Tom Waits Portrait

Portrait of multi-instrumentalist musician, actor, and Satan Mr. Tom Waits. Graphite, chalk, ink, and digital.

sneak preview at a w.i.p.

Here's a sneak peak at the second installment of my Au Courant Orchestra drawings. Really focusing on simple values and shapes and resisting the urge to render my drawing into submission.

Dead Dogwood Awards

Here's another piece done for Richmond Magazine. The "Dead Dogwood" awards are silly stories that have taken place in Richmond during this year (think humorous "Darwin Awards" for the entire city). This collection of stories was really fun to try to incorporate into a single image. Enjoy!


Here is the approved sketch.

Black Magic Woman

Did this one with charcoal, pastels, and photoshop. This one is inspired by the mystique of "gypsy" and "flapper" women.

Figure Drawing: The Quest to Draw Human Beings Being Human

Did these drawings at the Norfolk Drawing Group and a portrait drawing group I sometimes attend. New finished artwork coming soon!

au courant orchestra

Here's the final version. Thinking of making a series based on this, and handling each piece with different mediums.

Work in progress-(au courant orchestra)

Here's a sneak at what I've been working on lately. It's graphite, ink, and touches of gouache on illustration board at this stage. Still establishing values and defining things, but I'm liking where it's headed. Sorry for the bad resolution, I shot it with my iPhone camera. More updates on this one to follow!

Foodblogs/Self Proclaimed "Foodies"

This is the image that went to print.



These 2 images were fleshed-out ideas for the article, but ultimately they weren't used.

I did these images last month for Richmond Magazine. The article was in their humor column about an avid food blogger who proclaims himself and his cohorts to be "foodies", but really they only hit the cliche restaurants (olive garden, TGI Fridays, etc.) and enjoy fine dining accoutrement such as box wine. The Art Director wanted to see what kind of a character I could come up with to fit the story, while working with some loose and splattery pen and ink work with minimal color. I wanted to make the character seem not so much like a snob, as much as an oblivious guy who fancies himself a critic...but has zero merit. This assignment was a really fun curveball to work on.



Oh, and here's the initial character ideation sketches for the "foodie" protagonist. Enjoy!

Rockin' Out on Monday

Pretty hilarious article I Illustrated for Richmond Magazine about how if you wait too late to show up to the Richmond Folk Festival, you may be the only one left partying. I had an awesome time working on this one. Played around with digital and traditional elements. Enjoy!

Digital Portrait

Still working with digital life drawing, this time a portrait. I haven't abandoned traditional drawing tools, I actually have some decent figure drawings I did the other night using Nu-Pastels and toned paper. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy working-out my digital muscles. I've wanted to push this medium and make it a more solid addition to my repertoire, just as much as the traditional tools.

Another Attempt at Digital Figure Painting

Had a lot of fun working on this one at the Norfolk Drawing Group tonight. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments, critiques, rants, or wisdom.

Foray into Digital Figure Painting

Tonight was our painting session at my weekly figure drawing group. Even though I stayed up late last night priming canvases with every intention of doing a traditional oil painting... just before I left to go paint, I changed my mind and decided to grab my laptop and Wacom tablet. Low and behold, I actually had a blast. I tried approaching this as I would if it were a traditional oil painting by making and keeping my marks. I kept my edges in mind and tried to not render the details to death. I was keeping the wisdom of David Leffel in mind when making my marks. To have each stroke be a statement describing something and let it stay. I worked on only 1 or 2 layers and didn't undo anything. Hope you enjoy!

More figure drawings and a portrait

More figure drawings with NuPastels and a recent portrait.

Recent Figures

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

40 minute pose (two 20 minute poses)

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

20 minute pose

10 minute pose

3 hour pose

Here's some figure drawings and a 3 hour figure painting that I've done over the last couple of sessions here in Norfolk. The poses range from 10-40 minutes. Since I'm no longer in school it's been good to find a place where I can still get some figure studies done. The drawings were done with nu-pastel on toned paper (canson), and the painting is oil on canvas. Feel free to comment. Take care.

Synesthesia

Did this piece for my friend's in the band Synesthesia. They wanted some original art for their new merchandise/promotional materials. This one is mixed media: Graphite, Acrylic, Ink, and Digital.

Rock Bottom Deals (Richmond Magazine)

Here is an illustration I did for Richmond Magazine for their Real Estate Section, about how first time buyers have the upper hand in the real estate market. This one was really tough because it went through a lot of changes from the initial job description, to the sketch, to the final. The article originally was going to be poker themed where the new home buyers were "holding all the cards", but the Art Director quickly felt the idea of the story wasn't clearly coming across. So, the article got a complete ideation overhaul and was changed to "Rock Bottom Deals". Also, they wanted me to be aware the fact that most of these deals are coming by way of foreclosures on current homeowners, so needless to say it was a sensitive subject to illustrate. So below are my thumbnail sketches I sent, from the original poker theme to the final approved sketch. Even though this one was tough I really enjoyed the challenge, and the people at Richmond Mag are always great to work with. Enjoy! Comments Welcome!



Initial "Poker" themed sketches

Final approved sketch

Final execution.

Quick Spot for Richmond Magazine

Did this quick spot for Richmond Mag about a month ago, which means it should be out now. This was something they needed as a quick turn around, while I was simultaneously doing storyboards for a film project. The Art Director wanted something fun and almost "logo-like' for their "Sexy Seafood" article, about how the positive benefits of seafood outweigh the negative factors...making fish the alluring "bad-boy" of the meat world.

Did this in photoshop.

Louis C.K.

Mr. Anthony Hopkins

Graphite, Ink, and Photoshop.

Illustration for Richmond Magazine

Here's the illustration done for Richmond Magazine about the long waits at local Richmond suburban restaurants. The Art Director wanted an image of a frustrated mother waiting for a table with her children. He wanted the image to not be taken too seriously and be fun, so I chose to handle the image completely digitally instead of my usual rendered approach. I thought rendering the figures too much would give the piece a solemn feel.


Below are the thumbnail sketches I sent the Art Director. He went with the close-up of the mother holding the child. I then did a final sketch which was approved, with one suggestion: to slim the mother down a bit to match the physique of the woman from the supplied reference I was given. So I did for the final.Final Sketch
First round of thumbnails

Mr. Mos

Portrait of musician, actor, and MC: Mos Def.
Graphite, Acrylic, and Digital on Bristol

Lord of the Flies Variant

Here's a variant cover for the Lord of the Flies assignment I did a while back. This was one of the other sketch ideas I liked while going through the ideation process and I wanted to see it fleshed out. On a side note, I just bought a brand new scanner so I'll be updating this blog more frequently now.

and now for something different

Private commission for some great friends of mine. They had their bathroom renovated and hated the wooden access door to their hot tub, so I painted it for them. My friends are both huge fans of marine life so I thought it would be fitting to paint an aquatic scene. I made sure and put all their favorite sea creatures in the scene. Did this with acrylic paint. This was a lot of fun to say the least.