This was for a Kinokuniya tote bag contest but it was inspired by a whole host of things. I have included some of my favorite book characters in the doodle as well as some folklores from Japan and China. Can you recognize them and the book characters?
Early morning camping trip! This week I've *resurrected* my instagram. It's @gouacheandink or https://www.instagram.com/gouacheandink/ Hope you all have a happy 4th of July :)
Watercolor and India Ink on Yupo paper. If there is any single way to let go of detail and think simply, it is by using watercolor on Yupo paper. You basically have to surrender control and just see what happens.
Bee friendly plants you can cultivate, protect or care if you see them anywhere. There are many native flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees that help pollination, the ideal is to grow species free of agrochemicals and pesticides.
Beer Label design incorporating lots of local facts/things to do with the area it's brewed in. Sailing, windsurfing, big lake, spitfire plane, invading shrimps, highland cattle, sunken church, snakes, beer swilling octopus (ok I made that one up).
This is the book I made which contains the educational paper I wrote and illustrated about my trip to China in the summer of 2017. I gave a lecture entitled, The Sketchbook: Let's Connect at ICON10, The Illustration Conference in Detroit, MI this past July. I gave a few of these books out along with pocket sketchbooks to the audience. Below are a few spreads from the 40-page book.
Inspired by the colors of chemical element: Bismuth (with symbol Bi). Watercolor + Ballpoint pen on 140lb Strathmore Vision watercolor paper (Size: 6” x 9”)
A flock of pelicans with their beaks open waiting for fishermen to throw out tasty morsels. I drew this from a photo I took last month, from a coastal vacation. India Inks and watercolours.
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
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.
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.