I have quite a bit of traveling planned this Summer...from NYC to Copenhagen to Venice to Berlin and a few more spots. Very much looking forward to all the different colors, cities, and cultures in the coming weeks.
I believe the future is about connection. Sometimes it seems that technology is making us more alone, but I like to believe that with every post, like, comment, follow, share, email and tweet, we are making ourselves more visible to one another. And together, we can make ourselves heard... Keep it positive, keep it loud, and keep it going forever.
I asked my husband (who is our Covid-period grocery shopper as I am high risk) to bring home a fruit to draw. He came home with a dragon fruit. For those who don't know this interesting edible, it's from a cactus. There are two species: the Asian species is white inside, the Central American variety is shocking pink (see photo). Great in smoothies or when nicely ripe (as this one was) it's tasty eaten out of the skin with a spoon.
In the Finnish mythology killing of a bear was followed by a great feast in honour of the bear (peijaiset), where a substantial part of the celebrations consisted of convincing the bear's spirit that it had died accidentally and hadn't been murdered. Afterwards, the bear's skull was hung high upon a pine tree so its spirit could re-enter the heavens. The bones of the bear were then buried under the pine. Reference for this work is my old drawing of karhunkallopetäjä/bearskullpine in the Riisitunturi. Also practice sketch of bear skull and at last photo i took of pine.
Outside my drawing table window are straight and weeping birches. We lost one of the birch trucks and, tragically, a beautiful OLD Japanese maple during an ice storm a few years ago. The third trunk is still in my mind's eye.
Ice Dream. There’s some strange references going on in this one. If I don’t explain it won’t come together. Back in my day the Europe 72 3 record Dead live album had a crazy kid on the back cover smashing a cone on his head. Later an ice cream truck company called Weaser ripped off that art and would visit my mid Jersey neighborhood daily. Google it if you care. Flash forward to 2019. The ice cream truck that hits my neighborhood EVERY DAYS has a loud obnoxious song and no Greatful Dead connections. It drives me out of my mind so here is the result. I always try to turn my pain into gain. What a long strange explanation it’s been.
Ball point pen over wash. Being a mild-mannered Aries (married to a mild-mannered Aries), I didn't want the usual warlike ram, rather a friendly guy with nice "shofar" horns!
It's never been my practice to stick pins into insects and collect them that way, but drawing them is quite appealing. These are created with Prismacolor pencils and a Micron pen.
This started as a line drawing based on a photo of peonies in the garden. It’s drawn with three different pens: Micron 005, Micron 03 and Faber Castell Pitt superfine (0.3) on 11x14 Strathmore Bristol Vellum. The paper isn’t terribly tolerant of wet media, so I played around with tinting it in Photoshop because I wasn't sure how it would go. But I liked it in color enough to chance painting the drawing with the nice and bright Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolors. It's photographed it on my drafting table with my glasses for scale. The lamp has a daylight bulb, so I think the color (at least where the light is more prominent) is fairly true.
Mixed media. Acrylic, pencil, digital. This is a piece from the book “Mail Me Art - Medium Without A Message” by @littlechimpsociety. I think it was the second call for entries/book.There are now 4 books filled with awesome art drawn and painted on outsides of envelopes and packages by artists all over the world who then mailed them to the UK totally exposed to the postal service. The original was all analog. I brought this into Procreate and reworked it. I may do more when I get a chance but I’m pretty satisfied with it now.
When I am angry and frustrated with the world (politics, wild fires, injustice, etc.) I seem to be drawn to drawing raptors. The first one is today's sketch, the other two are from former days.
Blackwing pencil and woodless B4 pencil on Canson sketch paper.
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!
A few days ago, I started a Pigma Micron pen 005 drawing of a tiger. Yesterday, I decided that it would be nice with colored pencil. I used Berol (1990's) Prismacolor, Koh-I-Noor Polycolor, Faber-Castell Polychromes colored pencils.
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.
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.
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.
Thirty-five minute sketch of a petrified A&W ketchup packet I found inside my fridge. This thing is the rock-hard evidence of my frequently poor late night diet choices.
Most evenings, I watch a couple of news programs streaming on my computer. During that time, I also make it a point to draw a person (usually from an on-line reference photo) with a No.2 yellow pencil (generally Ticonderoga) on whatever paper is handy on my desk. It's good practice and keeps my hands busy. These are some "News Doodles" done this past week.
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