New Materials = FUN!

My new Arches watercolor block arrived yesterday along with a few other items. I still enjoy painting on  cold press wc paper and from time to time, a rough stock but I am really enjoying working on the smooth hot press 140 lb. lately. I did these sketches late last night. The first scan is done with no alterations.
I cleaned up the images in the other shots. Please click on images to enlarge.

Robot Waiter

Just a fun little watercolor I did while breaking in some new brushes. Click on image to enlarge.

Lesson # 1...Don't forget your paints!

I was already to do some sketching and painting yesterday afternoon and had my backpack filled with sketchbook, watercolor block, paper towels, brushes, pencils and water bottle. Of course in order to paint one must remember to bring their paints!  Yeah....I did it. Another senior moment.
Anyway, I did get some sketching done at least. I ended the afternoon by stopping for a cold one at
a favorite spot downtown where I sketched this out quickly in pencil, inked it this morning and colored it digitally a few minutes ago. Both inked and colored are shown here. Please click on image to enlarge.

Bar Scene

I loosened up with some watercolors this morning and came up with this imaginary bar / club scene.
It's really not a full blown scene but a few characters I just doodled quickly. I definitely want to get out and do more of this type of work on-site. Working from photos and memory is fine and in many cases necessary, particularly when a deadline is breathing down your neck. But, drawing from life
can't be beat. If you can't take all your watercolors with you. then at least take a sketch pad, pen or pencil and take in the sites and the energy. Please click on image to enlarge.

The Evolving Artist / Breakthroughs etc.,

There is a small part of me that has always envied those illustrators and fine artists who seemed to have found their signature style early on and stuck with it throughout their entire careers. I have experimented with many approaches over the years, some successful, some not so successful.
Switching styles and not having one signature style can be pure hell when it comes to marketing.
Yet there are many advantages to being able to bend this way or that in order to bring in a steady stream of work. After all, one must pay the bills.

Over the past few years I have been trying to nail down an honest feel to my work which would allow me to meld my love of both color and line. I enjoy the loose feel of a brush and have been taking this same approach to my drawing, particularly over the past couple years.
Many times a breakthrough can happen by mistake but more often than not, it is the result of hard work, failures, hard work, a little success, more hard work and failures....trial and error if you get my drift.

Shown here is a small piece I did which I am very happy with and it came so easily and effortlessly that I had it made me smile.  It is shown here, first as a b&w wash and ink, then colored digitally in a couple different ways. It's a little breakthrough I feel and a nice way to start the week.

Busy Sunday

I spent much of Sunday working on an assignment and playing with my watercolors.
As far as the assignment goes, I need to finish it up today and will post it when able.
In the meantime, here are three watercolor sketches I did. I paint pretty much everything in full color
and then save it in color and in grayscale. I also experimented with coloring the Paris Street scene
digitally. I am no photoshop guru and really don't care to be. But, I do enjoy playing with the "screen" option which you can find under the Layer tool box. An example of this coloring tool can be seen in the last version of the Paris Street scene.

Please click on the images to enlarge.

Dis n Dat

It's been quite awhile since I have posted anything. I have been fairly busy with the comic work
as well as some video and social media work, illustrating images for both.
It's funny how things come and go in waves. My work with digital color is still popular but I have been getting more and more requests for the traditional watercolor work and I really enjoy the chance
to branch out more. Shown here is a variety of work that I have done over the last month. Some of it is comic based, some digitally colored and also as mentioned,  the watercolor work.
Hope to be posting more soon. Other work can be viewed at www.altpick.com/markweber

Please click on images to enlarge.