These are three tiny paintings I did at work a few days ago.  They are just random and fun and took a few minutes to make.  They are on 2 x 3 inch artist trading cards.  I'm going to start buying a bunch of packs because they are fun and they make it less likely for me to overwork them since they are so small.  It's a good way to experiment and build up your skill without it taking hours and hours on a large canvas.  I just thought of this but they're probably also good for testing out compositions before moving on to a final piece.  Also, I'm proud to say all three of these sold at a donation show benefitting Arts for Healing, a program at Vassar hospital to bring arts to ill children and their families. Wooooohooo!

There will be more small works coming up!

Illustration Friday: Gesture

I had a lot of fun with this one and it was kind of spur of the moment after receiving a graphic novel I ordered in the mail, called TELL ME, DARK.  It is brilliantly illustrated by Kent Williams and it gave me the excitement to create this piece.  I kept it pretty gestural and used a filed down chopstick dipped in india ink to get great line variation.  I would like to experiment some more with the chopstick.  It was fun!

illustration friday: midsummer night

A few months ago, I took a bunch of random pictures on the High Line of all different people.  I knew I wanted to do a painting based on one of the pictures because their gestures were great.  They were sitting on a bench in the picture but I made them lay on a make-shift raft made of mattresses and fabric for the painting.  I thought of putting lanterns in the sky because thousands of them were released a few days ago in Poland to celebrate midsummer.   Hernan Bas was my inspiration for this painting. I really admire his paintings for their elegance and color.

amy winehouse bird

This is Amy Winehouse as a bird called the Loggerhead shrike.  The bird has black around the eyes like Amy's eyeliner. Unlike the real bird, the Amy bird stores her eggs in her big hair nest.  It was my first time doing jagged edges on the side.  Since peeling the tape off  is one of my favorite parts, it was fun to make that "ripped look" which I thought represents Amy's personality more than a straight, crisp, edge.

Illustration Friday

                                                                                       Word: Launch

I took a picture of these 3 people on a bench when I was walking next to Macy's on 34th street.  At first I passed them and said, "that would be an awesome picture" but I kept walking.  Then, I walked back like a nerd and took a picture of them as I was walking so they wouldn't see me.  I decided to incorporate the people in this painting where they are launched by a fish boat across the tropical sea with a view of cotton candy sky.

asleep

Illustration Friday entry: ASLEEP

I decided to paint a leg with pins and needles that fell asleep instead of a person falling asleep. I had fun with this one but would still like to go back and fix a few things.

painting sketches

I kept it kind of loose and used red, black, and white for a few of them. It's good practice using a limited color palette and you really learn how to mix many different values with just a few colors. A problem I noticed I have with my own work is sticking to just a few colors. Maybe you could say that my "style" consists of a distinct color palette, but it would also be nice to experiment with colors I don't usually use, and a limited amount of them.