Quarantine Sketchbook

Hercules and the Golden Fleece or Jason and the Golden Fleece, whatever the true tale is... ink and watercolor on paper 12 x 18.

There is something exciting about starting a painting with just a few brush strokes. I was tempted to go back in but I am really trying to practice more restraint lately.  Everything needs to breathe among the chaos which makes perfect sense to me in the current landscape we all reside in. “Big Horn” ink and wash on paper 12x18 .

One of the things I love to do after completing a piece is to take the image and design some type around it. It's just something to do and it does give me an idea as to how that particular painting or illustration will look if ever used as a book cover or promo piece. This is a painting originally titled "His name was Country" an oil on canvas which measures 11x14. I was just mess'n around and came across this typeface which I think gives it a cool little retro vibe. Please click on image to enlarge.

 Every week I submit one to three images to Tribune Media who provides images to various newspapers across the country. If they post one of my drawings I get paid for that image. Pretty simple. I'm not making hand over fist but it does get my work out there and I have the opportunity to try various mediums and styles. Many of the pieces are used for a newspapers "Opinion" page and us in the business refer to it as "Op-ed". These are a couple of the Covid-19 inspired pieces I recently did. The first relates to "Greed, individuals and companies who look to make a profit during these times" and the second image relates to "Spring". Newspapers seek strong imagery which states a simple message quickly and to the point and I strive to keep it as simple as possible. These two pieces were drawn using brush and ink then scanned and colored digital in photoshop.

Automatic drawing is a way to loosen up and free your mind while enjoying the act of making art while not having a set idea. A form of doodling. I do the same with paint as I'm sure many of us artists do. This piece shown here is a good example.

The cool couple. They're out there somewhere. This was a random sketch I did last night while watching tv. I inked it with a micron pen then colored it in ink and watercolor. A caption would fit below this well as it reminds me of a cartoon you might see in the New Yorker. If you have an idea, shoot it to me! And as always, please keep me and other artists in mind for commissions and purchases during these trying times. Have a great day! www.markweberart.com

My wife Chris and I put up a gazebo last Thursday and have been spending a good amount of our time enjoying it and it's somewhat bug free environment. We are hoping it will last the Summer and not be blown away or punctured by some falling tree limb. It is nice to have a spot where we can hide from the sweltering sun or watch the rain fall as we sit and read, or in my case draw while enjoying the fresh air. If you have something you want drawn, please mail me at mark@weberillustration.com

Unless I have a specific assignment that I'm working on I really don't know what I will be drawing until my pencil touches the paper. I pencilled out this scene last night not sure if I was going to take it to final art or not. I was looking for something to simply try out some new ink and watercolors on. It is definitely open for interpretation. Is he a grumpy old man? Is the woman about to poison him with a bowl of soup? Is she the daughter of an old lover of his? There must be a story in there somewhere. Right?! MW

I started this piece last night and just finished it. Well, I think I have. I'm still pondering over it. He's a bit of a strange chap don't you think? Ink, watercolor and gouache on paper 12x16. www.markweberart.com

Last night I was doing some mindless sketching while watching tv. Just pencil and paper at that point. This morning I decided to ink and color them for the fun of it. They are not bad for what they are, quickly inked and colored as it was just meant for something to loosen me up before I go into some serious work. They are a bit on the sloppy side but they served their purpose and I think of them as just another way to explore possibilities. Customarily I usually give a client three to four preliminary sketches which in the publishing industry are known as thumbnail sketches. These can run from very loose pencil drawings to tight colored sketches to give an art director an idea of what the final art will look like. This process can go back and forth a number of times until both the art director and the artist have nailed down a solid composition. It's work. The first two shown here have a point to them while I have no idea what the last one means!  I just named it &q

It's Sunday and yes, I am feeling lazy. Besides doing the things that must be done such as dishes, walking the dog, brushing my teeth etc., etc., I don't seem to have a ton of ambition today. That being said, I grabbed a magazine and browsed through it looking for something to sketch. There was not a lot to choose from but I felt I had to do something to warrant me lifting my butt off my chair from in front of my laptop and into the studio. These were sketched out in pencil first then painted in watercolor and gouache.  I added shades and a man bun to the saxophone player and the figure to the left has a bit of a bend due to me not flattening out the paper before I photographed it. Not the most imaginative of efforts but at least I did something today. I just hope I can share something a bit more intriguing tomorrow.  Well, I think I'm ready for a nap now.

I started my day by cleaning the gutters on the house. It's not something I look forward to, reaching into a bunch of muddy pine needles, leaves and who knows what else. But, it must be done and it comes with the whole home owner business. After lunch and a nice bicycle ride I finally had a chance to sit down and play a little with some new art supplies. I am still on my quest to "loosen up" and drew this figure off the top of my head with a ink dropper, sepia ink to be exact. Yard work must have still been on my mind as you can tell by the subject matter. The color was done with a mix of watercolor and gouache. I tried to us my dip pen to add some detail but it was being temperamental and I finally gave up on it. I'm fairly pleased with this piece and would like to try more in this manner. However, the next time I would like to pick a more interesting setting with more figures. A social gathering of some kind which during these days of social distancing is not

I grew up on Lake Erie and perhaps that's one of the reasons that I love to draw and paint nautical themed pieces. The dock was only a few miles from my house and the memory of the boats and the characters who worked on them has never left me. The very first children's book I was commissioned to illustrate was Little Toot and the Lighthouse back in 1999. It is still in print and was written by Linda Gramatky, the daughter of Hardie Gramatky who wrote and illustrated the original Little Toot in 1939. Mr. Gramatky was not only a great illustrator but his paintings are fantastic as well and a great inspiration over the years. His work looks effortless. The maritime muse must have been whispering in my ear this morning as this is what I came up with. I wanted to show the scale of the piece so I took a photo of it on my work table. The second photo is the same piece cropped while the third photo shows a few little layers I added in photoshop. In this I added some flesh tone t

One of my favorite mediums to work with is gouache. When I mention this medium to some students they look at me with a blank stare as I envision a bunch of dancing question marks above their heads. Gouache has been used by artists and designers for years. I think it's best described as a heavy body watercolor paint. It can be used opaque or transparent and is used primarily on a heavier stock paper or illustration board. Many of the backgrounds in some of our favorite animated movies were done using gouache because of it's diversity. Here are a couple pieces I did last night using gouache along with some watercolor. There was no planning involved, I just started to doodle. Just playing. I added some type to the Hercules piece in photoshop just for the fun of it. In 2005 I illustrated a children's book titled The Pirate Princess for Arthur Levine Books and all the illustrations were done using gouache. Please check it out if you get a chance. Well, time to paint. B

I woke up to a very dreary morning. Not a ideal morning for sketching outdoors to say the least, On a whim  I went to Google Images and did a search for street scenes. Why street scenes?  I have no idea. I barely had a full cup of coffee in me so I wasn't exactly bending spoons (or forks...see How to Pass Time from my previous post) so who knows what I was thinking. Anyway, I picked a little photo of a corner in NYC which looked like it was taken in the 50s or early 60s. I try and go into these little sketch exercises with the idea that they are to be done quickly without too much thinking and also with the intent of not to overdo it. "Lighten Up" is what I keep telling myself which is not always easy. I sketch it initially in light pencil and then go over it in pen and then finally go in with watercolor. I purposely tried to work in a limited palette. Leaving some white of the paper gives it some breathing room and I have to fight the urge to fill in certain object