Darth Paul

I'd like to note that the above image does not reflect any personal or negative feelings I have towards my Grandfather. I'm just a big fan of puns.

Scrunched Face

I didn't have any specific stylistic intent for this drawing of my grandmother, but I am very happy with the results. 

This is what happens when I sit down and draw something quickly and intuitively. 

Jellyfish Tattoo

In keeping with the conversation started last week on style here are two stylistically different versions of the same drawing.

Which do you think is more effective?

Stylin'

I've been experimenting with different styles these days, which also means revisiting some old styles. One common misconception about art is that every artist has one distinct voice, but the truth is that art is never a stagnant thing. It's always moving around and changing. A single piece of art has the possibility of going in a hundred different directions and who knows if the final product is the best incarnation of that idea? I'm constantly struggling with which direction to go in in my art, which probably accounts for the erratic nature of some of the pieces you see on this blog. Sometimes you just want to do it all!

Above is a drawing of a friend of mine from a photo I took over four years ago. If you're curious, here are some drawings I was thinking about when I did this one.

Drawing #1

Drawing #2

Root Beer Dog Redux

 Hey Everybody! Well, October is over and with it goes all the dreams of more pumpkin carvings. With that my jack-o-lanterns slowly rotting away in the compost, breaking down into nutrients for next year's garden, it's time to quite literally get back to the ol' drawing board.

Months ago my wonderfully creative fiancé left me this delightful drawing in my art studio of an exposed dog rootbeer genie/party animal.

I've always been a fan of visual conversations and thought it would be a fun exercise to reinterpret her line drawing into my more realistic style. Check out the results below!

This was a lot of fun to do, so expect to see more collaborations like this on here in the future. And be sure to check out her artist statement and blog HERE and HERE!

In other news the Advanced Style Coloring Book can now be purchased at New Seasons grocery store on NE Killingsworth and 33rd here in Portland, OR. For those of you outside of Portland have no fear! The coloring book is also newly available for sale at Urban Outfitters! It's only on their website at the moment, but if it sells well there maybe they'll start stocking it in their stores. If you could help us out in making that happen we'd be forever grateful. Thanks anonymous internet user!

Pumpkin the Third

Yeah that's right, I carved a third pumpkin this year. If you follow my blog you probably know that for the last four years I've carved "celebrity tribute" pumpkins; i.e. pumpkins in the likeness of a celebrity who has passed within the last year. The first was Michael Jackson back in 2009. Then came Dennis Hopper, followed by Macho Man Randy Savage. Then finally last year I payed tribute to one of my favorite illustrators, Maurice Sendak.

This year I decided to go with film critic Roger Ebert, known as the partner of Gene Siskel in their television show "At the Movies with Siskel and Ebert."

The day I carved this I learned that Marcia Wallace, the voice talent behind Edna Krabappel on the Simpsons passed away. Then the next day we lost Lou Reed. Both would have been fine candidates for my celebrity pumpkin tribute, but at that point I was pumpkined OUT. Perhaps next year.

What do you say? Would you give this Pumpkin a thumbs up or thumbs down?

An Eye for a Pumpkin

Happy Halloween everyone! Once I started carving pumpkins this year I kept coming up with ideas for more. Here's a giant eyeball pumpkin I carved with wire eyelashes. 

I wanted it to look correct when it was lit up so I carved it in the negative so that the thinnest parts would be the most lit up. 

And here it is keeping watch at my house!

Spooky Scary

Halloween is nearly upon us, which means that it's time for pumpkin carving. I had a lot of fun with my pumpkin sculpture of Slimer last year and wanted to do another one to work on my skills. This year I decided to do an original character with pretty decent results I think.

During the carving stage (Dana Carving stage, that is)

I decided he needed ears, of course, because I'm a glutton for unnecessary work

To make it more Halloweeny I decided that he probably had a lobotomy at some point and needed stitches

Spooky Scary

All lit up

The mustache was probably a bad idea too. Much more work than I anticipated

And finally its home on the steps

Happy Halloween!

Insect Buddies!

Sorry for the wait, friends!

Here are the final two pieces from my show. If you're familiar with my work you may recognize these guys from previous paintings, but this time there's a whole new spin on them. Enjoy!

The original drawing of this guy can be seen on my website (with his full story!)

                          That's a Sphinx Moth around his collar, it's what Mr. Marvelous will eventually turn into.                           I have have been wanting to update the original drawing of this guy for a while now and
 I'm pretty happy with the results.

The original drawing of this guy can be seen here in all his kaleidoscopic glory!

We've Been Bugged

Here are two more pieces from the Insect show. These two were an experiment in turning people into bugs. David Cronenberg's "The Fly" is one of my favorite creature movies and was definitely going through my mind when I was working on these, even though they don't even come close to being as grotesque. You might say I was going for something a little more subtle. 

Faceless Woman

Despite what some people think, that is not a Star Trek uniform.

Fly Guy

I probably had the most fun with him.

Insectopia

I really wanted to create new work for my show at Flutter (that I actually uninstalled yesterday) and I knew I wanted to continue exploring working with ink wash and wood, so it seemed like a natural medium to use for this show.

Lately I've found myself fascinated with insects and as such I've decided to incorporate them into my art. I've been thinking about how the world of insects exists almost as a parallel universe to our own, while at the same time inhabiting the same space. We are increasingly being made aware that we are more dependent on each other than ever thought before and I thought it would be interesting to try and bring those universes closer together visually and thematically. These pieces take a step into imagining a world where insects instead of mammals grew to be the dominant wildlife on Earth.

While I don't feel like these paintings address all of my ideas, I do think it's a good start and I look forward to investigating these ideas further. Here are two pieces from the show with more to come later this week.

Portrait of a woman with Rain Beetle hat and Millipede Boa

A boy and his Rhinoceros Beetle

Detail

All pieces are painted with an ink wash.

Book Release Party!

Well it's no lie that I've been busy lately. Or at least I WAS busy up until my art opening and book release party at Flutter on September 12th. After frantically preparing for that show I decided to take a week off from the studio to relax and recharge, but now I'm ready to delve back in it.

The book release party for the Advanced Style Coloring Book was a ton of fun. People came dressed in Advanced Style outfits and everyone indulged their crayon loving inner child and colored in some of the illustrations from the book. Here are a few pics from the event.

Marvel at the concentration!

Some didn't have to delve too far to discover their inner child

For others it was just under the surface

Our community coloring experiment yielded interesting results. Why so serious?

It was an exciting week indeed! In addition to the party I was interviewed by Marjorie Skinner for her weekly fashion column in The Portland Mercury. You can read the article online here.

Check back soon to see images from my all new, all different art show hanging at Flutter right NOW.

(Or go down there and see it in person. Up until the second week of October)

Birthday Portraits

Yesterday was my grandfather's 93rd birthday, so I figure that's a good enough excuse to break me out of my posting slump. Here's a recent watercolor sketch I did of him that I think turned out well.

This past weekend was the one year anniversary party for the art studio collective I belong to in N. Portland, Civilian Studios. It began with open studios and ended with bands playing/partying. Thanks to everyone who came out and said hello! I'm so used to my studio being a solitary place that it was definitely nice to be able to share it with other people and talk a little bit about my work.

I'm also quite excited that the Advanced Style Coloring Book will be coming out in just 2 short weeks! They'll be stocking it at local boutique Flutter on N. Mississippi St. and I'll be having an art show there to coincide with an opening on Thursday, September 12th. Mark your calendars and come on out. 

Grandfather Triptych

When trying to work out an idea I find that it's helpful to draw the same picture several times incorporating a different style each time. Each style reveals something unique about the subject. The above drawing was my first pass which is basically me being fairly faithful to the source picture. Below is an earlier version of the second drawing. 

 I decided to try out a warm monochromatic look for my second drawing. This was done in a quicker sketchier style than the first. I especially like how this one and the first look next to each other, but at the same time I don't really feel like anything new has been brought to the portrait. Below is the beginning stage of the third drawing.

I like the simplicity of this version, but I had to take it further. 

The third version realized. I really like how this one came out, it's probably my favorite of the three. I love the discovery process of art, how one project will lead you to an idea that probably would have never formed on its own. I feel like this is direction I'd like to explore more. 

Body Art

Have you ever really looked into the world of competitive body building? It's a very strange place and at the same time totally fascinating. I couldn't help but draw one of them. 

Face of Wood

Even though it's been over a year since my first attempt at wood carving, I'm still fascinated by the technique and am slowly practicing my skills. Here's another attempt at a face. One of these days I'll get a block of wood big enough to do a face in the round. 

Big Brown Eyes

Hey folks, here's something I did for fun while playing around with ink wash.