Tag: pen

  • Falling

    Falling

    This piece steps into a quiet suburban street during peak autumn, using familiar neighborhood architecture to explore an underlying narrative of melancholy, solitude, and narrative tension.

    The foreground is dominated by two massive, ancient trees framing a small lawn, where a solitary, semi-translucent figure sits slumped on a bench. Across the street, suburban life sits suspended in transition: a car parked by the curb beside cardboard boxes, and neighboring houses with their windows glowing warm against the cool encroaching evening. Are we witnessing someone waiting to leave, an eviction, a quiet reckoning with loss, or the ghostly memory of someone who once lived here watching new lives unfold? Leaving the circumstance ambiguous invites the viewer to fill the silence between the bench and the curb.

    Technically, the drawing was executed on watercolor paper using acrylics, India ink, and gel pens. The dense autumn canopy was built using intense, saturated acrylic washes layered with intricate pointillist dot work to create a shimmering, textured carpet of gold, copper, and vermilion. India ink linework defines the muscular bark, sprawling root systems, and architectural siding. Gel pens were brought in to lay down crisp, opaque highlights and subtle color shifts across the tree bark, the pavement, and the solitary figure, giving them a luminous, spectral presence amidst the burning fall foliage.


  • The Yellow Patio

    The Yellow Patio

    Today I am sharing a new graphic piece titled “The Yellow Patio.” The title is intentionally a bit on the noseโ€”an ironic nod to a cheerful early spring setting that actually masks the heavier, psychological weight of the scene.

    Based on a reference photo of a small bistro area, this piece gave me the opportunity to lean heavily into a Synthetist, graphic style of color blocking. The composition is built entirely on the boundary between light and dark, inside and outside. To translate the intense feeling of that boundary, I used deep, unnatural blues and heavy purples to anchor the foreground shadows, which perfectly frame the harsh, acidic, vibrating yellow of the sunlight hitting the concrete floor.

    This piece ties directly into the theme of the “quiet observer” that runs through much of my work. By placing the viewer firmly within the cold shadow, looking out past the empty iron chairs toward a lone, distant figure beyond the fence, it creates a distinct sense of isolation and voyeurism. Itโ€™s a moment of being entirely separated from the warmth and the outside world, suspended in bold, flat color.

    Technical Details:

    • 9×12 140lb hot press
    • Sakura fine liners
    • India ink
  • Eveningโ€™s Quiet Unrest

    Eveningโ€™s Quiet Unrest

    Today I am sharing a new mixed media piece that explores a specific memoryโ€”twilight in a silent meadow. This composition, based on a low-light photograph taken a few years ago, was an exercise in capturing a delicate visual tension. The scene possesses a profound tranquility, yet beneath that stillness lies something subtly unsettlingโ€”a feeling I wanted to preserve and amplify.

    While the original photo provided the structure and the quiet posture of the figure, the translation to paper was driven entirely by a need to dictate emotional weight through medium. I build the density and movement in the foreground undergrowth through networks of energetic, scratching lines using Sakura fineliners and Faber-Castell Pitt pens, contrasting against the still, flat fields of color in the sky.

    By utilizing a Post-Impressionist or Synthetist paletteโ€”swapping natural colors for a heavy, low-light atmosphere of muted purple, cool blue, and an unnerving yellow-greenโ€”I aimed to create a psychological filter. This piece combines the raw texture of graphite and ink from my earlier studies with the bold, non-naturalistic color blocking I’ve been exploring recently. It is a portrait of solitude, suspended in a vibrating, eerie twilight.

    Technical Details:

    • 9×12 140lb cold press
    • Faber-Castell Pitt pens
    • Shuttle Art paint pens
    • Staedtler Pigment Liner
    • Sakura Pigma

  • Helen Bridge

    Helen Bridge

    This piece focuses on the bridge crossing the Chattahoochee. I was drawn to the composition hereโ€”how the gnarled tree on the left acts as a natural frame for the stone arch and the Germanic architecture beyond. Itโ€™s a study in the intersection of nature and the unique character of this Alpine village.

    Technical Details:

    • 6×9 140lb cold press
    • Sakura Pigma pens
    • Acrylic swipe

  • Roadside house with trees illustration

    Roadside house with trees illustration

    Technical Details:

    • 9×12 140lb hot press
    • Sakura Pigma pens
    • Dip pen
    • Acrylic swipe
  • A Fleeting Thought, Held

    A Fleeting Thought, Held

    This piece explores the visual and emotional dialogue between the enduring and the fleeting. The foreground is dominated by a vibrant bloom of bluebonnets, rendered with a delicate touch to emphasize their ephemeral nature โ€“ like a beautiful, transient thought taking tangible form. Their cool tones offer a moment of respite within the overall warmth of the composition, a temporary splash of serenity.

    The choice of a strong, almost cadmium orange-yellow for the sky was deliberate. It serves to create a sense of visual tension, a feeling of being enveloped or even constricted by the intensity of the atmosphere. This deliberate contrast in color and feeling aims to highlight the preciousness and temporary nature of the bluebonnets, making their ephemeral beauty all the more poignant against the persistent, almost weighty sky.

    Technical Details:

    • 9×12 140lb cold press
    • Sakura Pigma pens
    • Acrylic brush and swipe