A 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle I recently painted as as gift for my grandma on her 85th birthday, using objects and photos of significance from her life. :)
Yet another senseless lynching that has me here with a broken heart. Like my other paintings on this subject, I wanted to focus on life. Tyre was dynamic and energetic, so I wanted to paint him soring. I also wanted to paint him defiant in the face of his oppressors. He was a skater, and they are no strangers to defiance. Thankfully, I found some excellent references to help me with the composition. Aesthetically, I wanted the comp to be modern, colorful, and hopefully impactful. I went for a pop art, illustration, and false-color vibe and minimized blending and refining layer edges. I painted this in Rebelle 6 and Photoshop. Much respect.
I grew up drawing and illustrating, but 20+ years later, it hit me with force. I haven't looked back since. These are the first two practice sketches I made when I decided finally that I want to be an artist.
Many years back, I watched that documentary ‘The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off’ about a fellow called Jonny Kennedy who lived with the skin condition EB. There’s a bit in that film where he talks about what he hopes his afterlife would be like and, for whatever reason, a couple of coffees as I was re-reading the Wikipedia article about it triggered an idea I had to scribble down...
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.
