I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
A silly watercolor sketch, I know, but there's a lot tied to this little thing. There are so many bittersweet feelings lately. I tend to avoid putting a numerical value to time, I don't like the count-down aspect to things, especially knowing how obsessive I can be with that. It allows me to live in some semblance of ignorance (they say ignorance is pure bliss). There's a lot of tip-toeing around what I want to say and what I'm afraid to say, or even what I'd love to explore and embrace and simply afraid to. It's something I'm not used to. It's taken me quite a while to finally sit with certain things, or even acknowledge them, and it feels like there's so much more I'm now realizing. It's odd to be so frank to some and worried that others may find out. There's a lot of shifting again, goodbyes coming soon, complicated feelings and situations.
This was a labor of love. Completed with Prismcolor pencils and Copic Markers. I'm very influenced by my surroundings, and all around me are hipsters. I'm also surrounded by artist and those in studio & animation jobs that I hope to have one day. This piece reflects a point in my life of where I am physically and shows my career aspirations. And it was also just for fun because I love Rick&Morty.
My new method of finding something interesting to draw - now that I'm mostly at home, like everyone else - is using StreetView. I use the app to search interesting places around the globe. This one is a sketch of somewhere near Lagos in Nigeria.
It's National Toasted Marshmallow Day so this painting seems fitting. What do you think will happen to this guy? About 14 x 14 inches, acrylic on wood board. Sorry not the best photograph.
Hibernation time has definitely come to an end on this part of the globe. It is now time to eat the world and so this one decided to bring himself to life and cast some magick around. Drawings are a very powerful tool for that. This is the first bear that I have ever created on paper and I don't know much about why he came out like this but I'm sure that he knows very well all about that. He is the sigil and I trust his eyes
For me, it's the process of creating - not really the end result. Once something is done, it's done and you move on to the next process. Life is the ultimate process after all. We don't hang around and admire the dead body once it has finished what it needed to do...On the other hand, the end result of someone's process can be felt through what they have left behind. I hope this is what will eventually happen with the art I create.
"Man on the Train: Hey, are you a dreamer?
Wiley: Yeah.
Man on the Train: I haven’t seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming is dead, no one does it anymore. It’s not dead it’s just that it’s been forgotten, removed from our language. Nobody teaches it so nobody knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well, I’m trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting" - waking life (movie).
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So the other day I had a beautiful conversation about lucid dreaming with some friends. We shared amazing dream memories that we all had experienced and right the next day this sleeping beauty started showing up on a piece of paper.
What about you, are you a dreamer? :)
♠️
He sits up in his teacup with his hands wrapped 'round a porg,
Thinking up new ways to join forces with the Borg.
To eradicate the Rebels by infecting them with spores,
And assimilate the hive mind to become one with the Force.
I love working with black, white and all sorts of grey tones. This is a digital drawing created using standard brushes on procreate. Gandalf is a favourite character of mine. One of those characters that whenever they are around you know its all going to be okay.
FATHER OF EIGHTEEN ELVES
From Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen.
This stranger gives the child a loving look, and says to the mother, “We don’t act fairly by one another; I cuddle your child, but you beat my husband.”
A few weeks ago I was playing around with color application on the default flat brush in Procreate, and developed a sort of choppy, layered application that I really enjoyed!
Yet another plant abstract. This one was built around the red outlined flower in the semi-center, and that’s where it gets its name. Colored pencil and pen on paper.
This is a mashup of art styles. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Started with the main mushroom that is outlined and then went crazy around it. Also experimented with water reflections a bit.
Ink and Watercolor sketch of octopus. Normally I start with a pencil outline, then go over it with micron pens. But I'm learning to skip the pencil step and just sketch with ink. I helps you not to overthink things. Once you lay the ink line down on the paper it's there to stay. You can't erase and there isn't an undo like you have when working digitally. You just have to work around any "mistakes" you make. I'm also working on sketching faster because I just don't have that much free time these days. Trying to produce a new sketch every day is a real challenge.
Dip pen practice with puppies. I moved the puppies around a little in procreate. I tried coloring one with water color (the pink one) and it smeared. So I colored a few with Procreate.
Drippy Doodles - created using spray paint and Posca marker pen. The spray painted background has a street art aesthetic with vibrant neon drips and splashes, with fun quirky doodle characters over the top.
A slice of cake topped with vibrant red raspberries drips with rich sauce onto a dark purple plate. The background features a blue lattice pattern, complementing the dessert's vivid colors.
UFO: A LOVE STORY from Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory.
"One night the two are parked down by the lake, when something comes floating in over the water. The something is round, pulsing, and bright. It hovers right over their car."
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