Nick

This is Nick. You can see the first portrait of Nick that I did a couple of years ago here. You really have to see both of them to get a better sense of Nick's personality.

For this portrait, Nick came over to our house a few days before heading back to college after Christmas break. He sat across from me at our dining room table while I sketched and we talked.

Today I took a photo of my sketch and was trying to decide what else it needed before posting it and I thought back to the first time I really got to hang around Nick. I had just separated from my first wife and Alex (my son) and I had moved into a small cottage that happened to be right next door to Nick's family. Alex and Nick became fast friends and spent a lot of time hanging out together in and around that cottage. We only lived there a year or so and then moved to another house a few blocks away from the cottage. Anyway, I remembered a sketch I did about 10 years ago sitting at the dining table in that little cottage and sketching the view out of the window and I thought that would make a perfect background to Nick's portrait. It took me awhile to find the sketchbook it was in but I did and scanned it into the computer and put it "behind" Nick's portrait digitally. It's a little strange in a twilight zone kind of way but it carries a special meaning for me now, and maybe it will for Nick too.

12x16 Pencil, pen, ink, and watercolor in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Andrew - Part 1

This is Andrew. And this is why I LOVE this phase of Portrait Project. When I approach each friend for the portrait I'm about to do, I have been letting them know that I see these portraits as collaborations and invite their ideas in the making of their portrait. I was especially excited to see Andrew's name come out of the jar because is a creative artist, sculptor, and maker of interesting things so I was pretty sure he would have some ideas on the making of his portrait.

We met at his studio, which is in a large steel warehouse that has been partitioned into studios and workspaces where artists, sculptors, metalworkers, cabinetmakers, an architect, and a builder work separately on their own projects but also share a common bathroom, kitchen, meeting area, and woodshop tools. We talked about the portrait and Andrew came up with an idea of using a multi-plane canvas. I'm not really sure that's the right term but I'm also not entirely sure how this portrait is going to finally turn out. Andrew suggested I work out 2 portraits - one of half his face straight-on and the other at a 3/4 view - and then he would do the rest. "Sounds good to me", I said. Then he cut 2 panels, slapped some gesso on them and dried the panels with a heat gun. Then I got to work sketching and spraying and finger painting as fast as I could go because we both had other things to get to that day. This morning I threw a little more paint on and took some photos. Tomorrow, I'll drop them off at his shop and he'll finish them up. Can't wait to post the final piece!

Pencil, acrylic, and inks on 1/2" MDF.

To see the first portrait I did of Andrew for the Portrait Project 250 series, go here.

A Buddhist Story

Here is the final story and illustration. The story comes from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield.

Life Drawing

Drawing and painting this morning at Waterfall Arts. Portrait in acrylic and ink. 

Stephen

This is Stephen. He's a plywood artist and I absolutely love his work. He makes really cool stuff out of plywood - vessels, fine art, coffee cups, etc. A couple of years ago we worked on an inkwell design together and he built me a couple that I love and use practically every day. Anyway, we've been talking lately about him building a couple plywood panels to replace the two metal gas tank covers on my Ducati Scrambler motorcycle. So, a couple of weeks ago I rode out to talk about it with him and asked him if, while I was out there, I could do his portrait.

It was a perfect autumn day so we sat out on his back porch and caught up with each other's lives while I sketched. I brought my large Moleskine sketchbook (12"x16") which I knew would be ambitious for just an hour sketch. Well, the time flew by for me, as it so often does when I'm sketching/painting and before I knew it, my time was up. I didn't especially like the portrait I painted so I took a photo of Stephen with my phone with the plan that I would fix it back in the studio.

I have mixed feeling about this portrait now that I've "fixed" it in the studio. Part of me feels like I've "cheated" - it's sort of half live and half from a photo and therefore not true to my proclaimed effort of doing live portraits. But then the other part of me says I didn't have time to "complete" the portrait so it's fair that I use a camera to so that I can bring the portrait to a satisfactory conclusion. 

Tumblr Grrls

Sketching and painting today

Frances

Frances, but clearly not...

Alan

This is Alan. I first met him about 12 years ago when he called me looking for an architect/designer to help him renovate a building out in Montville, Maine that he was developing into an artists retreat. We worked on the design for a few weeks but he ultimately decided (wisely, I think) to put his energy and vision into creating Waterfall Arts, a contemporary community art center in Belfast, Maine that has been instrumental in helping to cultivate a thriving art scene in the Midcoast.

8.5"x14" watercolor and pencil with Artrage. #250

Curtis

This is Curtis. I met him on a bike trip to Southern Spain a couple of years ago. He lives in Georgia.

11x16 Magic pencils and watercolor in my huge Moleskine. #246

Nancy Kate

This is Nancy Kate. She's my Aunt from Texas- my mother's sister. It was her birthday yesterday - she's 80. For her birthday, her daughter asked the family to come up with 5 reasons we love her and then she's going to make a list of 80 reasons we love her. One for each year. So this morning I was writing them down (because it was my last chance) and I had the idea to do them within a portrait. Nancy Kate is not a Facebook friend because she could care less about Facebook or email or computers. She is definitely old school. But I decided that she should be a part of the Portrait Project - so here she is. And Happy Birthday!

11x15 pencil, ink and watercolor on Strathmore Illustration Board with a little Artrage to add Corinthians 13. #217

Santi

This is Santi. He's an urban sketching friend living in Barcelona, Spain.

This is another "collaborative portrait" where I drew Santi's portrait and then digitally mashed it up with one of Santi's sketches.

12x18 mixed media and epoxy with Artrage. #211

Gretchen

This is Gretchen. She is a self described "Bleeding heart liberal enviro-geek sailor girl". She can also sing really well. I met her through working with her husband, a carpenter and builder that I have worked with on a few renovation projects.

This portrait was originally done in my 8x10 Grand Portrait Sketchbook in an airplane traveling from Texas to Maine. Once I photographed it and had a digital image, I overlaid it onto the original handwritten sheet music of "Heroic Polonaise" in A-flat major, Op. 53 – by Chopin.

15x10 pencil and watercolor with Artrage. #208

Rosemary

This is Rosemary. We met in architecture school at Texas A&M and became good friends.

Doing this portrait was like searching back through the past for her. I kept getting things wrong and scrubbing them out, erasing, redrawing, painting again, splashing water on it. Finally, I put the floor plan over her and searched again with my pencils and brushes until there she was, smiling up at me, saying "here I am, old friend".

Rose lives in Montana. For a few months, about 20 years ago, we both lived there at the same time and I would pop over to see her and her husband fairly often. Since I moved away, we adopted a tradition of calling each other on our birthdays to check in and keep in touch. Just a reminder Rose, my birthday is coming up.

11x15 pencil, ink and watercolor on handmade watercolor paper. #197

Steve

This is Steve. He's also known as "The Plywood Guy from Maine". He puts blocks of high grade plywood together in ways that, when turned on a lathe, emerge as the most strange and beautiful vessels and shapes you have ever seen. When he's not turning plywood, he's carving landscapes into huge panels of it, or building Windsor chairs out of it. His latest creation is a Plywood remaking of a Honda Goldwing motorcycle. Yeah, he rides it too. He has an amazing, creative mind that's as layered and multifaceted as the creations he builds.

12x18 graphite and ink on plywood, of course. #196

Angela

This is Angela. She's a painter. For the past several years she has been doing a series of paintings on the Circus and particularly on The Flying Wallendas, a circus act of trapeze artists known for their daredevil stunts and performing without a net. I think she may be their "official" Painter. 

12x16 pencil, watercolor and some Artrage in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. #190

Eric

This is Eric. He's an architect. I met him about 10 or 12 years ago when he moved to town. I haven't seen him around for awhile and just checked his facebook page to see what's up and it looks like he moved away while I wasn't looking. He lives in California now. After this winter, I think I know why. So good luck in Cali Eric!

12x16 watercolor, acrylic, and pencil. #189

Scott

This is Scott. I met him in the Dominican Republic at an urban sketching symposium a few years ago. We stayed in the same hotel so we got to hang out quite a bit - along with Jessie, portrait #7 He wore a fedora the whole time. He has a cool vibe.

12x16 watercolor, pencil and Artrage. #186

Jen

This is Jen. She's my rock star sister. No, really! She is a singer and songwriter and lives in Nashville when she's not living in LA. She has made several albums and written music that has appeared in films and television and has won all sorts of awards for her music. Check her stuff out on itunes or listen to her Pandora station. She's an amazing and gifted singer and songwriter.

I kept coming back to this one and adding layers of paint and pencil. It started off very pretty (and Jen is all of that) but the layers kept adding/revealing different aspects of Jen so I persisted. At times I was pleased with where it was going. At times disappointed. In the end it connected with me with feeling and a deep love, respect and gratitude for an amazing sister. You can't ask much more from a portrait.

12x16 mixed media. #152