A couple watercolors from Beaver Lake, Michigan.

 This is what I did at the Society of Illustrators last night.  I was worried I'd be rusty because I really haven't drawn that much since I graduated, but everything felt pretty natural, and I had a lot of fun drawing the models.  It's much easier, I think, to draw big voluptuous women than it is to draw skinny ones... You can see which model I focused on.  She was very amazing and beautiful to draw.

I have a big love for the short lived WPA Federal Theatre Project that happened during the depression in the 1930's.  I took 3 plays that were produced by the project and came up with poster designs for each.  The finishes were done digitally but I tried to give them a hand printed look.  I'm pretty happy with them.  It was a very fast project and I did all three finishes in about 4 hours.

This was a life study I worked on for four sessions.  Pretty happy with the way it came out.  It's an improvement over the last longer life study I did.

Made these portrait samples over this past weekend for a potential job doing some vector portraits.  Don't know if anything will come of it, but it was good to practice illustrator again, and try on a specific style.  I was basically instructed to do them in this style, which is not necessarily the way I would have done it, but I think I like them anyway.  Here we have the affable Joe Biden, and the late Margaret Thatcher.  Enjoy!

This was a pretty fast life study I did last week.  Two 15 min Sessions.  I tried to just bang it out really fast and I think the results are pretty good.  I think I have been learning a lot from painting so much this semester.  Really loving it.

Just a quick one from the other day. :)

Life painting from a couple of weeks back.  I'm really really enjoying these. :)  And I'm starting to really like oil painting!  Wasn't ever sure if I would!

I thought I would try my hand at some fan art.  As far as fan art goes this is pretty obscure.  These are 3 characters from one of my favorite films Army Of Shadows or L'armee des ombres Dir. by Jean Pierre Melville.  It's about the french resistance during the Nazi occupation of France.  And all three of these people are bad ass let me tell you.

Oh Jane!
This is my Jane Eyre piece.  I kind of hate that I put Mr. Rochester in front because I'm sure he thinks he deserves to be there even though the book is about her, but this is kind of what their relationship is in the book so there you have it.  This was drawn, scanned and colored digitally in Photoshop.  I used a lot of ink and watercolor textures and patterns as well.

A study I did a couple of weeks ago.  Just getting around to posting it now.  Again just tried to keep it loose and overall I like how it came out.

Went to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown yesterday to draw.  This is what I came out with.  I tried not to get too precious with it and move fast.  They are mostly concerned with light and shadow.  A friend of mine loaned me her brush pen for the last two and I think I gotta get me one of those.

Couple of fairly fast tonal studies.  These were both done in the same class last week.  The second one I think I only spent about 40 min on or so.  It's been really nice to paint from life recently, I really feel something loosening up.

Who is it??

It's Kora.

This is the final drawing for a painting I will be starting soon.  The final painting will be in oils.  It's the story of The Emperor and the Nightingale, though I might change the name for mine to The Sultan and the Nightingale.

She looks kind of indifferent about whoever she's threatening with that ray gun.  Next time I should probably add a bit more excitement to my model's face.  Boredom is so easy to draw though...

Well this ladies and gentlemen is my first published illustration.  It is now appearing on the Smokelong Weekly website alongside a short story written by my friend Rachel Lyon.  I threw the whole thing together pretty quickly but I think I feel good about it.  Cheers!

Two recent on site illustrations.  The first one is from the FIT knitting lab, and the second is from the NYC Transit Museum inside one of those subway cars from the 1920's.

Did this value study of a model in class last week.  I am pretty happy with it.  I wasn't sure how it would go because I've been doing so much line drawing lately and ignoring value more or less.  I like that it turned out to be a sort of tight drawing yet sort of sloppily done.

Did this oil painting of a live model posing for several sessions.  It's not bad though I need a lot more practice to really become good at painting people from life.  I did enjoy myself.

I just finished updating this image.  I added some detail on the water which I think helps separate the underwater part of the composition from the above water part.  That was a little ambiguous before, and needed defining.  I also added a little more texture and color for depth.  I feel happy overall with the changes and I think it makes it a stronger piece.

As it says.  You are.

These are the drawings I did at the society of illustrators last night.  Usually they have live music there to appreciate while you draw but not last night for probably the first time ever, at least as long as I've been going.  The drawings are posted in the order that I drew them.  Sketch night always starts off with 10 short 2 min poses, then four 5 min poses, then two 10's and three 20 min ones usually.  So you can see how the drawings progress from being sketchy to being a little more refined.  I still try to keep it loose though even on the longer poses, trying not to get too caught up with any one little thing.

The Grief of Orpheus.  Half traditional half digital illustration.  Eurydice has been bitten by a viper and has died.  Orpheus is overwhelmed with grief.  This was one of the fastest illustrations I've ever done.  Whew!

I took 3 drawings I did of the same trial going on and made a panorama of them.  Now you can see the entire trial happening.  Except for the jury that the prosecutor is addressing.  We were not supposed to draw them.  The two young women on the right were on trial for beating the crap out of another teenager in a McDonald's.  It was a sad case for everyone involved I think.

Progress.... though this scan is not so good, with lines going through the piece and all.  I'm not finished with this yet and plan to keep working on it.

Thumbelina!  Traditional drawing.  Digital coloring.

This is a piece I did in collaboration with my mentor Matt Mahurin.  I chose a dream project I wanted to work on.  In this case, a theater poster.  I chose two plays, The Oresteia and The Tempest (the latter is in progress) and designed the posters.  Here is what I've com up with.  I also did the graphic design and chose the Stratford Festival because I've been there and it's a great festival.  Would love to do posters for them.