Recent drawing on location favorites

This past Friday in class we had the amazingly talented Afro Jersey come in to play music and for our drawing pleasure (If you are at all into having your spirits lifted, you should check them out. Their music is extremely positive and these guys have the heartiest laughs I've ever heard). Since they were in pretty much the same "pose" all afternoon I started doing some blind contours to make things interesting and they ended up being my favorite drawings from the whole day...

I added the lettering after I got home and I could live with or without it but nonetheless it needed something in that spot, it was screaming for their name. I also started playing with some of my other outlines and ended up making this...

...which is obviously destined to be turned into a flashing neon sign. But really, they all had such great features which is why I started sketching their silhouettes in the first place...the whole project was just super fun to do!

And last but certainly not least, I wanted to post this little gem of a drawing that I did at the Metropolitan Opera House backstage tour. This was our adorable guide, Brett, who we all had more drawings of than the MET itself. Maybe it was his bright red plaid jacket that was so perfect (sadly I didn't capture it in this sketch) or maybe it was his never ending knowledge and passion for all things opera, but either way he really was the ultimate tour guide and subject to draw. 

Factories and the arctic, not in the arctic.

I'm pleased to announce that two of my thesis paintings that I've been hoarding away are finally finished! I started the first one, "Feeling small in this mechanical world," over winter break so it's about time I get it on here. And you may recognize the icebergs from my existing portfolio - I did a similar but more traditional painting on canvas in 2010 but have recently gotten such good feedback on it that I decided to incorporate the design into my thesis work as well. Enjoy these two and look out for the four that I'll be posting in the near future.. possibly tomorrow!

Feeling small in this mechanical world

Sinking into the depths below me...

Finally Finding...

As I promised months ago, an explanation of my new and improved thesis is finally here. I kept putting it off, trying to complete as much work as possible before I revealed it to the online world but I realized that's a ridiculous idea. I'm going to start from the beginning, with posting the first piece that turned everything around. The project still consists of six word memoirs paired with illustrations, the difference is the overall theme and layout of the final book. Each spread is now a full page (20 inch long by 8 inch tall paintings that make an overall 10 x 8 inch book) as opposed to one page containing hand lettering and the opposite page made up of a full bleed illustration. There is also a theme, which makes the largest difference. Instead of a handful of random images compiled into a book, each spread now illustrates a place - these places vary from realistic to completely imaginative and have a memoir hand lettered into the composition. The final piece I'm going to complete is a map that will be twice the size of each painting (20 x 16 inches) that folds out from the first pages of the book itself. An element from each full page spread will be worked into the map which will contain a key to make it easy to navigate the book and visit the places you'd like to see.

The first piece that I completed in this style was a fluke, I was trying something new that happened to work out really well and the rest is history. And now, for your viewing pleasure:

"Finally finding without ever having looked"

I have six additional pieces near completion at the moment but I will post them as soon as all my nit-picky fixes are made. Stay tuned!