42 Hours

42 hours awake, one of them spent drawing this picture.

I made it on a series of flights to Managua, Nicaragua.

It’s a continuation of my Philippians series.

See other surreal black & white drawings.

The First Spray Painting

Making this picture opened the door to new medium experimentation for me. It was my first attempt at stencil-cutting and spray paint.

This piece is part of my Philippians series.

8" x 8"
spray paint and watercolor on vellum

See more spray paint art.

Coffee Is an Art Supply . . . Right?

This is the 20th painting in my Philippians series.

I used glue, various kinds of paper, acrylic paint, coffee, and tissue.

Using Free Art Supplies

It's an enjoyable challenge to create a piece exclusively from free materials. In my experience, imposing a framework for a piece is the most important part of its formation. Often I create that framework via medium.

Materials for this piece come from a box of donated items: a rejected, pre-cut mat, a piece of scrap paper, and a pencil stub.

It's part of my Philippians series.

See more graphite drawings here.

Grow from It

Materials:

• Cut paper
• Sketch paper & pen
• Glue
• Acrylic paint

See more surreal pieces here, or check out other drawings in my Philippians series.

Why I Finish Drawings I Hate

I am not patient.
Or at least, not as patient as I'd like to be.
I have this unspoken rule [about to be spoken] that obligates me to not start a new drawing until I've finished the last one.  It's less a rule than a compulsion.  So even if I hate the drawing, or I lose the exact marker I need, etc., it must be finished before I can start something new.
Sometimes it sucks.
This "rule" probably has a lot to do with my obscene prolificity.

I'm never doing a large scale colored pencil picture again (that's probably a lie).

This is I think the 17th image in my Philippians series.  

See other drawings in my Philippians series.

Upward—Mixed Media on Wood

Materials:

• gesso
• 6" x 8" piece of wood
• acrylic ink,
• charcoal
• brown chalk
• tracing paper
• scrap paper for the bird
• Staedler pens

This is part of my Philippians series.

Stand Firm—Pencil on Vellum

 This picture is included in my Philippians series.

Pen Drawing: Facing Hunger

8" x 8" 

pen on vellum

See more of my artworks inspired by Philippians, or check out other monsters.

In the Flesh

In the Flesh

 Paper and glue on wood

8" x 10" 

See more cut paper art, or check out other pieces in the Philippians series.

Precursory: Portrait Made with Cut Paper

This is what I did with some scrapbooking materials.  

I guess I didn't read the instructions.

 

"Precursory"

 12" x 12" 

paper and glue on wood.

See more paper art.

Glue, Paper, Charcoal, Philippains

Crying Tree
18" x 24"
charcoal, glue, and scrap paper

See more of my mixed media art based on the Bible here.

Robot / Book

Creativity isn't really creation.  It's just combining existing elements.




See more of my Philippians series.

Crooked City

when
can we leave this
this tangle
this evil tangle
this dirty corner?
from muddy eyes
we look
out.

this crooked city:
it eats us and
now we
can't get out.

---

Look at more of my Philippians series, or check out more art with extreme colors.

The Obedient One: Completed

The Obedient One

I draw monsters.
Here are some more.

See an earlier stage of this painting, or check out more pieces in my Philippians series.

A Painting Begins: The Obedient One

After a morning of studying and thinking, I came up with the rough idea for my next painting for the Philippians series.

I started it on a 4' x 3' canvas this afternoon . . . just a brief 15-minute stint of painting, but enough to get the gist down.

Want to see the final piece?
You can see other works in progress here.

Bellygod

This drawing is part of my Philippians series.  It's pen and colored pencil on 8" x 8" drawing paper. You can see more of them here, or you can also look at other surreal drawings I've made here.

Playing with ink and cut paper

I tried a new technique on a new piece as part of my Philippians series. I could use some practice with this method, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

This one's called "Because of my Chains." The two chains intersect, echoing the shape of the cross to reflect sacrificial love and suffering for the sake of others.

It's 14" x 17" scrap paper, sumi ink, and glue on vellum paper.



Check out other pieces involving cut paper.

What does "mixed media" actually mean?

Saying an art piece is "mixed media" without explaining what mediums were mixed is kind of a cop out.  You could be using anything.

I often get frustrated when I see an intriguing technique and want to learn what was used, only to see the sad, vague words "mixed media.

Instead of saying that, this time I will actually tell what I used to make this:

• Plywood
• Scrap paper from the recycle bin
• patterned paper for scrapbooking (I don't do that stuff)
• 3 different kinds of tissue paper
• glue
• charcoal
• acrylic paint
• ballpoint pen
• carving knife
• Sumi ink

Partaking in Grace

This is an image from my Philippians series. 

Completed Painting, Unfinished Story

As this painting is about a work in progress, I had difficulty deciding how finished I should let it become. 

It's called "You Will Be Complete."  It is part of my series based on the book of Philippians.

You can see photos of stages of the painting here, or check out other works in progress.