I’ve been trying out some watercolor-pencils in the sketchbook lately which has been pretty satisfying; especially when augmented with some Old Holland watercolor paint. The sketch above is of my brother Steve lounging in Maine.

I recently had two paintings framed at the Pearl Paint Framing Shop on Lispenard Street in Manhattan. My girlfriend and I were very pleased with the experience. The manager, after politely showing us the frames we had selected, steered us towards several frame choices we had overlooked. His two favorites were the frames we eventually purchased. While not the most cheerful fellow, he was professional, polite, and most importantly, had a keen eye.
The painting above is one of my own and the subject of a previous post.
The piece below is an oil painting by Neil Plotkin, a good friend of mine and an excellent painter. I encourage you to view more of his work on his website: neilplotkin.com.

so, in prep for a class i am teaching in the fall, i was playing around with the gradient mesh tool today in illustrator… and as i promised, i was… i mean am… going to try and do illustration friday every week from now on. so here is my “killing 2 birds with one stone.” (which upon reflection really is a terrible expression!) this weeks topic was “Match.”

Sketches from the Red Cottage of mid-coastal Maine, an ensorcelled world of hidden beavers, lonely loons, vain turtles and buoys; all lurking in the shadows of the Ragged Mountain.

that’s alot of barb! i’m in the process of moving (my apartment and my studio)… so i havent been able to do much recently, but i was just perusing my files from the workshop i took in june and i definitely want to start using the techniques i learned. oy – where did the summer go???

This illustration for Tennis Magazine’s “The Complete Player” column continues the story of the author of this piece which I illustrated for them back in August of 2005. Recalling the tennis-filled days of his youth, the author describes how he ultimately lost a cherished friendship, thanks to his hubris and his gossiping about winning a friendly practice match. This of course, is totally based on Norman Rockwell’s classic “Gossips” Saturday Evening Post cover from 1948. Apologies to Mr. Rockwell!
I was reading a good Rockwell book while researching this illo, and I’m convinced that he would have embraced the advent of the computer and digital photography with open arms.

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