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.
"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? :)
♠️
Drawn using 0.03 and 0.05 fineliners, this one is for a book cover so cannot reveal the finished image yet! I do love trees, they are so fascinating to draw.
I decided to illustrated a picture of @justinhofman published in Sept 19 of 2017 in @natgeo about the pollution and how animals are suffering for our ways of using plastic. This seahorse was captured in the waters of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia. “The art of pollution”.
This, not very ferocious fellow, was my social distancing Easter weekend project that I finished yesterday. A colored pencil drawing on Strathmore 400 colored pencil pad with several different wax and oil colored pencils.
My first ballpoint pen person. This was a lot more time consuming than I expected, but I'm glad I hung in there and finally finished it. The reference for the drawing was a Getty Image.
Whew!!! About 50 hours of work split evenly over line work and color. I think it’s finished ( famous last words)! I’ll check on it again in a few days for any final details... and get some good camera shots instead of phone camera. .... but I’m happy!
Daizies or Snowflakes it's all in your perspective, pen and india ink on paper. am pretty engrossed in this graphic, black and white nature inspired series i began a few weeks ago. There is something very soothing about doing these that leads me to believe this series is far from finished!
I haven't had time to draw in a long time because of school and other personal projects, but I recently finished this doodle. There's a color version of it that I'll upload tomorrow.
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.
'Queen of Marseille' I
I have discovered a few unfinished sketches from my previous travels to France from few years ago.
I decided to bring them back to life. I think before I didn't like them so much as I do now.
My first lady of Marseille saying 'Salut' and I am slowely saying 'Goodbye' to the summer...
