breaking free

gouache on illustration board, 11.5" x 14"
pomegranates apparently symbolize society, fertility, and death. provocative mix!

this is my first time using real gouache. i really regret exchanging that windsor newton gouache for holbein acryla while at RISD ... acryla's basically gouache without the best part: the ability to rewet old paint. so now i have an expensive thing of acryla that i have little use for.
but i digress. gouache is ridiculously hard to blend but i think it's an interesting medium in it's own right. i think i actually prefer it over acrylics...

mixed media

more ryman stuff. both drawn/painted from life. typically my process is to draw with prismacolor nupastel (basically colored pencils except in stick form without wood and stuff) and then work mixing watercolor and chalk pastels. nupastel shows up through the watercolor, so it's interesting to see the freedom of the preliminary line. throughout ryman, david has been pushing me to really break free from my usual 'tight' style.

the former was done in class in the span of ~3 hours, the latter out of class for homework for about also ~3 hours (minus breaks). david really liked my dumpster, but i think he just has a thing for trash (literally).

watercolors and denise

just some of the work I have been up to lately. My RymanArts semester with David ends next Saturday which means I won't be taking another art class until mid February. The only plus to this is now I can focus on my college applications and their respective hometests.

water color quick sketches 5-10 minutes each


two takes on this girl in my art class, denise. the first I did in my sketchbook in a contour style illustration and the latter is an oil painting (oil pastels for the drawing and then oil paint on top) with a solid red ground. i was rummaging the classroom for some scrap material to paint on and i found this really old and dusty canvas painted all over in bright red. i think the kid even stretched it themselves since the canvas had a lot of give ... in any case i just went at it. painting on top of oil pastel is a really interesting experience, the pigment was really thick but definitely not in a bad way.