Lately it seems that I can’t keep up with the demand for these smaller panels (this one is 24 x 12 in). In fact, last weekend I stocked up and pre-cut  about 32 different small-to-medium-sized panels, so that I can work on them in batches. Working in batches is actually ideal, since each panel requires a certain amount of waiting time in between printing, painting, and varnishing. I’ve found that the screen-printing ink is much blacker and cleaner than using a marker, which I did for the first series of larger panels. Since I have many of the designs already burned onto screens for my shirts, I can easily reprint them onto wood to create new compositions. This year I want to take this a step farther. I’m now using sketches to create elements that can be mix-n-matched on different panels to create multiple and complex new compositions. I can’t wait to see how far I can push them.

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I am putting this one aside for a bit to work on other paintings and to think about how I would like to finish it, but I will be posting the finished product soon.

Here is a page out of my smaller sketchbook (I have two). This is a drawing of a Swallow-tailed Kite in flight. I mentioned in my last post that my drawings are becoming increasingly line-driven and this is an excellent example. I particularly like the line work on the back of the first bird. The way that the lines trace the curvature of the wing are particularly informative of the form of the subject. You can imagine the wind separating to curve over the top and subsequently racing underneath the wing to create lift. Particularly amazing is this birds unique ability to catch and eat dragonflies during flight.

Because I have been traveling for the past two years, I haven’t had the space to make large paintings. Instead, I turned my efforts towards mastering the art of watercolor and working out of a small tabletop suitcase that turns into an easel. These are a few of my recent watercolor drawings done on the “road.” My focus has become exceptionally line-driven. My thoughts on this are interesting. Each line represents a new view of my subject, creating a greater understanding of its form, an almost sculptural understanding begins to take shape. The repetition of lines mapping each form becomes a mantra, a meditation of form, shape, and movement. The lines and movement breathe life into the work. Pattern and shape break the form into manageable components. I connect to the subject again and again until a moment of understanding occurs; then I repeat the enlightenment, like the refraction of light, which is never a single occurrence, but the measure of many.

I’ll post a few of my recent sketchbook pages in another post to illustrate this point a little more.