Portrait I did of Alexis Bledel when I was in High School

February 8, 2010 by almostphony

I believe I did this piece in tenth grade. So that was… 2000. I was 15.

Alexis Bledel, AKA Rory Gilmore, used to model. I used one of her old modeling photos as a jumping off point. I remember abandoning the photo pretty early on and decided to see what I’d come up with on my own. She sort of turned into an Alexis Bledel-Fiona Apple mixture.

It’s actually pretty good! It looks like a perfume ad – j’adore — but technically it’s not bad. Haha!

So this is primarily colored pencil and acrylic, but I used ballpoint pen in the eyes. I remember I wanted to get that coppery shine that you get from lots of ballpoint ink. You can’t really see it in the scan, unfortunately. Oh well.

Memory Lane, tra la la…

Hildegaard!

February 6, 2010 by almostphony

She’s a Snowy Owl.

Click to view larger… and see all the dog hair.

Watercolor and gouache on canvas.

If you’re gonna try using watercolor and gouache on canvas be sure to gesso the canvas and then apply several layers of Absorbent Ground (I use Golden).

For Your Pleasure

February 1, 2010 by almostphony

One of my submissions was chosen for the cover of this month’s issue of Stumptown Underground, woo! And I got to do some fancypants hand-lettering, see that? Fun stuff.

You can take a closer look at the hand-lettering below. That drop shadow practically killed me. Sheesh.

Here’s the info on the release party for this issue:

Where: Floating World Comics, 20 NW 5th Ave
What: “For Your Pleasure” Release Party and Film Night
Who: Stumptown Underground
When: Saturday, February 13th, 6pm-9pm

The movie watching will be starting around 7pm, but late comers and mingling during the shorts are welcome. We will also be having a raffle of prizes graciously donated by It’s My Pleasure– because what would our release event be without some sexy party favors? It’s My Pleasure, a Portland and women-run sex shop, has donated a Valentine gift basket and a pile of SEX TOYS for our raffle, as well as coupons good for money off purchases made in their NE Portland store.

Hope to see you there!

Orlando the Crown Crane

January 30, 2010 by almostphony

Orlando

It’s here, it’s here!

January 27, 2010 by almostphony

My Lady Gaga shirt came today!

Hooray!

You can have one, too!

Richard the Rooster

January 25, 2010 by almostphony

A Wood Duck Named Tyrone

January 25, 2010 by almostphony

Over the next 2-3 weeks I will be doing a series of 12″x12″ paintings of various birds. Here’s the first one-

That’s gouache, watercolor and ink on canvas.

Interview

January 23, 2010 by almostphony

I was a Featured Artist on RedBubble last week, and with that comes a little interview opportunity. Oh, exciting! I’d link you to it but I think you have to be a member to view it, so I’ll just copy and paste it here. I hope it’s not too boring.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your art background?
I’m from Pasadena, CA, and grew up in a household full of heavy readers and English majors. My mom said she realized I was more “visually inclined” when I was about 4 and made a big, weird pattern on our living room carpet out of plastic spoons. I started taking art classes in elementary school, probably 2nd or 3rd grade, then I studied at Mission: Renaissance for a few years, and then went to Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. After I graduated I pussyfooted around L.A. for a few years, working at a dog bakery and doing pet portraiture, and then I moved to Portland, OR, on a whim. I’m now studying General Fine Arts at PNCA.

What are your main influences?
Animals. I’ve always loved animals. I don’t particularly like birds, but I paint them often because I think they’re so beautiful. I lived with a very unpleasant cockatoo as a kid, and an equally unpleasant green parrot as a teenager. I’m more of a dog person.

Film. Especially old Disney movies. I watched a lot of old school Disney growing up – Dumbo’s my favorite. But I also just watched a lot of movies in general — I still do. My family was very Kubrick-centric. Tati, Tarkovsky, Soderbergh, Jarmusch, Hitchcock. I went through a big slasher movie phase in middle school, and more recently I got pretty addicted to classic film — Sturges, Hawks, Billy Wilder. I just love film, I’ll watch anything. I watch roughly a movie a day. I also love sitcoms. And of course, Robocop.

Americana. I just can’t get enough of jukeboxes and gumball machines and carousels, so on. It’s the colors! Oh, those colors.

As far as artists go: Mary Blair, Margaret Kilgallen, Wayne Thiebaud, John Tenniel, Ralph Steadman, R. Crumb, Walton Ford, J.J. Audubon, really any Ancient Chinese brush artists, Kozyndan, Charley Harper, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Laura Knight… to name a few.

Can you tell us a bit about the mediums and techniques you use?
For whatever reason, my heart belongs to water media: watercolor, ink, gouache. I’m not particularly fond of acrylic, I don’t like the plasticity, it creeps me out, haha. I recently started toying with oils but it takes so damn long to dry, and I enjoy working very fast. I have pretty bad OCD so I like to work with small brushes (I am partial to da Vinci brand) and get real tight. I’m trying to get away from that, though- let go, loosen up. As for drawing, I love dip pens. I taught myself to draw by copying all of Tenniel’s original “Alice” illustrations with a dip pen when I was about 7 or 8. My dad was an amateur calligrapher, so we always had nibs and ink around.

Which of your works are closest to your heart and why?
Oof. Right now, I think I am most proud of my “Lady Gaga” piece. It’s a

silly, fun piece, but I really feel like I nailed it. However, my “Laughing Kookaburra” (below) piece has always been dear to me. I woke up in the middle of the night with this nagging urge to paint a kookaburra, so I dragged my ass out of bed, did a Google image search for “Kookaburra” and banged out that piece in about 10 minutes. I was able to really loosen up and just paint, not over-think things. It felt good.

What can we see coming next?

Lots more birds! I was recently at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena and saw Audubon’s double-elephant folio (HUGE!) of bird paintings. So beautiful. It got me all excited about birds again. Expect 10-12 new bird pieces in the next 2-3 weeks.

Finally do you have any words of encouragement for other artists?

Man, just draw all the time. ALL THE TIME. And don’t be afraid to try other things. I went to an art high school and even though I had the resources, I never tried photography, sculpture, or printmaking until college because I was just too scared. Try everything. You’ll be surprised.

Fancy New Shirt

January 19, 2010 by almostphony

I got a couple mystery e-mails requesting that I turn my Lady GaGa piece into a t-shirt. Good call. Wish granted!

Available in four different styles – check out the details here.

Then I turned my drawing of Chloe into a t-shirt for Chloe’s super-cool mom, Kim.

Awwww.

Check out more shirts by yours truly.

Stumptown Underground

January 17, 2010 by almostphony

So I recently found out about a Portland zine called Stumptown Underground. The theme for February’s issue is SEX! Here is one of my submissions:

(I kind of have an obsession with ruffle-butt panties.)

The theme for January’s issue is SLEEP! I submitted two pieces and both were accepted!

One of them I did a couple years back but I tinkered with it for the zine:

So, on January 23rd there will be a release party for the sleep issue (“Slumber Party”) at Cosmic Monkey Comics from 5pm to 7pm. Wear your pajamas!