The Offering

I completed this drawing today. I love the feeling of longing and isolation. After finishing, I coated it with clear gesso to protect the linework from the numerous layers of paint.

The Offering will be part of a small exhibit of new pieces at Galiara, a gallery in San Francisco, sometime next year.

Sketchbooks

It's been a while since my last post, so here are a few choice pages from my sketchbook. Most are pen and ink (SKB 1000) but markers and watercolor pencils are beginning to stake a claim. Enjoy.

Also, here's a peek at my "idea book" and a few thumbnails.

New Illustrations

Two of my illustrations hit newsstands this month; both portraits: Dorothea Dix for Cobblestone, and Virginia Hamilton for Ohio Magazine.

Cobblestone wanted Dorothea Dix shown directing a crowded hospital ward. With the complicated composition and large number of figures, I decided to combine a traditional drawing with digital paint and color for more flexible editing.

Ohio Magazine wanted an image honoring Virginia Hamilton’s legacy as a pivotal figure in children’s literature. After sending several sketches, the art director and I fell in love with the concept of a field filled with book-like flowers. With the simpler composition, I created the illustration using traditional media, my preferred method.

I’m so proud of both these pieces; many thanks to my art directors, Debra Porter at Cobblestone and Lesley Blake at Ohio Magazine, for giving me the chance to create them.

Oprah Selected as Staff Pick in Breakthrough Competition

My illustration Oprah in Saudi Arabia has been selected as one of twenty staff picks in the Richard Solomon Breakthrough Competition. It can be seen here.

Be sure to also check out the grand prize winner and four finalists.

Congrats to all the artists.

New Work and Piranha Shop Parlor Show Details

He Worried His Friends Only Liked Him for His Golden Scales, 2011
Mixed Media with Gold Leaf on Board, 6"x10"

Here's my latest piece, for a show at the Piranha Shop Parlor running from Friday Sept. 23 through Saturday October 8 (1022 S. 1st Ave, in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood).

The curators asked artists to include at least one work featuring a piranha. Most people see a fearsome fish; I see a misunderstood, bejeweled creature. Piranhas appear to have gold glitter integrated among their scales, finally giving me a chance to play with gold leaf.

The floor of my studio is a lot shinier now.

Don’t Mind People Grinning in Your Face (Portrait of Jack White)

I started working on this piece for an assignment for my second Tutormill class, Realistic Portraits with Tim O’Brien and Nathan Fox. The illustration had to fit Rolling Stone’s format as a possible cover. The heart and soul of a lot of White's music comes out of the Mississippi Delta Blues tradition so I decided to show Jack as a Blues musician from the ‘30s.
The finished piece is gouache, graphite, ink and acrylic. I’m considering adding textures, grease spots and cracks digitally to create the illusion of an old photograph, but I’m still on the fence. Any feedback on this (or any aspect of the illustration) would be awesome.
In case you’re wondering, the title comes from the name of Jack White’s favorite song, a blues anthem written by Son House in the ‘30s. I think it suits the starkness of the portrait and Jack White’s independent attitude toward life.

SILA 49

Great news; My illustration of Oprah’s influence on Middle Eastern woman has been accepted into the Society of Illustrator’s West annual show. The original is currently hanging at the exhibition at Gallery Nucleus until January 31st.