The Morning of the Wedding

The morning of the wedding. Jenny had an amazing breakfast sandwich while Jared worked on his speech.

Road Trip to the Merk-Govek Wedding

Using my Spotmatic, I documented our journey to Atlanta, GA and the wedding of David Govek and Jen Merk.

INSANE Part 1

The first page I created for the INSANE project.

INSANE Part 2

This is the second page I created for the INSANE project.

For the love of my Pentax Spotmatic camera

I have just started using a Spotmatic 35mm film camera. This is my first attempt at really using film. I used film in more or less fully automatic cameras, but I have never done it with an entirely manual setup. My first attempt here is on Kodak Gold 200 from 2002, so the quality is a bit grainy. I am very excited about the prospect of moving forward with this new endeavor! Expect many more posts like this in the future.

The Brown Trout is Complete!

This is the second piece I completed for the Cirque Des Senses in Cedar Rapids Iowa on October 29th 2011. I am pretty excited about the final product. It was certainly a labor of love but it was very much worth the effort.

I started by created the ground using tinted and thinned gouache. I had to put it on in several layers to create a smooth, even finish. It still ended up a bit too thick (something I wouldn't find out until I had started rendering) but the smoothness is really the most important factor. I photocopied my sketch and put graphite on the back to transfer the drawing onto the ground. I then traced my drawing with a pen and I was ready to go. I found the actual application of the silverpoint to be easy and seeing as how I draw with a very linear style to begin with, it came fairly naturally. I accented the silverpoint with a sharp HB pencil and added the final touch of white gouache for highlights.

I hadn't done a completely original piece in a long time and it felt great to pull it off. I am constantly leaning on the crutches of the digital realm (ctrl-z), and it was a bit of a challenge to cast that aside and dive headlong into a bold pencil stroke but I got a real sense of accomplishment when I landed that stroke just as I had intended. I hope you enjoy looking as much as I did creating.

Brown trout sketch

This is the final sketch for a silverpoint illustration I am creating for the Cedar Rapids art gala in late October.