Justin's Wife & Son

The final result of my latest commission--a valentine for my printer's wife.

Mother & Son, 2016
typewritten ink on paper
8.25 x 10.25 inches
commission

This was such a sweet image to work from.  It was fun to obsess over the slowly undulating values in the face, the soft subtle smile on Justin's wife and his son's super cute hidden but obvious smile!

I'm looking forward to a slew of commissions that came about from my opening reception at Darling Press. Which, by the way, is still on view through the end of this month--swing by weekdays 10am-6pm and on Saturdays 11am-5pm. Stay tuned for upcoming commissions!

In Progress - Justin's Wife And Son

I'm having so much fun drawing these two.  I've said it before, the delicate features of children are so satisfying to capture--it's so easy to transform them into ghouls if you work them too much! This is such a sweet image to work from. This commission's due on Valentine's Day--I'm nearly finished.

Justin's Wife And Son, 2016, in progress, 8 x 10 inches

I would leave this negative space if it wasn't a commission--but at least it's something to consider for future pieces in my personal works. This one is on the minimal side, made using the following characters: # * %.  I might actually camouflage the few percentage symbols I've used to make it a strictly two-character drawing.  Why not? 

Commission: Drawings Of Beautiful Women

I'm so delighted that beautiful women keep asking me to draw them.  Now that these gifts have been given, it's alright for me to share them completely.

Emily, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 8 x 13 inches

I owe my sweet cosmic mom, former boss and friend, Cameryne for connecting me with Emily. Thanks to Cam, who purchased one of my drawings from my show in my hometown, Milwaukee, last June as well as commissioned another drawing for her friend's birthday, I now have two drawings that live in Glasgow.

Reeah, 2015
typewritten ink on paper, 8 x 8 inches

Hair is so much fun to draw with my typewriter.  I was overzealous on the first version of this drawing and attempted to make the portrait only 4 x 4 inches, but Reeah's delicate profile proved to be difficult to render on that small of a scale.  I started over halfway through,  which made the hair a much more challenging and interesting point of focus.

Thanks, lovely ladies.

Commission: The Tightrope Walker

At the end of 2015, I had the honor of making a typewriter-drawing for my very first collector in Portland.  In 2009, Michael bought an etching of mine from a group show at Backspace (RIP)--my first show in town--alongside Troy Briggs, Adam Stacey and Anthony Hix. That was probably one of the last prints I pulled from the MIAD print shop.  I covet and romanticize this space and can recreate the sensual-landscape of wonderfully toxic odors, each differing from the litho-, to the -intaglio to the -screen room. Let's gaze listlessly out of a window.

The Tightrope Walker, 2015
8 x 14 inches, typewritten ink on paper

The Tightrope Walker was a fun challenge--working smaller than ever before, figure-wise.  The tightrope walker herself is only 4.5 inches tall.  It was exciting and delightfully nerve-wracking to force myself to work in an impressionist way--each mark a gamble. I am grateful for having abandoned my purist tendencies with typewriter-drawing awhile back, and employed an eraser.  Everything is a drawing tool.

It was fabulous to make a piece for such an imaginative person--we had a long back-and-forth of planning for the feeling and look of the piece.  It was originally going to be a thoughtful gift for his wife, but Michael admitted when we exchanged that it became mainly for himself... Self-gifts are important.

There was another contrast between this piece and the work I make for myself.  I am a coward with words and have never considered incorporating text in my own work. I realize this may sound counterintuitive or wasteful (I'm using a typewriter all wrong!), but I really just enjoy using the typewriter as a straightforward drawing tool--using apostrophes and asterisks for fine lines and percentages and pounds for shading or to make velvet black, without incorporating subtext.  Plus, there are people like Leslie Nichols using the same tool to create incredible things utilizing text and meaning and order in such an overwhelmingly beautiful way.  Yes, a hero of mine. Michael had asked me to incorporate a quote from Ernest Becker's book The Denial Of Death, as a secret message, not necessarily detectable, "like a little hidden Easter egg for [himself]". What a lovely project. Thanks Michael!

Jill - Work In Progress

This is a commission I've just begun for my amazing cosmic-mom, Cameryne.  It's her dear friend, Jill, as a kid and will be a present for her for her birthday.

Kid's are so challenging to draw because it's so easy to make them look ghoulish! Perfect for October. I've got a ways to go, but I'm so excited about the upcoming details on the shirt and to dabble with the receding background.

The Spelunkers

Here are a few detail shots of my latest commission, a wedding gift. I love that they're wearing their headlamps!  I'm nearly done with the pure black background, made up solely of ampersands. I absolutely love how beat up the paper is--in the last snap you can see the molehill created between the various levels of pressure applied between opposing values.