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.
Detail of Hiroshige's Akasaka Kiribatake, from 100 Famous Views of Edo, 4th month of 1856.
I loved the foggy outlines of the leaves, the extreme foreground, the colors. And his skies! His skies are magical.
The exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum closes in 2 days on August 5. It is wonderful.
#museumsketching #hiroshige #sketch
(HB pencil on 47mm x 80mm paper) Another of my small Guardian Spirit works, which constantly rip into the idea of guardian angels and spirit guides. An idea just about as ridiculous as alien visitations themselves. Could that be a laser weapon the alien's holding, or a portable anal probe?
Romping through the woods, I happened upon a faerie ring of Slenderman and his acolyte children. I stepped back slowly. I didn't want crunching branches to give me away.
George the mouse found himself in a pickle. He had discovered the most perfect mushroom house at the end of an alligators nose. The trouble was the door was too small and he could not get inside...
Here's an ink illustration from my sketchbook. The only thing more terrifying than dying of the plague might be encountering a plague doctor. The type at the bottom says "A Black Sun Revolves Around You." It's been distorted and abstracted, but it's derived from letterforms.
Hi! Got really inspired by the Hearthstone art and Dave Greco so I decided to practice a little bit! This fanart piece was made using an original concept art of the character by Blizzard as seen in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRYg3JIe5jY
