks from 'real life' and work. My form of joyful creative therapy! It's available at Amazon worldwide and Barnes and Noble online.
When I read the first book of the "Outlander"-Series by Diana Gabaldon, I was really inspired by the idea of travelling in time through places like Stonhenge. This is what it looks like in my head.
My first drawing in the new Rebelle 7 by Escape Motions. Go wild with the new metallic paint or turn it down low for a subtle sheen that adds interest to simple paintings.
Sometimes I feel like my drawing is similar to composing music. I start drawing just something and hope that it begins its own life.
In this drawing i start from the clouds and doesnt have any idea what it is gonna be at end.
ORIGINAL JIM ART FOR SALE! Title: “The Moon and the Sea.” Custom painted Plushform designer plush toy originally part of the 10th Anniversary Plushform Show at Rotofugi Designer Toy Store and Gallery in Chicago. Materials are pencil, acrylics, pen and ink. This was originally priced at $375. What a fun holiday gift this would be for art collectors at less than 50% of the original cost. This just went live on my Etsy shop. See link to my website up in my profile and then click on the “jim store” link. Thank you for your support!
One of my favourite series. I'm trying to strike the right balance between the abstract and the realism, and I think I try to do that through my use of colours. It's the most rewarding feeling when you use unexpected colours and they come together somehow! Acrylics, watercolour pens and posca markers.
Happy to sharing with us my final plate of Dwarf Jay (Cyanolyca nanus), there are a few illustration for this taxa that is endemic to Mexico. Dwarf jay show patterns of occupancy consistent with habitat specialists. Like raccons, Dwarf Jay have a black mask and is predominantly blue. Technic: hybrid media (graphite, colored pencils and SketchBook Pro).
A transmundane Tuesday prompt by Carson Ellis (with a serpent tail, in a hat, smoking a pipe). https://www.instagram.com/p/B8NSotBh5I2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
It's ok to not make sense. It's ok to not follow a pattern. It's ok to be the odd one out.
Life is too beautiful, too amazing, to eccentric, too weird to fit inside someone else's tiny little box of an opinion about you. Break free out of that and live your life on your terms.
"Contemplation of the Jump" - drawn & colored in Escape Motions Rebelle.
My drawings are pretty random, but after I make them I think about them a bit... like... what is that girl in that cave room thinking and why is he going to jump?
I should probably know the answers... but I don't.
Three islands filled with people all alone out by the sea,
You see, I'd love to join them but there is no room for me.
That one guy climbed too high - I think they call him "Clumsy Paul?"
Soon there may be room for me... I'm just waiting for his fall.
Can you feel the heat? We're dancing at the party on Concrete Street! We never said that this party'd ever come to an end - the sun is setting but no fretting we can do it again!
I have dragged this typewriter around for more than 50 years. I found it in an antique store when I was in college. It's still fully useable, except that it's REALLY hard to find ribbons. Basically, it's just another object to dust. But it is a beautifully made object. The basic shapes and perspective were blocked in with a 2H pencil, then I used a Sakura 005 micron pen to do the contour drawing.
First real art of the year. It took longer than I wanted but I love how it came out. Guess that's what happens when you put time into your projects - go figure. Just a little Copy Cat art from a beautiful, innocent, charming film - Ponyo. What's your favorite Studio Ghibli Film?
Some bicycles in front of a statue and a bicycle shop. Sittard, The Netherlands. I am not quite happy , the way the statue worked out. I should have used a smaller nib for that.
Autumn is a peculiar time, I suppose. It's one of the prettiest times of the year (in my opinion) and one of the most mysterious. I'm not sure what it is that leads to it, but my mental state always shifts dramatically during this time, not always in the best way. I don't know. The transition is darker and murkier.
