Bug bites at 2:30am

Any artist knows the feeling a sudden and compulsive need to create. Well, that creative bug bit me last night around 2:30 am. I was already awake and I just absolutely without a doubt had to make some art. So, I got out my gouache (which I haven't used since college), pens and colored pencils to create the image I'm posting here. You may recognize this character from my past 2 days of blogs. I really like her and she's very fun to draw. I've decided to name her Molly.

I had this scrap piece of narrow cardboard laying around so I thought up something fun that would fit the size and shape of it. I was very leisurely in my creation of this little piece. I worked on it until around 4am. After I scanned it I was still feeling the bug. The impulse to draw and paint was insatiable last night. But my body disagreed and at about 4:30am I turned in for the night.

So, here's the new Molly. I hope you like it!

Open Mic Poetry - My very first reading!

Tonight was a night to remember! I gave my very first reading at an open mic poetry session. This one is hosted by my local Barnes & Noble book store on the last Friday of each month. Last month I attended and listened, this week I jumped in!

Over the past two months I have been writing a series of poems to accompany my original illustrations so tonight I read two of them. I actually wrote one of them (Breezy) today and I wrote the other (Peppermint Swirl) just before Christmas. I printed and mounted the illustrations and brought them with me to the open mic session. Lauren came with me and was kind enough to take a few pics of me during my reading. I am posting those pictures here along with the illustrations and poems.

It was a really wonderful experience. There were eight people reading tonight (including myself) and it was really inspiring to watch and listen to them reading and expressing themselves with their craft. Wow, I heard some really great poetry tonight! I totally lost myself in it and I felt a heightened and visceral appreciation for the careful and deliberate use of the language. There can be so much art in a carefully crafted sentence, it is just astonishing.

One of the readers tonight really delivered a compelling reading. He read several pieces. His delivery had the natural fluidity of conversational speech and yet it was wrapped around thoughtful and artful language. His name is Damien Stednitz and he was really great. I met him and chatted with him after the session ended. He has a new book available so I bought a copy right there. If you'd like to check him out (I highly recommend it), click here!

This was a great experience. I enjoyed expressing my work and it was truly wonderful to see and hear others doing the same. I will definitely be doing this again!

Thanks for readin'.

"Breezy" - for Illustration Friday

Here is my latest submission for www.illustrationfriday.com
The topic this week is "Breezy".

I AM ASTONISHED at the synchronicity between today's topic and my blog posting from yesterday! Yesterday I posted a drawing perfectly suited for today's Breezy topic and that drawing came to me in a moment of pure and true inspiration. Even more bizarre is the fact that as I was drawing it yesterday I was wondering to myself if the drawing would ever match up with an Illustration Friday topic! I'm feeling a little spooked (in a good way) by this whole experience right now. If you'd like to read my long winded (please forgive the pun) description of that inspiration, check out my blog from yesterday by clicking here.

Even though I really like yesterday's drawing, I took it a step further today in order to make it special for Illustration Friday. So basically this is a remix of yesterday's piece. I am posting 3 versions of Breezy here. The bottom one is the original (yesterday's version). The top one is today's remix version as I first envisioned it when I began the remix. Lastly, the middle version is remix #2. I imagine that the top version is around dusk and the middle version is in the afternoon.

Thanks for checking this out!
N Lark

P.S.
www.illustrationfriday.com is a website that posts topics each week for artists from around the world to interpret, illustrate and post.

Inspiration and Whimsy

Occasionally I have an experience that could most aptly be described as a flood of inspiration. It happens to me when I have my eyes closed (laying in bed, in the shower, rubbing my eyes, etc.). Suddenly I will "see" a flurry of incredible images (cartoons, characters, illustrations, paintings) moving quickly like a slide show in my mind. It happens so quickly that I just keep my eyes closed and watch it, hoping to remember at least one image that I can later recreate. It is a strange feeling because it happens when I'm not even thinking about drawing. I'm not consciously trying to think up images. It's almost like someone sitting me down in a chair and showing me a slide show of their work. It feels as though I have nothing to do with the source and creation of these images. I just watch them fleeting across my mind and try to catputre and remember what I can.

That experience used to be very rare for me and now it is happening much more frequently. It happened again last night and I was able to clearly remember this image that I am posting here.

Even though I frequently work in many different styles, this one is a departure for me. It's very whimsical and free. I really like it and it was great fun to draw. Although perhaps "record" would be a better word to use than "draw". The head, hair and flying flowers and stars were all I could clearly remember from my inspiration so I made up the rest on the page. I think it all works together pretty nicely though.

Cardboard, Ink, Colored Pencil & Whiteout

Malibu Oil Painting (plein air)

Here's a little painting from the archives. I've never photographed it or posted it until today, though.

Last September my mom came out to visit me here is California (from Wisconsin).
She's been out to visit me numerous times and we always have a ball. On this particular occasion we spent one of our days at Point Dume beach in Malibu. I brought my French Easel, canvas and oil paints. After we hung out and chatted for awhile I set up my supplies and did this painting plein air. For anyone unfamiliar with the term 'Plein Air' - it refers to paintings that are done on location outdoors and not inside back at the studio. I think I spent about 3 hours on this.

The evening before our beach excursion I was deep in my Joaquin Sorolla book and getting inspired. I certainly won't pretend to be on his level but I think his influence is visible in some of the thickly painted brush strokes in the ocean.

This was so much fun and it reminded me of how much I enjoy oil painting!

Coffe Shop Shenanigans

A few nights ago I hit the local coffee shop again to do some sketching.
I had a lot of visitors. People stopping by, hanging out for a few minutes to watch and chat with me. At one point a little girl (probably about 7 years old) was trying to watch inconspicuously from a few feet away. I looked up at her, smiled and said hello. Well that must have been all she needed to feel comfortable because after that she literally walked right over and plopped her elbows on the table to watch me draw for about 20 minutes while her Dad sat nearby having coffee.
After a few minutes her little brother (about 5) joined her and by the end of it her dad was there too. It was funny to look up and see the whole family huddled around watching.

Later in the evening I saw a couple walk in together and the woman had a very striking profile. I decided to draw her. I was working based on memory after that brief view of her. After a short while I could see them leaving in my peripheral vision. They stopped to watch for a second.
"Wow, those are really nice drawings." She said to him.
"Yeah," he said. "I think he's drawing you now."

I don't usually get caught drawing people because I'm very discreet or I simply observe people and then draw them after they leave. But this time someone noticed. I don't think I did any harm though. She was very pretty and I was drawing her that way (she's the one in the upper right hand corner of the page).

It was a fun night!

Moving Day Watercolor Sketches

Yesterday Lauren and I helped her sister and brother in law move into their new place in Eagle Rock (Ca.). I was really enamored with the neighborhood and saw lots of things that I wanted to draw and paint. One of these days I might head down there with my French Easel and do a plein air oil painting.
During a break in the moving shenanigans I sat on the curb across the street from their new house and did a couple little watercolor sketches. The first was a view of a row of palm trees. For the second sketch I painted the cherry blossoms in their new front yard.
It was a nice day. Overcast and moderate temperatures but no rain (great for moving)!

Zoo Sketchin'

Yesterday I did some more sketching at the L.A. Zoo.
I brought my watercolor travel set with me this time. The zoo is beautifully landscaped and is really a great place to do sketches of all kinds (animals, landscapes, people, etc.).
I started the day with sketches of kangaroos and finished off with two small watercolor paintings of bamboo and tree tops. The Bamboo and tree tops were painted with traditional watercolor. The Kangaroo was sketched in ink and then I layered in color with watercolor pencils (bleeding the pigment with a water brush).

"Instinct" - for Illustration Friday

Here is my latest submission for www.illustrationfriday.com
The topic this week is "Instinct".

Here's a fun one for anyone who remembers the very first Star Wars film. Remember Luke Skywalker's first lesson with Obi Wan Kenobi? Luke has to wear the helmet with the blinding visor and defend himself from the the little floating training gadget which fires lasers at him. Obi Wan tells Luke that without his eyes, he'll have to trust his instincts. I thought this scene would be perfect for this week's topic.

When I first read this week's topic I was stumped - and that made me smile. I love a challenge and this one really made me think. I read the topic even before my morning shower so that I could think about it while I was getting ready for the day's work. I tossed all sorts of ideas around until this one came to me. I stored it away as a strong possibility and after rolling ideas around for another hour or two I came back to this and decided to run with it.

I'm also posting the sketch that the final illustration is based on. Final colors were done in Adobe Illustrator and the glow on the light saber was added in Photoshop.

Thanks for checking this out!
N Lark

P.S.
www.illustrationfriday.com is a website that posts topics each week for artists from around the world to interpret, illustrate and post.

Mr. Beefy

Superman's a wimp. Just ask this guy. It's Mr. Beefy and he's here to tell anyone who will listen that a superhero without facial hair just isn't manly enough. And while we're on the topic, why waste time with all those clever superhero names when "Mr. Beefy" is so much more direct. This is the sort of fellow who looks in the mirror and says...
"Yeah...you're damn right!"
Then he puts on his tight clothes and goes outside to present his perfect masculine physique to the world. He's a real man and you'd better recognize it unless you want to find yourself on the losing end of a wedgie.

I sketched this guy at the coffee shop with ink and marker on marker paper.

Lunch Time Oil Sketch

Yesterday I did something completely out of the ordinary but very productive and fun!
I was excited all morning because Lily Allen was scheduled to be performing live in studio on KCRW at 11am. If you're a Lily fan and you want to check out the online archive of the show: Click here.

I decided to skip lunch yesterday so that I could create something new while I listened to Lily. I worked all morning like usual and when Lily came on I sat down at my easel. I knocked out this little oil sketch on a 5x7 canvas. I kept it very loose, sketching with the brush directly onto the canvas without any preliminary drawing. After that I just loosely went in with thicker paint.

The whole sketch from start to finish only took about 35 minutes and I was done cleaning up by the time Lily's set was finished. After that I got right back to work. As a result I was a little hungry for the rest of the day (because I skipped lunch) but now I have a fun little oil sketch and a great memory to go with it!

Water Park People

When I was home in Wisconsin visiting my family over the winter holidays we did something completely new for me. We went to an indoor water park! It was cool because we could see it snowing outside through the huge windows yet there we were in our bathing suits going down water slides.
Eventually I plopped myself down on a lounge chair and took in the scenery via my trusty sketchbook. You know me, I don't go anywhere without it - not even a water park!
Here's a couple of the sketches I knocked out that day.

Gosh, just thinking back to that day is making me so nostalgic. I love you Mom, Dad, Dominique, Jared and Ari!

-Nathanael

Red

Here's a brand new cutie pie!
I scanned this one in stages for the fun of showing the progress from rough sketch to colored final.
Stage 1: I sketched this with a Col-Erase pencil (Carmine Red) on rose colored 400 Series Strathmore Artagain paper.
Stage 2: I tightened up the sketch with the same Col-Erase pencil.
Stage 3: I added additional tone and color to the figure with Prismaolor Premier colored pencils. I then added a light background with Col-Erase pencil again.

I hope you dig it!

What in the world are Sugar Monkeys???

Here's a fun little illustration that I completed for a client several weeks ago.
My client commissioned me to create this for a group of her co-workers who collectively refer to themselves as Sugar Monkeys. Hey, don't ask me, I'm just the guy hired to draw it! I actually enjoy the mystery of the origin for this title and I never asked where it came from.
One of the people in the group is well known for her love of shoes (hence the monkey in red pumps) and another is never seen without her coffee (I'm sure you can spot that one as well).
Ultimately I colored and finished this in Adobe Illustrator but I'm posting the preliminary sketch here as well just to show the process.

This was just good old fashioned fun to do!

"Celebrate" - for Illustration Friday

Here is my latest submission for www.illustrationfriday.com
The topic this week is "Celebrate".

By golly it just so happens that this week's topic lands on Friday the 13th which is also the day before Valentine's Day! I simply could not resist this unlikely pairing as I hatched the idea for this week's submission. So, in the spirit of both days, here is a very famous horror movie icon setting aside his machete and celebrating valentine's day. Incidentally this movie icon has a brand new film being released today and I think we all know the title!

So whether you're celebrating Friday the 13th, Valentine's Day or the movie coming out today - enjoy this little homage to all of them.

The timing on this is just incredible. I send out a BIG, BIG thank you to www.illustrationfriday.com for posting the topic of 'celebrate' today and making this whole idea possible!

Thanks for checking this out!
N Lark

P.S.
www.illustrationfriday.com is a website that posts topics each week for artists from around the world to interpret, illustrate and post.

Watercolor Coffe Shop Sketches

Tonight Lauren and I took another sketching trip to our local coffee shop to draw and paint the patrons.
I dove right in, creating loose black and white ink sketches with a Staedtler Pigment Liner pen (#3 width). It's got excellent lightfast waterproof ink so once the sketches were finished I was able to paint them in Watercolor without the worry of bleeding or smearing the ink. Once again I used my Windsor & Newton travel set to paint with.
When I was finished with the three heads, Lauren asked if I would paint a bouquet of flowers that she was looking at online on her iphone. Now how could I resist a bouquet of flowers this close to Valentine's Day? I quickly sketched it, then painted it in watercolor using a lot of wet-into-wet technique. Overall I'm pretty happy with tonight's effort.

Big props to Lauren for her photographic wizardry with that iphone!

"Time" - for Illustration Friday

Here is my latest submission for www.illustrationfriday.com
The topic this week is "Time".

All of my initial ideas for this topic had to do with people and their relationship with time. I imagined people under deadline, rushing and hurrying...actually I'm just now realizing that all of my original ideas were about not having enough time. Hmm, maybe that says something about me!
I tried to really push myself past my gut reaction ideas about time. The result was that it occurred to me that I could try to illustrate a famous cliche about time. If I've done my job properly then you already know that this is an illustration of the very well worn cliche "Time is money". I loved this idea the instant that I hatched it! I tested the sketch on Lauren who was easily able to identify the cliche so I proceeded to clean it up and color it in Adobe Illustrator.

Thanks for checking this out!
N Lark

P.S.
www.illustrationfriday.com is a website which posts topics each week which artists from around the world then interpret and illustrate.

Coffee Shop Sketches

Here's the latest batch of coffee shop sketches. I kept it pretty loose tonight, just quickly laying down an impression of the people I saw coming, going and hanging around the shop. I sketched these directly in black ink. The small touches of color on the faces was added with a Faber Castell PITT Artist Brush Pen. The blue color wash was achieved by laying down a blue outline on the heads with Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils and then simply washing over them with a brush and clean water to spread the pigment. Simple as that!

Sketching at the L.A. Zoo

Today I had a great time sketching at the L.A. Zoo. It was quite overcast which is perfect for sketching because there is no glare on the white page and I don't need to wear sunglasses.
I did most of my sketches today directly with ink pens (of various colors) and then went back over them with a Water Brush which bleeds the ink and allows me to paint in the tones.
I strolled leisurely around the zoo and sketched the animals which caught my fancy. I drew quite a crowd (about 15-20 people) while I was sketching the giraffes. I was flattered that people enjoyed watching me draw and indulge my creative passion.
Today was an all-around wonderful, relaxing and creative day!

Life Drawing

Last night Lauren was kind enough to model for me. I asked her to take a comfortable pose and completely relax. So, she lied down on the bed and I sat in a chair to draw the pose from this angle. The curves and rhythms of her body/anatomy became apparent to me in a clear and obvious way that I don't consciously notice very often. It was very beautiful.
I sketched this in my Moleskine (5.25"x8.25") sketchbook. I sketched directly with Faber Castell PITT Artist Brush Pens. I found that I could build some nice tones in the drawing by adding strokes of color in layers, very similar to watercolor. This was a nice experiment and very fun to do. This sketch took about 12 minutes.

More watercolor sketchin'

Lauren and I had another fun night watercolor sketching at the coffee shop last night. Once again these were all done in my new tiny hardcover Moleskine watercolor sketchbook (5.5"x3.5"). I really enjoy painting small. I'm also really enjoying the process of sketching directly with paint and skipping the pencil stage. It challenges me to think clearly about my choices while staying loose. Lots of fun and I'm sure I'll be doing plenty more of these!

P.S. I do these little watercolor paintings with my small Windsor & Newton travel set.
It's like a little transformer. When it's closed, it's small enough to fit in your pocket. But it folds out and open and contains 12 colors, a brush, a sponge, a cup for holding water, a bottle for storing clean water and 3 color mixing surfaces. It's great!

Giving a gift and making a friend!

Last night I was sitting outside a nearby coffee shop with Lauren doing some watercolor sketching. It was the first time I had tried sketching directly in paint without drawing anything in pencil first. I was having a great time working on tiny paintings of people that I saw walking around.

Pretty soon a fellow with an acoustic guitar sat down at a table a short distance away from us and started playing and singing softly. He was great and it added so much enjoyment and atmosphere. At one point someone tried to tip him and he politely declined. It felt so neat to be sitting there expressing my art while he was there expressing his art. Both of us doing it simply for the love and joy of doing it.

So I started to paint him inconspicuously. Soon after that I overheard him mention to someone in a conversation that he had a birthday coming up. So I wrote "Happy Birthday" on the painting and when his conversation ended I gave the painting to him and told him how much I enjoyed his music and the atmosphere he was creating.

We had a fun and pleasant conversation after that. His name is Michale Douglas (like the actor). He was kind enough to play a few songs for Lauren and I before we had to leave. Just an all around warm, sincere and kind person. It was a fun and magical night!

"Flawed" - for Illustration Friday

This is my first submission for www.illustrationfriday.com
The topic this week is "Flawed"

Hopefully the illustration communicates on it's own but here is my thought process.
I interpreted Flawed to reflect this young woman's thoughts about herself. She sees herself as flawed and so ultimately this is about her own self image. I've included the preliminary sketches which led up to my final vector illustration.

As I was finishing it, I realized that this could be interpreted in several ways. Is it her body overall that is flawed? Is it her specific weight that is flawed? Does she see herself as flawed? Or is it her self esteem that is flawed for the mere fact that she allows her weight and body to define her value?

I like it that this can be seen in different ways. I set out to illustrate something very specific and ended up with a picture which still hits the mark (I believe) but also opens the door to other interpretations.

Hopefully this is an image which can have different meanings for different people yet all of which are insightful and a little thought provoking.

Thanks for checking this out!
N Lark

P.S.
www.illustrationfriday.com is a website which posts topics each week which artists from around the world then interpret and illustrate.

Superbowl Sunday!

Today is Superbowl Sunday. The Arizona Cardinals are Squaring off against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Personally I'm rooting for the Cardinals for the simple fact that they're the underdogs and they've never won a Superbowl.
Here's the color version of the two smokin' hot referees that I posted yesterday. I'll take a penalty from these two, anytime.
Have a safe and fun Superbowl Sunday, everyone!