Month: March 2016

Categories
Art Pen and Ink Sold

Monarch

Monarch. Micron 01 pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate paper. 11
Monarch. Micron 01 pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate paper. 12″ x 12″ framed. $600 SOLD

I missed working on a square sheet, so I decided to cut some of my 500 Series stash down to size, and this is the first effort in that format. I’m deeply satisfied with this piece – I took a great deal of time refining the details, and it’s is arguably my best work yet, at least from a technical perspective. It celebrates the recent news of the rebounding population of Monarch butterflies, though they are not out of the woods yet – Please consider planting some milkweed that hasn’t been treated with systemic pesticides in your yard.

Categories
Art NFS Pen and Ink

Carli’s Gold

Carli's Gold. Micron 01 pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate paper. 11
Carli’s Gold. Micron 01 pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate paper. 11″ x 14″ NFS

 This piece honors the victory of the U.S. Women’s National Team in the Women’s World Cup of 2015. In particular, it celebrates the accomplishments of Carli Lloyd, who won the World Cup Golden Ball and the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year, and scored a hat trick in the World Cup Final. I really enjoyed working on this, though it required a substantial amount of effort to complete. I’m especially happy with certain aspects that worked out well, such as the shading. There are a couple of weak points, but the overall effect is very satisfying. 

Categories
Art NFS Pen and Ink

Junior Champ

Junior Champ. Micron pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate Surface paper. 11
Junior Champ. Micron pens on Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate Surface paper. 11″x14″ NFS

This piece pays homage to Maya Ramirez, winner of the first Project Runway Junior design competition. Maya is a student at the Toledo School for the Arts, where one of my children is also enrolled. Unfortunately for Maya, I’m still experimenting with shading faces (I’m not especially thrilled with how her visage came out.) However, the model to the left is wearing one of her designs from the final episode at New York Fasion Week, and it looks reasonably pleasing to me. There are a number of other aspects of this piece I liked, so I’m calling it a keeper. 

Side note: This was the first opportunity I’ve had to work with one of Strathmore’s higher-end papers. It’s impressive how much more readily the ink takes to the page; the flip side is that it’s hard to be patient enough to let it dry (there are a number of smudges that will attest to that.)