Graphite drawing by Pascal 

Guided tuition through "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. 

Pascal and I have been friends for many years and I noticed his raw undeveloped artistic talent in some sketches we had done together for fun. He had never done any training and didnt know where to begin. So therefore had never really done any art. We began sharing  some basic drawing skills which were in line with how his sketches felt to me and he was a natural.  Slowly we moved on to more advanced creative drawings, discussing depth and volume and atmosphere, one of our exercises is pictured in the pastel sketch top of page. We worked on limited palets and basic values which  also related to drawings he liked for traditional tattoo art.

We spent about a year and a half working up his skills in all areas of creativity Expression and the classic elements of drawing.

Pascal has gone on to make a career as a full time artist painting murals for venues and working mostly in the music industry. 

He is also an acomplished tattoo artist showing so much promise I gave him a job in my studio. 

I cannot take any credit for Pascals tenacity, grit and raw talent or the tremndous amount of work he put into his further education in art and the works he produced. 

I can however be proud of him as friend and student who's most valued lesson was

 "that there is always process added to inspiration to be able to find the best ways to express our ideas." 

Im happy I was able to teach him how to see the process. 

Guided painting  by Michael

This experience we had working together on this painting  was one of the funnest and certainly the most amazing experiences I could have ever hoped for  colaborating with another atrist. 

Working with michael on this piece was wild. pure joy.

We had initially met through friends in music and he had mentiond he liked to paint. Upon seeing a flowing and impressionistic painting of his son he had done I was amazed. such beautiful talent and pure artisic intention. Michael sullenly confessed he didnt know what he was doing, but to me all i saw was perfection in his raw unknowing and purley expressed strokes. the painting was done by pouring house paint from jars pushed around with a splatular. clear as day the child playing with the toy truck jumped off the kerbside collected canvas and blew me away, but apparently I was the only one to ever have seen it for what it was. 

Down on his luck and at what we know as rock bottom I felt an urge to help my new friend so I gave him 300 bucks and asked for his first comissioned work a painting of my tattooed arm patting my dog in his obscure spatular style.

this painting however is not that one. It's the next one, born out of a joke that became a reality and actaully worked. 

watching him paint one day he asked me about a problem in this painting.   stuck and not knowing how to make something look how he wanted.  I shouted from across the room" thats easy you just visuale the flat plane its on and imagine it coming towards you on that." He instantly understood what that meant and got to work. after a few of these questions I joked and said im not gonna paint it for you but ill scream out what to try if you get stuck. 

so the rest of this painting was done with me explaining how to do the things he was imagining. almost the entire time. 

 I never actually touched this painting with any paint but my words were bought to life making this painting done with his imaginaion, my knowledge and his hand. 

we spent over 50 hours doing this together and it was the first painting michael had felt confident with and was proud to show. 

He painted many more paintings including portraits and self portraits with his new understanding and went on to exibit in his own show. All his work shows the same raw beauty that I saw in his first works but he has found his voice and now has learned to say what he is trying to say with his work. 

Michaels greatest lesson is.

"If you feel it fully and know a few tricks the art will just show up at the end of your brush"

Guided colaboration with Michael

this painting on a guitar body in acrylic was a colaboration for the most part done by michael but with a fair amount of hands on by myself aswell. 

In this work we explored the ideas of texture, rhythm and flow and experimented with exercises I created to begin immitating depth on a flat surface. We used the technique of model drawing and the elements of colour and tonal contrast to acheive the large and small bumps, ridges, dents and textures on this wild piece.

the guitar instantly sold as soon as we showed it and was built into a beautiful custom guitar.

its fair to say michael has became one of my closest friends and he has a brilliant eye for art and photography. he has taught me much of what i know in photography and is incredibly connected as an artistic soul. 

we have colaborated on many projects exchanging ideas and and always learnig from each other.

in the early days of our friendship im happy i was able to help him connect more with his art and inspiration to come out of a tough time. 

the abstract painting of his son is still one of the most beautiful paintings ive seen. and im glad to say he  still sometimes paint like that. 

A gift from Bohdi 

Bohdi is my most recent student, developing his art towards a portfolio to become a tattoo artist. 

he attends classes once a week and is set small tasks to guage where he is up to and discover places to improve and avoid learning bad habbits. 

He is learning some art genres are rich in culture and technique so they have very specific sets of guidlines to follow if you want to become that type of artist. 

of course creativity and a personal voice can be added over fundamentals of any particular stlye. but its also important to not over look the ways in that style. Trying to be a part of something established can bring a feeling of belonging to an artist by seeing where that art fits or where it might belong. 

In contrast, truly unique and untethered art must be some how beyond outstanding to find a fast audience. 

 Styles that already exist and already fits into a sub culture somehow  already  belongs and to do it well you must do it well or it wont quite fit any where. 

This is the main question when looking into style. Are you able to be authentic and find genuine expression or is it best to simply be yourself? 

Bohdis greatest lesson is 

"The tools we use and the way to use them defines our style."