Two more ‘Faces of Flickr’

Wow, I haven’t updated this blog in ages! Well, here’s two more in the ongoing Faces of Flickr series. These represent a slight departure from earlier portraits, in that I’ve reduced the importance of line in favor of a more naturalistic treatment of tone. I also played with color a bit in the reflections in the sunglasses of Nasir.

I’ve also set up a Google+ account and have been posting about art and music and other interesting things I stumble on. Here’s an invitation if you want to come check it out. I think it’s a vast improvement on existing social networks and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it so far (possibly why I’ve neglected the blog for so long...).

Congrats Ryan & Diana!

One of my oldest friends got married over the weekend. I made this portrait as a gift for him and his beautiful bride. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll like it.

Also, I recently did an interview for Julia Kay’s Portrait Party, a very cool flickr group I’m involved in. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Battle Scarred Rollergirl

I decided to do one more little portrait for the 6x6x2011 show. I did four portraits last year and they inspired the whole ‘Faces of Flickr’ series I have been doing ever since. I’ve had this amazing portrait set aside for a long time and finally got around to painting it.

This image is available as a print from Society6.

So, I matched my total of 5 pieces from last year. I had a few other ideas but I’m really happy with the ones I did finish. I’m trying to save the last two until the show opens in June.

Moly X Portraits

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the Moly X Portrait Group that I participate in, but with the exhibit at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts opening soon I thought it was time to mention it again.

Also, I've done quite a few entries in the past year and I just finished one that I’m particularly proud of. It is in Brazilian artist, Claudio Ramires’s book. Claudio is one of my favorite artists that I’ve discovered through the Moly X project. He did an amazing entry in my book that even included a Pop-up portion. Check out his awesome Youtube video to see it in action. After seeing that I knew I had to try and knock it out of the park once his book came around to me. I was inspired by elements found in his artwork, especially his blimp-whales. Check it out:

Also, check out our group's blog and/or my moly_x flickr set for more images.

Three Drawings in Progress

Very often I can't seem to complete one thing without moving on to something else. Eventually I'll come back around and finish it, but it's rare that I work on one drawing straight through. To illustrate this I present 3 drawings in various stages. The one on the left was begun ages ago (probably late June, early July) and I'm trying a mix of pencils with the usual ink and brush. The other two were both started in the last few days (the one on the right first actually). Hopefully I'll have all three finished by the end of the week.


UPDATE: I finished the one on the left last night (8/18/10) but I'm going to hold off posting it until it reaches it's new home. In the meantime, you can see all my portraits in this flickr set.

Acey & Maggie (for JKPP)

Thought I try using colored pencils for this latest portrait...and I realized why they never come out of the box. Here's the progression:


I should have left her face alone at this point, but I ended up overworking it a bit:


The dog came out great though!


Too lazy to put much effort into the background:


See Acey & Maggie bigger over on my flickrstream. And check out all the other wonderful portraits done for Julia Kay's Portrait Party here.

Julia Kay’s Portrait Party

At some point while I was doing the four portraits that appear in the 6x6x2010 show (still up at RoCo until July 11th and online here forever!) I became aware of the flickr group Julia Kay’s Portrait Party. Julia’s simple idea (artists making portraits of other artists) has exploded into an absolute phenomenon of creativity. After seeing the incredible variety of work on display I had to get involved. Since I started my first portrait of the extraordinarily prolific, N.C. Mallory, just two weeks ago I've already drawn seven new portraits. Similar to the Moly_X project I’m involved in I’ve found that joining this community of artists has broadened my horizons and helped rekindle my passion for art-making.

Here's a handful of the amazing portraits to be found in this great group:

Sue Hodnett by Wally Torta

Kara Jansson Kovacev by goat transforming into a cathedral

Herman Schildert by I.J. Bowden

Me by N.C. Mallory

And a couple by me:

Emily O’Marra

Giorgio Bordin

Artist Sue Hodnett said of the party,

“In an age where we sit and twitter, surf and blog, Julia Kay’s portrait party has connected an otherwise disparate group of artists and challenged us to look deeper than the screen of the computer and into the eyes of people we have never met or spoken to.”

Please check out this amazing group of artists all challenging each other to look deeper.

6x6x2010

The 6x6x2010 show opens this weekend at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. This year the show recieved 5,000 artworks by 2,000 artists from 22 countries and 43 US states! The online gallery is up now and online purchasing begins Monday, June 7th at 10 AM.


I contributed 5 pieces, the 4 portraits above (see them larger here) and an abstract comic which I talked about in a previous post. The portrait series I'm calling "Faces of Flickr" since all my reference photos were found on flickr.com, a great photo sharing site that I use to post all my artwork.

I liked this format and I've got a few blank squares left over, so I'll probably continue this series. Let me know if you have a portrait that you’d like to see rendered like these.

Moly_X

It's been a while since I've mentioned the amazing Moly_X otherwise known as the International Moleskine Exchange. Moly_X is an awesome project started by Marty Harris, wherein groups of artists exchange small Japanese folding sketchbooks adding entries into each one and passing it on to the next artist in line.


Recently, I recruited a few new artists to re-boot the Moly_X Portrait Group I'm in and we've been having a great time doing portraits of each other. I'm particularly pleased with the latest one I just completed:


This is the start of my own book for the exchange. It marks the first time I've tried to paint in one of these books and I'm really happy with the way it came out. I can't wait to see how the other artists continue this image. One of the most interesting things about these exchanges is how artists interact with each other on the page.

Standard American Encyclopedia (Vol. 2)

I've done another set of ACEOs from my Standard American Encyclopedia source material. This set I'm calling “Men of Historical Significance.”

Collect them all at my flickr page.

This new set has also been assembled into a full collage that will be exhibited as part of the “Small” show at the High Falls Gallery, opening May 24th.