I realized a lot of dreams. I did everything this year I could dream up. This list below is to help future versions of me to remember what happened this year, and see what’s possible.

Dreams
Most importanty, I helped my wife raise our now 14 month-old.

I also landed a job I’d been chasing for two years.

Now for the art stuff.

I had a goal this year to be in a gallery show. This actually came up last year as I was getting prepared to be a dad. I imagined my future son finding a closet full of my paintings, asking me if I had ever done anything with my skills. In an effort to show him by example he could do anything he wants, I decided to get a show.

I wound up in six shows (two solo, four group), and invited to be in four others.

[View with PicLens]

Also to set a good example for my boy, I decided I wanted to start regularly donating portraits of celebrities to charities. To start it off, I was able to donate a painting of a portrait of Amanda Palmer to raise $950 for RAINN.
I also donated another painting to Pinups for Pitbulls and a painted umbrella to raise money for the Philly Mural Arts program.

Because I suspect that my audience has the same budget as me, I wanted to make my art affordable. I got lucky and found a class on photographing artwork and with my friend, photographer Jeff Smith, I was able to make some affordable options for people to get copies of the paintings. These include prints from my paintings, a book of my work, and at the end of the year, I got my work on a t-shirt. Soon you’ll be able to get those if you’re interested. Here’s some of the prints available:

[View with PicLens]

I wound up in a couple of articles this year, one for the City Paper blog, one for City’s Best, and I’ll be in one next year in HAHAMag. I should note that Amber of Amberella gallery got great press for the shows in Livingproof Mag, 5150, and Out of Print mag.

To finish things up, I got hired to storyboard a feature film and illustrate a comicbook for the movie, Sufferance, from Eventide Productions. I’ve wanted to do both of these things for years.

Death
At the beginning of the year, my wife and I took over Dr. Sketchy’s Philly and hosted seven sessions. Including one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and another with the legendary Stoya as Neil Gaiman‘s Death.

[View with PicLens]

Near-death
I also had viral meningitis and was in September I was in the hospital for three days and in bed for about two weeks. I’m fully recovered, and was able to get in another couple of Dr. Sketchy’s and a show afterwards. Shortly after I got out of the hospital I tried a new style of painting I had thought of, specifically because I knew this new style would test out my brain and I was very pleased with how it turned out. What you see are seven round canvases of various sizes all hung together to make one image. One reason I like it is because it involves the viewer, as your mind has to fill in the blanks. I’ve got about 20 variations of this I want to do next year.

The painting served another purpose too – it was this year’s Halloween painting. You can see the Halloween paintings at MakeitBleed.com. I do the paintings every year for our annual Halloween party. This year’s party evidence:

Finally, I worked on daily sketches again this year. I started in 2006. I drew daily for most of the year, with breaks when I was painting daily and when I was sick. Highlights from the daily sketches:

Thank You

Special thanks to my wife Tricia for making every day a dream come true, to my son Patrick for being the inspiration that got me to do all this stuff this year, to Stoya for being a great friend and muse, to Amber Lynn for letting me have my first solo show, to JL Schnabel and Tanya Dakin for advice. Thanks to Candy Mayhem for helping to run Dr. Sketchy’s Philly and to Miss D’Arcy D’Lux and Little Darling for all of their help with Dr. Sketchy’s Philly. If I got nothing else out of the experience, I got the benefit of meeting you all!

Thanks to everyone who came to my shows and thank you very much to the people who purchased paintings and prints, it means a lot.

Thanks to Gary Irwin for shooting and editing this amazing video:

Thanks to Eventide Productions for hiring me to storyboard and illustrate.

Thanks to Susan and Tom at Comcast for hiring me and to everyone at CIM for dealing with my time out with meningitis.

Thanks also to everyone on Twitter who supported me throughout the year, especially Jamie Berry, Kat Ostrow, Jerry Shawback, Ken Powers, Spyros Heniadis, Warren, and @BlueGumboArt.

Thanks to LisaLou McKnuckles, Michelle Hengeveld, and Sean Saunders for their support. Thanks to the Fall Studios and Tina and Linda at Topstitch for letting me show.

Thanks to Amanda Palmer and her management team, to Chelsea at RAINN, to Neil Gaiman, and to Stoya for helping me to give back. Together we helped 180 people get crisis counseling.

Thanks to Ginger, Leigh, and Lilly at HAHAMag, and to the folks at Paradigm Gallery for helping me raise money for the Mural Arts Program. Thanks to Little Darling for helping me raise awareness for Pitbulls for Pinups.

I love all you guys and you keep me going.

Next year? I have to chill a little. I have some big paintings ideas, we’ll see how many I can get to. Please keep checking.

Here’s the paintings I was able to do this year. Enjoy.

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

[View with PicLens]

Oh yeah, I tried out using social media to support my paintings. I did sell a painting through twitter and met a lot of cool people. This next picture is my highlight though. I don’t know who these other three people are, but I’ll take being compared to Maynard.

Happy New Year!

A quick note about the show:

My next solo exhibition will be at the Topstitch Boutique, 54 N 3rd St (near Market) Philadelphia PA, 19106.

Opening reception on 8/6. Show will be up all through August and all through September. Stop by Tues – Sat: 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM; Sun: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Back to the story.

We got to the rental house on a Saturday. Sunday night I decided that yes, I would definitely paint on vacation. My son gets up at 7 and then takes a nap from 8 – 9/10. As part of vacation, I took care of him in the morning so Trish could sleep late. After he went down at 8 I went out to paint.

I set up a card table on a balcony, filled an empty plastic container with water, played some Paul Van Dyk on my iPhone, put on some sun tan lotion and started painting. It was about 100 degrees out and I had to keep sweat from dripping onto the paintings, but it was a real pleasure painting outside.

I was very tentative not being in my studio with my typical set-up. I also wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to paint these paintings. Because of the set up, I wasn’t able to paint in the order of techniques that I wanted, with the splatters first, the fabric second, etc.

This actually had an effect on the finished pieces. Since the concept was so abstract, there were aspects of the paintings I had to figure out while I painted instead of before I painted. Because of this I didn’t know how they’d turn out till I was done them all.

So each piece built off the previous piece and since I painted them all simultaneously, and none from start to finish, portions of each affected they way each other came out. The whole process was evolutionary.

Anyway, so it was scary doing the first one because I couldn’t really afford to spend the time to redo it. I worked on painting the skin and hair added some small splatters, thinking I could add more robust splatters when I got back home.

I got through it and I really liked how it turned out. Of course now I’ve painted more pieces, I see that those later works are more finished, more smooth, but I like the first one because of what was happening while I was painting it, the spontaneity and energy that is evident from my tentativeness and perseverance.

I had finished what I wanted for the day. But now that the canvas had gone from blank to halfway finished image, I really wanted to complete the piece. When they’re in a half-finished stage they kind of call to me until they’re done. But I had to move on and paint the same portion of the other paintings in order to get them all done in time. And it was time for my son to wake up and he and my wife and friends and I had some beach to go to see.

The next day, buoyed by having been disciplined to have painted the first one, I painted the next.
The second painting was with a model I was working with for the first time and it was here that I realized the challenge of a new model. Or, I should say the advantages of working with models repeatedly. I wasn’t consciously aware that it made it easier to paint the images. I painted the second one and I used some familiar techniques on the hair to help balance it out and keep me moving. Note: the picture below was taking a couple of weeks later after I had added the fabric.

Wednesday I realized that if I painted two that day and two the next, then I’d have Friday to go back and work on the finishing touches on that called to me. Theoretically I could have all six of the small pieces completed. On vacation.

On Wednesday I painted the blue and orange paintings, one with a model I’d painted a few times and another new model. I was really comfortable by this point and liking the way the paintings were turning out. Also getting a little more bold with my splatters.

Looking at four paintings in-progress was powerful and really gave me confidence I could get the whole show done by the end of June.

Thursday, it was tough working on the last two because I was getting more complex with the skin, working in many colors (as opposed to the first four which were variation on one color, or at least using very similar colors). You can see the yellow painting uses combinations of many colors, in ways I’ve never done before.

On the last painting, the turquoise one, I really hit a groove and if I had time I would have done them all over using the technique I used on the last one. I wet the entire shadow, distributed the turquoise, then dropped in some yellow and orange for the warm areas I wanted to project towards the viewer. (Cool colors like blue, purple, green recede while warm colors like red, orange, and yellow project (or look closer to the viewer. Use warm colors on the cheeks and tips of noses and shoulders that should look like they’re closer)). Since it was all wet, it blended well and dried really organically. I made a note to keep this in mind when I painted the skin on the large pieces. In retrospect, I didn’t do that as much as I wanted, but those paintings kind of dictated how they wanted to turn out. (I used to be annoyed when I’d hear other artists talk about their work dictating how it would turn out, but now I see what they meant and there’s really no other way to explain it). I’m definitely going to try and use that technique again, it actually solves a problem I long struggled with: when the model in my reference is more in shadow than I want and I want to show subtleties in the mid-tones and shadows to communicate the form and the expression the body language conveys I can use this technique.

So Thursday was a long morning. Remember, it was about 100 degrees out and mentally, working with all those colors in a loose but controlled way was taxing. I got it all done before my boy woke up from his second nap. I was pretty proud. I treated myself to a long swim in the pool and then took the boy out there for some swimming.

I didn’t get back to painting on Friday, but I had accomplished a lot more than I had expected to on a week of vacation and was feeling confident about the show. Very grateful that I decided to bring the canvases and paints.

Between the painting and spending all that time with the wife taking out boy to the beach and to the pool for his first time, it may have been my best vacation ever.

Next post. I’ll show you how I got started on the large pieces, and spent a week in a world of abstract splatters. It was a lot of fun.

The show is August 6th to September 30th at Topstitch Boutique. 54 N 3rd St, Philadelphia PA

Here’s what I had on 1/24

Here’s what I had on 2/28

That’s an amazing feeling.

OK, enough seriousness. Here’s what happened yesterday.

Sunday

Unsure of what to do, other than doing the math over and over again, I talked to Trish about it and she suggested that I change the way I had been painting. Instead of painting a complete piece, I could use the technique that I had used in 2006 when I did my first series and that I use often when I do my Halloween paintings.

Sunday, January 24th
Inspired by this and running on fear/excitement adrenaline, I started painting. I wasn’t sure exactly what the color scheme was going to be for the next seven paintings, or even the style, but I found myself using an old technique that I wanted to bring back soon and after about a half hour, this was the result:

I put that off to the side, still drying and then did this:

The technique was similar to one I used in late 2008, but I hadn’t tried it with the new watercolors I was learning how to use. This time I put water down, then threw paint down.

I felt very differently after I had painted those two. The plan was to paint every night, for about a half hour to an hour. Just before sleeping. Working on the same type of stage on all seven. Backgrounds, then fabric, then hair, then portraits. While I began to work on these paintings, I also had to prime two 24″ by 48″ canvases with the magic watercolor gesso.

I had planned out five pieces that work work together:

Wednesday, January, 27th

Thursday, January 28th

Friday, January 29th

Sunday, January 31st I drew the images on the two 24″ by 48″ canvases.

Monday, February 1st

Wednesday, February 3rd

Another view

Saturday, February 6th

Monday, February 8th

Tuesday, February 9th

Wednesday, February 10th

Thursday, February 11th

Saturday, February 13th Did this:

and this:

Got some nice feedback on Twitter. That really helps me keep painting.

Sunday, February 14th, I did this:

Then reworked it:

Knowing I had to finish the fabric, I worked on this:

some more

Monday, February 15th, I realized I had to wrap up the next stage, the hair marathon. In order:

You can see it’s getting crowded in the studio.

I hope to finish these seven paintings by 2/28.

I’ll have an update next Monday.

I’m working on a lot these days, so I haven’t updated as much as I’d have liked. I’m going to keep at it to get all the information up here.

The work for the show is going to made up of four separate series. The first, called “Reflections” is about personal development and evolution. It’s also loosely based on Tool’s Lateralus album which deals with the same themes.

Here’s the work I did for the Reflections series in August and September just before our baby boy Patrick arrived. I was ahead of schedule and had five out of what I thought would be twenty-two paintings I needed for the show.

The originals: ahead of schedule

[View with PicLens]

And here’s the work I did for the Reflections series in November and December. I have four for what will be seventeen paintings.

The re-dos: behind schedule

[View with PicLens]

Because I can’t use any of the originals and had to redo them all.

Why?

Here’s the story.

Fade out
The week after Patrick was born, I did some tests because I knew the Dr. Martin’s dyes I used would fade in sunlight. I’ve known this for years, but figured someday I’d deal with it. In the summer, when I discovered UV protectant sprays, I was confident I didn’t have to worry about the fading. BTW, the UV spray I bought happens to have an ingredient that causes cancer. I used it outside. And before Patrick was born.

But it didn’t work.

I painted a canvas blue. I added some purple and some bleach to see how the sun would affect them. Then I sprayed half of it with the UV spray. Then I put a post-it on the canvas. Then I left it in the window. This would create:

• Half a canvas exposed to sun
• Half exposed to the sun, but protected by UV spray
• A little square that was not exposed to sun

If things went well, the little square and the protected half would be a rich, deep blue.

But they weren’t.

Both exposed sides faded.

No problem, I thought, I’ll just try a different UV spray. The kind that doesn’t have an ingredient that causes cancer.

Same problem.

The Fugitive
So I did some research online. Turns out the UV spray is known not to really work, and the Dr. Ph. Martin’s dye-based Radiant Watercolors are not lightfast. I learned that “lightfast” means “doesn’t fade.” I also learned that “like all aniline dye base colors, they are fugitive when exposed to direct sunlight over time.” Also that they “are primarily formulated for graphic arts work on paper surfaces intended for reproduction.”

F.

It’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up
So now the search was on. I had a lot of questions? Should I pay for frames and museum-quality UV glass? Should I paint the show in oils? Should I cancel the show? What other paint can I use?

With an intention to paint all the paintings in oils, which I had learned to use just a few months before in early in ’09 …

… I decided to try some inks and watercolors first. During my research, I learned that Dr. Martin’s makes Hydrus Watercolors. Which are lightfast. I also learned about India inks (surprise, they come in more colors than just black) and acrylic inks. All lightfast.

I also liquified some water-based oil paint.

In the lab
Then I set to experimenting.

You may be able to see that I exposed half of all these squares to sun with a lot of tiny post-its covering half of each square. I also added bleach to some, because that turns the dyes to white and I’ve become pretty dependent on that affect. Unfortunately it only works with dyes and only the red Hydrus watercolor.

The winner here in terms of being vibrant, translucent, the right hues, and lightfast were the Dr. Martin’s Hydrus. I was actually rooting for them because they were the most similar to the Dr. Martin’s dyes and (despite their disappointing tendency to go all “fugitive” on me) I’ve grown quite attached to those dyes. And spent a lot of money on them:

It works! Now, how do I use it?
So, now I test the color choices I have and how they all work together. The Hydrus watercolors are a little tougher to find than the dyes and I had to buy some from Dick Blick and some from Jerry’s Artorama. They come in either three sets of 12 bottles (least expensive at Dick Blick), or individual bottles (only at Jerry’s).

Looks pretty good.

I also did experiments with my splattering, with various effects and with the red options. There’s no “red” there’s magenta and an orangey-red.

But the only way I could know for sure if I could change to this type of paint forever was to do a painting.

Winner!
Which I liked. So we had a winner: Dr. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors. (Imagine you hear trumpets. Or the theme when people win on the Price is Right.)

It’s a different look, but one that lets me express what I want to express. In a twist that makes one believe in fate or subconscious influence, of the media I work in, watercolor is my most comfortable. So by switching to the watercolors from the dyes, I’m able to use all my watercolor rendering skills, in addition to all the skills of color and value manipulation I acquired using dyes. So even though this was intense – because it was happening at the same time that I was learning how to parent a two-week old, and with the clock ticking on my first solo gallery show – it will be for the best.

Back to the painting board
Now that I knew which old medium, but in many ways, brand-new medium (I had painted in watercolor, but never in this semi-abstract style) I was going to use to paint these twenty-two paintings, I had to decide which paintings to paint.

What would I do with the original reflections series? Paint over them with watercolor? Paint over them with oils? Redo them?

It all hurt my head.

And when could I tell anyone about this? (Aside from Trish who supported me through the whole thing)

I decided (I think this was Trish’s suggestion) to paint one of the images from the Reflections series that I hadn’t painted yet. Conceived as an eight piece series, I had only painted five.

So that worked out. The energy/fire part was different than with the dyes. Probably the biggest change/challenge.

I then stopped by the gallery to finally measure everything to see how all the paintings would work in the space.

That’s how twenty-two became seventeen paintings. The space is a little different than I thought and we can only fit a smaller number of paintings.

This was good news. Because at this point, it’s taking a long time to finish these paintings.

Buoyed by the painting test and the reduced number of works I have to make, I decide to redo the “Reflections” series.

Success!
I start at the beginning with “Assumption”

I move onto “Patience” which I knew would be the turning point for finishing the paintings for the show. It would require the most patience (intentionally), detail, and time. Once that was past, I could work with increasing speed.

Finally I re-painted “Triad.” This painting has the biggest difference in all the re-paints, in the change from the ‘smokey’ energy effect in the middle I had in the original “Triad” to the ‘fire/crystal’ effect I have here. I liked the ‘smokey’ effect a lot, but, as with the other two, I like the overall painting more than the original. The switch is painful but ultimately, beneficial.

So, phew. I’m back where I was a few months back. Slightly better for the journey. I’ve got four paintings in this series now because the wall they go on in the gallery can only fit four. I may paint the remaining three and put them on another wall, but only if I find I have time after I’ve painted the other thirteen paintings.

Back on track
Next time, I’ll tell you about how I had a bit of a meltdown over the weekend of Jan. 23rd, resulting in a very productive week following. After that, in a series of posts over the next few weeks I’ll tell you how I decided to have a show, how I learned this style, how I chose the models I’ve worked with, how I got the show, and how I chose the subjects for the paintings in the show.

It’s my first with Dr. Martin’s Hydrus watercolors. I’m trying them because they allow me to do some things that the dyes don’t. More details soon. I did some experiments with 5 different types of media until I decided to move forward with the Hydrus. I’ll post the experiments and notes about them here.

Here’s the painting: Stoya Noir

Here’s the color study I did for it

From yesterday, a Mosh

And Lilah and Stoya from my Big Myth project due some time late next year.

What it means is that I’ll be taking a break very soon.

I’m in the midst of painting three series of paintings for a gallery show in April at Amberella Sugary & Sweet Gallery & Boutique in the Piazza in Northern Liberties in Philly. April 2nd, 2010.

I’ve also got a few pieces in a digital display at Obscura, on 10/17/09 in Newark.

Here’s some of the work in progress for the show at Amberella.

[View with PicLens]

Things I’d like to write about:
How I came up with the themes for the Reflections series.
How I got the show.
How it’s working out with the watercolor canvas.
How it feels and what it means to finally get a gallery show.
Hearing from people in person about the blog/painting/sketches but rarely digitally
Dr. Sketchy’s in Philly and NYC
My visit to Studio Incamminati

Wish me/us luck.

I’m very happy with the way this turned out. About halfway done the Reflections series. This series and two others will be on display at the Amberella Gallery next April 2nd.

Loyal readers may recognize this from this sketch I did back in late June: