personal

Personal reminder

Black and white line drawing of two little badgers having an explore, celebrating my personal love for wildlife.

Another doodle realised for my personal 100 Days Project.

"Parts Unknown," Acrylic on Canvas, 18x24 Some actions we will never know the reason behind, and, quite honestly, we don't always need to know the answer. Anthony Bourdain committed suicide on June 8th, 2018, news that was shocking for most to hear. People continue to speculate what could have caused him to commit suicide, some feel he had more to do, to say before he died. Personally, I find there's some feeling of closure or completeness to his death. I don't know what the feeling is exactly, but it's there. It feels like he left on his own terms, decided it was time. I wouldn't consider his death as him waving a white flag to addiction and depression. He said his shows were intended to tell other's stories, tell them frankly and truthfully. It's interesting how blunt and honest he could seem to be about himself, though he kept so many layers held within. Although we'd love to have a clear cut answer, explanation, reason, what would knowing that information change?

Personal project with one of my little moon children characters . As usual, coffee and ink.

Personal challenge to draw 100 pups.

Two hour sketch that will be presented in my first personal exhibition ❤

Personal project to draw 100 pups.

Another doodle realised for my personal 100 Days Project.

Meet Blu. Hand drawn using 0.03 and 0.05 black fineliners on A4 medium cartridge. Such a gorgeous dog with so much personality.

A personal mindfulness reminder in old timey cartoon style.

Maia, one of two current German Shepherds was born here at our house ten years ago. She is a grand old lady with a big ears, a big ruff and a sweet personality. This drawing was done from a photo reference AND her sleeping at my feet. I used Pigma Micron Pens in black and brown with a little graphite smudging to add a bit of shadow.

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?

ink drawing coloured and finished digitally.

Personal piece

When Rebelle 3 by Escape Motions came out I wanted to create something that really shows off its power. I normally draw in fountain pen first, but this was created entirely from scratch in Rebelle 3. Digital art tends to be cold and impersonal, but Rebelle's watercolor simulation looks & feels like real paint... and you can undo! That's critical for illustration work, as clients often request changes... But even for personal work- it means an artist can achieve a watercolor look without being at the mercy of the medium. So the result is more true to his or her vision.

Slow journey. Personal work. Pencil drawing and digital

Another doodle realised for my personal 100 Days Project.

Casey the Puppet. This painting captures the essence of a puppet lots of older Canadians will remember. A strange genderless creature with a dog puppet companion. A puppet with an outspoken personality that I remember as a kid wondering how it got away with saying what it did. The painting has a Canadian stamp to commemorate the puppet's roots.

This drawing was done as a request for someone, the horse that I drew is an award winning show horse named Black Prince. This was my second attempt at realism using black fine liners and pencils, personally I think I didn't do too bad.

Personal project to draw 100 pups.

I had a wonderful time creating this commision for a Kansas City Personalities wall mural installed in a downtown KC apartment building. The wall measures roughly 12’ x 20’. These were all hand drawn graphite and charcoal drawings that I scanned into my mac and delivered digitally. The file was then enlarged and applied to the wall surface.

Did you ever have a page in your sketchbook that was so bad and so embarrassing that you tore it out and chucked it? This was one of those pages that made me cringed every time I came to it. So today I said to myself, "ENOUGH!" and ripped it out of my moleskine. But something wouldn't let me throw it in the can. Now, I'm not one of those artists that can't bring himself to throw away any of his stuff because each and every piece, good or bad holds some kind of sentimentality or sense of importance. This particular page was a result of a crappy angst filled day and stuff poured out of me. For some reason, it felt like I was throwing away some piece of my soul. There were parts that were overworked and others that were painfully too personal. So I decided to cut it up and put it back together in no particular order, however it seemed best. As I was pasting the pieces down it occurred to me that this had a comic book feel so I scanned the final and added the black borders in photoshop which I really dug. I like that it is cryptic and jumbled up like my brain can so often be. This reminded me of the awesome @johnhendrix who said something in his book, Drawing Is Magic that stuck with me. He said, "Don't worry about doing anything wrong. If you're hoping your sketchbook turns into a glossy display of only your best drawings, you are not carrying a sketchbook, you are carrying a portfolio." In other words, explore, take chances, loosen up and have fun. Try your best to go at it like an uninhibited child. In so doing, you will stretch as an artist by avoiding repetition and predictability. We all know how to do what we already know. To sum up, I created a bad page, and whether or not I was able to fix it, it expanded me. So, follow your pencil, pen, or whatever and let them take you to places you never imagined when you started. Then, maybe you will end up staring happily at the final and with childlike wonder, say, "man, where did that come from?"

Camden, Maine. Getting back into making personal art after working on a huge commission these past few months.

Portrait of character from personal comic project.

Personal project to draw 100 pups.

Little watercolor horses, they were fun to draw and paint and each seems to have it's own personality. Some look a little too much like a donkey though. lol

While hiking, I saw a crow so I painted the crow's personality

I drew it with "Derwent" a graphite pencil, the drawing is A4 size. Upon request, I drew the bunny based on a photo. I wanted to introduce the bunny personality traits, which I did. The owner was very happy for him. :)