Watercolor sketch

Here is an example of a quick watercolor study, or sketch turned into a final painting.
I apologize for the pale images, my camera is seeing its last days.
This drawing was sketched very lightly with a hard lead pencil on Arches hot press watercolor paper.


I do a watercolor wash around the characters using french ultramarine and quinacridone pink and get some lovely transparent effects, no?


A few strokes of browns and golds achieved by mixing a bit of quinacridone gold.


The concept was "Vans Birthday Card"...Van is my talented sweet and sour cubical mate who deserves nothing less than a sweet ass bee to fly him to his next ninja mission.

Final painting mounted on another folded sheet of paper (adopted from Van and his brilliant birthday card presentation)

Ketyl block process

Bugs, glorious bugs. Insects inspired me to start these paintings using metal leaf.
I start with a sketch of the desired bug, and transfer the image with graphite to an ampersand block coated with absorbent ground. Then I do a quick under painting in watercolor.


I paint the colorful details of the bug in watercolor, then coat the area around the color with gold leaf size. I lay down the metal leaf and gently tap the coated areas with a stiff brush to press the leaf into the adhesive.


I use the same brush to remove the leaf, making gentle circular strokes the blow away the leaf and reveal the painting underneath.


The fun part. I ink around the painting using shellac-based inks (which have a great honey-like glow over the metal leaf) and define the shapes and patterns.


The wooden part of the board (cradles the panel) is stained with watercolor and the whole block is coated to protect the watercolor and leaf from exposure. I use use a mineral spirit-based spray varnish. View all available blocks here.

Amigurumi week

Sloth


Red Panda: cutest animal on earth. And here is the panda again, I cant help myself.




Owl in an arctic fox costume

Amigurumi week

New albino eyes: First thought Moby Dick




A visiting friend inspired me to make the Buffalo

Huuuge Moth

Pixadus, the holy grail of stock photos:
Check out the "insect photos" folder on this site, there you shall find a glorious collection of macro photos. It was hard to pick my favorite, but I settled for the enormous fuzzy, rust-colored moth. I could see a mouse riding this thing.



I want this fuzzy thing so bad!

Monster Art

I am a bit late on this posting, but I must document this show! I had so much fun at this opening in Ballard August '09 and want to thank everyone who came. The show was the most successful since the Habitude opening last year and I owe a big thanks to Holly for featuring my work at her awesome shop.


Holly has a sweet trapese set up in the shop and the aerialists flock to the cirque setting


I am always happy to see new faces at these events so don't be shy to come see me at my next opening.

Secret Life of Plants

I just uploaded my first videos on youtube for Secret Life of Plants
(I'm stoked for this picture because Avery posed so nicely :)

New obsession: amigurmis

This was bound to happen eventually, but I have converted painting cute furry things on paper to crocheting cute fuzzies in 3D.

Straight at ya, in no particular order...

continued...

Seattle Collage

My house. Just kidding, I WISH it was.


Some favorite relics, on display, collecting dust.





My back porch feels like a tree house, especially in the summer.

Mineral Lake

Colorado Collage

Portals

Inside the saxaphone repair shop


These barb bqs are the best. The best.


Scribbles. Mr. Scribbles, that is.

New, and sorta new

Pugliacci had his debut last November, and is now resting on the molding in my living room with other paintings from past shows. He is very pathetic, isn't he?


"Spell", a new mixed media tryptic is currently up at Halogen through June, (they share the same wall with the Roq LaRue, no big deal):)


Paint paint fur, all day long, paint paint fur while I sing this song...

A few things I have been occupying myself with...

The knitting has slowed down a bit now that it is warm outside, but I am pretty consistent with the making of the hats and the limb-warmers in the winter.


Lewis at Gasworks, he is one of my favorite subjects when I pretend to be a photographer.


Poor squirrel, he was a fresh one. He looked like he was sleeping.

Seattle's Hidden Gem

The Arboretum is my favorite wandering spot in the city. There are thousands of species of plants here, from all over the world. Spring time is euphoric.

Tunnel on the path.


Japanese Garden.


Cherry blossoms.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Formally known as the "Denver Natural History Museum."
This South Denver museum was a field trip destination in elementary school, and I haven't visited for over a decade. I remember my 4th grade class had a sleepover night at the museum and we laid out our sleeping bags in these rooms with the dioramas. It was the BEST field trip EVER. Except for that annoying kid coughing and keeping everyone up all night.

I wish there was a display like this in Seattle, I can view the animals from all angles and could spend days here!


.dork.

Grandpa's Basement

Oh, boy did I encounter the find of a lifetime on my last visit home to Colorado! My grandma guided me through a few things in her basement, a wind up clock, old letters and a box of mixed letterpress type belonging to my grandpa, Kermitt Patton. I averted my eyes to a corner of the basement and pointed at an old cabinet with many drawers..."What is that....?"
To my astonished delight I opened a drawer to find it packed with wooden type. Nineteen of them are still waiting for me in Colorado, but I had my mom mail one drawer to me so I could print with it right away. There is no complete font, and they are all lacking many vowels, such as the much used "E", but I still wish to make a collage of letters to spell words.

Capitol Hill Watercolor Society

Some friends and I got together to paint and watch/listen to movies at Suzy's house. She has the perfect place to gather and they are such good company. I hope to remember to bring my good camera friend along next time, I'd like to have a document of other artwork at the "secret and highly classified meetings."
I painted up this girl with a portrait in mind, alas it came out totally different than I was intending. I accidentally gave her my little pony eyes! Yeesh. I hope I combated it by adding brighter colors to unify things.

Spring is coming

My pale skin needs a little vitamin D!