Today I went for the 1st time to the Kirkland Arts Center's Open Life Drawing. Wow had such a great time the Model was awesome great poses and the energy was amazing. These are a few of my works done in this session. Its been since 1997 since I was able to go to one of these, since my days at Cornish. I hope to have more time to attend again. I miss it already, I could of stayed for 3 more hours! Enjoy~

Watercolor Sticks FREE Demo this Saturday 2.4.2012 at Daniel Smith Seattle at 11am and 1:45pm

Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks add a new dimension to your paintings. The Sticks are great for those sketchies, and Plein Aire artist that want to carry light on there travels. Thats not to say their not used in your studio work, they are a very versatile medium. Since the sticks are chock full of pigment you can use them opaque, right off the stick or use water to use them like traditional watercolors. Don't like to see pencil lines in your work? Use them to draw directly on the paper and use a wet brush to mix and add beautiful washes. In this demo Che will show you the 3 main techniques to use with the sticks, but that by no means are these the only ways to use the sticks. Use your imagination and find your unique way to create beautiful and colorful works of art.

Smoke'n Joe Frazier

I have received so many positive responses from this painting. This is by far my favorite, I really learned a lot from painting this piece. I took these pictures as I painted, Im glad I remembered to document my process. I used Watercolor Sticks, I love how much pigment I can get with my brush. I start with my drawing, then drew in the shadows with Hansa Yellow Medium, from there I grab my brush and paint in the areas with clean water. I then use a little of Quinacridone Coral to add warmth to the shadows. And I slowly build up from there. I end up using Imperial Purple to finish up the darks. I ended up using DS watercolor ground to highlight and add back the whites I might of lost. Enjoy~

Finished piece "Smoke'n Joe Frazier" 15 x 22 Watercolor on Paper

Dia de Milagros Project

Since Milagros was born I've been trying to document her growth with sketches and paintings. It has been hard with the limited time I have while Im with her, but I found a cool way to document her month by month. Im going to paint a 6"x6" panel of her for every month till she is 2 years old then going to frame it for her. Im not just painting them, Im going to try to use different mediums to make each one. So here are the first 4 months so far, Month 1 Watercolor on paper, 2 Ink and Watercolor, 3 Pencil on paper and 4 Color Pencil.
enjoy~

Redux Artist Challenge "el Santo" Sketch

Every year the Kirkland Arts Center holds an Artshow and Artist Challenge to raise money. KAC is an awesome local arts center for all ages and am proud to be part of this organization for the last 3 years! This years artist challenge is "Popart" and the winner gets $1000 and all pieces are donated for the auction that they have in September. So its a win win for me I get my art out there and I get to paint!
So this is the initial sketch on canvas with my marker comp to work out the composition and colors. Enjoy~

Journey Continues...

With the addition of my new Pilot Brush Pen i've really been on a roll. It really feels good to put color on paper. I hope to keep it up and not slack off, I have a competition Im entering in October and I need to get working on the piece. I'll post some pictures of my progress.
But for now here is another on of my brush exercise, this is from a photo of Venice in 2007, I took a plethora of photos. This took me 20 mins or so from pen to paint. Im trying not to over work my sketches and just lay down color as I feel it. Enjoy~

Urban Sketches - Lisbon

I came across this great group on the net called "Urban Sketchers" There are groups all over the world that go and sketch around their town or cities. These are some pictures I drew from in Lisbon, I hope to catch up with the Seattle chapter. Check them out @ http://www.urbansketchers.org/