Scratchboard tutorial

I was recently asked how I make my scratchboards. Making scratchboards is a lot more fun then buying them and allows you to control the size, thickness, texture, colour, everything, to get the ultimate unique ground to work on. Homemade boards will always come out different. The thicker wax allows for shallower or deeper cuts when making lines which in turns effects there contrast. Areas dig right down the white board will look brighter and whiter, while shallow strokes will look more transparent. You can also paint back into areas to make them dark again. Check out my little tutorial to make your own. Click on the thumbnail to see it bigger.

Now Updating Once a Year

With work and recently moving and everything I've been neglecting parts of the Internet which were not webcomics or The Daily Show/Colbert Report (which I must watch on the Internets as I'm now too old to stay up for them). So Square Foot 2009 has come around and here I am with a new post when the last one is Square Foot 2008, ah well. I've just ordered a new scanner and I'll have far few excuses (the main one being, "my scanner is too old and doesn't work with my mac..) At any rate, due to a poorly timed White Water Rafting vacation I was only able to complete one piece for Square Foot this year. I'm not as happy with it as I would like, but I've promised myself to work harder next year. Rafting was really fun though... Square Foot is on until Sept. 6, go see it! I actually have yet to go myself... This weekend for sure! I have updated my website more recently then my blog though, so check that out too.

Coming up August 16, 2008, I'll be participating in the AWOL Gallery Square Foot Show. There's going to be something like 700 artists participating. It'll be really incredible and a lot of fun, check it out if you're in the GTA! Here's a sneak peek of the pieces I'm putting in the show.

Overheard/understood Featured on Feathertale

I had a great time checking the Toronto Small Press Fair in June and I gave my card to the editor of Feathertale, this great magazine full of short fiction, poetry, and art that Erica got me hooked on when she gave me a copy for my birthday last year. They feature the same content between publishings on their website and my Overheard/Understood piece is currently being featured! Check it out and check out Feathertale too. They did a great little bio write up on me too.

And definitely check the Small Press Fair next time it comes around. There's a lot of really unique talent that you can't always find in your local Chapters.

New website, New look

Well, the new website has been up and running for a while now, so it was about time for the blog to be updated to match. So here it is. Wet Paint's had a fresh makeover! Check out my fully updated portfolio site as well.

The goal of this blog will news updates and process work. It'll be a diary of what I'm up to artistically. Summer's in full swing and speeding by and I've got some exciting stuff coming up.

I had a chance to check out the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition and Graffiti Alley (Queen and Spadina) on the weekend. I saw some really great stuff in both places. Congrats to Hyein and Laura on their awesome booths!

Stephen Colbert Skateboard

Yes, the title says it all. Allow to present my tribute to the man behind the desk of Truth: the Stephen Colbert Skateboard. Painted in oils on a skateboard deck, this was the other of my major summer projects. If only Stephen could see it. Not the best picture. I'll try to take a better one.

Viv

It's been a long summer of no posts. Now, back to school, it's time to post my summer creations. This is my second Softbot. Her name is Viv and she's full of energy. Viv is mostly made of felt. She flies around the living room in search of fun and shiny things. She frequently crashes.

Sprout

This summer I've been working for a clothing company that is just starting up. It's called Sprout and they make baby and children's clothing from bamboo and organic cotton. Bamboo is an amazing fabric! It's so soft, I love it. Here's one of the little graphics I designed for the clothes, which come from California. To see more, including the website I did go to http://www.sproutkidsclothing.com/

Olio

This was for a final project, it's a start of many. Olio is my first Softbot. The lower image is the tag on him. He's made of several different matterials including felt, jersey, polyester and cotton. I did the tag in illustrator. I have another one in the works that will be done soon.

Spirited Monet

This was an oil painting done for life drawing. It's a visual collage, and a tribute to a Monet.

Oil on Canvas. 18" x 24"

Kelsey: The Movie

This was a large format self portrait done in water-mixable oils. It's on a 30" X 48" Maronite board. I wanted to approach this self portrait in a more illustrative way. It's inspired by movie posters like the kind done by Drew Struzan. Rather than imitate his style, however, I opted to make each aspect of myself in a different style. I think I turned out pretty well especially under the short 3 day time frame.

Nigerian E-mail Scams

These three were done for a narrative project on Nigerian e-mail scams, you can read the scam I picked here. It has an embattled president, blood diamonds and secret identities. The woman in the e-mail asks you hold the money in trust for her until she and her sons (husband apparently gets left for dead) can join you in your country. It was an interesting project and I chose to put a sort of humourist spin on the situation, casting the characters of the story as cold and calculating, rich and hardly in need of help. All three are acrylic on illustration board. They didn't scan very well so I may post better versions later.

Infographics

These are some infographics I did last semester. Both are done in Adobe Illustrator. The first is simple instructions on how to build a fort. Unlike Ikea, I don't make you use an Allen wrench. The second is a poster for the Flickr website. It's a network diagram of all the pictures of people posing with wax celebrities. The celebrities are divided into categories, some very talented people fall into more than one. TH graphics at the bottom are about popularity and the inappropriate touching of the wax celebrities by the people in the pictures. I once had my picture taken with a wax Patrick Stewart.

Paste

This was a subscription card project, I chose Paste magazine. Paste comes with a free CD of new and upcoming artists, mostly on the Indie scene. This started out as print making and ended up digital after some things went awry. The large dark area at the top of the front piece is actually a window, which I cut out and attached acetate to so the CD can be seen.

Photoshop Painting

More photoshop painting today. The first is an album cover for Carley Simon's You're so Vain. The background is scanned in acrylic on masonite, but the rest is Photoshop.

The smaller pieces are spots for some strange facts. The facts are the following, in order of the illustrations they go with:

1. Minimum # of shopping carts that went missing from LA area stores last year: 6 220 000
   
2. Pounds of radioactive produce grown near Chernobyl that were confiscated in Moscow markets last year: 1820
   
3. Chances that an unprotected PC will become infected with a virus within 10 mins of being on the Internet: 1:4

Editioral/Interpretive

The first illustration was done in acrylics and was for an article about how people defined success. The statistics listed below the painting are from the article.

The second is from a fortune cookie, the text below the image was the fortune I received in my cookie. This one's in watercolours.

The third was for an article on women's libido. This one is also done in watercolour and gouache.

Memento Mori

This is a little photoshop painting I did for my best friend sometime ago and made into bookplates and stickers for her. Her little skinny pig, Mortimer, died recently and I've decided to post this to honour his memory. Rest in piece little guy.

The Wayward Fire

This was a graphic design project from last semester. We made up a band based on a series of random words that we we given for a few typography assignments. My band is The Wayward Fire, their new CD is called Exposing Crumbs. I used Photoshop to design a CD, gate-fold CD case and tour poster for the band.

Saphronia

These four illustrations were done for a narrative project: the short story was called Saphronia. They are all done in cut and paste paper with a little bit of watercolour for shading and skies. It was a fun project but the cut and paste method was rather painstaking. Still I was happy with the results. The story is about twisting the expected. The circus ends up being the permanent part of the town while the municipal buildings are packed up and moved on.

Overheard, Understood

This project was all about eavesdropping. I this conversation between a a guy and a girl while I was at work. The girl was buying a huge pile of textbooks when she told the guy she didn't study. Whether or not he was really trying to pick her up or even if they knew each other, I don't know. But I interpreted the situation as a total rejection. He got shot down. This was a really fun project and I gave a very "high school", naive sort of feel to reflect what i understood to be going on. It's collage and inks. The original is 12" x 20" so the note paper I actually made by hand using a one-hole punch and blue and red ink for the lines.