Process of a reductive and then additive approach using gouache with limited color palette. The lightening into the toned canvas in step 2 & 3 is actually gouache being removed with water to show the white of the paper.

A digital study from a reference photo - took about 40 min this morning. I tried a more clunky "oil" brush to stop me from zooming into the detail too much and I love it. Critique welcome. :)

Taking an unexpected break from athletes. Christian imagery, scenes and ideas for paintings have been flooding my mind and imagination. I think about and see them constantly in my mind. My current life circumstances is a big reason why this is happening, so I am running with it. Today's lessons: 1. Allow imagination and inspiration to flow, don't think or block with the ego. Just draw/sketch/paint 2. Fabric is hard! If you haven't studied it/thought about it in a while 😂😭 Anyone else working on or have done religious inspired pieces?

Just shipped this recent posthumous portrait commission of Denny. This was a tough one—working from a photo with bad lighting and resolution that was a little too low. The client also asked for some significant photoshopping, which always makes things much trickier. This was one was good for me in setting boundaries with myself—I always spend longer on portrait commissions than I should financially. I noticed some issues with the values right before shipping, and I let myself let them go. The client had already given an enthusiastic thumbs up, and it captured Denny's expression well enough and some of his personality. That's more important than having perfect values.

I want to share my experience with Steve Huston’s DFL Mentorship Program with you all and I figured this would be the perfect forum. I joined Steve’s program back in 2021, when we were all at home during the COVID pandemic. It was the “beta” version of his program and he had gathered a wonderful cohort of students, including Ellen and Gina who are part of this community (anyone else? let me know!). We had all levels of artists, including the amazing figurative artist, Patrick Jones. I was a new artist then, hardly able to draw a straight line and knowing very little about art, art history or what it meant to be an artist. I just knew that I had recently discovered a love for drawing, especially portraits. I’ve been thinking back to those days and all that I learned from Steve. Shortly, after finishing the program, I had a major move across the country. I kept up my daily drawing practice that I had developed in the program and as soon as I arrived in my new hometown, I found myself drawing cats at a cat café. I also began watercolor painting, something that Steve talked about and demonstrated in his program. He shared sketchbooks of his watercolors, and I was mesmerized by the beauty of his paintings. Long story short, visitors to the cat cafe saw my cat drawings and paintings and wanted portraits of their pets. It wasn’t long before this pastime became a thriving pet portrait business. So many of the lessons I learned in drawing human anatomy and portraiture from Steve, Chris, and Charles Hu, I applied to cats and dogs. Just like we analyze the structure and gesture of the human body, I do the same for cats and dogs. Similar to doing life drawing, I regularly do quick sketches of the cats at the cat café so that I can become more familiar with their personalities, features and anatomy. I’m told time and time again by customers that I’ve captured the likeness of their pet exactly. I could only do this because of the lessons I learned in Steve’s program. When I was considering taking Steve’s program, I thought I was only going to learn about drawing figures and portraits. I wasn’t sure where I would take these skills. Steve said that if we worked hard and applied ourselves, we’d be able to accomplish anything. We’d be world-class. He was right. Even though I didn’t plan to become a pet portrait artist, or a business owner, here I am doing just that, and loving what I do every day. This is just the beginning, I’m excited to think where my Art journey will take me.