Sorry for the delay, not that anyone was waiting on the edge of their seats. I had a great show at Grace Ellay, a cute boutique and gallery in Silverlake. I sold quite a bit of art but to be honest it was just nice to get all my paintings out of my apartment and in the publics view. This friday i pick up what's left to redistribute along my apartments walls. The opening was packed and it was great to see my friends and family all together. Along with my portraits I did a whole series of characters on cigarette packs called "Pack of Insurgents" which seemed to be a big hit. Ron Livingston (the lead actor in Office Space) bought 2 of them! Here are some pictures from the show.

We painted last night at Jeremy's for the 1st night in a while. I did a self portrait while Jeremy did 2 paintings of me painting. Here is the sketch and the nights fruition.

Yaaaay, I think its all finished. I lightened up the background and added a few more details to the faces and eyes. Now the piece feels well balanced and every ones faces seem sincere and believable.

Its really coming along, everything is laid in and now I just have to make some finishing tweaks. I'm not sold on the background and have to decide on where to take it, but the forms are all there and I'm happy with the likenesses.

I started a new commissioned piece for my buddy Phil. It's a Christmas present so I have to knock it out on a pretty tight deadline but so far I'm making good progress. I started with a base drawing to layout all the forms but didn't get too crazy with the details or shading, I'll save that for the actual painting.



After the drawing I did a brown rub on top to unify everything all the paint that will follow. The portrait is of 3 people who have passed away so I thought the brown sepia tone would help give the piece a aged quality . The next day once the wash was dry I did my 1st pass with paint. I tried to get a good base on all the skin tones, and blocked in the eyes and the clothing.

delivered

I finally turned it over and said goodbye. Dalia was even a little teary eyed. Awe

We'll I hate to say it but it took me a long time to get back to this. I was afraid to touch it, because it was looking pretty good and I thoughgt I might fuck it up. Every time I tried to adjust somethign it felt like it was getting worse and worse. Last week we got together at Jeremy's for our FNPC and was determined to finish it...




I added some more detail to Dalias hair and flowers, I also too some of the dark blue out of the dress. It was tempting to try and change the background color because the green is so bold and overpowering but it grew on me and although its abrasive when you 1st look at it I think it will work for something you look at everyday. It won't get boring and it really helps the people pop. I could keep working on this thing forever. Paintings rarely feel finished when you are working on them because you can always do more... but more isn't always better. It feels solid so I'm happily moving on to the next piece.