I’ve been enjoying this sweet, simple web comic, Screentone. The author shares a lot of their process of writing and drawing a comic.

It’s hard out there for a teddy bear

I've been experimenting with using my Epson printer as an artistic tool. Whenever I've tried just printing out a digital image onto quality paper the result has left me a bit flat. The results are good but something about the image seems to die in the process. Left as a string of pixels, digital images can be resized, recolored, remixed, and distributed endlessly. Digital images have are a metaphysical quandary. You can look at the screen of your device and recognize a photo. But you're not seeing the photo, you're seeing a copy at a different size. The matrix of numbers making up the pixel data is literally different from the "original" image housed on the cloud. But to us it's the "same" image. (If we're ever able to 3D print a person, philosophy of mind might have to become a required class in high school)

When a digital image (painting, photo, whatever) is straight printed out, some of that infinite potential is lost and the image becomes static. Also paper doesn't glow very much. Printing is a dull shadow of the digital image in most cases.

So what if we treat the printer like a paintbrush instead? I found an inexpensive roll of canvas designed for printers (not my printer, but some printers) and cut off sheets to the precise maximum size my printer will accept and started running off images. Then I run the same image back through the printer and print a second layer. Anything which is white is a "hole" in the image - the white of the page is intended to fill that role - and the ink itself is semi-transparent. Interesting layering effects occur as images are piled on top of one-another. 

Now it gets interesting. Accidents can and do happen. My images become paint and the printer is the paint brush. It's still a fast way to work but there's not instant gratification as the printer must be allowed to do it's work. 

I like the physicality of images printed in multiples onto a canvas. The process is different from drawing or painting digitally or from designing digitally so it scratches a different itch. The scale of 13“ × 19“ is big enough to feel substantial.

This is an interesting idea - I have two or three things I’d like to add to the list…like my coffee grinder.

I normally avoid sugar but I just got a really good latte sweetened with honey and now I’m a being of pure light.

Thursday poppy painting on the train.

Portrait Study
Digital - 2700px x 3600px
Procreate for iPad Pro

This study became the basis for some printer-based works I've been experimenting with - digital artwork naturally becomes it's own raw material.

I found a publisher of artist model e-books to provide me with some study material for when I can't make it to a real drawing session - which seems to happen a lot lately. These e-books have nicely lit, high resolution photos which I can use as reference. Many of the poses are a bit cheesy (take my sword!) and they could use a better gender balance, but in all it's a good resource.

I really just need to make some vain friends with nothing to do on the weekends.

Wednesday poppy

I wonder what the crew on that boat gets up to while anchored out in he sound.

Southern Chef Benjamin Dennis Cooks Gullah Geechee Cuisine

Ripped from the headlines

The latest edition of my newsletter project, 100 Doodles, where I reveal digital painting secrets.

Tuesday train doodle. Orange poppy in the sun.

Ethan Gulley’s photography has an intimate, almost accidental quality - like finding the perfect snapshot out of a stack of thousands.

Do the “hosts” on West World get ear wax? Do they grow fingernails?

The latest issue of 100 Doodles where we run into like-minded acquaintances and I make a quick sketch of the park.

Wrote a little about making art for Instagram

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”1350.0”] This piece was composited from two 2700px × 3600px images posted as 24 individual square images to Instagram over the course of a week. [/caption]

A while back I wrote about how I see Instagram as an artistic medium and I've been trying to use the social media platform exclusively as an artistic outlet since then. Last week I finished publishing the piece above as 24 individual square images over the course of a week.

I'm hoping that each fragment comes across as at least somewhat visually interesting - if not a composition on it's own, at least a compelling detail. I want each post to build dramatic tension for anyone who is following along. For anyone who sees a post randomly and taps over to my profile, I want them to find a nice surprise of a growing composition.

The imagery here is all inspired by my mornings leaving Tacoma for Seattle on the train. The train station, the view of the sound, the side of the train, the morning light on the building next door. The poppies - which may just be my favorite new motif - represent that painful yearning for spring that kicks in around January in the Pacific Northwest.

The total result of this image, to me feels a bit like a movie poster. I'm not sure I'm happy with it, but I do enjoy the process. I think that for the next one of these, I want to lean heavily into the graphical nature of these constructed pieces...if it feels like a movie poster, maybe it should really be a movie poster...

Sunday afternoon in the studio

Quick sketch of the park