The Kraken

Kraken Thumbnail Drawings

The Kraken Rough Drawing

Here is a quick preview of a new project I am working on . The top image in this post shows some of the tiny thumbnail drawings that I do when starting a new painting. During the thumbnail phase I try to nail down the large shapes that will be in the composition, as well as perspective. Once I have the overall composition worked out I move on to the rough drawing(image 2).  I like where the image is going but will most likely make some changes before completing the final drawing .

Thai Fairy Tale

Floating Village

18" x 24"

Watercolor on Arches

I created this image in one of my graduate school classes taught by Ted and Betsy Lewin. In the one week class, I created a 32 page book dummy to accompany a Thai fairy tale of how the limestone mountains were formed around Krabi. This is one of the finished spreads that would be the book opener of the floating village where the story takes place.

The Young Locals

 The Young Locals

       20"x 27.5"

Watercolor on Arches

In the winter of 2008, I was fortunate enough to travel to the temples of Angkor Wat located near Siem Reap, Camboda. Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century and is the largest Hindu temple complex in the world.  One day while on a tour of the Bayon Temple, I was greeted by a group of three local boys who said they would be my tour guides and show me the temple where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed in exchange for some American coins. They led me down a faint path through the jungle and along the way we crawled through a ruin of an old temple where the sun shined through a small window illuminating the space. Inspired by the unique shadow pattern created by the fragmented light, I asked the boys if I could take a photo of them which became the reference for this painting.

Memories of Potrero

Potrero Memories

watercolor on arches 

18"x27"

This is a large watercolor painting I recently completed for my longtime friend, Dave, who is a local climber in Connecticut. Dave has traveled numerous times to El Potrero Chico, a famous limestone climbing area in Mexico, numerous times with other Connecticut climbers and he requested a painting of the entrance to the canyon with soft details and a impressionistic feel. I also traveled to this area back in 2001 and remember the misty mornings and the clouds that encased the cliff sides, so I tried to recreate this dream-like effect.