Burlesque!

A relatively new drawing, however, it's based on some life drawings I did a couple years ago at Dr. Sketchy's in San Francisco. The model was Flame Cynders, I wasn't really going for caricature here, but it's not a total unlikeness I suppose.

Kimono

I did this one a while back. Been meaning to post it.

Bananas For Process

I scanned this one in progress for your enjoyment.

First I "inked" the line art with acrylic.


Second I built up layers of acrylic wash. to create the forms and values. This is the underpainting.


Thirdly and finally, I lay down a transparent layer of concentrated watercolor.


The study is done simultaneous to test the colors.

Bananas From Heaven

Medium is my usual acrylic wash, concentrated watercolor combo.

SketchTraveling

A while back I made a post about SketchTravel to which I contributed a page. The published version is soon to be released and the actual book full of original art is soon to be auctioned.

Sketchtravel is a unique international charity project brainchild of my good friend Dice Tsutsumi and Gerald Guerlais. The idea is to benefit Room to Read, an international non-profit dedicated to increasing child literacy in developing countries. You can find all the wonderful details about the SketchTravel adventure and its final Art Auction coming on October 17th in Brussels at their brand new SketchTravel website. One of the important things SketchTravel has done is pull together a diverse and amazing community of artists from all around the world, even more importantly the project’s goal is to build one library ($20k) and sponsor one local children’s book publishing ($15k). I ask you kindly to support in anyway you can this wonderful project. There are different ways to give a hand:
1) Donate to Room to Read.
2) Visit and “like” SketchTravel’s Facebook page.
3) Re-share this information to spread the word.
Thank you for your support everyone!

Naree Pol Progression

I took photos of my Naree Pol piece in progress. I didn't photograph every single step but you can get a sense of how gradually I build the layers.
The black is ink, then most of the washes are acrylic up until the end, then there is some subtle concentrated water color. Finally some gouache for the highlights.

Throne of Blood

What's this? A post without a girl in it? Shocking!




Throne of Blood was the first Akira Kurosawa film I ever saw. I was in high school studying Macbeth in lit class and our teacher showed us this movie since it's considered to be one of (if not the) best film adaptation of the play. Admittedly it was pretty slow paced for my teenage self but the ending to that movie was burned into my brain forever. I've been a huge Kurosawa fan ever since.

Scott Morse asked me to contribute a piece to the Tr!ckster/Criterion Collection Akira Kurosawa one night only art auction benefit for Japan relief. At Tr!ckster in San Diego Friday, July 22, 2011.

Other contributing artist are:
Mike Allred, Scott C., Josh Cochran, Francesco Francavilla, Robert Goodin, Victor Kerlow, Ted Mathot, Scott Morse, Sho Murase, Yuko Shimizu, Jim Rugg, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Connor Willumsen.