I Opened A Store On Society 6! In Addition To Art Prints, You'll Also Find A Few Iphone Cases And A T-shirt

a little punk boy blowing musical farts (obviously). margin sketches ✎

Gouache Process

There have been a lot of very kind responses to my gouache paintings recently, as well as a few requests for tips, and so I've decided to do up a little process post.  I'm very flattered, and a little intimidated!  So, please bear with me as I expose all my clumsy painting techniques.  I should say that though I was taught the basics of gouache painting and dry-brushing, I took those and sorta ran off with my own methods, and they may not be the best way of working!  Like any artist, I'm always adjusting my process.  No doubt my next painting will be created completely differently, but at this point, this is what I do:

So here are my gouache tubes, disposable palettes, and palette knife (and juice!).  I don't know if many people use a palette knife when mixing gouache, but I like to so that I can preserve my brushes just a little more.  I also save all my palettes throughout each piece, and I've found that I can reuse the gouache pretty easily even on these disposable ones so long as you're patient enough to scrape and break up the dried bits with your knife and water.  I've never liked using porcelain or ceramic plates for my palettes, even though they are easier for reusing your dried gouache, only because I run out of space too quickly when I'm mixing and I can't save my colors.

Starting from the beginning!  I always try to preserve as much of the energy of my sketches as I can when I pencil out my piece so I'll usually blow them up and light-table them.  Our light table has become a hugely valuable tool when I paint.  It's homemade!  I hate to pencil directly onto the nice paper I'll be painting on, so I'll usually work over the pencils on the light table, like so:

If you think about it digitally, I typically treat this part like it's all about laying in the flats.  I'm going to have a relatively dark background, so I'll paint that in last so my lighter colors don't pick it up and get all blotchy from the retouching that would have been required in that case.

I can't ever leave that light table on and step away! Doesn't that look scary with that jar of water, and the table a little askew, and my laptop right there..........? 

No harm done!  My cat is dainty, and I'm lucky. 

So I've gotten most of my girl painted in and I've already started dry-brushing on parts.  Usually most of that detail work I'll save till the end, but in some cases it helps to do it before hand.  For instance, layering her dress over the dry-brushing I did on her arm (as you can see in the last photo) helps keep things crisp.

Starting on the background, I'm using this as an opportunity to smooth her shape out a bit and clean up any wayward brushstrokes.

It's almost there!  Now I get to dry brush!  The absolute best part.  Plus! I can abandon the light table now and just go to town adding details and cleaning things up.  This is where I go back to my palettes and reuse a lot of my gouache.  I've made the mistake of mixing too little at the beginning and only realizing it at this step and that is no fun!  Gouache can be finicky with color matching, so I try to avoid remixing a color from scratch at this point because of that.  Also, different colors may dry darker or lighter than when they're wet, which may depend on the brand you're buying.  I use Winsor & Newton and Daler Rowney (cheaper!).  Some colors work better per brand in my experience.  For instance, I hate Daler Rowney's yellow ocher.  It always dries in the tube on me and has a weird semigloss, whereas Winsor & Newton's is great.  Conversely, I've found Winsor & Newton's turquoise blue to be super oily, like, oil with some blue in it.

Anyway, heading towards the finish...

There she is!  All done.  I've added my line work for the little firework sparks, and dry-brushing the light and shadow has carried it home.  I hope this has been neat and informative.  If you want to talk more gouache techniques or what not with me, feel free to ask!  Thanks again for all the encouragement, guys!

chicken-footed cauldron

rad suspiria shirt! are there any more for sale? i just saw GOBLIN in philly myself, and was blown away. keep up the good work

thank you! Ugh, yes, Goblin was fantastic. They were all so psyched to be there too! SUCH a rad show. The Suspira (of course) and Deep Red themes gave me goosebumps. You can pick up a Suspiria shirt at Pizza Party's site here.

Thanks again! 

dffect asked:

"So what is the news besides the blues?"

It's cold in my house. But I'm enjoying a new scarf. But I ate a dissatisfying brownie. Trade-offs.

Oh look. My big ol face!

CLAW CLAW was kind enough to feature me for their first artist interview of 2014. If you want to find out things like what my all-time favorite color of gouache is, please check it out! Thanks to Shanon Weltman for the opportunity and her thoughtful questions!

gouache painting I did as a demo for high school students

A new illustration for the New Yorker’s Bar Tab column, this one for Johnny’s Bar in the West Village. Thanks to AD Deanna Donegan.

I made this poster for J Roddy Walston & The Business' 3-show series at the Ottobar starting on the 24th. Really fun direction and nice to have a hand in celebrating Ottobar's 20th anniversary! Tickets on the event page here.

New piece for the New York Times Letters section about the rise and perhaps over-diagnoses of ADHD. It's up today online: check it out! Thanks to art director Alexandra Zsigmond.