Daily Deviation!

Woah, so I just checked my DevART and suddenly one of my Alice in Wonderland ink drawings has 61 new comments… apparently it was ‘Daily Deviation‘! 😀

It was definitely a pleasant surprise!

There’s also a print available here!

Wendy in Neverland by ~phantomnova on deviantART

Art Prints Available!

I just opened an account on Society6. I have a few prints available, and will be adding more.

Prints currently available!

If you have any suggestions as to art you’d like to see made available for prints, or future art you’d like to see feel free to comment! I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Spread the word!

Black Lantern Publishing

Check out the August issue of Black Lantern! I did an illustration for one of the stories! 🙂

Show at Blue Mountain Gallery in NYC

A quick heads up! I’ll be showing work at a show in NY this June!

The show will be held at Blue Mountain Gallery (530 W 25th St. 4th floor, New York City) from June 21st – July 9th.

Opening reception is Thursday June 23rd from 5-8pm!

WCSU Thesis Show

Last night was the opening reception for the WCSU MFA Thesis Show! I have eight pieces up in the gallery. The show will be up until April 14th.

 

If anyone wants to check it out it’s at Higgins Hall Gallery (181 White Street, Western Connecticut State University Midtown Campus Danbury, CT)

Here’s my work!

We had a great turn out for the opening reception.

Peter Pan line art

Lately I’ve been working on painting scenes from one of my favorite books Peter Pan. Usually before I start a watercolor painting I’ll take a picture of the initial line work. I’ve always thought line work looks nice on it’s own, so while I’m waiting for this watercolor wash to dry I played around with some of them on the computer just for fun.

 

 

It’s always interesting to see how different everything looks once it’s been painted/inked.

Alice in the Rabbit’s House – Colored

Still playing around with Painter. Here’s a colored version of my black and white ‘Alice in the Rabbit’s House’

Marie Antoinette Halloween

Playing around with Painter! These started out with just a minimal graphite sketch.

Red and Ohmbrett the goat

Ballpoint pen on watercolor paper

The beginning stages

Just about every Illustration I course in this country teaches the same basic principles: Start off with an idea. Sketch out possibilities for that idea. Refine those possibilities. Pick the best of your refined possibilities and take it to a final stage.

With those guidelines in place the student is still left with a great deal of unanswered questions. What about technique? Media? Composition? How do you know when it’s good enough? What makes it good enough?
Most Professors start these students out with certain criteria for each project. Start with this subject. Use black and white. Use color. Use this medium. Sketch on this kind of paper. Try this. Find out what you like.

So it happens that I’m doing a TA for an Illustration I class this semester, and in the beginning stages of these assignments all the students draw on tracing paper, using it to sketch out their compositions and refine their drawings. During undergrad I was taught something similar, using the tracing paper to transfer my sketches before finishing the final product. It didn’t take me too long to realize that every time I transfered my work something always seemed missing. So I took a step back and changed the way I approached my artwork.

I no longer use tracing paper to transfer.

Now it seems every time I show people my methods they usually poke fun and ask why I’d prefer ‘doing extra work’ rather than just using tracing paper, and I know this sounds odd, but somehow for me doing the extra work is easier then going to shorter route. So this got me thinking about how each individual artist approaches the beginning stages of their work, and how I approach mine. I’ll be using some examples from two pieces that I’m currently working on.

After I have an idea I always start with thumbnails. (fig. 1) Once I’ve sketched out a few I’ll usually draw them larger and work out more of the composition details. (fig. 2)

If the image involve figures, which more often then not it does, I’ll take reference shots and just sketch. I’ll sketch the same figure multiple times to get them to my liking.

After sketching the figures, in lieu of simply transferring them with tracing paper, I’ll re-draw the entire image. After sketching them numerous times I have a better understanding of the image and it usually comes out far better than if I were to simply transfer it.