I’m fascinated in how something may make you feel. For instance, I’m deeply moved by images of outer space from the Hubble space telescope, but I do not try to recreate those photographs in my work. What does not exist in those photos, is how they may make us feel. This is why you won’t see any “realism” in my art. When we send astronauts to space, they can discuss factually what is happening, but what truly moves human beings is when astronauts describe how they felt while they were there. So, I choose to express how I feel, as opposed to illustrate what I see.
The inspiration for this collection came from a conversation I had with the Founder and Executive Director of the Underprivileged And Underserved Foundation (UAUF), George Goodwine. While discussing race and whether or not every opportunity was fair based upon someone’s familial structure or “starting line,” I was asked the following questions. How does someone overcome these hurdles? How can the playing field be leveled to make things fairer, when others may only have 50 hurdles to overcome in the same competition?
My response was simple. “The person in front of 150 hurdles has two choices. They can either get discouraged before they begin, or start jumping. In the midst of the race they might get tired, unsure, or discouraged, but if they press on to the finish line they may become more physically fit than the person who jumps over 50.”
I used to dance ballet and at the time, there were a lot of hurdles I had to overcome solely based upon inconveniences that came with being raised in low-income, single parent home. Above are pencil sketches and sharpie drawings that I have drawn from actual photos. I plan on making these images my own by adding more abstraction and vibrant color to them.
Over the course of the project, stay tuned to see how these pictures will transform into a work of ART!!! Check out my artwork at theservingartist.com
Sometimes in life you've gotta draw a genie that's based on Lady GaGa. Don't blame me. Blame the inevitability of existence. This was ink and watercolor with a bit of assistance from Photoshop.
I drew this with a brush pen, then used a water brush to blur out the lines into shadows. I used Photoshop to invert the background and tweak the colors.
We wrapped up our trip with South of the Border, the schlockiest, most-borderline-offensive Mexican-themed South Carolina rest stop of all time. Then we hit Raleigh's art museum, and went home. The last few sketches of my sketchbook were me flipping through my photos and drawing a few favorite things I hadn't gotten to drawing yet. Thanks for traveling with me!
I had an idea to create illustrations of fruit set in autumn 2017, and have been working on the realization of this idea throughout February/March 2018. In all, I have created 11 illustrations: apple, apricot, banana, cherry, grape, lemon, orange, pear, plum, tomato, watermelon. Using rapidograph to form the shape, I am coloring my works digitally in Adobe Photoshop. Here is an apricot!
I had an idea to create illustrations of fruit set in autumn 2017, and have been working on the realization of this idea throughout February/March 2018. In all, I have created 11 illustrations: apple, apricot, banana, cherry, grape, lemon, orange, pear, plum, tomato, watermelon. Using rapidograph to form the shape, I am coloring my works digitally in Adobe Photoshop. Here is an apple!
A little o' this, a little o' that. All on 8.5X11 heavy white card stock. Some colored pencil. Using photoshop only to render contrast, no other manipulation.
Yet another former business related cartoon. Quick pean and ink on 8.5X11 heavy cardstock, with a little help from Photoshop for the background. Obviously.
My mother actually used to say this to me and my brothers when we asked her to do something while she was in the midst of doing something else...Magic marker, then worked in Photoshop.
