Jackdaws are a common European bird related to the crow and is sometimes represented in Celtic traditions. One Irish tale recounts how the jackdaws tried to enter a town in Kerry, Ireland, but were refused permission by a king, on the advice of a druid. However, the king relented when the jackdaws found missing magical rings that protected all of Munster against a Fomorian attack.

Here is a recently finished commisioned painting. It was huge (36x48) and it was acrylic. Those are two things that don't usually fall under my criteria, but I finished it and the end result is quite nice. The client really loved it. The inspiration for the painting was the colonial lanterns I kept seeing in Virginia. The client wanted really vibrant colours and basically something that would stop people in their tracks when they stepped into her living room. This is what I came up with:

I forgot to post another of my final projects. We had to design a book and I decided to design a children's book about tea from around the world named Around the World in TwenTea Days. Joel wrote the text and it's nothing short of brilliant, and then I jazzed up the book with diecuts and popouts and such. The book isn't available online but here is a summary of the illustrations:

These are on the site web.

Joel and I went to the Mermaid parade yesterday on Coney Island. The place was PACKED with crazy people in crazy costumes. The weather was amazing too. We rode the Wonder Wheel and then found an excellent place to do some sketching. If you ever go to Coney Island for sketching, sit on the pier facing out towards the beach; it's the best place. And don't forget your sunscreen!

You'd think we were in Cancun or something! 

Below is my very first silkscreen! I really liked how it turned out. The incredible thing about going to art school in NYC are the amazing teachers you have to teach you; like my silkscreen teacher is a master printer who worked with Warhol.

Now I'm really excited to start doing it on fabric like I've always wanted to do.

Read the manifesto here:

I think my biggest pet peeve in this city is people and their frickin' dogs that bark at all hours of the night.

I've wanted to post about the Bond No9 project for awhile now, but couldn't because we didn't know how it would turn out and who would win the competition. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anyone won since the client couldn't make up her mind. Boo.

Anyway, a bit of background: Bond No9 is a really high end perfume company based in Soho. The owner came to our class and assigned us the project of designing a new bottle for her Astor Place fragrance. I used Brooke Astor as my main influence. This was a tough (but interesting) project because the client was not an especially illustration-minded person. So the challenge was to design a cool-looking unisex bottle without the illustration. Hm.

The first round of sketches were hand-drawn:

I had trouble with the unisex criteria since those who know my art know that it leans heavily on the feminine side. But I digress.

The second round were digital images with descriptions:

Here are a few sketches from the trip

Also, here is a 3D portrait of Stevie Nicks from a few weeks ago. Most of the kids in class didn't even know who she was! To which I say: what IS this younger generation coming to? ;) 

My dad and I just came back from a two-week roadtrip which took us first to Washington D.C, down to Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Mass., New Hampshire and Vermont. 

While in Pennsylvania we went to the Brandywine River Museum. Unfortunately I only got to see half of the Wyeth and Pyle paintings because of a damned antiques show, but I still nearly lost my mind looking at N.C Wyeth's paintings. They literally stop you in your tracks. I've barely visited any museums that have galleries full of large-scale illustrations and now I know I've been missing out!! N.C's stuff looked amazing!! My dad bought a poster of this one below.



I want to work in oils now to be just like N.C...well, not really but I still love it.

They had quite a bit of newer Andrew Wyeth works in the galleries, which were cool but mostly very loose, washy landscapes. I still love them as far as lanscapes go, but I prefer his 50s-60s paintings. His brushwork is INSANE!! He paints EVERY SINGLE HAIR on a dog and EVERY SINGLE BLADE OF GRASS! Crazy stuff. This was one of my favourites in the gallery:



There were more, but I can't find them on the internet. I was disapointed that The Witching Hour wasn't in the museum.



I don't know if I'm getting across how AWESOME the Wyeths are. I love them. 
The Howard Pyle paintings and drawings were awesome too. The museum shop sucked though. Their selection of postcards was limited.

I want more illustration in art museums and galleries. I often become bored in museums because a lot of art doesn't jump out at me and it's rare that I go "HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING!!!". The Wyeths had me doing it though.

Finally more than one image update at a time! The first is a
painting based on the creature Afanc; a celtic creature that came to
be thought of as a giant beaver and caused the flooding of a village

Next, a lovely château.

These two were used as a promotional piece, and I believe a
story might be developing around these two images.