Life Drawings - eyedrum session

Here are a few of the good drawings from today's 2 hour session at the eyedrum in Atlanta. It's a really fun and interesting space to draw in, and everyone there is 11 varieties of inspiring. Seriously, I saw some awesome acrylic and oil painted works in the 2 hours which make me feel like I need to push myself even more. I think the most important aspect of any artist is that sense of pushing yourself and your art past your current limits. The moment you think you've learned all you need or that you settle on just one media or tool, how can you continue to grow? With that in mind, I hope you enjoy my attempts at getting better at drawing the human form and using watercolors and a sanguine colored pencil.

Tools: Watercolor and Caran d'Ache sanguine colored pencil
Paper: Stillman and Birn Delta and Gamma sketchbooks respectively

Rex Banning - Lawyer in the Stars pencils

Why hello internet! I have here some things to share! I got the opportunity to work with Conor McCreery and my pal Brian Prince on a comic for an anthology called MONSTROSITY II. Here's a link to the Kickstarter and I'll share some of the pencils for the comic.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/408859396/monstrosity-ii

On this team, I was the penciler, toner and letterer. I worked on these pages in the middle of my last quarter at SCAD and I think they turned out pretty well. Conor was our writer and Brian was the inker on this comic. I hope that if you can, you'll support the kickstarter and help this book get off the ground.

I don't really know what else to say without giving away too much. If you like lawyers, space, frog lawyers, frog judges, and frog lawyers, this is the comic for you! Did I mention frog lawyers?

Art wise, this was an experiment for me in a few ways. On this comic I was using Stillman and Birn Alpha paper, which is 100 lb. drawing paper. I've been using S&B's Beta paper on my pages for the Curse of the Eel, which are 180 lb sheets of watercolor paper. Texture wise, the Alpha is a little more toothy but it's less heavy than the Beta, so I wanted to see what changes it made to my drawings. This may seem like pointless trouble, but part of what I love about drawing is overcoming a new challenge or trying out a new method of working. I'd get bored doing the same thing each and every time so this stuff is fun for me.

Turns out the Alpha is perfect for comics provided you don't be too rough with it. The vellum surface is great for my pencil hardnesses (B and F) and it didn't leave any ghosts when I was erasing things away. The only downside is that because the paper is thinner, it is more likely to buckle under you if you erase too hard, but if you move your eraser outwards and away from you, that's not even an issue. So yeah, perfect for comics! I didn't ink this one, but I've tested nibs, markers, watercolor and brush inking on the alpha and it's brilliant at all of it. I'm considering actually switching from the Beta to Alpha for my more regular projects and using Beta for things that require heavy watercolor use. The Alpha is also a bit cheaper to buy by the sheet so I can get the pages for a bit less, which is always a plus.

Other than that, there's not much else to say other than: Thank you Conor and Brian for letting me part of your team! I'm hoping we can work together again, and I hope everyone else gives that Kickstarter a little love, since it'd be cool to have another anthology with my name in it out so soon after I graduated!

Stillman and Birn Zeta Review

I love drawing and lately I've been drawing more than I have at any one point in my life. Part of this is attributed to my professors at SCAD Atlanta, who challenge me to be a better artist every day; the other factor is Stillman and Birn and their line of sketchbooks. I've been using them for almost a year now and the books are so high quality, they almost ask to be drawn on. I was lucky enough to be sent a few sheets of their newest paper, Zeta, and while I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, here are my thoughts.

The Zeta line of books is a heavier version of the Epsilon line. The paper is smooth and white and while the the Epsilon can take light washes, the Zeta can accept a lot more. The paper feels like hot press watercolor paper and I enjoyed painting on this more than I did on Arches (which I did love as well). I'm not the best painter but I had a lot of fun testing out watercolor techniques on here. I'm finding I enjoy smooth paper a bit more for watercolors and I think having a sketchbook of this paper is really exciting.

I usually work in pencil and with ink, so I also did some drawings to test out different inking tools on the Zeta. Its smooth surface means ink pens like Sakura Microns and Faber Castell Pitt Pens glide across it beautifully. I wanted to test how a brush works on it in the field so I inked the drawing above with my Pentel Pocket Brush. Even though brushes aren't technically at their best on smooth paper, the brush pen gives a nice crisp line and it was very easy to use. I inked the 2 figures with a combination of brush pen and a single micron, and the line quality is amazing. I can't wait to test out my Raphael brush for some real brush inking. I'll post those when they're finished.


The Zeta has worked beautifully in the few ways that I've tested it the passed few days. I look forward to getting my own book and having even more art opportunities available to me when I'm out and feel like drawing.