story in a grocery

Eleven Again

2012-01-25T18:41:00.006-06:00

A sister of mine deserved a painting, so I made her a tiny one of Matt Smith. All of my sisters like Doctor Who (but none of the brothers are into it, somehow). Matt Smith is Anna-Marie's first doctor. Felicia came in on David Tennant and I was there with Christopher Eccleston. I expect Martina will become hooked on the next one, whomever that may be. Sam Jackson, she hopes.

That City I Love

2012-01-22T16:30:00.003-06:00

This one might not necessarily be Minneapolis. Or St. Paul. They've certainly influenced this painting, but even more than with the other city paintings, I was more interested in depicting the impression a place can give.
Next week I'm going to L.A. I love L.A. I've only been there once, and between then and now my brain has painted it into this glorious place that it almost certainly isn't. The great thing about it, though, is that I think part of our existing experience is in our heads. I think we make our places beautiful or terrible.

This painting is for my godfather, who travels the world. I've learned a lot about loving places from him.

watercolor and acrylic on 180 lb cold press paper

Last year's remnants

2012-01-03T10:04:00.004-06:00

I finished that white sketchbook on New Year's Eve! Two years in a row, finishing sketchbooks minutes before midnight, and I don't even care for New Year. Big New Year cynic. Maybe this is a pattern for improvement.
Here's some sketches from the last of that sketchbook. The lower half are characters I made up, the upper half is mostly One Piece, plus a Merida (Brave. Drawing her is incredibly fun). Random bits. That mermaid sketch is the precursor to a painting I made for my friend.

So what's on the plate now? I signed up for the Sketchbook Project. I'll post photos of that later. I've got to do some serious documenting for this sketchbook, since I'll be relinquishing to the mercy of a traveling sketchbook library and probably won't see it again.

Snowglobe!

2011-12-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

Alyssa prompted this piece. She insisted that making snowglobes was the thing to do. After seeing the really cute one she made, I really wanted to make one, too.
EDIT: Ten Paces has a whole menagerie of snowglobes over there! Check'm out!

Art Show!

2011-12-08T12:11:00.003-06:00

My friend Tiffany and I are having an art show!

We've been working hard on these pieces and we're happy to finally share them officially. So come by and say hi for a few minutes, grab some snacks (provided by us!) and a bubble tea (you'll have to get that yourself) and live in the festive Twin Cities love.

ill

2011-11-22T12:24:00.004-06:00

I think I'm sick. It makes me want to paint more than ever. My apartment gets really warm, and that combined with being ill kind of helps me focus. You know what I mean? It's that weird state of mind where it's way too hard to think about more than one thing, so I only think about the painting. It even helps focus on a specific part of the painting, so I don't rush as much as I usually do and the decisions I make are more careful (albeit slower).
This sounds like a weird argument for being sick. I don't like all of the side effects–the soreness, the throat thing, the leaking head–but it does force me to stay inside, and I like that.

This is the last piece for the Urban Winter series I've made for a show I'm having with Tiff. We hung it this weekend, so I'll take pictures and post them as soon as I'm able.

Cold Winter Night

2011-11-15T12:58:00.003-06:00

I had a hard time with this one. Ultimately, I think it's one of my favorites, but boy oh boy did it put up a fight. I struggled with getting it as deep and vibrant as I had planned, and then when it was deep enough I was frustrated with the lack of subtlety that watercolor usually provides.
This also served to remind me that sometimes sticking with something is the best course of action, even when you want to start all over.

One Tiny Dragon

2011-11-09T17:33:00.005-06:00

The two drink umbrellas are the extent of drawing-from-life squeezed into this sketchpage. Otherwise, there's all kinds of characters and two fanart-y characters right in the middle: Jon Snow and Arya Stark.

I like it when reading a certain book or being in a certain place results in the creation of a specific image.

It's Coming

2011-11-08T11:03:00.004-06:00

There is nothing prophetic about predicting snow at this point. I've been feeling more motivated to work on these urban winter pieces–possibly because of the upcoming deadline, but also because of the subject matter.
I'm really fond of this one. The thing about these pieces is that some I favor for aesthetic reasons and some I favor because of the moment they are meant to represent. This one I like for aesthetic reasons.

watercolor and ink on 300 lb rough press paper

Halloween Patterns

2011-10-31T13:09:00.003-05:00

Another benefit of making so many patterns is that there's always some art for the holidays. Here's a collection of Halloween patterns. I've posted the last one before, but I'll post it again.
There's a Halloween pattern for today in the works; if it's finished by the end of today I'll add it.

EDIT: And one more:

Full Page of sketches

2011-10-30T19:52:00.005-05:00

There's a little bit of life drawing in this one (pets, person and coffee shop), some characters I made up, Aziraphale (Good Omens) in the upper left, Sansa Stark somewhere in the middle, Finch further down (Person of Interest, but let's not talk about that show ever), Zuko in the lower right and the Target dog, just for fun.

Mice Activities

2011-10-28T10:18:00.002-05:00

A gift piece for some very very kind people.
I'd also like to direct your attention to that border. As usual, I masked the border off with tape. Unlike usual, when I took the tape off, it turned out perfectly clean, straight, and without weird bleeding. I used regular old artist's tape and didn't really do anything different that I know of, otherwise I'd be talking about it because do I ever want the official secret of clean watercolor borders.
Excited things, guys.

watercolor, gouache and ink on 190 lb cold press paper

Cozy Inside

2011-10-26T11:48:00.007-05:00

I finished another piece in the urban winter series! There are a couple posts with process here and here. This one was kind of a challenge. I think I changed color palettes a few times while working on it in attempt to find the right...mood? Atmosphere, maybe.

watercolor, ink and gouache on 300 lb rough press

After working on a painting, nothing helps wind down like sketching whatever. My cat likes sketchbooks almost as much as I do.

This time she was just covering up this drawing I made of her. She's pretty modest.

Autumn Festive

2011-10-23T23:21:00.003-05:00

This sketchpage is nearly all characters of mine, though I did do some drawing at the Basilica (lower right) and there's a cat near the top that was a life study. I don't remember whose cat that is. Kind of worrisome.

Small Animal Friends

2011-10-22T00:28:00.006-05:00

I made some small paintings for a pattern. Every once and awhile, I decide it would be really fun to paint icons with paint for a pattern instead of working digitally. I enjoy it so much more, but it also takes twice as long.

gouache and watercolor on 180 lb rough press paper

Minneapolis progress

2011-10-14T13:20:00.004-05:00

I did some more work on those pieces while Hercule Poirot solved some rich peoples' murders last night.

Minneapolis deadlines

2011-10-12T12:54:00.004-05:00

I'm working on a few city-related projects whose deadlines are fast approaching. Last night I pulled out the paints and ink and a few pieces and sat down to work. Computers are wonderful things, and they are excellent tools for making art. Still, after a few minutes into actually painting, with actual paint, I can't help but feel one medium is superior to another.

Fall Watercolor Studies

2011-10-06T18:15:00.003-05:00

I did a watercolor demo for my friend Adam's class and here are the primary remainders. As I was biking to the class I noticed how crazy amazing my neighborhood is looking these days. The fall foliage always seems very short-lived, but it's worth appreciating.

watercolor on 180 lb rough press

Mocha

2011-10-02T23:45:00.003-05:00

I haven't made a thing in Corel Painter in awhile! I drew this on there really quick just to make sure I still like that program.

September

2011-09-28T13:52:00.002-05:00

I really liked the drawing of that girl in the last page of sketches, so I made a drawing of her in my sketchbook with a pocket brush pen.

September sketches

2011-09-27T20:28:00.003-05:00

Got some of these to post. Mostly assorted character drawings with some life drawing thrown in. The middle guy and the thing shooting fire out of his head is inspired from the Thor movie. I really like the design of that fire-head thing, so I had to draw him. Then I still liked him enough to want to color him.

Urban Winter

2011-09-26T17:27:00.003-05:00

I've been working on and off on a series of watercolor paintings inspired from winter settings in the Twin Cities. One of the things I marvel at the most is how easily the idea for the next image comes. I do have plans for the future ones, but until I start the next painting, there's no telling. The one I'm currently working on I hadn't decided on until the moment this one was finished. You can see the other two I've already done here and here.

watercolor, ink and gouache on 300 lb rough press

a few favorites

2011-09-20T12:15:00.003-05:00

I've been working on catching up with the Daily Pattern Project lately; the few I dropped started adding up. We can't have that, now, can we? Here are some semi-recent patterns I really like.

jungle

haunted

Internet Café

a page of sketches

2011-09-18T23:15:00.002-05:00

Some sketches from throughout the summer. A little bit of life drawing (the houses and interior), some of my characters on the left, River Song on the right, and some animal miscellany.

Ten Paces and Draw: Musician Portrait

2011-09-16T11:10:00.005-05:00

I participated in this week's Ten Paces and Draw project! Here's my finished illustration (based on the sketch by Kyle Fewell.) of Nobou Uematsu. It was pretty awesome working on this–I actually got to see Uematsu once! He came to Minneapolis for an orchestra concert of music.

I sketched Vivaldi, which Janna Morton finished.

Unlikely Hero

2011-09-03T23:50:00.004-05:00

I had to give another shot at drawing Bilbo Baggins, so this evening I put on the audiobook and found some reference and drew this. Then I colored it in Painter.

Bilbo is one of my favorite (kinds of?) protagonists. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to have an adventure. When he does go on one, he's kind of the worst and everybody is telling him to shut up and stop sucking all of the time. Despite all of that, he maintains the role of hero of the story and he still has a really great, really believable character arc.

Some mountains and some oatmeal

2011-08-24T21:27:00.003-05:00

I've got a large collection of mountain sketches, so here are a few to start with. Drawing organic land masses help loosen up the drawing arm! There's also a hobbit drawing in there and a bunch of characters.

The Daily Pattern Project is still going strong. I missed a chunk of days, but Lindsay and Chris have flawless records and I am amazed.
It feels really good to finally have a body of work that is both recent and of the size and caliber that I want it to be. It feels even better to know that once you've finished a pattern, you know that you've always got tomorrow to make a better one.

Teapot

Song Title

Instant Breakfast

lack luster

2011-08-03T13:29:00.003-05:00

Some more sketches from a long time ago that I still kind of like. The boats and city are observational from Lake Calhoun. The un-syndicated characters are mine, the Totoro stuff is from Totoro, and there are a few things from that second time of watching the Lost finale, which I do enjoy, thank you very much.

I still take time to draw nothing

2011-07-27T23:38:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted a sketch page in aeons, and my sketchbook is teeming with random bits, so I'm going to take a little breather from making stuff that looks finished to post some stuff that doesn't.
This one has a lot of drawings from coffee shops. Coffee shops are my favorite thing of the moment. There are a few character things in there, all of them mine, and the usual portion of animals. The frog was a daily pattern dud sketch.

Speaking of daily pattern, here are a few I like:

hairy

tires

summertime

I also drew this in Photoshop the other day, and I'm pretty fond of it as digital drawings go.

Harry Potter and things

2011-07-14T17:20:00.003-05:00

I have a confession to make. I make this confession nearly every year. Well, I make it every time another Harry Potter film comes out. I sort of don't care about the movies. But it's okay! It's okay. I really like the Lost finale, and nobody likes that. Plus, I love the books. PLUS some friends and I are going to the midnight showing tonight.

Anyway, I've been super fortunate and took part in Ten Paces and Draw again. And it was Harry Potter themed! I love Harry Potter!
Here's my sketch, that was finished by Katie Turner.

And here's my finished illustration, that was sketched by Trevor Basset. I used the watercolors again, and that almost always makes me happy.

watercolor and ink on 190 lb cold press paper

I've been working a lot in Photoshop still and I like a lot of the stuff that's been happening. The possibilities are endless.

Here are some of my favorite latest patterns from the illustrious Daily Pattern Project.

mouse

wedding

Back to Work

2011-07-07T11:04:00.002-05:00

I love listening to podcasts while working. Sometimes listening to music just won't cut it. Movies and shows often require too much attention (if they're good) or bore me to death (if they're not). Podcasts are the perfect thing–they update regularly, the talking is often conversational and easy to listen to, and you can learn/get inspired/be entertained for absolutely free.

That said, I wanted to make an illustration for my most beloved podcast, Back to Work. Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann are the hosts for this fantastic thing, and they do an extremely good job of making sure their listeners learn/get inspired/be entertained for at least an hour of the week.

Incidentally, the lastest episode "Failure is ALWAYS an Option" is one of my favorites. I won't say more. Spoilers, you know.

Art pile

2011-07-06T11:38:00.004-05:00

I...just...One Piece. I made another One Piece art. This one is of Cutty Flam (which is the best name, ever, by the way).

I've been working a lot with Photoshop lately, trying to redeem it against the might and magic of Corel Painter. And it's working! Photoshop is pretty cool.
You know how your teachers (and parents) tell you things and you're like "yeah, yeah, whatever, okay." And then you figure that thing out by yourself someday and you're in this wonderful high of victory and accomplishment and everything is wonderful AND THEN you realize they already told you that. Years ago.
That's what this recent Photoshop revival has been like.

Patterns:

Minneapolis (day)

Minneapolis (night)

Independence Day

More patterns and things

2011-06-25T15:00:00.002-05:00

I made a very quick background digital painting and the colors turned out well, so here's that.

I need to do more of this. It's a pretty enjoyable activity.

Here are some patterns from the last however long ago! Paper Bicycle also has a Tumblr now, so you can view all of our patterns that way, too.

bowtie

circus

date night

that grocery story again

2011-06-21T12:23:00.003-05:00

These have been sitting on the desktop of my home computer for too long, so last night I added the tiniest of tweaks and called them done. The characters in these are mine. I have no excuses for why I draw them all of the time and haven't revealed their stories in an official format yet. It's really too bad.

The sketchpage features characters again, but also a few vintage dress drawings just for fun. And an apple juice bottle. Delicious.

More small cats

2011-06-19T22:30:00.003-05:00

These guys are modeled after my cat (Edna, on the right) and Lindsay and Chris's cat (Olivia, left). We speculate they might be friends if they met because in real life they have similar personalities, small heads and many fears that can only be satiated with specific human foods. They also have people names.

watercolor and ink on 140 lb cold press paper

Ten Paces and Draw!

2011-06-17T11:28:00.004-05:00

Ten Paces and Draw is an incredibly fun blog hosted by Alyssa Nassner (an amazing artist as well as one of the nicest people you will ever hope to know). This week I got to participate! Participants make a sketch based around the topic of the week, the sketches are swapped, and by the end of the week the participants create a piece of artwork around the sketch provided.

Here's the sketch I made, which was then finished by Kyle Fewel l (look at his cat and video game art! CATS and VIDEOGAMES.) If you click on the sketch, it'll take you to the finished piece.

I got to finish Alyssa's piece! (Click the images to take you back to her sketch) Here's a couple images of that:

Collaborative art is the most fun.

Bunch of art

2011-06-11T22:56:00.003-05:00

I haven't seen any of the latest season of Doctor Who but I'm cool with Matt Smith.

If I make another, it will probably be the ninth doctor; he's my favorite.

And some patterns!
The top one is another memory lane piece. When the topic "backyard" came up I thought of my family's backyard when my sister and I were little. If it was nice enough to play outside, my parents were in favor of us playing outside. The best, most frequently played thing was make-believe.We reigned supreme over the yard, saving hundreds of worlds, finding all of the magic crystals, preventing so many invasions you wouldn't even believe. We had airplanes and high-tech communication devices.
The things in the pattern just helped make that more fun. My parents built us a playhouse (we helped), our uncle built us the merry-go-round and my family had a giant garden.

backyard

bear

bikini

Small cats

2011-06-06T11:42:00.001-05:00

More small watercolor painting:

watercolor and ink on 300 lb cold press

nostalgia

2011-05-30T23:09:00.004-05:00

(They're playing Bruce Springsteen at the café; it reminds me of being six.)

Today was kind of an up and down sort of day. I mention this mostly because it's ending quite nicely, thanks to a conference call with my sister and bro (the next two eldest after me) and then another phone call with one of my younger sisters. These guys are great. I need to talk to them more; they're all smart and funny and we like a lot of the same things without even knowing it. They're all into nerdy stuff without being too weird about it (the first conversation was Star Wars/Star Trek/Thor themed). My younger sister has just read Huck Finn* and gave me her analysis of it and it was wonderful.

I finished up this while talking with those guys:

Another DQ piece! This one feels a lot different than the first two, but I kept the same sort of "guideline": try new Painter media!

Here are some patterns from the Daily Pattern project:

suitcase

Easter egg

treasure hunt

There are tons more by myself and a few artists I really look up to on the Paper Bicycle blog.

*favorite book ever

amalgam

2011-05-29T14:52:00.002-05:00

Today's sketchpage has a view over a beverage in Minneapolis in the upper left (I was drinking an orange smoothie) and a view over a beverage in NYC (I was drinking a milk tea), some other observational stuff, a non-observational drawing of E the cat, and the non-obligatory One Piece brothers.

mouse painting

2011-05-23T09:57:00.002-05:00

I finished that painting for my grandma. Unfortunately, I forgot to take progress shots, so you get to jump straight to the finished version. As a recap, though, I can tell you a little bit about how it was finished.

watercolor, ink and goauche on 300 lb cold press paper

After main values and colors are blocked in comes the "boring" detail part. It's fun to do, but really not as much fun to watch, since it's just a lot of layers upon layers of watercolor tints to achieve just the right amount of each color. I'm a rather impatient painter, so there is less of this in my process than with some other, much more skilled painters' work.

The last thing I added is some gouache detailing. I like gouache a lot more now that I've figured a way to use it.

a page of sketches

2011-05-22T14:32:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I still do these! Now I've got a stock pile again. This one features some Avatar: The Last Airbender drawings, Doctor Who (Nine!) in the middle, some observational stuff and one incredible one-armed pirate in the upper left corner.

Girly Patterns

2011-05-20T11:10:00.002-05:00

The past few Daily Patterns at Paper Bicycle's project have been sort of girly. Here are the last couple, "Spa" and "French Pastries":

In contrast, working on a manly sort of digital painting. There's some branches and rope and what will be plaid shirts in there. Masculine. I feel pretty balanced.

Daily Pattern: Tulip

2011-05-18T14:15:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's daily pattern! I had to finish it very early this morning. Pulled out several of the stops for this one: Ink, Photoshop and Painter. Creating it in watercolor would have been nice. One day.

New York again

2011-05-17T11:57:00.002-05:00

Last year on this very day I was at New York, drawing a subway monster. This year the Stationery show was a little earlier, so I'm back in the best city in the world, posting some annual NYC illustration. The Subway monster makes another appearance.

I don't think I'm done with this piece yet. I'd like to add some tone and/or color and make it a print.

You can see some vintage Subway monster over here.

Daily Pattern: Fishing

2011-05-13T11:50:00.002-05:00

A thing I've been noticing more and more as we make these patterns is that half the magic doesn't happen until you put them together. I'm developing a newfound appreciation for the art of pattern-making.

Painting Process

2011-05-11T10:59:00.004-05:00

I'm working on a (belated) birthday watercolor painting for my grandma. Here's a little bit of process:

The inked drawing on 300 lb watercolor paper. I use a nib to ink–it's definitely my favorite inking tool.

A quick, loose underpainting, to figure out value. My watercolor paintings don't have heavy tonal contrast, but it's still nice to try.

Blocking in some local color.

I'll post more process as I continue working on it!

Daily Pattern: Books

2011-05-11T10:29:00.003-05:00

Today's daily pattern is a tribute to my parents, who not only passed on an eager appreciation of reading and books, but passed on an appreciation of a certain genre of literature: the mystery.

Nearly every Thursday my parents' have a date night. I remember when I was little we'd have a babysitter if they went to eat, or they'd stay home and watch an A&E's murder mystery. They'd actively theorize about motives and culprits of the cases, and I'd sneak down and listen to the program. I don't doubt this is where my love of TV theories comes from.
When I was old enough to read something that didn't have pictures on every page, I read through my parent's entire collection of classic murder mystery novels. I love them to this day; there is nothing more romantic than a locked room mystery.

A part of the Daily Pattern project.

Daily Pattern: Mirrors

2011-05-10T11:09:00.002-05:00

The best part of working on this one was coloring it, for sure. I took my palette from a photograph and let Corel Painter's watercolor brushes do the rest. This is one of the first times I've achieved something I like with digital watercolor.

Daily Pattern: Bones

2011-05-09T21:07:00.002-05:00

Another!

Check out all of the other patterns on the Paper Bicycle blog!

A New Project.

2011-05-08T13:53:00.002-05:00

I wish I could define what that header means. You people know. You like making stuff.
We're starting a new Paper Bicycle project: a pattern a day. I will be writing more about this once we've collected our thoughts about it, but for now, pattern number one: gym class.

(Here is Lindsay's!)

wintery painting

2011-04-25T12:10:00.003-05:00

Utterly inappropriate, folks. Winter art, just when we're all happy with having nothing to do with that season anymore. This piece is inspired by my old neighborhood. It can be very lovely.

Ink, watercolor and gouache on 140 lb cold press

This is actually the second of a series I'd like to continue to work on; the first is here.

Atari

2011-04-23T15:39:00.003-05:00

From my sketchbook and updates, it can be pretty easy to ascertain that I like cats. Even though I do like cats and I draw a lot more of them, I like dogs too; I just have a harder time getting a hold of a dog to draw. Fortunately, Lindsay and Chris * are nice enough to share sometimes.
Here's a sketch of their dog Atari. I did a bunch and I liked this one best.

*Lindsay and Chris also make lots of pet art, so if you also like dogs and cats, their blogs are full of'm.

dipped cone

2011-04-18T10:24:00.003-05:00

Another DQ piece. That hard shell candy coating on these desserts is so...visually appealing. Like fondant, only this stuff actually tastes good. The dilly bar one is here.

some April sketching

2011-04-16T23:39:00.003-05:00

This is it! The remnants of that red & cream Fabriano sketchbook! It was a good book: highly recommended, albeit kind of short. I've got a new one now, another Fabriano. I'll take pictures of it too and post them later.
This sketch page features the usual assortment of my own characters, an Edna Mode near the top there, and two of my favorite One Piece characters on the left. The buildings in the upper left and the people on the bus in the middle are observational.

those lawyers again

2011-04-11T22:54:00.002-05:00

I have two favorite video games (series, to be technical). Both of these are balancing precariously on the line that divides video games and blocks of text and images posing as video games. The Phoenix Wright series* is one of these. I'd love to do some legit, full-blown fanart for the game, but for now here are some weekend ink drawings with color blobbed in.

*some of the games are definitely better than others

dilly bar

2011-04-07T12:50:00.003-05:00

This time of year reminds me of springtime in Merrill, WI. My family lived there in the early years. When the snow was almost completely gone and it was warmish outside, Dairy Queen (one of those tiny setups where you make your order at the window) would finally open after a long winter of inactivity. Then my parents and sister and I would get the red wagon and walk to Dairy Queen, and I always got the same thing.

Darklands

2011-04-01T23:31:00.002-05:00

Lindsay, Chris and I made some darklands fanart. Just a quick number. I went the literal route.

See? Dark lands. There's also a character in there. Her name is Gretch.

Nothing to do with April Fools

2011-04-01T10:35:00.003-05:00

Characters and some more characters! Most are invented, except for the guy with the cigar, scar and sleezy look (that's Crocodile. From One Piece). The top setting is from life, the bottom one is from my imagination and some acrylics. Turns out that Fabriano sketchbook is really good for acrylics!

Memorial Run

2011-03-21T12:21:00.003-05:00

A tee design for the 2011 John Jarvis Memorial run.

Sketches from here and there

2011-03-12T11:37:00.003-06:00

This batch has some Tangled (Rapunzel) stuff–it's not quite right, but I plead lack of reference–a bunch of brush pen life drawing and Valentine from Mirrormask, which is still probably my favorite Neil Gaiman thing: book, audiobook and movie. Oh, and a bike thrown in there. Been drawing lots of bikes lately.

St. Francis

2011-03-10T13:19:00.002-06:00

A small gift painting for my grandpa. I really love working this way.

watercolor, ink and gouache on 300 lb cold press paper

Spring, please

2011-03-06T19:15:00.002-06:00

It's snowing right now, and according to the forecast, will be for the next three days. I'm ready for it to be over.

Snow day

2011-02-25T14:54:00.003-06:00

I made this in my sketchbook Monday, when the city was shut down for yet another blizzard. I have to be honest and say that I'm torn when this happens. I want it to be spring again as much as the next person, but if you don't have to go anywhere, it's really lovely.

Mardi Gras is late this year

2011-02-22T11:28:00.003-06:00

It is late, though. What is it, next week?
Some life sketching stuff from an AIGA panel discussion and the bus/bus stop, a few characters that are still in the works and a few characters that are not mine.

Water bottles

2011-02-15T20:15:00.004-06:00

A water bottle project at Paper Bicycle for Vessel Drinkware from last November finally is out and available for purchase!
Because the artwork on the site is kind of small and tiny, here is some actual artwork for a few of the ones I made:

red and white

2011-02-11T16:20:00.002-06:00

Sketchpage, after a long long time. Turns out I have a lot more sketches to sort, too. The new sketchbook is great; it makes me happy just to see it.
All of the characters are from my own stuff, a few of the assorted life-drawing sketches are from a cooking workshop (making steamed pork buns!! So delicious), and the girl in the lower left hand corner is from an amazing photograph that I did not take.

speedy

2011-02-08T12:07:00.003-06:00

Made this quick painting of one my comic characters while chatting with my friend Karlisha. A lot of things I've been experimenting with digitally revolve around color.

Corel Painter 11

small room

2011-01-24T18:51:00.002-06:00

This is a piece from days gone by, but I'm still really fond of it. The actual piece is tiny–6x6 or 5x5 or something like that.

A closeup:

Micron, watercolor and acrylic on 140 lb cold press

another little dog

2011-01-22T00:28:00.003-06:00

On a making-fun-art role tonight. Here's another spin on that watercolor and ink painting I made for my mom. I tried using some Photoshop filters and techniques I normally don't, many of them thanks to working with Chris, a Photoshop guru.

lucy again

2011-01-21T21:19:00.003-06:00

Pencil and colored pencil in the new sketchbook.

remaining sketches

2011-01-11T22:18:00.003-06:00

These are the last ones from the old sketchbook. I like this new one a lot too, though it's pretty different and I'm still transitioning into it. It's this one, though I got it significantly cheaper at a student art store.

The character heads at the top and bottom are Christopher and Conrad (I posted them before) from the Chrestomanci Chronicles. A couple things from life, an assorted girl character and a mailman.

Little dog

2011-01-09T00:09:00.002-06:00

Made this tiny painting for my mom of my parents' dog. I really like how the watercolor turned out, but I did scan the inks and I'm going to try a few other color things in Painter later.

blue room

2011-01-02T20:06:00.003-06:00

I was happy with the last watercolor piece I made and wanted to give it another go. This one is for The Super Awesome Art Challenge (you can follow the link for a close-up version of the piece).
Watercolor and Ink on 300 lb Cold Press

a little about sketchbooks (a year in review)

2010-12-30T01:38:00.004-06:00

I was sitting in the kitchen this evening, talking with my sister while flipping through my current sketchbook. It only has three blank pages left, so it's pretty well finished. I looked at every page, and started remembering (out loud, bless my sister) when I drew things and why I drew things and what was happening around the time the drawings came about. Reminiscing like a crazy. But it was incredible! Some people have photo albums, you know?
My sketchbook is a collection of organized lines that bookmark thoughts I was having at a certain time. The pictures don't have to do anything with anything, but I still can remember what I was thinking then.

This might just be another developing argument for keeping a sketchbook and putting something into it every day. Sometimes it's drawing the cup on the table again, or sometimes it's writing the name of a song down. There's a lot to be said about improving drawing skills through daily life drawing, but even when I don't feel motivated enough to tackle some minuscule visual concept, something about throwing some more lines on a page makes me feel better, like I'm tabbing my place.

bros

2010-12-26T20:55:00.003-06:00

I'm coming to the end of another sketchbook. One more sketchpage and I'll be on a new one.
This one features a couple characters I made up. They work in a supermarket.

winter house

2010-12-12T20:22:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we had one of the grandest blizzards this city has (probably) ever had. I couldn't do any Christmas shopping or errand running or anything that required moving out of a single room!

Watercolor, gouache and ink on 300 lb cold press

My scanner isn't hooked up, hence the funfetti table photo.

Also a blizzard production: the Metrodome caved in. Y'know. Again.

winter room

2010-12-09T23:22:00.003-06:00

Sketchbook drawing, complete with the sketchbook attached!

I'm trying to finish this sketchbook up. Yikes, my desk is disgusting.

Dragonball

2010-12-07T14:06:00.002-06:00

There's been evidence in some previous sketch pages that I've been watching Dragonball and Dragonball Kai. Finally I decided to compile a bunch of the remaining drawings and put them together for a wholly Dragon Ball page.

Kai has made it very difficult to have a favorite character.

Truly

2010-11-30T18:31:00.003-06:00

I've been watching a few old Disney movies on repeat for nearly a week now, to brighten my spirits while working. I will be honest, some of them are not as appealing as I once thought they were. Some of them, though, are almost more enjoyable.

Here's Mr. Potts and Truly in homage to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

post Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T13:47:00.001-06:00

Sketches! Who'd've thought?

That one other teacup is in there–there's a watercolor sketch based on it around here somewhere.
Colors applied with Corel Painter, naturally.

Hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving! Presently I'm enjoying leftover Angel Food Jello cake.

Christopher

2010-11-20T21:35:00.003-06:00

Self indulgent art ahoy. Here's the other main character (and my absolute favorite in every book), Christopher Chant. He also happens to be big man Chrestomanci himself, even though this before he officially gains the role.

While Conrad's quite a bit more down-to-earth (look at that melancholy demeanor), Christopher can be kind of arrogant and pompous.

Conrad

2010-11-16T22:39:00.003-06:00

I'm in the process of reading the Chrestomanci series, by Dianna Wynne Jones. I've got one left, and so far one of my favorites is Conrad's Fate. Here's the title character, done in Painter.

His uncle signs him up to work in a manor as a manservant with ulterior motives. I enjoy the setting of the book a lot, because it means everybody is dressed nicely and the environment is all...fancy and wealthy. I like the characters a lot, too.

step by step

2010-11-13T14:56:00.002-06:00

Took advantage of Painter's iterative save function to record the process of a quick demo painting for a class.

I used that same sketch of a paper tea cup to make a sort of sloppy framework sketch

Blocked in the colors, mostly for the sake of value

Redefined areas and tones

Started finessing, adding detail and brightening and darkening areas

Last one. Worked in a tiny bit more detail and added some cooler hues to the shadows to balance out the green-y yellow.

It's still just a color sketch, but I think I'm good with it.

autumn things

2010-11-11T22:21:00.002-06:00

I guess autumn's pretty over. There's a smattering of stuff I drew walking around MCAD campus.

Character stuff too. Red hair and hat guy are the same dude–Shanks, my favorite from One Piece. He's a pirate.
Also, the Philly roll from Fuji-ya. Highly recommended.

practice

2010-11-05T01:29:00.002-05:00

I watched a bunch of demos this evening and was reinvigorated to try new things in Painter. This piece is quite a mess, and I may never finish it, but I had a fun time for awhile and I'm even more excited about the program. There's a wealth of potential!
I'm also excited about learning to paint well.
I'm really just excited about learning art things in general; it's really a privilege to be able to study art.

To start this piece I drew from photos from a trip to LA I took earlier this year. Someday I'll make a a real piece of that place. LA, whatever you actually are, you've maintained a magical, shining image in my mind.

teacup

2010-10-28T12:22:00.004-05:00

I draw a lot of cups and cats in my sketchbook. Here's another cup from a watercolor demo.

Also, if you don't already, you may like the Paper Bicycle blog. The folks from work (myself included) share cool stuff over there.

Gray day

2010-10-26T00:11:00.002-05:00

(I did not realize, until this moment, that "gray" and "grey" can be used interchangeably. I thought I just never knew how to spell that color.)

Life drawing, some of my characters, one One Piece thing, and the dudes at the top are that Inception guy. Not Leo. One of the other ones.

Painter painting

2010-10-23T02:17:00.002-05:00

I started this one in Adobe Photoshop CS 5, actually. There are simulated brushes in that program and I think I kind of like'm. Then I brought it into Painter to see how I'd feel about that. Time to start using new brushes.

bountiful

2010-10-13T10:47:00.004-05:00

Some Wrinkle in Time stuff up there, on the right. Had to get in Meg and Calvin.
Also, if that coffee cup (though it's actually tea) looks familiar, it should be. I used that sketch to make the watercolor painting at few posts ago.

last of AK

2010-10-09T15:58:00.005-05:00

Just the remaining sketches from Alaska. Hence the mountains. There are beautiful mountains all over up there.

At some point I found out through my friend who was taking care of the cats that they had gotten into a bag of rice and were pushing it around. Bad cats. So that is what's happening in the drawing in the upper left.

watercolor

2010-10-05T00:48:00.005-05:00

Last week I had the chance to do some small watercolor paintings for a demo in my friend's class (which was awesome, by the by. A great class with some great students) and it was a lot of fun! I often forget how much I love that medium.

Yes, another of my cat. She's a lot of fun to depict; she's just a shape with some colors on her.
These are painted on 160 lb Fabriano cold press. With some paint and some water and stuff.

working winter

2010-10-03T17:58:00.002-05:00

Presently I'm making an image for my grandma's Christmas card. Funnily enough, she requested I use the character from my Animation 1 final. Sometimes I like to pretend old pieces didn't happen, but it's nice when you can break things apart and reuse them.

Sustainability.

once more, with color

2010-10-01T00:56:00.003-05:00

These are from AK too. I did some digital sketching, though the OP one on the top had a pre-Alaska real sketch framework.

I heard some of The Hobbit on audiobook while there. It's an appropriate thing to listen to while in Alaska. So many mountains.

Alaska again

2010-09-26T15:37:00.003-05:00

This one's got a little more evidence of the trip than the previous ones. A few of the drawings are from places I saw. The bottom scene was drawn from the top of a mountain. It was incredible!

Also, I was reacquainted with Hercule Poirot while I was there. He's the best.

Some more Alaskan sketches

2010-09-23T21:17:00.002-05:00

Character things and a few life drawings scattered throughout:

The many babies were from a barbeque I went to with some friends. There were many babies there. Babies are fun to draw because they're round and blobby.

Pantone Primaries

2010-09-20T00:03:00.003-05:00

Some from AK, some from home, and some from that weird middle area called the airport.

The top one is the view from my own window. The pale little kid is Charles Wallace Murray, from "A Wrinkle in Time". He's a perennial fav.

those guys

2010-09-19T01:15:00.002-05:00

Some of the grocery store characters, younger and waiting to be put to use. I've got a few ideas for what this story will become, but I've got priorities. For now these guys are for me to draw when I need to draw something else.

I started drawing a few on the plane and then had to do the set.

A girly sort of post

2010-09-17T01:18:00.002-05:00

I have not posted in awhile. I've been in Alaska(!) having a grand time, experiencing a new place and hanging out with some really great people. But I'm back now, and that means I've got a lot of posting to do to remedy my absence. I may be posting here more frequently for a little bit!

cat fight

2010-08-27T15:13:00.002-05:00

This is the best thing they do.