star

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?"

This started as a pencil drawing (see the 2nd image) that I scanned and put into Photoshop. I tried various filters including: Smudge, Ink Outline, some Splatter, changed the Exposure and added a Sepia Photo Filter. After a couple of hours of playing (I’m not very knowledgeable about digital possibilities and just use trial and error) I ended up with a dramatic image with which I am quite happy. The reference was a magazine advertisement.

Things have been so busy of late and my output has greatly reduced. However, I have returned to oil painting. I revisited this piece I started last year and put in a few more hours to finish it. The scene was from a few summers ago when I visited Pen Arthur forest for the first time. The piece takes me right back to that day when the late summer afternoon sunlight struggled to penetrate the canopy.

hey there☘️ while taking a walk in the forest i came across a little treehouse. it inspired me to draw this one. i love to look at the stars at night and drawing this reminds me of the times where i looked at the beautiful night sky in france some years ago.✨ have a lovely day :)

Made with pen, ink pencil and gel pen. Started off as a quick sketch to loosen the cobwebs but turned into a piece that I dived into and developed more of my own style.

Magnolias are spring harbingers in our garden, as well as our annual ornamental cherry display. Star magnolias are over, tulip magnolias are in full swing, and the occasional Southern magnolia is starting. Perhaps I should have done this with a gouache paint, but I used colored pencils. Oh well. Outlined after with various sizes of Pigma Micron pens. Our garden: www.edgewoodgarden.com

This started as something I was doing for fun, but turned into a very strenuous exercise on how to work with this many light sources.

I did this piece with my 4 year old niece. She drew the caterpillar at the bottom. A star in the making!

Hand pose 8 with one detail and work progression shots - started with the red pen layer, then green and finally the yellow ink (feature image).

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.

Inspired by Van Gogh's "Starry Night"

VARIOUS PICS

This is a portrait drawing I just completed of the lovey Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. I did this with graphite pencils.

A watercolor interpretation of a teenager waiting for her life to "start."

This started as some scribbling with Inktense pencils on large plain drawing paper. Then I was done, I wanted to wet the the drawing to release the "ink," but I found that the paper would not take water without drastic buckling. So, it remains a drawing rather than becoming a painting.

This 'mallow stares back at the fire, its enemy that burns but also brings light and warmth. About 8x8 inches acrylic on wood.

'Other Side II. Sneak Peak' , Sketchbook 2019, Coffee and ink

Started but couldn't finish.

Inktober 2018, day 8 - star | Faber-Castell pitt pen (size XS) on A5 paper

I have a little Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5) notebook that I only draw skulls in. I started in November of 2013 and I do one whenever the urge strikes me. It's not like a skull-a-day thing but sometimes I do get into a period where I will draw one every day for a while then I won't draw any for months. I even lost it for a while and was very sad. I think the longest gap between pages has been a year. This is the most recent skull, drawn on 05.28.2018. Most of them are posted on my Instagram but you have to scroll back a ways to get at the bulk of them.

"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). ° 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? :) ♠️

Something a little different than my normal work. I just started a tattoo apprenticeship so I am learning to draw in traditional tattoo flash style. My old style of illustration work will not go anywhere. I am continuing that but just growing artistically and learning something new.

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.

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

What startet as a somewhat mindless marker-sketch at a cafè while having a conversation later came out as a pretty cool cityscape. Probably inspired by the movie Tekkon Kinkreet, which I watched previously.

A pen and ink and colored pencil depiction of a line from a John Prine song.

Used by witches to restore eyesight once their bodies start to decay from being far too old. The liquid is sipped from the shell of a tortoise and eyesight is restored for a period of 6 months. (I just made that up)

Many beginnings. Beginning 6. The best ice cream in the world is made from the clouds you gather at dusk on the beach. Everyone knows that. * Starting is easy, it's the middle that is often a muddle. And I won't even mention the endings. Here are some beginnings for children stories that flitter through my head. https://www.instagram.com/p/COxp0KSh4KR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link