Sights from the #1 and F trains.

wow – 5 minutes past midnight… that’s cutting it close! here is my illustration for “SAFE” – this (past) weeks illustration friday. i wanted to work in b/w, and for obvious reasons, i have new york on my mind this week. five years went by so quickly… i miss you nyc.

Spent some more time in the Lab this weekend beefing up my texture library. I painted with acrylic and gouache on acetate, gessoed illustration board, butcher paper and cardboard. The coolest results were painting right onto acetate with gouache. Always fun to get messy and experimental. I scanned these in at 600dpi @ 100%. Having a bunch of these files lying around has been invaluable to me as I strive to add more texture to my digitally painted illustrations. Nothing worse than a flat, paint-bucketed expanse.
One illustrator who has really mastered the art of balancing the real paint texture look with crisp digital illustration is Linzie Hunter of the UK. She also started the fabulous On My Desk blog, full of photographs of illustrators and designers’ workspaces. Check it out!

My most recent painting done out east: another image of rocks at lowtide on the Long Island Sound. The painting is 6×12 inches on panel and was completed over two afternoons, several weeks apart.

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.”