Posts Tagged ‘sketchbook’

A few days ago I showed you some works in progress and I am happy to report that they are now completed and ready for your viewing pleasure. Two of them are even ready to hang on your wall. You know, if you’re into kinky stuff like that.

“Love Each Other”
5″ x 7″ – mixed media on wood
$100, plus shipping. If you’d like to purchase this painting you can place your order right here.
BONUS! Use code EARLYBIRD to get 20% off this painting. Offer expires at noon on Jan. 15.

And now a little story. For some reason I really wanted to write “love each other” on this painting, which is strange because off the top of my head I can only think of two paintings I’ve made in the last 4-6 years with words in them. And one of them doesn’t count because it was my sister’s name on an iPad cover I painted for her. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’m just not that into using words in my art. I probably should though and after making this one I feel like I might add it to my repertoire. The thing is, I have awful handwriting. I also have this self imposed rule not to sketch on my paintings first and to just dive in with paint, ink and a paint brush. I’ll admit, I have made a few exceptions, mostly on commissions where I was asked to paint something very specific. In other cases, but not often, I might sketch with a pen or brush on a scrap paper just to get the feel for how to put the line down before I try it on the actual painting. Forming muscle memory, I suppose. When it comes to writing text I over analyze and scrutinize every little detail, which is silly because that totally takes the fun out of it. But, when you don’t do it often it just feels awkward. Check out my scrap paper for writing “Love Each Other”.

That’s just ridiculous. I felt like a neurotic little girl writing my name over and over again with the last name of whatever boy I’m crushing on. Let’s just call him Jake Ryan. We love each other, damn it! He just doesn’t know it. Yet.

Anyway…
My other painting is a new “fat bird”, as I lovingly call them. Most of my fat birds are 4″ squares, but this one is an 8 incher. I really love the wood grain in this one. I was tempted to paint a border around the image, but decided not to because I wanted as much wood grain to show as possible.

“King Of The Castle”
8″ x 8″ – mixed media on wood
$120, plus shipping.
If you’d like to purchase this painting you can place your order right here.
BONUS! Use code EARLYBIRD to get 20% off this painting. Offer expires at noon on Jan. 15.

Have you heard of the Early Bird Special yet? Sometimes when I put new things up in the shop I offer 20% off for the first day or two. These are one of a kind originals and once they’re sold they are gone forever. If you happen to purchase one within the first day or two that I have it available I think you deserve a little something, which is why I started doing this. Be sure to use the code EARLYBIRD during checkout and you will get 20% off these paintings. This code is also valid for the three new paintings I posted a few days ago.

And last, but not least, here is the full page sketchbook spread. It took a couple of days for the spray paint to lose some of its stickiness.

Years ago when I was obsessed with drawing in sketchbooks I never would have thought to spray paint in one, but I like it. This Moleskine paper can take a lot of abuse and the paint didn’t even bleed through at all, which is awesome.

As always, thanks for looking!
– Jeff

Sometimes getting work done on Saturday can be tricky when you have two teenagers, a toddler and a 20+ item to-do-list. If you find yourself in a similar situation here is my parenting advice: ignore ALL of them and do what you want. Duh, right?

Yeah, I wish it was that easy. Somehow my daughter convinced me to drive her to a friend’s house 20 minutes away at 9 o’clock this morning. On my sleep in day, no less. Anyway, between playing taxi driver, bike mechanic and doctor (the toddler is a bit under the weather at the moment) I was able to get a few things done. Coral and I sort of took turns playing doctor. She got dirty doing yard work while I watched Elliott and then I got dirty painting while she watched him. Amongst other artsy business work like putting wire on the backs of paintings and making a post office run I am happy to say I started a few new paintings too.

Despite looking kind of pink in the photo, I assure you this is a very vibrant red.

This is the beginnings of a “fat bird” painting that I hope to have available in the online shop within a day or two.

And a full page sketchbook spread, which I will finish as soon as I’m done posting this blog.

I’m not sure if you like seeing paintings half way done, but I’ve always been a “behind-the-scenes” fan so I think they can be interesting. Also, I probably like behind-the-scenes stuff because I have stalker tendencies. Nothing you should worry about though. It’s not like I’m standing right outside your window watching you read this. Just kidding, I’m totally standing outside your window.

Be on the lookout in a day or two for a post where I’ll show you all of these completed. Since I, unfortunately, procrastinate from time to time let’s just consider “a day or two” to mean anything in the range from 1 day to 13 days. You know, just to play it safe.

See you soon!
– Jeff

Neal Breton and I are working on this collaboration sketchbook and I thought I’d share a couple of pages with you.

If you know us then it should be fairly easy to figure out who did what. Anyway, we’ve been working on this for awhile and SERIOUSLY need to finish it soon. I’m really stoked with how it’s turning out and when the whole book is done I will post some more photos of it.

Thanks for looking!
– Jeff

For this week’s installment of Flashback Friday we are opening up Sketchbook #3, which I worked on from January 1998 – August 1998.

(page 85)

(page 86)

(page 87)

(page 88)

(page 89)

Have a fantastical weekend, homies!
– Jeff

This is the debut feature of Sketchbook #6 for Flashback Friday, which I drew from June – November 2000.

(page 2)

(page 15)

It looks like I had a slight disturbing interpretation of breasts back in 2000. I won’t even mention the pizza thing.

(page 30)

It’s very rare that I get all mixed media up in my sketchbooks. Back in the day I always wanted to, but Dan Eldon was such a master it’s like why even bother trying. If you are unfamiliar with Dan Eldon, I suggest you click that link to read his wikipedia entry. Then, you should totally buy his awesome book The Journey Is The Destination.

Full disclosure: If you buy it through that link I get a little hookup from amazon. Hey, I’ve got to figure out how to make this blog earn it’s keep around here. Right?

(page 41)

(page 43)

You know, just a bottle of alcohol. Try to guess what kind. And good look spelling it correctly!

(page 44)

Smoking and drinking…hmm? I guess I couldn’t think of other accessories a person might carry. If I drew this today I think I’d have her holding an umbrella and a donut.

(page 91)

I don’t pull out the old wooden drawing manniquin often, but when I do (at least in 2000) this is what you get.

That’s it folks!
– Jeff

This is the fourteenth installment of Flashback Friday and it’s the first time I’m giving you a look at Sketchbook #8. I worked on the book from September 26, 2001 until June 5, 2002. Of the 110 pages in this book only four of them have any color. What does that mean? Well, let’s just say this book has a plethora of black and white going on. If you’re curious about the pages with color don’t get to imaginative. The only color I used was red. I’m guessing I was painting a lot during this time and that must have been my outlet for colorful creations. Well, here we go. These drawings are all at the front of the book and were made between September and October 2001.

Ah! There’s that damn sideways eye thing again. I really couldn’t escape it.

One of the few drawings in which I did not draw over the original line multiple times. Like the sideways eye I can’t escape making lines bold. I like it though.

This is the source material for the next drawing. I’m not sure where this little statue came from but I’ve been dragging it around with me for years.

That’s it for now.

Enjoy!
– Jeff

I’m taking a little bit of a shortcut this week by posting this video. I was all set up to take photos of a few select pages out of this book, but then I remembered I made this video awhile back. Anyway, this is my seventh sketchbook. A friend showed me his recycled paper sketchbook and I thought it was awesome. Not for any saving the world reasons, but because I had been drawing on white for so many years. Now I was able to draw with white, which was a whole new experience. This may very well be my favorite sketchbook I’ve ever done. I tried my best to make every drawing worthy enough to rip out of the book and put in a frame to hang on a wall. Of course, I will never let any of these pages get ripped out, but that was the goal I was shooting for.

I hope you enjoy it!
– Jeff

This week we are going back twelve years to 1998. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Burne Hogarth. This week I decided to post some of the drawings I copied out of his super awesome book, “Dynamic Figure Drawing“. I highly recommend checking it out. The dude is a true master. Like insane…seriously, the guy is so good.

Well, it’s 7:25pm on New Year’s Eve and I’m still at the gallery. I better get the F out of here!

I hope you all have a safe and fantastical night!
– Jeff

This week we’re taking a look at Sketchbook #4, which is my book from August 1998 – April 1999. Out of all the sketchbooks I’ve accumulated over the years this is probably my second favorite one. I say that because I probably spent the most time on it. Flipping through it just now I saw plenty of pages that probably took a couple of hours each to complete. There is a good chance, too, that it’s also the most colorful. For this post I decided to show five pages that are all somewhat different in style.

I’m not sure if this guy is waving his finger to say, “No more drinks for me, good sir.” Or, “Pour me one more!” Either way, I’m pretty stoked about him having orange donuts around his neck. If you’d like to comment on the misproportion of the hand on the right to the head above it feel free.

I’m not exactly sure what is happening here, but there is definitely a pair of breasts in there.

The source for this was a photo of Jackson Pollack, but I only used the portion from the neck down and made up my own face and hair. A lot of time was just wasted trying to find the photo on the internet, but my efforts were fruitless. If I was at home right now I could scan the photo out of the book. Oh well. I think we’ll all survive without seeing the original photo.

No, I did not draw this from life. Years ago a friend of mine suggested I buy a Burne Hogarth book and copy all the drawings in it. So, I did. Well, I bought the book and copied a couple of drawings. Anyway, if you want to improve your skills I suggest you give that a try. If you decide to give it a try please purchase it through my affiliate link. Thanks!

Look! There’s that sideways eye thing I told you about.

Well, that concludes this week’s Flashback Friday.
I hope you enjoyed it!
– Jeff

It’s Friday once again, which means it’s time for a flashback. This week we’re going back to 1997. This is a random selection of drawings from August – October.

I drew this while staying at a YMCA hostel in New York with my friend Ryan. You can see the NY influence. The Brooklyn Bridge, big buildings, weird dude, and of course, chess. Yes, chess. Washington Square Park, baby!

Drew Barrymore, because what 19 year old didn’t want to bed down Drew in 1997?

I actually drew this from life*, which is something I’ve never really done often. Yes, I sat in front of a flower and drew this. It was in the garden of my grandparent’s house in Palm Springs. When it got too dark to draw outside I went in and drew this next one from the $5 bill.

So, there you have it…some drawings I made about thirteen years ago. Fun stuff!

See more old school sketchbook work at Flashback Friday.
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Get artsy Christmas presents at www.etsy.com/shop/jeffclaassen

Enjoy your Friday night!
– Jeff

* Hmm…if only I could have drawn the Drew Barrymore one from life. Ahh, a 19 year old can dream.

This is one of my favorite paintings by Roy Lichtenstein. It’s called “Stepping Out” and I saw this in person with my friend Ryan in New York back in 1997. We were about 19 years old at the time. Luckily, I had never seen this painting in a book so my first experience with it was seeing it with my own eyes at the Met.

(I’ve used this sideways eye thing in a lot of drawings and some paintings over the years. Yeah, I stole was inspired by it.)

Something about “Stepping Out” really got my attention. Probably the bold lines and colors. That always seems to get me. Please excuse me while I nerd out for a minute. There is an obvious nod to Fernand Leger, which is great. “Stepping Out” is an updated Pop Art version of a Leger.

And, of course, the Ben Day dots and stripes are super cool. I started putting dots and stripes all over the place once I became a Lichtenstein fan. However, I freehanded mine because I liked the look of them being done by hand more than the mechanically produced look that Roy was after. Yeah, I’m on a first name basis with him. No big deal.

These drawings are all from my second sketchbook and were made between August 1997 and February 1998. I have plenty of more Lichtenstein inspired drawings that I’ve done over the years, but this batch was all from the same sketchbook so perhaps in the future you will see more.

Thanks for looking!
– Jeff

Typically, I avoid pencils at all costs. I just don’t like them. It’s the whole option to erase what you’ve done that gets me. As it turns out I was actually able to see these drawings through to completion. These are all portraits of authors I found in Sketchbook #1, which is from 1997 and quite possibly the early beginnings of my Bukowski phase.

Charles Bukowski

John Fante

For this next one I ditched the pencil for a stick of charcoal.

Ezra Pound

Hope you enjoyed the Flashback! To see more work from my old sketchbooks check out Flashback Friday.

Thanks for looking and have a good weekend!