We got a small tease of spring before plunging back into below-freezing highs, prompting me to paint another wish for warmer weather. This tiny watercolor was supposed to be less of a burden to finish in it’s diminutive format; a relaxing way to pass time with my hands I won’t… Read More »Sunset Sail
The snowpack was late this year, but once it arrived, it grew quickly. Still trying to get outside as much as possible, there were a few days when extreme cold kept me confined to the house to an even greater degree than the rest of the pandemic has. Embracing my… Read More »Heavy Snowfall, A Winter Landscape in Watercolor
Thank you for rejoining me in 2021 after my short New Year’s hiatus from blogging. After posting every single week of 2020, I thought I deserved a little time off to recharge and set some new goals. I’m heading into 2021 with loads of painting goals, but gentle ones. To… Read More »Endurance, a Winter Landscape
I’ve had to keep this one under wraps until I know the gift has been given. Today, I’d like to show you some in-progress shots of this commissioned landscape. We’ll talk about process, and next week I’ll reveal the finished painting, long since delivered to its intended recipient. The process… Read More »Work in Progress Commissioned Landscape
A really simple drawing exercise, continuous line drawing, involves making a doodle or a masterpiece without lifting the pencil or pen. Drawing with only one line forces the artist to pay attention to what edges are most important to an image, and to think ahead about where they will fall.… Read More »Continuous Line Plants
Right now it’s very difficult to look past the day-to-day. Long-term goals are hard to focus on in the stressful short term. As a form of relaxation I’ve returned to a very basic comfort by sketching what I’m thinking about: by sketching a food diary of all the calories helping… Read More »Colorful Food Diary
It’s almost time to say goodbye to winter. What a kind and brief winter it’s been. I know that the unseasonably warm temperatures are a symptom of of our dying planet, and will bring increased disease-bearing insects to our summertime, however this warm and relatively snow-free season of darkness was… Read More »The Thaw: Late Winter Landscape
This is Zeke, Lord of Darkness and proof of concept for animals-as-dark-sorcerers portraiture. I feel a regal portrait is an appropriate thing to post for President’s Day…compositionally speaking. Zeke is a mischievous and smart good boy, with a face so much resembling a hell-hound that I was compelled to depict… Read More »Zeke, Lord of Darkness
I have practiced a ‘no shit, genius’ technique using gel medium and liquid acrylics. Simply spoon some gel medium onto a horizontal canvas and dribble strategically liquid acrylics, and dabs of solid acrylics as well, why not. Using a pallet knife, move the medium over the pigment and across the… Read More »Gel Medium Technique
Happy Saturnalia! Bright Solstice! Merry Yule! It’s a very busy time of year for me, as always, so I haven’t had much time to post. I was doing so well there for a while! By now this painting has been published, so it’s safe for me to share. Above is a… Read More »Holiday Commission of the Boston Skyline
Happy Summer everyone! This post has nothing to do with summertime, but I hope everyone had a wonderful solstice nonetheless. This post is kind of the opposite of summer; it’s another skull painting that I finished last winter, but I was waiting to get it framed before I published a… Read More »Canadian Lynx Skull Watercolor
Arriving home after a half-day hike in the woods I attempted to recreate one of the beautiful landscapes that I came across by memory. Though the image seemed vivid in my mind, it is never preferred to recall an image by memory alone. Memory isn’t a reliable visual resource; most… Read More »Tiny Landscape From Memory
Another skull painting to add to the series I’ve been working on: a bison. This is the first full-size watercolor that I’ve completed in the new house, though the sketch and reference photos began last year before the move. Very straight-forward, I start with a pencil sketch transferred onto a watercolor… Read More »Bison Skull Watercolor
I finished another painting! And it’s another animal skull! It is a 12×16″ inch original watercolor painting of a giant pheasant skull. Matted to 11×14″ and framed to 14×18″. The frame is much more beautiful in person. My iPhone does not do the image justice photographing through the glass, but you… Read More »Really into Skulls
I am thrilled to finally be able to share this painting with you. I finished it some time ago but just presented it to the client this weekend. Commissioned by the Army Mountain Warfare school in Jericho, VT, this large watercolor painting combines the school’s mascot (a Ram’s head) with… Read More »Large Watercolor Commission
We had an absolutely amazing trip to Costa Rica this month! Days and days of adventure in the sun, water, mountains, and surrounded by animals. The food was spectacular and the views, beautiful. When a break was needed from our non-stop go,go,go adventures, I took some time to paint tiny… Read More »Mini Paintings of Paradise, Costa Rica
Merry Christmas! Below is the painting that I made for my aunt’s annual Christmas card. It is a portrait of two new family dogs. I painted this piece in quite a hurry using watercolors and colored pencils. It is impossible to get a photograph of two dogs looking in the… Read More »Commissioned Christmas Card: Watercolor, Colored Pencil
Finally I’ve finished another painting! This winter has been brutal in every way imaginable. Because of this I’ve taken to painting dreamy summer scenes all season to console my shivering skins. Last summer I took a trip to P-Town Mass, early in the season before the crowds arrived. The town was just… Read More »Provincetown On The Water
I’ve finished a new painting! in an effort to hold onto the summer sun for as long as possible, I decided to paint, just for fun, a picture of this beach beauty. It’s not often that I paint a picture for no reason other than my own entertainment, but I… Read More »Beach Beauty – Just for Fun Painting of the Summer
Last week with the snow storm of the decade looming, bundled up in front of my computer, I decided to pick up my Wacom tablet and paint a picture digitally. I am not a very experienced digital painter. I’ve only completed a small handful of pieces on the computer before,… Read More »An Exorcise in Digital Painting
Recently completed album artwork for sibling and musician Eric Leva. Done entirely with a digital tablet in photoshop, this doodle will be the featured image for his new single “Heart Gallery,” available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc on January 29th, 2013. Eric is planning to release a new single at… Read More »New Album Art
The other night I finished a painting of a leafy sea dragon. I saw one of these beautiful fish a week or so ago on TV and decided that it would be a really fun thing to paint. I hunted down a couple of different reference pictures online, and from… Read More »The Leafy Sea Dragon
Here is a commission that I finished some time ago for a custom Christmas greeting card. This portrait of a house was done in watercolors on cold press paper. As always, I worked from a photograph. Starting with a sketch, I refined the drawing and transferred it onto my watercolor… Read More »Custom Christmas Card
Here is a fun painting! Like my others lately, it was a quick one to finish, taking only a day and a half to complete. I wanted to try something really whimsical and free-flowing, while still defining the form of the face. I had a lot of fun with it,… Read More »Blue & Pink Fashion Illustration
Another quick fashion illustration of a woman with big green earrings. This watercolor painting only took a day to finish. Not much to say on this one besides it is another experiment in a stylized way of working.
As part of my development of a new style, and an effort to get into fashion illustration, here is a practice piece of a girl with a blue feather fascinator. In this piece my aim was to loosen up with my rendering and incorporate an outline into my work in… Read More »Blue Feather Fascinator
So! Lately I have been working on a new style of illustrating. Most of my paintings to date have been highly detailed, meticulously rendered, very realistic images where every inch of paper is belabored over to achieve an evenly finished surface. The end result is a painting that glows, but… Read More »The Spider Princess
Here is a new watercolor landscape that I made of a state park in southern Connecticut. I was drawn to the name of the park more than anything; it is called “The Devil’s Hopyard” and is located in East Haddam. Earlier this month I was hiking this park with a few… Read More »The Devil’s Hopyard
The commissioned work gallery has been updated with the latest portrait of a house completed for a local real-estate agency. Done in watercolors and black ink, this “fluffy” watercolor portrait is light and simple, and makes for a wonderful gift by which a seller can remember their former home.
Another painting not yet discussed on the web, this is a recently commissioned tattoo design. The patron is an Aquarius, and wants her next tattoo to be a mermaid fused with Aquarian symbolism. The painting is fairly small in person–about 6 or 7 inches tall. Painted with watercolors and outlined… Read More »Aquarius Mermaid
After spending Spring break 2012 in Sicily as part of a travel & art class at University of Hartford, I came back to the United States ready to make artwork about what struck me most during my time abroad. I am extremely proud of these three paintings. They can be… Read More »Series of Sicily
Last painting done for my senior thesis! This one is of two modern dancers whom I photographed at the University of Hartford Hartt School. They were a joy to photograph, and provided my camera with all sorts of elegant and gravity defying shots. I chose to paint this particular pose… Read More »Modern Dancers
Another painting from senior year that fits with my thesis on art for the theatre, this is a retro-styled poster for the musical Chicago. Here I am show-casing the main character, Roxie Hart. I wanted to add several elements from the musical, such as the stage, and Chicago night life… Read More »Chicago Poster
Part of my senior thesis project was to do a series of three. I chose to do a series of three portraits, of three women, in three different modes of costume, interacting with three different classifications of animals. The first portrait is of a woman in a tradition costume. A… Read More »Portraiture
This painting is more concept art, but this time for the musical “Into the Woods.” This musical, if you haven’t seen it before, takes all of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and combines them into one great big story. Cinderella is a major character in the play, and as you know, her… Read More »Cinderella
For the next few weeks I will be blogging about the individual pieces that made up my senior exhibition. In no particular order, I would like to start with this re-imagining of Audrey II, the monster from the musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ For my senior project I choose to… Read More »Little Shop
Hey! You know what’s cool and exciting? I am helping to design the costumes for CONNetic Dance’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! CONNetic Dance is a ballet company based in Hartford, CT and their show this June is a steampunk rendition of the Shakespearean classic. The set designer… Read More »Costume Consultant for Connetic Dance!
As my frequent readers know, this past semester I took three independent studies which focused on the adornment and modification of the human body. One independent study was a psychology class, one was a makeup and wigcraft class, and the other was an art studio course. In this studio course… Read More »Body Modification Animation
This post is a continuation of yesterday’s article on the two paintings from a book illustration class that I completed this semester. For background on the class and the story, please go read my previous post! Today I have the second painting, which happens to be the last full-page spread… Read More »…Dear Liza, Dear Liza
First post of 2012, and its for a new illustration, just uploaded from the end of the semester. This painting, and another which are now featured in the illustration galleries, are the fruit of the book illustration class that I have recently completed. In the course, we learned about everything… Read More »There’s a Hole in the Bucket….
Okay! Now that the Holidays are over, and my internet connection restored, I can get back to updating my site and this blog. Here we have my last painting for the advertising illustration class that I finished this past semester. Our assignment was to design an album cover. Now, album… Read More »Fire-breathing Dragon in Space
Musician and little brother Eric Leva has just released a new Holiday EP, available for free as a download when you sign up for his mailing list. The album artwork for this EP, available only in digital form, was created by yours truly. This painting was executed from start to… Read More »Album Art for Eric Leva’s Holiday EP
Whoa! November just flew by, didn’t it!? I haven’t posted in forever, and for that I apologize; it has been such a busy month. Finally, I have a new painting ready to show. This illustration was done as a special project in our illustration department at school. Every year, the… Read More »Summer Term Cover Contest Illustration
Ah, the first snowfall of the season! Who would have thought that it would be such a major storm? As I sit under the threat of loosing my power at any moment, I would like to get in a blog post while I still can. I have for you today,… Read More »A Reindeer Painting to Welcome This Winter Weather
Today I’ve added two new paintings to the Illustration gallery. This set of two was designed for my advertising illustration class to appear on bottles of wine. Our assignment was to come up with two different wine labels, done in a comparable style, that features two different animals: one for… Read More »Paintings for Wine Labels: The Walrus and Penguin
Here is a Commission that I recently completed for a local Real-estate Agency. They wanted three original paintings of one of their client’s homes. I like painting houses in watercolors because the softness of the paint helps to ease the hard geometry of the modern home. These portraits are quick,… Read More »Another Home Portrait Commission Complete.
New painting in the illustration gallery, done especially for the Renaissance Faire. This girl with the flowers in her hair was done in acrylic inks, watercolors, and colored pencils. I absolutely love celtic knotwork, and want to work more on decorative boarders and embellishing my work. This was the perfect… Read More »Girl with Flowers in Her Hair
I have added a new painting to the Illustration gallery, and it is my final oil painting from Spring semester 2011. Our task was to paint something related to the field of illustration that we think we may want to pursue. I’ve been thinking a lot about paper goods and… Read More »Owl painting
Here is the first assignment from my oil painting class. Our task was to define an alter-ego for ourselves, and to paint our likeness on this fantasy identity. I decided that my alter-ego would be an exotic snake charmer, hiding from the dessert sun in her lavish arabian, or maybe… Read More »Alter-ego: The Snake Charmer
Graphite illustration from the Hunch Back of Notre Dame. Quasimodo has saved Esmerelda from being hanged, and brought her to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. The Truands then charge the cathedral in an attempt to save Esmerelda. However Quasimodo thinks that they want to hurt Esmerelda, so he… Read More »Hunchback of Notre Dame