Second Drawing on Canvas Complete

I've realized that an excellent routine is emerging - I spend a couple nights a week drawing publicly in the neighborhood. In that time I strive to complete as much ink work as possible so that in the other couple of 'art days' per week I can take those pieces to my studio and paint over top of them.

Currently, I am creating a series of new crow pieces on canvas. I have now built up a good number of ink drawings, ready to be painted on.

This piece was drawn last night at a local coffee shop. I did the drawing component in two hours, during which time I received a good amount of feedback from passerby!

Expect to see the finished, painted work popping up on the blog/gallery site in the near future.

Drawing on Crow Canvas Complete

Last night I continued work on this new crow piece. I shredded another pen making it, but the drawing component is now done and I'm stoked to start painting over top now :)

Hockey Stick

I have completed a basic render on the hockey stick piece, #3 in the series. The three pieces are now about the same level of completion, around 50%. I spend the first half of a piece preparing the warm/cool contrasts, and setting up tonal structure and overall balance. Now it is time to take all three and fine tune/detail them all.

New Piece in the Work

Last night I spent a bit of time preparing some imagery and a larger canvas (2' x 3') in order to make a cool new piece with some room to play. I plan to treat this the same as my recent pieces, with a lot of intricate line work, then some loose paint applications. For this piece though I am particularly excited as I can really play around with larger washes, drips and other cool visual components. 

I'm going to spend some time on this over the next week or so and continue to post the progress! 

Some New Crows

I've done the underdrawing for a few more crow pieces. I will be painting on top of these in the near future. The paper is not yellow, that's the White Balance from the wonderful iPhone camera :)

Progress on Hockey Equipment Commission

I am currently working on a commission of three pieces of hockey equipment. I have completed the glove and skate to about 50%. I feel the warm and cool contrast is harmonizing these together in a nice way. Tonight I will be getting the third piece (the hockey stick) to this same level of completion.

I Sold My First Gallery Piece

I'm happy today because I just found out that my first painting in my first representing gallery (Power House Gallery and Studio in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) was sold! That's good news, because earlier today I lost my bus pass which kinda bummed me out :)

This is the one that sold, titled "Claw" :

New Crow Piece

I've started focusing on a series of crows now, based on the great response to the last one! I was away for the past few days for an extended vacation/weekend, so all I got to do so far was the underdrawing of a new one, which I will complete this week (hopefully with at least a couple others as well!)

I was working on this on the ferry back from Victoria to Vancouver, and the image quality from my iPhone is horrible, so stay tuned for the actual finished piece, with high-quality documentation, coming soon!

Murder!!

Of crows. I'm hilarious.

I made this mixed media drawing yesterday and today. It is the second in [an assumingly] ongoing series of crows. I'm really happy with the last one, and this one, and am starting to envision a large grouping of, say, 20 or more of these. What I really like about that idea is that it will show two things. First, crows are often in groups doing their crow-thing. So the breadth of their gang will be represented. Secondly, I've noticed some very cool, interesting positions and characteristics of crows, which I would also like to capture to show variety of personality.

Enjoy!

Images From the Square Foot Show

I recently displayed several pieces in the annual Square Foot Show at AWOL Gallery in Toronto. The show is a large event, and it has tons of work on display as well as tons of people come out to see it!

Since I wasn't able to make it to Toronto for the show itself, I scoured Google today looking for any shots from the show. Below are a couple, including one where the top half of one of my pieces is in view! (The image at the very bottom is the same as the second shot except i blacked out a bunch of the image so that you can see my avocado painting! (view my gallery site to see the high res version of that piece!)

Upcoming Show I Will Be Going To and Swooning Over

I live near South Granville Street, which is the main commercial gallery drag in Vancouver. I frequent shows there a lot, and have mixed opinion about the work I see.

I am currently developing my artistic language in the fields of painting, drawing, and the combination of those two. I've recently undertaken some new personal study and understanding of colour theory (something that I now realize I was a bit too ignorant of before) and I am really excited about two artists that will be showing at Granville Fine Art, with the opening reception happening on Sept. 22 from 6-9pm.

Suzanne Northcott's work (the first image below) particularly catches my eye, but so does Joe Coffey, who is exhibiting with her.

The wonderful use of balance between warm and cool in an orange-blue colour scheme of the nest painting is great. Very inspiring. It particularly motivates me as I notice that the materials used for Suzanne's work are "ink and acrylic"...lately I have been combining ink work with paint and this is a great final result she has produced!

Crustaceans, Ink Drawings and Mechanics

This weekend I focused on the underdrawings for several upcoming pieces. Similar to some recent work, I am combining very detailed ink line work with broad strokes of acrylic paint to create a nice dynamic and contrast of mark making.

I have been noticing that in previous pieces in this style that my pens are wearing down too fast for comfort, and as such I feel that a different order of steps is required. Therefore, these pieces feel as though they are completed drawings BEFORE I apply the paint. I'm waiting to do the paint strokes onto many at a time to create consistency.

Below are the four pieces I did this weekend (minus paint):

Small Update on Hockey Paintings

I have painted the underpainting of the third canvas in the set - the stick. Now I'm able to start working on the top layers.