Each month I write a blog called The Sketchbook Confessional, which is a recap of everything I completed in a month. The Sketchbook Confessional is a ‘done’ list rather than a ‘to-do’ list - it’s an objective look at things I completed, a way to keep myself focused and understanding towards my own output, rather than mythologizing myself as making more or less art than I actually did.
2023 is the second year where I am writing a recap of my entire year, 2022 being the first. So here we go:
I started out January by making some watercolors of rainbow trout.
In January/February I put together many ‘Dragon Families’ or Guardian Dragons. It’s been fun to make these. I make them out of hand painted paper. Usually I paint them with gouache, and sometimes, shiny watercolor such as iulie watercolors.
I made a series of a mineshaft at the Robert Emmett mine in Leadville, or just east of Leadville up on 5th Street near the Mineral Belt Trail.
It was fun to paint these in a series and work with straight/straightish lines.
Another series type that I started in 2023 was a series of oil paintings featuring a lone hiker, sometimes two hikers, on fantastic imaginary landscapes or rock features.
This was one of my favorite series of the year. I wanted to work with the idea of traveling the unknown and the immensity of nature, and also use my typical bright color palette.
Here’s me in Leadville at Harperrose Studios with a few of the Hiker series paintings.
As usual I made several paintings of Mt Elbert in Leadville, I think this was my favorite:
On the realism side of things, in early 2023 I did finish one nude painting that I really liked. I started a few other more realistic paintings but haven’t finished them or I won’t finish them on purpose.
For some reason I was really proud of her knees in this. It is interesting how skintones can have shades of green and blue in them.
As the weather cooled off in the fall I returned to making more art out of paper, such as these paper dragon bookmarks.
I began to put paper dragons on mini canvases as well - the above are 2 x 2 inches each. Making each of these is very fun for me, I enjoy layering the mountains and landscapes with each dragon.
On the papercraft side of things I also made several hummingbird pieces:
It turns out 2023 was a bit of a cowboy/Western themed year for me. I began working with a series about night riders in deserts, with a galaxy of stars in the sky above.
In keeping with the Western theme, I started making these watercolor-ish drawings, where they are really made of acrylic ink from Winsor and Newton. One could probably make the very same thing from watercolor but they are in fact acrylic ink.
I made a couple more bigger cowgirl drawings and made archival prints of the drawing on handmade paper made from recycled fabric/cotton. These turned out well, one of these prints is below. Each one is so unique I’d call them 1/1.
In addition to paintings, I did many drawings in 2023 in my Traveler’s Notebook. To make these, I used a Kuretake no 55 double sided pen and a Chromatek water brush pen. Here are a few of these drawings.
For many of these I focused on the Boulder Flatirons, but I also drew areas around Ghost Ranch in Santa Fe and a few scenes from around Leadville. It was fun to work with limits for these, not just the limits of ink but also the limits of color and value. They helped me get more creative.
A new character appeared in my art in 2023. I made several paintings and drawings of my baby-now-toddler. Since he is a redhead, he makes for a fun subject in color, though I also did some drawings of him in black and white.
It’s been fun to learn to paint and draw my favorite (very) young person.
On the computer side of things, I had tons of fun with digital art in 2023. The piece I am most proud of is this animation involving a waterwheel, of a floating island environment.
I made this one week in August where I had a cold. After drawing all the bricks and buildings and finishing the static version of this piece… I was still sick with some non-covid thing, drinking theraflu like there was no tomorrow, and couldn’t go outside or run because I felt so bad. So, I decided to push this piece a bit further, and add animation to it.
Here is the animation on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwf_KpdA73-/
Animating a wheel from a 45 degree angle … where there is water involved …. completely by hand … is what I would call difficult. The wheel is rigid but the water is not. It’s a good mix of movement. Maybe it’s even perfect as an assignment to oneself. This was a breakthrough exercise for me because it was so challenging and varied. I’m sure if I had used 3D modeling software to animate the waterwheel, it would have been much easier. I’m glad I spent the time to do this by hand, however. As it is, I used Clip Studio Paint and Procreate both to make the animation.
More digital art:
I made another piece I really like, featuring the ‘back’ of the Boulder Flatirons near the trail to NCAR. I was running out in this area one day and took a pic of where I was, realizing it was the back of what I usually look at each day driving through Boulder on my way to McGuckins or whereever. The idea of the back of a landmark, like the back of Mt. Rushmore, or the Niagra Falls from the other direction, made me think of making this piece.
I also reworked some motifs from earlier years, like the piece below.
Also in the digital category, I tried out a couple AI apps and sent my modeling photos into the app. This one below is from an app called Prequel.
Being someone who has made drawings and paintings my whole life, and also someone who models, I have a lot of thoughts about AI image creation, and recorded some of the thoughts here. As time goes by and more technology is sharpened, as as I hear and read more artist stories about AI, my thoughts change, and I will do my best to keep them updated. For the moment, it’s certainly not only visual artists and models who are (unwillingly) providing content for AI, it’s everyone and everything with an image on the internet, I’d say.
A new medium for me that I tried this year was embroidery. I enjoyed embroidery quite a bit and found it to be very fun, like painting or drawing with thread. I hope to try a new medium every year.
I started out 2023 hoping to count every painting I made. I lost count shortly after making the watercolor rainbow trout in January. I didn’t have the best system for tracking this. Maybe in 2024 I will be able to do this, but perhaps just the idea of counting paintings is a good enough idea to kickstart a year of art.
Until next time, See you, Space Cowboy ….
