Original Watercolors for sale!

Now that the 100 Watercolors book and eBook are available, I am selling off 77 of the original paintings.  This is only the second time I have ever sold any of my original art, so if you've ever wanted to own a piece by me, this is a great chance!

To handle the sales, I set up a custom StoreEnvy shop, which lists each of the watercolors along with their price - all are between $50-$100, depending on their complexity.  You can use the search bar on the left, if there is a certain one you are looking for, or click through the various pages to check them out.  The paintings are all 4"x6" on heavy watercolor paper, inked with India ink and painted with watercolor paint.  Suitable for framing!

PLEASE NOTE: This blog entry is auto-posting!  My computer is currently packed up in the back of a moving truck along with the rest of my worldly possessions.  Tomorrow morning I am driving to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  All watercolor orders will be shipped by mid-August, after I get settled in Santa Fe!

Since these are originals, there is only one of each painting and it is first come, first served! Also, I gave 23 of the paintings away to close friends and family members, so not all of the paintings are available.  If you are not able to get the painting you want, I'll remind you that you can get all 100 Watercolors for the price of a single painting by buying the book.

Thanks so much to everyone for your support of this project!  After I get caught up on everything post-move, I'm going to get back to posting some regular illustration work on here!

100 Watercolors Book and eBook!

Last week I finished my 100 Watercolors challenge, which is now available as an eBook and as a print-on-demand physical book!

Both editions include an introduction that explains the origin of the "100 Themes" challenge and how that lead to me painting these 100 Watercolors from 2008-2015.

In the back of the book there is also a 16-page appendix which shows all of the tools that I used to make these paintings as well as a step-by-step walkthrough of my entire process, from idea to finished painting, for watercolor #100.

You can get the eBook version for only 99 cents over on Gumroad!

That's less than a penny per painting.  If you have enjoyed checking out these paintings over the last seven years, please consider picking up the eBook!  It's a nice easy way to check them out all in one place, and to learn about their creation.

For those of you who would rather have this project as a physical book on your shelf, it is now available from Lulu.com as a 226-page, full color, 8.5" x 8.5", perfect-bound book.  It's got a cover price of $75 (full color printing is expensive!) but it's 25% off if you order it from Lulu.com.

Below you can see what it looks like - I'm really happy with how it turned out!

On Thursday (7/30/15) I will be putting up a link to an online store where I will be selling off many of these original paintings.  They will ship out by mid-August from Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I am moving at the end of this week!

100 Watercolors #100 - Relaxation

Well, here it is... the final theme!  As I hope you can tell here, it has been a lot of fun making all of these little paintings.  It was very relaxing sitting in my kitchen, taking some time each week to paint for an hour or two.  I definitely learned a lot along the way. Thanks to everyone who took some time to check out this series!

In case you were curious, here's what the 100 Watercolors look like all together (click to see it bigger):

Over the last few months I have gathered all of these paintings into a book, which will be available in print and digitally next Tuesday (7/28/15), and then I will be selling off the majority of the original paintings starting next Thursday (7/30/15).  More information about all of that will be posted here next week!

100 Watercolors #99 - Solitude

The theme of "solitude" made me think about the times in my life when I felt most alone.  Ironically, these were usually when I was living in major cities, surrounded by millions of people.  Painting this one was kind of a bummer.  I would not go back to my twenties for a million bucks!

The last theme: Relaxation!!!

100 Watercolors #98 - Puzzle

I always find it interesting when scientists readjust their theories based on new information.  For instance, how paleontologists previously thought that T-Rexes used to stand upright like a kangaroo, but they now believe their tail counterbalanced their heads, for a more horizontal stance.  Using this idea as a spring board, I came up with this illustration of an old-timey scientist giving a dinosaur skeleton puzzle his best shot!

The next theme: Solitude!

100 Watercolors #97 - Safety First

My dad is a neurologist, so when my sisters and I were growing up, we were not allowed to even look at our bikes without putting on our helmets.  I am always nagging my friends to wear helmets who don't (because I care about them! and their beautiful brains!) so I thought I could take that idea and push it to a comical extreme with this one.

The next theme: Puzzle!

100 Watercolors #96 - In the Storm

I don't have much to say about this one, except that it was a lot of fun to paint and that that squirrel really cracks me up.

The next theme: Safety First!

100 Watercolors #95 - Advertisement

I learned a lot by doing this one.  I had knocked in the bright colors of the advertisement, the dark wall and sidewalk, and the rings of shadows in the lower left and felt pretty good about the way it was looking.  I then decided to add similar rings of shadow to the right of the advertisement and at that point I crossed an invisible line and the piece felt overworked.  I had to keep going, to keep things consistent, but with each new shadow layer I liked the piece less and less.

It's a special skill (one that I'm obviously still working on!) to know when a piece is done and to just put down your brush.  Watercolors are so unforgiving.  It's very difficult to make corrections or go back a step.  You always have to keep moving forward, or start over from scratch - something I was not willing to do after spending many hours on this piece.  I might not be totally satisfied with the end result, but I am very grateful for the lesson it taught me.

The next theme: In the Storm!

100 Watercolors #94 - Last Hope

With only six more themes to go, I was able to sneak in one more beaver gag!  Thank goodness.

The next theme: Advertisement!

100 Watercolors #93 - Give Up

Sometimes the odds are just stacked against you!  It was hard for me to come up with an illustration for this theme.  I'm more of a "Never Give Up" kind of guy...

The next theme: Last Hope!

100 Watercolors #92 - All That I Have

This seems like as good a time as any to officially announce that my wife Claire and I are going to be moving (yet again) at the end of July.  This time we are moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Claire grew up and where both of her parents still live.  The long and short of it is that the Bay Area has become too expensive for us!  We will miss all of our great friends who live here.

Anyway, this decision was definitely weighing on my mind when I came up with the illustration for this week's theme.

The next theme: Give Up!

100 Watercolors #91 - Drowning

I felt pretty good about the inversion of this theme.

The next theme: All That I Have!

100 Watercolors #90 - Triangle

I wanted to do a love triangle for this one and the first setting that popped into my mind was a coffee shop.  This is probably due to the influence of the classic zine, Coffee Shop Crushes which was co-edited by my old pal Nicole Georges!

The next theme: Drowning!

100 Watercolors #89 - Through the Fire

This one is kind of dark, but it really makes me laugh.  Sorry marshmallows!

The next theme: Triangle!

100 Watercolors #88 - Pain

Ironically, the day after I sketched out the idea for this theme, I visited my new dentist for the first time and had a completely pain-free experience.  It was the first time that had ever happened in my entire life however, so I felt no guilt in following through with the inking and painting of this piece!

The next theme: Through the Fire!

100 Watercolors #87 - Food

This was another one where I had a lot of fun playing with multiple meanings of the theme.  It was also really fun to paint with some very dark areas, all the way up to some controlled use of white.

The next theme: Pain!

100 Watercolors #86 - Seeing Red

I was glad with this one, that I was able to get at both the figurative and literal meaning of the theme. :)

The next theme: Food!

100 Watercolors #85 - Spiral

For this one, I reused the idea I had developed for the cover of Ramen Music #8.  This one was has a simple composition, but it took a really long time to paint because I had to layer that very light blue on the keys over and over again.  Watercolors definitely take a lot of patience!

The next theme: Seeing Red!

100 Watercolors #84 - Out Cold

This painting provides a quick visual explanation of why I did not follow my father into medicine.  Needles?  Not my thing!

It took a lot of willpower for me to not put any paint on those white jackets, but I'm glad I didn't.  I want to start using the white of the page more in these non-comics illustrations.

The next theme: Spiral!

100 Watercolors #83 - Heal

I tried out dozens of ideas for the theme of "Heal" but in the end, I decided to go with the healing power of a mother's kiss.  I have been thinking about motherhood a lot lately, since my sister Galen just became a Mom.  While I painted this one, I thought about Galen and her daughter Wren, who will have her bumps and bruises healed with a kiss someday soon.  I guess it's a bit sentimental... oh well!

The next theme: Out Cold