I’m often asked what kind of watercolors I use. I use Prang watercolors. They are the only tray watercolors that I know of that are worth painting with. I realize I’m stuck in 5th grade art class. I don’t know why I’ve never transitioned to tube watercolors. Anyway, when you run out of a color in your tray you can order refills! I tend to run out of blue and black the fastest. 

There are a lot of watercolor options out there. I suggest trying a few kinds and seeing which you like best. Just avoid “student quality” paints. I bought a tube or two of student quality watercolor, and they were terrible. They turned to chalk on the paper after they dried.

The team at Zeum did the nicest write up of my work and asked some great questions about me and my art. Click above to read it!

Answers to questions asked.

snapfus asked you: Do you think it’s good, as an artist, to force yourself to do art? 

Well, it’s good to practice, and sometimes practice is boring and you don’t want to do it, so yes, I do think it’s good to force yourself to make art. I do it a lot. 

alexroperphoto asked you: Bad ass work, dude

Thanks. Dude. 

takethewords asked you: what do you do with your empty ink bottles?! they’re so pretty, you should put them in a display or something! (and also of course your art is gorgeous, i’ve spent most of today going back through your blog & looking at it all! in fact today i went out and bought some more watercolor supplies, i just got into it and found your work so inspiring :) 

(Thank you!) I have lots of ink bottles, but they are all full of ink. The only one I run out of regularly is my Speedball india ink, since I use it for almost all of my outlining, but it’s a boring plastic container, so I never save them. Glass ones I’ll probably save, since I’m kind of a pack rat I mean collector of things. I store them on this thing in the meantime.  

thisafunnything asked you: Your work is beautiful. How long have you been doing this? 

Thanks. I’ve been drawing since always, but I’ve been blogging here since 2009-ish. 

we-have-withered asked you: Dear! Your works are so beautiful! ‘;m curious about your technique!

Here’s a post with a short explanation. 

yaaryvanesaasked you: Esta bien padre tu trabajo :D, ¿como lo haces?

¡Gracias! Aqui está un post que explica como hago mis dibujitos. (Sorry for my Spanish.)

All those things you want to know.

I have a couple questions in the inbox that I’m going to answer right now. Ok let’s go!

modeloffreedom: when you sit down to work, do you have set concept or idea in mind or do you just let the pen/brush flow?

A little of both. I do really enjoy making free form paintings and then adding spontaneous line work on top of them. Other times I have an image nagging at my brain that I specifically want to work through on paper. No matter what, though, I avoid getting married to an overly-specific image living in my brain. That only leads to disappointment in the final piece. 

beccalew: How do you get your inspiration for the things that you create?

I’ve mentioned my general inspirations in my FAQ, but each day holds specific inspiration, depending on what I’m reading, what I’m watching (read: usually something animated), and what I’m looking at in general. Fantastic or otherwise weird images linger awhile in my brain and end up working themselves out when I draw and paint. Things I reblog or mention here are good indications of what’s inspiring me lately.

frcknian: i know you get this a lot but how exactly do you get the effects on your art ? what specif technique do you use ? By the way your stuff is amazing !

Allow me to direct you to these time lapse videos of me drawing. Here’s a blog post about my process.

nottraditionalfire: This may be a silly thing to ask, but how is your watercolor paper so flat even after you paint on it? Mine gets a bit distorted when I use watercolors.

I use watercolor blocks.