Build SKETCHBOOK SKOOL
24 Artists Magazine January/February 2020
a bunch of 4-year-olds who’d been
running amok on the page.
So, I slowed down in order to really
understand this new medium, to use
it not to reproduce my traditional
analog techniques but to explore what
it means to work in pure color in
light. For years, I’d been struggling to
get increasingly intense tones with
watercolor, but I’ve now learned how
to build fresh, vibrant palettes. I’ve
discovered that my greatest pleasure
comes from working more as a painter
than as a draftsman, thinking in
terms of color fields and raw textures
instead of line.
I began collecting photos of tex-
tures and snapping shots of old sheets
of yellowing paper, crumbling plaster
walls, cabbage leaves and horse
hide—and then layering them into
my digital paintings to create ran-
domness and warmth. I eyedropped
color samples from my favorite paint-
ers, sucking up palettes from Monet,
van Gogh and Hockney. I drew a dif-
ferent breed of dog in a different styleLEFT
I experiment with
color combinations
I never would have
dreamt of using on
paper.BELOW
I’m able to create
images that look
dimensional, yet
hand-drawn.