Virus!

Hi!

Here's a page with a virus! I made it by adding a thin coat of acrylic gesso followed by layers of airbrushed transparent colors.  The line work was added using acrylic paint markers followed by some more transparent colors.

Big New Sketchbook, page 48. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day!

-Steve

Cut Paper Collage, Writing & Spiral

Hi.
Here are a couple of pages from my current sketchbook.

Big New Sketchbook, pages 46 & 47. Steve Franklin, 2016.

On the left, I cut out black construction paper shapes to arrange, rearrange and glue down on the page. Sometimes the figures and the empty spaces reverse roles.  I always consider the empty (negative) space when composing.  Both the figures and the ground is of equal importance.

On the right, I sprayed a simple spiral design over a paged that I had filled with writing. I used an airbrush with transparent acrylic paint (Golden High Flow mixed with Transparent Airbrush Extender).

Hope you enjoy the page, and I hope it inspires you to do your own collages in your sketchbook.  Sometimes a simple black on white scheme enables you to study shape to space relationship. Most of the time, overall simple shape greatly enhances your compositions no mater how complex your details are.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day!

-Steve

Forms and Noses

Hi.
Here are a couple of pages. On the left, I used acrylic paint to demonstrate simple forms.  For the bubble, I mixed clear acrylic with white. On the right, I covered up a page of demonstration noses using airbrush.  The airbrush needed cleaning, so after using it, I had to break it down to scrub it.

Big New Sketchbook, pages 44 and 45. Steve Franklin, 2016.

Thanks for viewing!

-Steve

Twirls and eyes

Hey,
It's been awhile since my last post. I took a break.

New Sketchbook pages 42 &43. Steve Franklin, 2016.

Here are a couple of pages.  On the left, I simply doodled some twirls to fill the page.  The page on the right consists of eyes on a demonstration page that I completed by adding color.  On the blue eye, I collaged a bit of handmade paper I found in a box. Hope you like it.
Thanks for viewing.
-Steve

What the hell is it?

Hi.
I mashed some foamy clay (Model Magic) into a simple organic form, took a picture with my phone then mashed the clay again.  Here are some sketches from the pics on my phone.

Big New Sketchbook, page 37. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Big New Sketchbook, page 39. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Big New Sketchbook, page 41. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Thanks for viewing, and have a great day!

-Steve Franklin

Sometimes...

Sometimes, I just write.
It may be nonsense.  That's okay.  Just so long as something flows from me.

Big New Sketchbook, page 34. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Big New Sketchbook, page 36. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Are You Trolling Me?

This is a silly page. Yes, I like to do humorous pages now and again.

This is in reference to a speaker at an event who was asked questions repeatedly by a student, got flustered and asked, "Are you trolling me?" After the event, everyone was asking each other, "Are you trolling me?" all day long and laughing. Trolling means acting like a troll.

How did I do this page? Well, I did the line work with a fountain pen followed by airbrushing acrylic colors, brushing some thin acrylic colors followed by a thin coat of acrylic gloss to seal the page:

Airbrush colors: Golden High Flow Acrylics mixed with Golden Airbrush Transparent Extender
Brushed colors: Golden Liquid Acrylics mixed with Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid
Are you trolling me? : Molotow acrylic paint marker
Topcoat: Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid followed by beeswax so the pages don't stick together

Are You Trolling Me? Big New Sketchbook, page 33. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Hope you enjoy this page.

Have a great day!

-Steve

Messing With Color

Hi.
Here I'm just messing around with cheap acrylic paints.

Basically, this is what I call a "quick fill page".  I like to fill all my sketchbook pages, so some days, I go back to the blank pages in my sketchbook and quickly fill them up with something.  Or some days, I go back to pages that somehow look incomplete, and I'll just touch them up enough to look complete.  Sometimes this means just applying a fancy border to a page.  Other times, this involves completely transforming a bland page into something beautiful. I just have a need to make my sketchbooks worth looking at from beginning to end.

Well, this is just a quick fill page, so I just started with a thin coat of acrylic gesso followed by some quick sketching with a color loaded brush.  In this instance, like when I start many paintings, I used a big brush.  When I paint, I always have a dampened cloth and a bowl of water ready.  I tell my students that to paint, one must always be aware of what is on the brush.

Anyway, here it is:

Big New Sketchbook, page 32. Acrylic. Steve Franklin, 2016.

As you can see, I like messing around with color.

Thanks for viewing, and have a wonderful day!

-Steve

No. 2 Pencil Portrait

I made an example of a No. 2 Pencil portrait in my sketchbook. I started by sketching someone with pencil then began filling it with pencils, conforming them to the shape of the face. Some pencils were really distorted and abstracted.

Next, I colored using watercolors followed by outlining with different micron pens.  I sealed the page with a thin coat of gloss acrylic.

Carla Warla, Big New Sketchbook, page 31, watercolor and pen. Steve Franklin, 2015.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day!

-Steve