The Red Umbrella

While I walking out to my car in the rain, I happened to notice this lady trying to find her car while talking on her cell phone. It struck me as an interesting concept for a painting. I don't know how far I'll actually take this but I did get it as far as an initial color concept in watercolor. This actually turned out much darker than I was anticipating but since I was just playing with a quick concept I tried to follow where the watercolor was taking me. So it became this almost nighttime walk home through a torrential downpour in the city. I'm pretty happy with the result because there are some pretty interesting things going on in the background that I like. The umbrella and the ground also turned out pretty nice.
This was started with a loose graphite sketch just placing the main elements using only the thumbnail [above] as reference. Next, I jumped right in with the initial watercolor washes, trying to establish a simple value structure and letting the colors mix and layer upon each other. Before the background was completely dry, I used the end of my brush and some paper towel to remove some of the pigment from the paper. This helped to establish some texture and color tonal variety to the background as well as set the initial tone for the rain. Once the image was dry I added some ink lines to the main figure to help bring her into the foreground, then I went over the entire piece with colored pencil to draw in the rain and rain drops on the ground. I had to also darken some of the area in the sky and right next to the figure to further increase the depth in the picture. A few more rain lines and quick color washes and I called it done.
I hope you enjoyed the process of completing this sketch.

Wet paper.

I've been messing around with watercolors a lot lately. I've been just trying to experiment with some new styles and get deeper with some different media than I normally use. So, watercolor is a great place to start. Watercolor has been a part of my repertoire of artistic weapons for about 6 years of so. I have done very little "serious" work with it but mainly use it for studies and quick sketches. Though, the pieces I have done with it I thought have turned out pretty good [click here to see one]. So, bring out the water, brushes, and sketchbook and see what happens.
For those that have never used watercolor don't be afraid of it. It's pretty quick and it can do some amazing things, from simple 3 wash images to near photo-realistic results (which takes lots of patience and a very well thought-out image). I'm far from photo real but that has never really been my intent with images. I am an impressionistic realist; which I guess means it should look like a real painting of something with light and color. The following paintings were executed rather quickly over the course of about 2 weeks and I don't know if anything will ever come of them, but they were pretty fun to do.
Thanks for following along. More to come soon.

Please click on the images for a larger version.
[Above] Untitled. Abstract watercolor design.
[Right] Lazy Eye. Character design/study.

En Plein Aire sketchwork

Hi there, finally got to get outside for a while. This was done late in the afternoon as a thunderstorm (really the outskirts/remnants of a tropical storm) was building up. Typical Florida weather behind and to the left of this the sky was clear blue and on the right of this view was a deep, dark, ominous sky. This is an image of one of the marinas near my home. In the background is the Green Bridge which I travel across on a semi-regular basis. I used my 0.4 Pentel Hi-Tec C pen and applied watercolor with a Niji Waterbrush right over the line work. My plan is to use and develop this method by doing more sketches like this in nearby areas. I just got a new sketchbook that I'm pumped about using. It's almost made for studies like these, a heavier weight paper and landscape format! Hooray! Still trying to figure out my essential travel supplies.


On the right, is a study I did a while ago that I found while going through an older sketchbook. This is a cathedral seen from the courtyard of the South Florida Museum. A really cool place, maybe I'll actually go through it one day!
Done with a ball point pen.

Thanks for looking and keep checking back for more.

So, here it is. Another week. I'm going to try (don't hold me to this) and post here about once a week. This way I won't try and let a month go by with a single post in it (yikes!). Hopefully, you've enjoyed what you've seen here so far and are eager to see more (you can let me know by leaving a comment and I'll do my best to respond).

This is a sketch done of the Manatee River. Lightly sketched in pencil and direct watercolor painting over that. Once dry it was scanned, copied, and finished with colored inks and colored pencil.

New Painting

I was walking around a while back and happened across this house that was kind of run down sitting in front of a pond. I liked the isolation of this lonely house and imagined how it might have been a long time ago, before the neighborhood grew up around it. Composition is not quite there yet but it's close. Colors may also be more subdued in the final.

Marina Jacks

"Seven Palms" - 11 x 8.5 - watercolor

"Together Forever" - 11 x 8.5 - gouache


A couple of quick studies I did at Marina Jacks in Sarasota a little while back.