Tristan

When I first discovered image making I approached creating without fear. My earliest illustrations were created with a naive ambition. I thought if I were excited enough about the project and concept, my emotions would drive the artwork to success.

Fear set in after repeated failures. Anticipation of a completed piece of art was not enough to make the art I anticipated. So, I set the bar lower for years because it was the easiest way to medicate the ailment. This trick fooled few people other than myself.

You can only pretend to be something you are not for so long. It was the artwork of the oil painters I grew up on that showed me the man behind the curtain. If I knew how easy image creation would become I would not have sacrificed my ideals. Now I can not rest until I am the artist I believe I am intended to be.

We Are Fragile: a wrap around album cover for the band, Isle Of Thieves.

14 x 20, Oil on Strathmore 500 series illustration board

Prints Available through inPRNT!

I’m starting a painting of my wife. We’ve been together for about four years and this is the first time I’ve painted her.

She’s pretty happy. I just needed to make sure she was with me for me and not just to get a painting out of the deal.

While in Florida this holiday, I snapped the reference during a sunset.

Here’s the original drawing as well as the drawing scanned, printed out and mounted onto board. 11” x 14”

just picked up this bad boy and a sheet of 2’ x 4’ hardboard.

I’m within walking distance of a home depot. With my new print and mount technique i may never have to purchase a prepared surface again! Cost of the 2 x 4 sheet of hardboard? Under 5 bucks! that’s what i’m talkin about.

I can float and mount my printed drawings on the hard board then trim them to size once the paintings complete.

SO STOKED!

On an even brighter note, tonight, we’ll head to nearly 80 deg weather for an 11 day FL vacation. It’ll be a white Christmas this year…a white sandy beach Christmas!

Finally, this Friday, AVATAR!!!!!!!!! 3D, James Cameron, PEW PEW PEW!

A few weeks ago a I was interviewed by designer, Michael Ortali. This was my first interview published by another artists and the first conducted by an interviewer over seas. Michael, did a great job designing the page and it was an honour to be a part of his project.

I haven’t post any recent photos of our latest apt. This is after the wife’s holiday decorating last Friday.

“Alas, I knew him!”
An illustration of Sam Worthington from the movie Terminator Salvation
oil on board
11” x 14”
Illustration By Tristan

Finally got the thumbs up on this guy and sent it off to the Society of Illustrators this morning. I had a ton of fun with this especially the skull as you may imagine. I feel like i pushed the mood on this piece more than any of my other work in the past. That’s a technique i have to keep in mind going on.

if you’ve got any questions about it just ask. This guy’s my favourite illustration and now hangs above my bedroom door.

heymikewaskom:

abby-face (via michael waskom)

Tristan(who’s on tumblr) is an amazing artist. Here’s Abby, next to a portrait of herself, painted by Tristan at one of his openings.

These were all taken on my 1984 Cannon.

Terminator Salvation/Sam Worthington, progress 1
oil on board
11” x 14”

I redrew the sketch for this Sam Worthington/Hamlet/Terminator illustration. The pose was too stiff and the likeness could have been stronger.
After imagining myself in the position of the subject I asked myself why I only had ONE hand in the illustration. If this was truly the mock-Hamlet pose I would have hammed it up with the right hand. This would add gesture and sell the idea more.

I re-shot the pose and I ended up favouring the fingers holding the skull in the new shots much more. After thoroughly redrawing and refining the sketch i was dishearten by the thought of redrawing it for the painting surface. Not an uncommon issue for realistic painters.

I figured it was a good time to give Donato’s drawing transfer and mounting technique a try. Essentially you scan, print then matte medium your drawing to the surface. Pros: a MUCH faster way of working and you get to keep the original drawing unharmed. Cons: You’re limited to the size you can print at and since the process involves soaking the printed surface in water bleeding is an issue.

I have realized that 11x14 is a real sweet spot for me. It’s big enough for me to get fine details but small enough to speed up painting times. I bought a ton of matte medium and found 11x14 Strathmore bristol board in their 400 series. I was hoping for 500 series which is 100% pure cotton but at a buck a sheet I figured i’d hold of until i knew i can get the technique down.

Earlier in the day i ran a test sheet of paper under water. there was bleeding but not the total mess i’d expected. I figured if I dropped the opacity of the drawing that would give me less bleeding on the bristol board. The first two shots are a before and after of the soaking process. The paper will expand after you wet it, even if you wet it with matte medium. If you don’t pre-soak the expansion occurs during the mounting process and then you get bubbles. Not cool!

The first attempt was a bust because too much of the ink had washed off. My next attempt was printed and with a different paper setting and “in colour” instead of greyscale even though i’d be printing a black and white image. This allowed for more inks to be used giving me a better shot of having a stronger image left over after the soak. There was a clog in one of my blue ink heads that created this happy accident. An awesome Raw Sienna glaze effect, thank you universe!

This time before attempting to soak i hit the print out with a blow drier to make sure the ink had properly settled into the bristol. Then i soaked the back FIRST and gently rinsed the front. This gave me a much better result with only minor water artifacts. Not bad for an inkjet printer that’s almost 5 years old.

I let the majority of the surface water drip off and I began my matte medium mount. I hadn’t attempted anything like this in almost seven years but it’s a simple concept. I applied a liberal amount of medium to the gesso side of my gessobord and spread the glue with a brayer. I then positioned my artwork and repeated the process on the surface. Immediately i could tell the bristol had grown vertically and exceeded the surface size. The forth image was taken directly after the bristol mounting was complete.

The next day i trimmed the minor excess bristol with an exacto knife and began painting the background. The final photo is a shot of the red steam background. I’ve pushed details and began painting the figure since this phone but i’d like to introduce a varied amount of colour into the smoke.

All in all i consider the technique a success and i look forward to being able to push my drawings further knowing i can simply mount a copy to my surface after. It’s all VERY exciting!

Terminator Salvation/Sam Worthington rough sketches
5.5” x 7”

I enjoyed Terminator Salvation probably more than most people. I’m broken like that. Before the film was released i had the above idea for an illustration but with Christian Bale.

After the movie released i was advised to swap Christian for Sam as Mr. Worthington both stole the show and may be a big deal after Avatar, MAYBE!

So here are my rough studies. From the bottom up it’s the sketch, value study then a bit of a colour study. It’s been too long since i’ve done a celebrity likeness and i’m looking forward to the challenge. The final illustration will be 11” x 14” oil on panel.

ballpoint pen on sketchbook paper

Yesterday i spent the bulk of my day in a courthouse waiting to see if i’d be called for jury duty. I got lucky and according to the rules of the State of NY i won’t have to go through this again for another 8 years.

I took advantage of the atmosphere and drew fellow would-be jurors. I also started listening to Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers. The stories are truly inspirational and I highly recommend the book.

Gladwell, has got me thinking nonstop about hitting my 10,000 hours as soon as i can!

5”x5” goauche on watercolour paper

This was a fun still life that got me painting after a month of Freelancing with Macy’s.

My wife wanted a new piece of art to fit this silver frame in our kitchen. she asked for bottles and colours that match the nesting dolls.

I pulled a few bottles from above our cabinets and sat down with some gouache. I’ve never done a real painting with the medium and it wasn’t bad. I’ve always wanted to do gouache colour studies.

I told her they’re fast and easy so if she needs anything else just let me know!

owlatthemoon:

made for another world

If it’s gonna be my first reblog it may as well be my favourite author. I’ve been devouring a lot of Lewis the past few weeks.

Dis-info-nation, a fold out album cover for the band Feeding the Fire
11 x 14
oil on panel
find more illustration at thewhiteleaf.com

This piece was essentially done AGES ago but i’ve been having a few creative differences with the client.

After lots of going back and forth through emails, phone calls and eventually photoshopped changes. The band agreed that my version was better than what they had in mind and the illustration should go to print in its original form.

This job was an interesting one.