My boys love to paint, too. Our youngest, Owen, asked if he could paint earlier this week, so I took out some ACEO watercolor paper and the Koi pocket field sketch box, and he went to work. I added some black brush pen to it, and here’s what we created…
Owen Abstract – Watercolor & brush pen on ACEO
Pretty dagum cool, don’tcha think?
Next in the Sketchbook Project is @SwarezArt, a brilliant artist from the UK. He’s a very recent Twitter follower of mine (actually, a follow-back – thanks, man!), but I was so enamored by his work I just had to paint him.
His influences include Jackson Pollack, Joan Mitchell, and Trevor Bell, and you can definitely see those influences in his work. Swarez (sorry, I’ve looked everywhere, but can’t find a proper name) has a number of social links, so I’ll share them here as well:
Now, for the goods… I wanted so badly to do a drip painting that would manage to capture a bit of his style. However, once I started, I quickly realized that drip painting was much (MUCH) better suited for larger-scale work, unlike this small 5 x 7 sheet of sketchbook paper. Nevertheless, I was able to flick the paint instead, which gave it a drip(ish) feel. I was happy with the result, but you really should check out his work… much better!
Thanks, Swarez, for following!
My next Twitter follower to be permanently enshrined in the infamous Sketchbook Project sketchbook is Lena Levin, or @LenaLevin_paint as she’s known on Twitter. She’s a fantastic painter with some great influences… from her website:
Van Gogh remains, and will probably remain forever, the single most important painter in my life, with Rembrandt and a much less famous Russian painter, Pavel Filonov, quite close by.
When you see her work, you’ll definitely see those influences, but with a beautiful twist. A wonderful mix of bold color and confident brush strokes. And she’s a DOCTOR to boot! Amazing!
Another attempt at a mashup here. Her Twitter profile picture, and her color sense and brush work. Recreating her style is not easy, and you can see I didn’t even come close. But, as with all the portraits so far, I really enjoyed it. Thanks for following, Lena!
Lena Levin: acrylic in the Sketchbook Project sketchbook
I’m not sure how, exactly, I found out about it, on Twitter I’m sure, but I stumbled across the Twitter Art Exhibit. I knew I had to participate. It was started by David Sandum a couple years back, and has since exploded. (BTW, I did a painting of David for the Sketchbook Project a few posts ago) This year, after being approached by Nat George, an LA-based artist, about it, they’re hosting the exhibit in LA this coming January. I just think it’s the coolest thing. Check it out.
I struggled to come up with something to send. This first piece was a bit of whimsy that was fun to make, but when I put the sealant on it, it smeared! Ugh…
Ink & watercolor
Not happy with the smear, I set off to do something else. I swear, I stared at this empty sheet for the LONGEST time! Then I went to work. Sketched in the rough outlines, the ink the black with India Ink, and kept on with the color. Here ’tis…
India ink & watercolor
After it was all said and done, I figured I’d send them both after all. The first one, smudged and all, may end up helping, so off it goes. I hope they sell and do some good!
The next page in my Sketchbook Project is of Marriane Morris (on Twitter as @morris4of4). She’s a fairly new Twitter follower of mine, but her work really stood out, and I felt I just HAD to do something about it.
I couldn’t find any good photos of Marriane, but there are these eyes…
And then there’s this BEAUTIFUL painting from her website…
“The Colour of Simplicity”, by Marianne Morris
So, as with the Chaz Sargent painting, I mashed ’em up…
“Marianne Morris”, acrylic in the Sketchbook Project sketchbook
I love the color and feeling in Marianne’s work. You really should stop by and have a look around. Thanks, Marianne, for following me on Twitter!
The next page in my Sketchbook Project – Chaz Sargent.
Chaz has “…a private art company which specializes in international private sales of contemporary & modern art, high value jewellery, design, and culture.” (from the website). He can also be found on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, as well as a blog.
Since he’s embroiled in the art world, I figured he’d appreciate my idea of crossing his portrait with that of a Picasso painting of Marie-Therese Walter. So here’s the mashup…
The photo of Chaz
Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Therese Walter
The final product – a Picasso-ized Chaz Sargent
Chaz is a good sport! Thanks for following me on Twitter, Chaz!
This has been in one of my watercolor field books for a while, and I’ve never been quite sure how to finish it off. I recently bought a pack of Micron pens, and thought I’d put ’em to use with this messy blotch of watercolor. The result:
Watercolor and ink on 140lb paper, 7″x9″
Woo-wee!, that’s BUSY! Love the color, though.
I’m working on a sketch that turned into a watercolor piece in a sketchbook. There was this page in the sketchbook that I had forgotten about:
It’s my hand wrapped around the sketchbook. Abstract. Colorful, huh? I just love how free and fluid painting like this can be. And it’s just in some obscure sketchbook, so it doesn’t matter if it’s gallery quality. Nah!
I don’t know why I’m more prone to being creative while at work. Lunch is like throwing a switch. Shut the brain power down, and all kinds of fun, crazy, things come up. This one is kind of crazy, huh? I had to force myself to stop. Prone to over-working things, I am. It’s not supposed to be anything, just watercolor and ink. No plan, just kind of went the way the brush and color wanted to go. This, apparently, is what the universe wanted to do during lunch as me this afternoon.
Watercolor & ink on index card
I apparently have a thing for abstract faces (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). I wrote a post for my other blog, which has confusion as its theme quite often, and I thought I’d search the net for a picture of something that epitomizes confusion. There were lots of alright-looking pictures, but nothing was grabbing me, so I decided to do my own. The result doesn’t give off the feelings associated with confusion, except if you’re trying to figure out why the hell I would paint something so, heck, I don’t know… strange. Well, turns out thats just what comes out of me sometimes. I was in full doodle mode and threw some paint on it. What the hey, I’m not trying to sell anything, so this is what you get.
So, this isn’t “confusion”, but if you scroll over the picture it’ll say “confounded”. That’s the name I gave the jpg file after saving to the desktop. Couldn’t call it “confusion” ’cause it didn’t feel confused, so “confounded”… whatever. I guess I could’ve left it as DSC01005.jpg, but there wouldn’t have been any mystery to that, now would there?
Ink and watercolor on very cheap paper
Creations of Mike Ayers 