Shark Stanley Art

Shark Stanley Cutout

Stanley and friends going on a journey

The  Dreadful Degraded Reef

Pierre Le Porbeagle in Trouble

Happy Turtles

The paintings in this post are taken from the pages of a recently launched children's book titled " Shark Stanley and friends". This  book along with the four shark character cutouts that I created are part of a  campaign to raise awareness about endangered sharks and rays, as well as to provide sanctuaries for them.  Shark Stanley and Friends is now offered as a free PDF download and hard copies will be made available after Feb 7th. I will follow up with some information as soon as I have it to where you can go about getting a copy of the book.

For now here are the links to download the free PDF version:

http://www.sharkdefenders.com/2013/01/the-adventures-of-shark-stanley-and.html

http://sagemagazine.org/the-adventures-of-shark-stanley-and-friends-official-book-release/

To learn more about Shark Stanley and Friends have a look at these following links:

http://www.sharkdefenders.com/p/shark-stanley.html

https://www.facebook.com/SharkStanley

Kraken Final

Release the Kraken

Acrylic, watercolor, and digital

13"x19"

Here is the final painting that will be used for the Feats of Strength 8 bouldering competition poster.To learn more about the event visit the Cliffs at Valhalla.

Kraken clean up

Release the Kraken 

8.5"x11"

Here is the Kraken drawing from my previous post. This version has been cleaned up and a few things within the composition have been moved around. At this point I will be transferring the drawing to a piece of Arches watercolor paper and will begin painting. 

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.