Portrait
Maihee (まいへえ）
I have been playing around with getting richer colors in my drawings. This portrait is mainly color pencil and then i layered in some extra color digitally. I’m really happy with how my portrait of Maihee (まいへえ) turned out. It is definitely one of my favorite portraits that I have done in a while.
I’ll be giving away this drawing at the end of the month as part of the rewards for the Scholar group on Patreon. Make sure to sign up as a Patron for a chance to win it :)
Portrait
Taeri Kang – 강태리テリテリ
I wanted to improve on my color work, so I’ve been doing a series of one-day digital color studies. I came across Taeri Kang on Instagram a few months ago. She has a look that caught my eye. I found a photo of Degas’ painting palette and used it for sampling colors. I’m really happy with the outcome. I feel like I need to paint a few more before I get back working on my current oil paintings.
Portrait
Nozomi Iijima
A month ago I stumbled on to the Instagram account of ballerina Nozomi Iijima. She is First soloist at the Houston Ballet. I did this portrait of her with Pencil & Charcoal on animation paper. I hope you like it :)
If you are a patron you can download the full res scan of the drawing here.
Portrait
Jessica Stein + Rumi
I meet Jessica Stein (tuulavintage.com) a few years ago when she was out in California. She is an incredibly kind person, and when she had her beautiful daughter Rumi, I had to paint them. :) Lately, I’ve been trying different techniques when I paint. Most the experiments have been done Digitally due to the quick turn around time (no paint drying 😏👍). In this painting I was working on blending less and using large blocks of color to imply shape. I’m really happy with how it turned out. It is always fun drawing friends.
If you are a Patron you can download the full version of this art on Patreon.
Portrait
Kimono Girl
first of all, let me introduce my newest painting in my ‘Portraits of Japan‘ series. Inspired by a Daoko song 🎶 called fireworks 💥 Risa Nakamura (里砂 中村) inspired the look of the model. Selecting the right Kimono fabrics was quite a task. Materials: arches 300lbs cold press paper, watercolors, color pencils, finished the portrait off with gold leaf. I experimented with digital painting on top, working in more lighting effects. I love how it turned out.
Also, If you are interested in buy the original watercolor, it is for sale on my Saatchi store. just click the buy button below to get more info.
Patreon
finally, thank you to my all of new patrons who signed up yesterday. If you want to become one, click the ‘become a patron’ button. To celebrate my first month on Patreon I’m doing a giveaway or 1 art piece and. 9 days left to be in the running for the giveaway by becoming a patron on my Patreon. Subscriptions start $1 a month.
Portrait
The Dead Layer
I’m currently learning how to oil paint like the old flemish painters. This painting is at the second phase of the Flemish technique called the Dead Layer or the Dead Color Layer. This comes after the brown under painting where I used a thin layer of burnt umber. The dead layer is a monotone layer where you work on getting the values right. I’ve been building my dead layer with a combo of burnt umber, white, and Lamp Black. I’ve been mixing it with a medium I made that is 1 part Refined Linseed Oil, 1 part Liquin, and 3 parts Odorless Mineral Spirits. Once the values are correct, I will start adding color. I’m planning on adding silver and gold leaf after this layer, right before I start on the color layer.
Have you ever used this technique before? If so, I would love to hear any tips or tricks you have on the process. It’s been extremely enjoyable so far. Judging color luminance is something I struggle with, so just isolating the light value before working on color made a lot of sense to me.
The character in the painting is from our book series and is named Veeda Elward. Veeda is a character that my friend Codie Young and I came up with. She is going to be a very interesting character. I used Codie as a visual reference for the character. She is wearing a Valentino dress.
Lately, I’ve been oil painting a lot. I have four paintings currently in the dead layer stage, and I will be posting all of them as they evolve. For many years, I’ve been wanting to do my first art show, but never felt like I had a series of originals that I would want to display in a show. Over the last few months, I’ve been working to put together a coherent collection of paintings.
Portrait
Mona Johannesson – Light & Color Study
Happy New Year! This post is a Light & Color Study drawing I created over the last 3 days of Swedish model Mona Johannesson. Over the last few weeks I’ve been concentrating on improving my drawing skills by doing a lot of light & color studies of poses and angles that have given me trouble in the past. This drawing was created by using a color pencil on Arches 300 lb. hot press paper, blended with razor blades, colorless blenders, and rubbing alcohol. Below, are some of my take aways learned from making the piece.
My Lessons Learned;
– Pre visualize the final image
– Think through what I’m drawn to & want to express
– Work on transitioning from big to small shapes
– Blend, blend, blend, and than blend some more
– Look at the subject from different perspectives
Portrait
Seated Lighting Study Sketch
Part of my daily routine, I’ve been doing a couple gesture Study Sketches a day. I’ve been working a lot lately on improving my shading and rending lighting. This was a study drawing I did of Model Mona Johannesson. I did the pencil study using Prismacolor Turquoise Lead, and Prismacolor Color pencils on animation bond paper.
Portrait
Through the Sheet – Mona Johannesson
Over the years there have been images that from the first time I see them I’m inspired to paint them. There have also been images that no matter how many times I paint them it never gets old, still feel inspired to paint them over and over. It almost feels like a quest to truly capture the element that I love about the image. Camilla Akrans’s photo of Mona Johannesson is one of those images. I drew it in my Character Sketchbook years ago, and it is an image that I keep coming back to and drawing or painting again and again. I never have been satisfied by my interpretation of the picture. So a few days ago I decided to give it another go. It’s a Watercolor & Color Pencil on Arches 300lbs hot press paper. It turned out way better than I thought it would. What do you think?
Portrait
Lucy Jean Bemis
A few months back I did a couple of portraits of my friends’ kids. This illustration is of my friends’ Max & Sherri Bemis’s daughter, Lucy Jean Bemis. Lucy has a really fun personality to draw. I used pen and ink on bristol smooth paper.