63″ x 36″

Bombs concludes phase I of project35, and marks the beginning of phase II. This photo has long been a favorite of mine, and I’ve been holding off its production until I had the right board and the right frame of mind. As the final sketch, I thought the timing was right. And the final board (of the original cutting) fit well with the composition.

It is perhaps the smallest board of all, comparable to sketch 2: Bloomington Quarry. As you recall, sketch #2 is where I began my experiment with gel pens. I learned from that piece, as it is the only photo I chose to produce twice. I discovered the nature of things; how the wood held the ink, how the ink behaved on the gesso, how each composition created a new set of challenges. Over the course of this process, I’ve learned the difficulties involved with the medium, and using the sketches from phase I as “studies”, I’m excited to move forward.

Bombs Over B-town has brought me to a new beginning. Imagine the original twin bedboard, used to divide and saw into these ten peices, nearly 7 feet in length. Now imagine Bombs projected at that scale…

Aside from my usual bag of tricks, a new feature that I’m happy about in this piece is the way I handled the trees. I used a stained-glass approach to balance out the fade of dark to light (from left to right). The darkest point is the apex, where the dog’s tail meets with the distant woods, each headed in their opposed directions. As the woods reveal themselves towards the right side of the piece, they gradually become lighter in shade. Of course this two-dimensional approach to defining depth does not exist naturally in the wild, but optically it achieves my intentions of establishing depth and distance. Continue reading »

I actually finished this one prior to the completion of Sketch 7: Bay of Las Crucesitas, due to a much more pressing deadline: my wife Stacey’s birthday. Stacey thankfully loves my artwork, and I feel like whenever I create something for her, I push myself beyond a certain comfort zone. Continue reading »

I’ve learned from each piece, progressively, and Sketch #7 is no exception. Continue reading »

Bloomington Radio

As it usually goes after a very tedious piece (see sketch 5: Bloomfield Cows), I needed to blow off a little steam, and get reckless. That’s why I love this project: switching mediums… Continue reading »

+ enlarge

This was a labor of love. I haven’t measured it but i would guess the final dimensions are around 40” x 30″. In the process, I was awakened to the biggest advancements of project35 so far: embellishment, adaptation and abstraction. Meaning, the organic nature of this piece (grass, cows, sky, flowers etc.) almost commanded me to take my own stab at reality. Don’t draw exactly what you see– create the scene as it should come across given the materials you’re working with. Continue reading »

Alas!

After long last, I have completed another piece. 2 vacations and much travel slowed me up, so I apologize to my loyal readers. This one is my favorite so far. Continue reading »

Readers:

I am going on vacation for a week. I have however started on another piece, as evidenced by the sneak peak video below. I plan to document the real-time progress of this one when I return, and edit down an attempt at this project’s first experiential video. Ultimately this will have music, and I will add a few touches of editing magic, but overall it will remain quite simple. And, true to the process.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.