The Process

 

From Nature to Paper

After each hiking trip I get so pumped. I’m exhausted from the hike and I dirty from the woods but I’m impassioned by what I experienced. I get excited to go into the studio and create something from my experience. Lots of ideas are floating around, I have to quickly get onto my sketchbook. I think about what was the most impactful thing I saw, what was beautiful or cool or colorful. What do I want to convey to others about my experience? I answer that question and then I just get to work creating.

In the day to day, the creativity doesn’t always flow like that but I keep working hard and searching for what the next thing is that I want to create for my customers.

 

The technical process

I use watercolor paints, felt tip and brush pens and sometimes acrylic paints to create my art. Typically I start by sketching something on drawing paper, then I transfer it to a thick watercolor paper to do the painting. I follow the sketch that I have laid out but that’s more of a guide than a roadmap. I’ll look at pictures that I took on the trail to paint from but I also add my creative flair, I don’t paint in realism. My painting style is semi-realism with room for creativity and imaginative colors and graphic lines.

Materials I use:

Watercolor paints:

Winsor and Newton and Daniel Smith watercolors mainly

Synthetic hair watercolor brushes

Brush pens:

The Pentel Pocket Brush pen is an essential in my arsenal of tools.

Other faves are: Zebra Fude Sign brush pens, Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens