Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor Pencil

We were visiting Dom's parents farm in the mountains of New Jersey and I saw these cool funky flowers. It gave me an excuse to try out a watercolor pencil that was given to me. They are pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to working on them some more.

Teaser - Details

Serval Detail

Swan Staff Detail

Orchid Detail

These are some details of a painting I am working on. It's almost complete. After it is sent off to the client I'll post the full image for your review. I'll talk a bit about my process as well.

Lightbulb Plant

This is a lightbulb plant.

Memory Portrait WIP - Details

I'm still working on this portrait but I haven't posted in awhile so I thought I'd throw a few details up for your viewing pleasure. These are very small areas of the illustration. I'm having a whole lot of fun with these decorative elements!

Flower 1

Fall classes are about to start and I thought it would be a good idea to post some in progress works before the flurry of faculty meetings and syllabi touch ups hit me. After the first week I usually have a little over a month before I go MIA. So in light of my slow building of yet another new portfolio.......I now unleash my flower. This guy will be part of a collection to pitch to the licensing industry. As for now...he's just a lonely gerber daisy. His girlfriend is red and is 75% done. This was done in Corel Painter.

In addition to these types of illustrations I am also in the process of painting a commission of a cat dressed as Queen Elizabeth I. That is the mental image I choose to leave you with today;)

Painting Demo

This is a demo I did for my class at the University of the Arts. The class is based on the techniques of Corel Painter...a digital program that mimics traditional medium. I used an image of one of my mom's irises and painted it using the the oil brushes. No matter if you choose to paint digitally or traditionally you have to understand drawing, composition, color and value. The computer will not magically make everything beautiful which is a common misconception when considering digital work.

Cardos and Scottish Thistles

This is a combination of two thistle flowers. One from Italy and the other from Scotland. I tried to combine the different elements of leaves and thorns from each one towards the bottom. The first is a pencil sketch (traditional) and the second is a digital painting. I am currently working on several pieces for a client so hopefully I'll have some more fun stuff to post. I have a very long week of painting ahead but plan to take a few breaks here and there to spend some quality time walking my basset hound....preferably with his new banana outfit I bought him. Hmmmm....maybe the next sketch?

Drop Caps

These are some sketches I'm doing for GreenPrints gardening magazine. They are accompanying a touching story involving a mother, daughter with leukemia and their garden. Along with these will be a key and spot. I plan to take them into Painter and work with black and white value. Right now I'm working on a bunch of sketches but I'll post the final when I finish. The deadline is coming up fast so I'll be working it!!

It's a little modern twist on Illumination which is one of my favorite genres of art history. I don't get a lot of chances to work with this style so I like to take advantage of it while I can. Off to paint!

Illustration vs. Design

What becomes interesting when your in the process of learning illustration is the crossover between fine art and design. This is a sample piece I did for two of my classes. The flower portion was done in Adobe Illustrator to demonstrate repeats and transparencies. I then used the rounded image (which you can find on my site) by cropping it and adding text in InDesign for a Graphic Tech class I was teaching. One of the benefits of working like this is the easy ability to change the colors in order to fit the clients preference. Not being a usual aesthetic approach to how I work I still found this refreshing and fun to do.

Orange Flower

SOLD

Here's a small oil painting I did a while ago. There are some parts I enjoy and others not so much. The palette is warm and inviting but the actual structure of the flower became too contrived and over worked. It reminds me of a feathery lollipop.

Illuminated Flowers

SOLD

In this 5"x5" oil painting I tried to get a glowing feel that transcended through the petals. I think the petals glow...but not exactly as I wanted them to. None the less I got to play with high contrast and thicker strokes. I still am aspiring to loosen up a bit. Maybe some where down the road!

Pink Rose

SOLD

This was a small oil study completed in one morning. It's been awhile since I worked in oils and encountered some old problems I forgot about. White can be such a killer! It was accepted into the small oils show at the Philadelphia Sketch club and will be up for another week. I'm excited to work on the next one but will not be able to get to it until classes end in a few weeks.

5"x7" Oil on Canvas

Rose Garden

I created this illustration for a client's poetry.  I'm thinking of taking it to final color.  Thanks for looking!