Self-Portrait zines

I found it interesting, using an incredibly labour intensive method, in this case mezzotint, to create something that would be reproduced in photocopied form. I mezzotinted and burnished one plate, and then cut it to give me the four separate pieces.

Here I Am.

Another project for Alternative Media and Techniques about human relationships. I hope you like it.

MarblingT

This is an example of an etching technique called marbling. This project is still in progress.

Scaffolding print

Trains

This is a small selection of the 11 prints that I sewed together into an accordion fold book for Alternative Media and Techniques. They're line etchings with a bit of monoprint and watercolour on top. I'm not a fan of some of the watercolour, and may at a later date try to wash some of it off.

It must seem like rather a slap in the face for my first post in a month to be just process work. I understand. However, I also hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. I've got other stuff on the go, I swear, some of it nearly finished. Hopefully by the end of the week there will be more to show you! For now, SEA MONSTER!

Hey there. I realize it's been a while. I hope you can forgive me; I was being so good there for a bit! Hopefully soon some finished work will be cropping up. Until then, check this out. It's a line etching with some aquatinting going on. It's part of a multi-print piece I'm doing right now that's consisting of a bunch of mounted bleed prints. We'll see how that goes!

And here she is! All finished!

What's this!? two updates in a row?!? AMAZING!

That's right people, apparently I've been productive! This one here isn't done yet, but it's been quite fun so far. The medium is oil on cardboard (which in itself is an awesome medium; cardboard is cheap and gives you an instant midtone).

I finished a new panel a couple of days; take a look.
Mixed media on panel

Sketchbook styles

Moved into the new apartment!

This past weekend, I moved into my new apartment in Toronto. Now I'm fairly settled, by my walls are still pretty empty. This painting came about to add a little colour to my untarnished wall space. Today I also hit up the Ingram Gallery. A lot of talented folks get represented there! Check it out.

Another Commission finished!

I just recently finished this drawing for a co-worker from Stage Two. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, and I think he was too. It's acrylic ink and gouache on grey Stonehenge.

Latest painting finished at long last

I've finally got it to a point where it's 'finished'. Who knows, I may come back to it at some point. But currently this is where it stands. 20" by 24", oil on canvas.

Acrylic transfers: a workshop for Ancaster's Stage 2

Currently I'm working at Theatre Ancaster, with their Stage Two program. I'm leading a little workshop involving a whole bunch of acrylic experimentation techniques. It's been a lot of fun, and so far kids are enjoying it! Here's an image of one of my demos done in preparation for the workshop.

Show set up in the Blue Dog

Last week I set up my show at the Blue Dog Coffee Roasters; here are a few photos of the mounted exhibition. In addition to viewing the blog, I highly recommend checking it out, and possibly enjoying a delicious beverage as you do so.

Many thanks go out to Marie Fanjoy for allowing me to show my work, and for her help with hanging the show. Keep on rocking.

Another pencil drawing is in order. I've just been practicing drawing from photographs.
Larger projects may begin surfacing within the near future. We shall see.

Summer days are upon us...

This means work, and lots of it. Sometimes, however, I manage to fit in a little artwork in the process.

I am ashamed. So long without updates! No amount of apologies will suffice. But perhaps new work will help to ease the pain of such a slight.

This is just a simple collage I was messing around with the other day. It's been a while since I've worked with collage, so this was a nice little throwback.

My new, and probably a little ambitious, idea is to try to "draw" every day this summer. When I put draw inside those lovely little quotation marks I simply mean I'm trying to sketch, paint, collage, or do something vaguely artsy every day. So far, since making this goal, I have only missed two days. Ideally I will also blog some of the better results, assuming they aren't too painful. Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted.

Over and out.

Bad Alex. Bad.

This is my final project for Intaglio, taught by Rudolf Bikkers. I did a mezzotint on both plates and then burnished out the light areas. It's a time consuming process, but can achieve some impressive results. There was a lot of stress involved in getting these prints done, but I'm pretty happy with them, and it was definitely a rewarding undertaking. It started with a mezzotint on just the plate involving the dead bird; I originally planned on etching the large plate. I have several proofs of just the bird, done before I decided to mezzotint the large plate as well, and some of these have chine collé elements as well.

Beast project for Harvey Chan's media studio class. I'm happy with parts of this painting, but other bits I'm definitely not a huge fan of. I like the wolfman, though. He's a keeper. This was done in oils on BFK Rives.
Ps, please look up Harvey Chan on Google. His work is amazing.



These two were also for media studio, The project theme was "Man and Machine". This was Harvey's favourite project over the entire semester, and is based on my silly doodle style. Acrylic and collage.

This is another non-toxic print project. It's a lino-cut reduction print, and I'm fairly happy with it. The inks we were using are soy-based, and these inks dry very slowly, and remain slightly tacky for quite some time after printing. These prints were finished in January, and still feel like they haven't cured entirely.

Since I've been neglecting it...

I have lots of new work, so I'm going to post a bunch today. Brace yourself for several updates.




These four fishy little images are a series of tiny mezzotints (the largest is a three inch square, the smallest a i.5 inch square), done for non-toxic print. Printing such small plates was nice, as wiping them took very little time.

Apologies.

I'm sorry good people.
It's been a long time. I'm aware of that.
It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I've been a little squished for time. And my blogging has suffered. I'm sorry for that. I do, however, have a bundle of work that I can now post. I hope you'll forgive me.


These are some process shots of my bronze castings.



These are two of the three finished sculptures. Bronze casting is quite an intensive process, but it was definitely worth the time and effort. I hope to do more of it in the future!