Start of week 2

Cover start-ups have started and I’m putting them together currently. Many of the designs and redesigns have been coming together over the last couple of months along with titles/logos. Revisions and more drafts have led to me finally starting on a few more sketches needed for the issue designs.

As mentioned I have some of the edits today to present and a logo reveal for this project moving forward. More updates to come for the upcoming weeks along with more details in the drafts released soon. See you soon……. Off to do more designs.

Basic design layout needed for reference before deciding what happens with added features. From this point forward I knew I wanted to keep it simple as the design is a basic palette and brush.

This is just a redesign after going through many iterations of the basic design with added blotch at the bottom and a few paint swatches. Still too busy but getting there.

I landed on this idea for a simple but effective idea for what I’m making as a project. This is the logo for PM.

P.M.- first week of production

First week of production was the start of details added to artwork that’s being presented in the issue itself. Most of the pieces will be digital illustrations but there is a pencil/ink piece that will also be included. Actually, P.M. will feature a mixture of techniques to keep things fresh but also interesting. The layout I’m going for P.M will be an assortment of interests I’ve enjoyed over the years, when creativity happens,with the layout in books, magazines, and of course other publications.

The logo with title, while imagined, has to be colored and edited for reveal. This process will start this weekend along hopefully with the realized idea of fun fonts. The cover is done but still needs a title placement and the logo, so this will be coming soon to feature.

P.M. is a collection of my life story in many ways so I’m also presenting a bit of back stories that are important to the art journey. I realise through all my years online I don’t have any information about my upbringing at all, along with many smaller details, so please look forward to some memories coming soon.

Here are a few edits of a work in progress currently. This piece is growing in ideas and I have to finish it soon to actually be released on time so I better work with purpose.

outline after photo layering for general idea pt. 2

color added with outline still intact currently pt 3

Again I’ll post weekly to update on progress with everything….Stay tuned.

P.M. -Start

P.M. - Start

This week starts the beginning phases of P.M. along with needed context into what comes next into the upcoming weeks and remainder of the year. I had recently released my first book last year that showcases my work over the span of 20 years, but there’s more material that has yet to be displayed.

P.M. will start from the beginning of my artistic journey to present day with my sketches, journals, videos, and images i’ve collected all these years. This is a huge project that will be released in the near future; announcement dates coming soon. P.M will cover my story so some order of release is planned into essentially a monthly publication. The format will be produced as a magazine with various pages of content including my personal writings and journals.

This idea spanned into something bigger since last year after finishing the editing to “The Artistic Letters” last September and knowing I had more to showcase. I work on art nearly every week and always producing newer pieces so this will allow for generally more content to be put out in a more organized manner.

P.M. will be labeled as issues by number and theme most likely. Still working on the labels for fonts and titles but everything is coming together. As I continue working this week on pieces for P.M. I will continue to post on the pacing of this massive project releasing soon. Stay tuned.

Date for release (TBD)

P.M. (Working title)

Start of production: P.M.

This week starts the production week of P.M. I will be going into specifics for this project probably in 2 weeks. I'm preparing the layout and scheduling for many of the projects coming together. I currently have been creating outlines for some new works, in progress, with Photoshop. Here’s a quick glimpse:

Rabbit in the field: composition to complete the layout to start working. This is literally 2 pieces layered together before outlines and coloring starts. (Content In progress)

cropped and arranged images to help construct new image. Photoshop helps to see how everything can be arranged before committing to one idea entirely. Progress will be posted in the near future. (Content in progress)

Stay tuned for more updates and announcements starting this week.

Fall season is officially here.

As fall is officially here I often start brainstorming about future projects as well as the upcoming holiday season. What’s your favorite season/ holiday? I thought for this blog i’d talk about the upcoming season plans and rest of the year layout for any relevant news for this site moving forward.

As holidays draw near I’m lowering the price on my paintings. This sale will go through till New Years so that will be mostly for the remainder of this year. I will start the sale November 1st but will give another heads up when the sale is live. After this sale some of the pieces available on site will be switched out for newer pieces starting early next year. I’m constantly working on new paintings so this is just to keep everything up to date with each passing year.

Prints will always remain available for purchase and I’ll be adding more to this collection as well in the coming months so look forward to this.

The ebook is available for purchase through Lulu publishing and will make owning my collection of work just a little easier. Just in time for the holidays. For book details, click link here: The Artistic Letters 20 Year Collection of Artworks from The Frequent Artist (lulu.com).

Moving forward I’m thinking of putting more digital media out such as books, or a collective interactive piece of sorts. This will be completely focused on The Frequent Artist but more of a deep dive into how I work and more backstory to my creative journey moving forward. Expansion is key and I’m always looking for ways to put out more material in a collective manner.

I will start a process called “production week” starting next week which is a week utilized to catch up on extra drawing, painting, and recording. I need this because lately the schedule is falling behind with me and this “production week” would allow more content blogs out of me. So social media during these weeks will be silent on my end just to catch up. I used to do this a few years back and that worked beautifully; I got so much work done. I think I covered everything right now but updates are always a post away really.

I look forward to the progress ahead and what ideas will come from them. Stay tuned.

College Exit and mental shift

College is done. That’s what I thought about when a series of events led to me making certain decisions that made massive shifts to occur. Let’s start with the reason for the exit….

The coursework and regular double shifts every week eventually started to tire me out after just a year already completed. Around early 2016 after the holiday season I recall needing to take more time off to calm myself since it seemed like I worked with no real rest. I planned time to visit my family twice a year at this time since I had moved the summer of 2013 and that Christmas of 2015 was the last holiday with my mom. In April of 2016 my mom passed away and this started the shift of events. I took necessary time away, which was like two weeks, but immediately went back into my normal schedule at first. This normal schedule failed miserably because of course I just lost a parent but I tried to keep myself moving. Instead of taking time away from college I continued to take my courses and my grades suffered for this. During July of that summer I moved back in with my dad to be closer to family and recall how confusing everything felt moving back to my childhood home. I tried to adjust again to college life since fall admissions was happening soon and planned to re-enroll again to finish more of my courses but as you can guess that backfired. Only taking some fall/winter courses my G.P. A. dropped so low I was put on academic suspension in 2018 and couldn’t return for another year since that was the school’s policy. As you could imagine stress/anxiety took hold and I started to focus on healing myself.

What’s in the box????

That year with no school scheduled allowed me to sit and think about what I truly needed to do with my life at that point. I decided after a year away from study that I would allow myself some time to explore my artist journey. I didn’t return to college even with the suspension lifted and that turned out to be the right choice.

The academic suspension year, as I call it, allowed me to get back to working on new art pieces. The amount of comfort I felt from holding a paintbrush again was amazing since it had been nearly 3 years. I bought myself a drawing tablet I could draw on with a stylus and started working immediately on illustrations. This time of working on all this new work paid off as I started posting regularly again online, even joining an artist community site to feature my work on often. This led to my work being seen and leading to several artist opportunities including magazine publications and showcases. If I had went back to school the amount of work and progress made artistically would have never been posted.

The opportunity came around September 2019 I would have enrolled in late August that same year. Funny how decisions can change some things around. I listed many opportunities in my publications section for reference.

That’s the start to my artist journey but working to create more memories always. Many more stories to share with you so please check in every once and a while. I did learn many valuable lessons from college that I use regularly now but I’m happy I went with my instinct because it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

20 Years Later

I was 16 years old when I started studying modern art and often wondering if I would ever be able to paint at all. I remember even saying around that same time that I would never be able to learn the basics. I started to teach myself the basics by studying workbooks and reading fine art history books. Everything and anything I could consume as educational material I would reference starting on sheets of regular paper and a sketchbook. Learning the basics of anatomy to what perspective is was the starting point but these exercises kept me curious to educate myself more.

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work space

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At 16 I started painting along with studying any educational material about how to paint. Every new skill I learned or improved in I would think about that time I said I would never learn to paint. The paintbrush felt more normal in my hands as often before picking up a brush I always used a pencil or pen to do art at that point. I took art classes in high school and I felt I never learned enough in the short time class was in session. I knew most times I would have to learn most on my own so I became self-taught with curiosity always keeping me focused.

lost in thought (work in progress)

Acrylic paint became my preference when painting on canvas. I often will experiment with my brush strokes for depth and color variation.

Title: Lost In Thought

Motion and fluidity in shapes, even color, emphasize design often for me but overall harmony is what I want creatively now and days.

Weekly Vibes

Another Friday and week full of ideas but mostly sketches; I’ll show a little I’ve been working on. Just yesterday I was working on a new sketch for a illustration I feel will be quite trippy. The more recent pieces have been monotone and whenever I can use color I love the process more. Each sketching session is different but my mood has been good. I would often have a schedule years ago around my art sessions but as years have gone on I have been more casual with my time. Based around my weekly work schedule at my other job I often work now when i’m not too tired or my eyes can actually adjust to the screen time needed for the digital work. Just yesterday I deliberately worked with my sketchbook to give my eyes some rest from the screen to sketch the idea I had for the new piece I’m currently working on.

robot stretched (little glimpse)

Rough sketches often lead to often more willingness to try different tonal shifts but focus often starts with just focusing on a general item or place. This sketch started with the idea of a television set that was cracked or broken with something pushing through.

unused roughs but simple idea starter

I start this way lately with a sketch often in my sketchbook then transferring the images to my computer to doodle more around the rough sketches. This has allowed for more freedom to just explore with color and allows more ideas to come through for just a general concept to a possible illustration.

I will keep the posts coming along with the progress on yet another work in progress. See you next week.