Liza - runner up version

This one didn't make the final cut but I like it.

Liza

This is Liza. She's my cousin and she lives in Houston.

11"x15" watercolor and pencil.

Sean

This is Sean. We used to run, swim and ride bikes together about 10 years ago. We teamed up several times with another friend to do adventure races and completed an Iron-man together in 2004. He lives in Portland now.

19"x7" watercolor, acrylic and Artrage. #107

Judith

This is Judith. She is an artist friend. 

12"x16" watercolor, ink and pencil. #106

Rich

This is Rich. We went to high school together. He recently celebrated a birthday. Happy birthday Rich!

8"x10" watercolor and pencil. #105

Annie

This is Annie. Dreamboat Annie - little ship of dreams...

I don't know why my mind works the way it does. I could not get this damn song out of my mind while I was drawing her so I just decided to write it around her. That's why it's there.

8"x10" watercolor, ink and pencil. #104

101

James

This is James. He is an urban sketching friend and he lives in London. He contacted me a couple of years ago to let me know he was writing a book on urban sketching and would like to include a few of my sketches in it. 
The book was published in December last year. It’s called “Sketch Your World”.

I sketched his portrait in my Handbook Grand Portrait sketchbook and then scanned it into my computer. Then I added the background digitally using one of James's sketches which I lifted from his blog. A sort of one-sided collaborative portrait.

8”x10” watercolor and pencil with a little Artrage.

Tom

This is Tom. This drawing makes him look harder than I think he actually is. I tried to soften him up but graphite stick is not only difficult to draw with but also hard to erase once it gets pushed in. So I went with it...

Anyway, Tom lives down in Owls Head and is an amazing woodworker.

18"x24" graphite and watercolor. #102

Jana

This is Jana. I first met her at Peopleplace, a cooperative preschool in our community. My first wife and I were attending the first parents meeting of the year and Jana was easily the most vocal parent there, making all sorts of suggestions for organic foods on the snack menu and ideas for making the playground safer. She was laugh out loud hilarious (still is). I remember turning to my wife, who was a whole foods chef, and telling her that we had to get to know her. We all became fast friends and spent many amazing times together with our children.

Over the past 15 years we have gone into and out of business with each other, seen each other through divorces and watched our babies grow into teenagers. These days we meet about once a month for breakfast to catch up on each others lives. She is a true blue friend.

8"x10" watercolor in my grand portrait sketchbook. #101

Eileen

This is Eileen. She lives in Rockport and has been a friend for many years. She is portrait #100 in The Portrait Project. A huge milestone. 

So yesterday I took a workshop at Waterfall Arts in Belfast with Mark Kelly on drawing with fire. Yes, you read that correctly. We experimented with matches, candles, gunpowder, and finally fireworks. We all had a blast - literally.

Anyway, I had this very loose watercolor portrait I had made of Eileen and so I decided to experiment with her and the gunpowder we were learning to draw with. Here I am in the process of deepening the value of her eyebrow. Crazy, right?

On the way home I stopped in at the Outdoor Sportsman in Northport and bought a couple of pounds of gunpowder for some future portraits I have in mind - can't wait.

8"x10" watercolor and gunpowder in my grand portrait sketchbook.

Daniel

This is Daniel. He is an urban sketching friend and he lives in Costa Rica.

8"x10" watercolor and pencil in my Grand Portrait Sketchbook. #99.

Wilda, Roz, and Mirt

This is Wilda, Roz, and Mirt. Wilda was my next door neighbor growing up in Houston. She was like a second mom to me. Roz is a painting friend. And Mirt is my sister-in-law. They don't all know each other. They just happened to come out of my friend jar in succession and I thought they went well together.

12"x20" watercolor and Nero lead. #96,97, and 98. A three-fer!