SketchKon 2018 Fun and Sketchbook update!

On November 2-4 in Pasadena California, the first ever Sketch Kon was held and I had the pleasure/privilege to represent Stillman & Birn at the event. Stillman & Birn, for those who don't know, make my favorite line of papers and are, quite literally, the only paper that I am willing to draw on anymore. I spent that weekend manning the Stillman & Birn booth, talking with attendees about making art and art supplies, and showing them some of my work and talking about my process. It was probably, one of the best weekends of my life. I was surrounded by so many creative people, I was representing a product I believe in, and I got the chance to draw some cool things!

Below are some of the highlights of the sketches I did at the event. These were done in 2 of S&B's newest lines of paper, the Nova series which come in Beige, Gray, and Black toned papers. These were mainly done in my beige and gray books, I'm building up my skills to be able to tackle the black paper, and I used gouache, watercolors, poster paint markers, pencils, inks, and acrylic inks on these. That's a loooot of tools to use, but this paper is amazing!

Character Design painted before my flight to Pasadena

Drawn on the flight to Pasadena

Sketches of restaurant goers on Friday night

Some demonstration sketches and a Moscow Mule from Saturday night

The Westin Bar on Saturday Night

Church across from the Westin, drawn on location and painted at the airport before my return flight

Character drawn during the event and painted after I returned to GA

Still alive! And some Rare Drops pages

Hello, I'm finally updating my blog! I've been working on Spencer and Locke 2 which I'm still plugging away at and unfortunately there's not much I can share right at this moment, so most of my work has been not blog worthy. I do want to post more though, so here's a good chunk of pages that i was drawing on my lunch break for Rare Drops 4, introducing a new character!

Portrait Commissions

Recently I was working on two watercolor portraits for a father with two graduating kids, one from college and one from high school. I received these commissions on April 13th, and I completed them April 30th, so just in time for both of their graduations! I'm happy to have heard that they liked their portraits, and that their dad was happy with them =D

So here's the finished product, which I have permission to share.

Media: Watercolors, mostly Sennelier with some Da Vinci colors and Holbein White Gouache. Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils for details
Paper: Stillman and Birn Beta Paper

O is for Oscar

O is for Oscar, another story I've yet to draw but want to get to eventually.

Oscar is a sheltered Hispanic boy who lives at home with his very protective and close knit family. Since he was small, he's always dreamed of being a fine artist, his favorite field trips were to art museums and he's read every book on fine art in the library. However, his parents don't want him to be an artist, at least not professionally. They would rather he get a normal job and just do art as a hobby. This stifling environment starts to eat away at Oscar, so he signs up for a life drawing class as an act of rebellion. This class will change his life, and also he's never been in the same room with a nude woman before.

While this isn't how my life as an artist started, I know that this is a pretty common story for young artists. The feeling that your family or friends are trying to reality check your dreams is a real one, and I wanted to explore that in cultural sense as well. I hope it'll be a fun book!

Tools: Pentel pocketbrush pen and Copic multiliners
Paper: Stillman and Birn gamma sketchbook.