Jon Jones - draft

Girl portrait 3 - draft

Pepper one

Paints up next.

Retrospect - Sekaido 2012-14

Always good to take a glance back.

2014 - Temp Tetris
Pixels and pixelation were my focus this time round, although failing to achieve the effect I was hoping for (Tetris blocks raising from the ground up), managed to leap forward in complexity from previous years' pieces.

2013 - Shepherds Delight
Wanting to demonstrate something a little more complex, scrunched balls of cloth in a bugs eye view perspective was challenging enough. Gained a lot from this piece but ran out of time and couldn't achieve the depth I'd hoped for.

2012 - Morning Glory
Going on the theme of rising, visualizing the ground lifting in ribbons. Due to a lack of time, money and most most importantly skills, had to keep things very simple, sticking with a very limited pallet. 

Sekaido 2014 - Final

Fuuu! 

One lesson I learnt this time round was to really get comfortable with working on a larger scale. Last year was still overwhelming, this year not so much.

A little on the bright orange side but you live and learn. Being a central piece her main role was to add perspective and depth to the piece but having a vibrant skin tone works too.

Happy with the way the colors turned out, really wanted a strong dark-light divide but knew that black would be too heavy for my stuff.

Overall - happy.

Sekaido - Day 10

Still about 10 hours away from being presentable.

Sekaido - Day 6

Still away off completion, looking to establish the base three or four colors for the Tetris blocks and work outwards from there.

Sekaido - draft deadline

And just like that, you've got to know when to put down the pencils and pick up the paints. Far from perfect but it's solid enough at this point to work over.

The perspective is a little off but a deadline is a deadline.

And then this.

Half cat, half .. half. I'd seen a few ideas recently that is been looking to replicate.. None of which have come out on top but the drip effect is something I need to pursue. 

Honoring to apply a dripping effect to the Sekaido piece if time permits.

Slicing and Dicing

Settled on a theme, time to get pencil to pad.

After a bit of experimenting with grids, dabbled with the sliding pixels.

Cubes add depth to the work - previous attempts pixelating visuals into 2d didn't work out. 

Maybe it's getting a little muddled, but dripping and drooling is gonna add to that floating effect.

11pm

It's 11 at night but had to get this piece down.

Moving from geometric shapes to the human form - it's easy to get locked down into a phase but I'm hoping the next piece will bridge the two.

Sketch came out ok so that's always a good omen.

Maggie Smith

Last year my buddy Zan introduced Downton Abbey. I resisted. I was dreadfully wrong.

Now Maggie Smith has drolled her way into my heart and into the site!

I'd taken off a few months between my last work and this one, but a fun way to kick off the year.

Michael Shannon

Whilst lookin over portrait photos, this one of General Zod popped up and I couldn't resist.

Previously working predominantly with acrylics, a few failed pieces convinced me to go back to penciling firstly.

One problem is inconsistency in my strokes. Using the flat edge brush should lend itself to more blocky images.

Wrinkles

Sekaido - 2013

2013 entry - F3 canvas / Acrylics

Initially setting out for a bugs-eye-view visual, missed the mark a fair bit. With a few more hours I'd like to have darken the women's facial contours a little, as the light against dark backdrop was a little harsh. But all in all, scaling up on last years work, creating 2 pieces on a right deadline, it didn't turn out half bad!

2012 entry - F2 canvas / Acrylics

Sekkaido - Final Sketch

The previous sketch seemed a little too simple, so decided to build more layers and textures.

Also insects are going to break up the colours a little, as will the sleeping women.

 Composition was tough, but once the sketch is there, it's a huge weight of my shoulder. 

Jigsaw Concepts

Mocking up some ideas for the childrens book.

The story is about 60% complete.

Cherry Pop probably won't make the cut.

Adventure Time with Finn and Jake has been eating so much of my time recently. It's pretty fantastic.

Peel back!

After a few weeks hiatus, peel time!

I've no idea where the planet peel concept might go, but looking back at older works, it still feels like some of my best work.

Just a few doodles to set off the acrylics later next week.

Planet Peel - Drafting

A3 Pad - Acylics / Oils

Just a rough draft testing different stroke techniques. 

The "PP" visuals had all been quite smooth, which is nice, but too simple. To really connect and believe in this environment there needs to be texture and emotion.