Mental Health

This illustration is for the primate diaries this week.  The chimp is drawn with ink and wash but the background is created with a type of paint called Casein paint. Derived from milk casein, is a fast-drying, water-soluble medium. It generally has a glue-like consistency, but can be thinned with water to the degree that fits a particular artist's style and desired result. It can be used on canvas panels, illustration boards, paper, wood and Masonite but here I am using it in 4 ply Bristol board. Casein paint is reworkable and can be used for underpainting. It generally dries to a matte finish. This was the paint of choice for illustrators prior to the 1960s but once Acrylic came to be most illustrators dropped Casein paint but I think I will be exploring it more in the near future.

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Chimp Sketch of the week #7

occupy wall street

I was down at Zuccotti Park recently and decided to do some sketches. Ironically I found there to be many Wall Street types occupying Wall Street.

This young twenty something year old was more interested in checking his blackberry then protesting, most likely on his lunch break. Lets call this guy the lunch break protester a nice young guy a few years out of Grad School trying to remain youthful wanting to appear as if he is still part of some pseudo hippie culture but knows that if he gets back late from lunch he will be fired and his parents will be so mad they might stop paying for that blackberry or iphone he’s texting his girlfriend on.

The guy next to him was more interested in the 9/11 memorabilia that is sold on a constant basis at the construction of the Freedom Tower just another stop these days for the holiday season NY tourists

As you can see from this Sketch WORKERS ARE SLAVES well at least as far as that middle-aged woman is concerned as she stands there and preaches to the hipsters and homeless.

This guys walks by and stops for a second to see this sideshow attraction on his way to a very important meeting at the brokerage firm he works for...he looks at his pocket-watch like the white rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. He realizes he is late and he is then off to rob and steal.

Epilogue: I then left and got a dirty water dog for $2.50 I remember when they were a $1 well that’s capitalism for you.

Chimp Sketch of the week #6

With Respect to Dr Seuss

One Chimp

Two Chimps

Red Chimp

Blue Chimp

Chimp Sketch of the week #5

I had some scraps of watercolor paper that was toned with Lipton Tea from a previous illustrations (see Tradition post below) so I decided using black prismacolor color pencil to sketch out this chimp of the week with titanium white gouache for highlights.

The Social Network

The most recent illustration for The Primate Diaries at Scientific American was a challenge. Unlike my usual chimp head on a human body I challenged myself to use the wild chimpanzee to communicate the narrative in this illustration. The idea was to show these wild animals in their environment holding mobile devices and communicating via facebook, twitter and text. The article was about how primate brain size increased over evolutionary time as an adaptation for increased social networks.

I started with a line drawing in ink on 140 lb Stonehenge cream color paper using black ink on the middle toned paper to begin to push and pull my values. I am already making choices as to were my darkest darks and lightest lights are.

My next step is using lamp back watercolor and watered down ink I create washes modeling the form and continuing to push and pull the values.

As you can see in this detail I use a kolinsky sable brush to model the wash. After this I put an acrylic varnish over the entire image creating a surface suitable for painting

Using gouache I add my lightest lights with titanium white and yellow ocher. I paint in the leaves and sky and for a final touch I paint the phones into the chimps hands.

Chimp Sketch of the week #4

Another one done in my sketchbook, this one was done with an ebony pencil, which gives you a large range of value. The background is an acrylic wash.