Charcoal on Strathmore 500 paper from life.

Ilya Repin

Here's a study after the great Russian artist, Ilya Repin. The original oil painting is called The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mahmoud IV and measured 358 × 203 cm (140.93 × 79.91 in). My study is 20 x 30 inches and the materials were charcoal pencil on smooth newsprint, which means in about 20 years it will yellow and probably fall apart. I spent about 100 hours on this over the course of 5 weeks and learned a lot about composition, drawing, values, proportion, pencil handling, observing, and most of all, patience. When I did this, I didn't have a real art studio, so I would set up a large drawing board in the tiny dining room of my apartment each morning and work until I couldn't focus my eyes anymore each evening. For background noise, I played all 10 seasons of Friends on dvd. Every episode. Twice. I think having human voices and a laugh track in the background made me feel like a normal person rather than a pathetic artist slaving away at his craft.

Samantha

Here's a digital painting from life. Total time was about 2 hours working in Photoshop. Samantha takes great gestures and isn't afraid to try a pose that may seem to difficult. In this particular case, however, she choose a much more relaxed pose than normal so I wanted to capture the mood and the lighting of her at rest.

Workshop Demo

Here's a digital painting demo I did at the Art Institute San Diego. Total painting time was about 2 hours after lecturing and answering questions. It was a packed room and I received a lot of positive feedback. I hope to continue doing these at school every quarter. The next workshop will be a digital landscape workshop. This time i will try to work in layers so that the attendees can see more of my process.

Bum portrait

Bum's have the greatest faces sometimes. This fellow was walking around downtown Seattle when I noticed him and took the photo. My medium for this painting is gouache and watercolor on oatmeal colored scrapbook paper.

More Venice gondolas

Here is a watercolor and gouache color study for a large painting that I will be painting in oil. The final size for the oil painting will be something close to 20" x 30"



This study of a gondola was also painted in watercolor and gouache. For both studies, I'm interested in the color relationships rather than the specific color that I see when I stare intently. I'm trying to resolve the color harmony and the mixing before I get to the more refined finished oil painting.

Downtown SD

Tivoli bar and grill located on 6th and Market St. in Downtown SD. This was done on location in about an hour or so. This is watercolor and gouache in my sketchbook. The paper is for drawing but it has a roughness and thickness to it much like cold press WC paper (but for about 1/3 the cost).