Lighthouse - sketchbook

Here's another page from my sketchbook, featuring the Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard. Drawn with pen in my moleskine sketchbook.

To see more of my Martha's Vineyard drawings and paintings, just click here.

Sketchbook Pages

This morning I scanned a couple of recent pages out of my sketchbook. I had to keep myself busy while monitoring student exams last week.

Ceramic Apple

I made this ceramic apple to use for a glaze demonstration with my 8th grade students. The apple is true to size, and I wanted to use it to experiment with layering subtle different colors of glaze to make it mimic the variety of colors that you can see in a real apple skin. I was really happy with how the colors turned out in this experiment.

You can also see part of my classroom desk in the photo below.

New watercolor painting in progress

I started a new watercolor painting yesterday, based on a photo I took in West Tisbury when I was on Martha's Vineyard last summer. I'm trying using Strathmore 500 series cold press illustration board, which I don't have much experience with. It reacts differently than normal watercolor paper, so I'm having to slightly re-adjust my painting strategy.

Zooey - a watercolor portrait

I've been practicing some more with watercolor and it led to this portrait of Zooey Deschanel. Over the past couple of years I've become a fan of her music, fashion sense, and acting. I was trying to treat this kind of like an illustration that you would see in a magazine and had fun incorporating the pattern into the painting.

You can see some photos of the painting in progress right here.

The final painting measures 9" x 12" and was completed on May 19, 2011.

Prints are now available through my print shop!

New watercolor in progress

I've been working on a new watercolor painting today, a portrait of Zooey Deschanel. I'm taking a break for the rest of the night while I decide on what I'm going to do for the background. While I mull it over, I thought it might be fun to post some progress photos here on my blog. The photo above is what the painting looks like at the moment on the art desk, and below you can some photos that I snapped quick while I was working on it.

Florence - a watercolor portrait

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to try doing a watercolor painting based solely on warm and cool colors, which is how this whole thing got started. I chose to do a portrait of Florence Welch from the band Florence + The Machine because I thought her bright hair would lend itself quite well to the color scheme restraints. This turned out to be a lot of fun and I want to try doing more watercolor portraits in this manner. It's a good exercise, if anything.

The final painting measures 12" x 12 and was completed on April 17, 2011.

Prints are now available through my print shop!

Along The River - Paris watercolor

Another Paris watercolor for my sketchbook, measuring 8" x 5 1/4". The Seine was extremely high while we were there, so many of the walking paths under the bridges along the river were flooded over. This was the view along the Seine facing towards Notre Dame.