Chazz

”Portrait“Chazz”, 2014, pigment ink and acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 36″

This is a portrait of dancer, performer and teacher Chazz Young. It features him leading the Shim Sham at Frankie 95, a celebration of his dad, Frankie Manning, legendary pioneer and Ambassador of Lindy Hop dancing whose Centennial (Frankie 100) was celebrated around the world on Monday, May 26th, 2014.

BREAKING NEWS: Chazz is recovering from a stroke and needs our help. Please visit this Chazz Young Back in Step crowdfunding page aimed to help with his medical-related expenses.

In the upper portion of the portrait you can see three views of Frankie and Chazz performing together to “It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It)” by Jimmy Lunceford. To learn more about Frankie and Chazz I recommend viewing the wonderful video documentary “Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging”, produced and directed by Julie Cohen.

This painting was created using Corel Painter and a Wacom tablet on a Macintosh computer. I started by experimenting with all the new brushes included in the Extra Extras set here on PaintboxTV (see the close up details of the brush strokes shown below). I ended up with one of my new favorite brushes, David Gell‘s Eliron from his Inkspiration brushes, which reminds me of the looseness of painting with twig and ink.

Other portraits in this series of Lindy Hop legends include Frankie, Dawn and Norma. These paintings were displayed during the Frankie Manning Centennial celebration in New York City, May 26, 2014.

”Portrait

”Portrait

After Frankie 100 I sent Chazz his portrait which he framed and hung in his house. He then sent me the nicest thank you note (see below). His heart felt expression of how much this painting means to him is the greatest gift I can get for creating art. Thank you Chazz for inspiring this painting and being such a wonderful, warm, appreciative portrait subject as well as amazing dancer, teacher and performer!

”Portrait

”Portrait

Below is a video of Chazz dancing to Shiny Stockings, one of his Dad’s favorite tunes, at the Swinging at the Savoy dance weekend in Oakland, California, on February 27th, 2016. I love the way he improvises and flows with the music…


iPad Art 2014




“Ishmeet”, 2014 – This portrait was created from life on a plane journey from London to San Francisco using an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Pencil by 53. Click on the video to see stroke by stroke build up of the painting.




“Brandon, Masha and Arthur”, 2014 – This portrait of artist Brandon Jones and his family was created from life on a plane journey from London to San Francisco using Brandon’s Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid with the ArtFlow app. It was a “draw off”: he painted me at the same time using my iPad with Sketch Club. Neither of us had used the other’s platform or app before so it was very fun!


“Folly Bridge, Oxford” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014
”Folly Bridge

“Portrait of Paul”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2 at the ideacity conference, Toronto

On this page I share a small sampling of my (mostly) iPad drawings and paintings I have made over the last couple of years. I performed live iPad painting at the De Young Museum in October 2013 for the opening of “David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition” (see my Inspired by Hockney page). I teach iPad painting workshops and classes. If you’re interested in learning how to draw and paint on your iPad, then please visit Paint on the Go! and The iPad Art Summer School. If you’d like to set up a portrait sitting please email me (jeremy@jeremysutton.com) or call me at (415) 641-1221.


“Still Life Study”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2

“Mac at Cana”, 2014, created using Zen Brush and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air
”iPad Portrait by Jeremy Sutton c 2014
“Alison Wright”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

The portrait of Alison, shown above, is one of a series of portraits I drew from life on my iPad of fellow presenters at FOTOfusion 2014 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Alison is an amazing photo journalistic photographer who has captured portraits of people all over the world, including an extensive series of portraits of Tibetan Buddhists in Tibet and in exile (see her book Face to Face: Portraits of the Human Spirit). The following three portraits (below) were also created at FOTOfusion of fellow presenters.

”iPad Portrait by Jeremy Sutton c 2014
“Lou Jones”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

As I drew Lou’s portrait we discussed his six year project in which he and his team photographed and interviewed death row inmates across the country (see his book Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row). It was an intense subject and that intensity was reflected in the portrait…

”iPad Portrait by Jeremy Sutton c 2014
“Lawrence Gartel”, 2014, created using Art Rage and Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

I’ve known Lawrence, a pioneering digital media artist, for many years. This year at FOTOfusion he drove up in one of his Art Cars. I included a photo I took of his artwork on the car in the background of this portrait.

”iPad Portrait by Jeremy Sutton c 2014
“J. Tomas Lopez”, 2014, created using Sketch Club and Adonit Jot Touch 4 stylus on iPad Air

Tom, University of Miami Department of Art and Art History professor, sat for me for a few minutes at the FOTOfusion Awards Dinner between courses..


”iPad Portrait by Jeremy Sutton c 2014
iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. Photo by Stephen Somerstein.

”Portrait
Portrait of Sarah created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. I used Brushes app (favored by Hockney) and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

”Portrait
Portrait of Meg created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition. I used Brushes app and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

”Portrait
Portrait of Lisa and Frank (with self-portrait) created live during my iPad painting performance at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, at the opening of the David Hockney: Bigger Exhibition using Art Rage App app and both the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus and the Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

”Portrait
iPad sketch of author and historian Lawrence Weschler giving a talk, “Love Life: David Hockney’s Timescapes”, at the de Young, being watched by filmmaker Bruno Wollheim, who created the documentary portrait “David Hockney: A Bigger Picture”, created with the Brushes app and an Adonit Jot Touch stylus.

Over the last two years I have taught iPad painting and given iPad painting presentations in North America and Europe, including at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, (see William Dutton’s blog post) and at the magnificent flagship Apple Stores in central London (Regent Street), and San Francisco.

 

“Portrait of Tony”, 2013, created using Sketch Club with Adonit Jot Touch on iPad (created on Southwest flight at 30,000′ altitude). I like the recording feature in Sketch Club that also allows you to easily add your choice of music to the replay.

 

“Life Study”, 2013, created using Sketch Club with Sensu Brush on iPad2.

“Seated Man, after Diebenkorn”, 2013, created using Art Rage and Adonit Jot Touch stylus on iPad2 at the de Young Museum

 

Caricaturist Jon Casey and I sketch each other at the Coffee Bar outside my studio in San Francisco, Jon using pencil on paper and me using the procreate app on an iPad with a Sensu brush (see What’s in my studio). For a summary of the different iPad painting apps I am exploring, click here.

“Sketch portrait of Jon Casey”, 2013, creating using procreate on iPad2

In March, 2010, I came across artist Roderick Smith sketching on his iPhone in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, using a PogoStick stylus and Brushes iPhone app, the same one David Hockney started with when he began sketching on his iPhone. He kindly let me have a go. When I got home I ordered a PogoStick and experimented with sketching in Brushes and Sketchbook Pro on the iPhone. It didn’t quite click for me. The iPhone screen felt too small and restricted, and the brush stroke styles too flat and uniform. I preferred sketching in my regular sketchpad.

The iPad introduced a significantly larger painting area. That summer in 2010 I sketched my first iPad portrait from life of one of my students at my Amsterdam Painter Workshop on his iPad (see iPad Sketching in Amsterdam). A year a half later, in January 2012, I went to see David Hockney’s Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy and was impressed with his display of huge prints of his iPad drawings, as he referred to them, in the spacious galleries of the historic and esteemed institution. For me that was the ahaa moment when i knew iPad art had arrived! On returning to San Francisco, I immediately bought a Nomad brush at Macworld and purchased all the cool iPad painting apps I saw they had on their demo stations, even before I’d purchased an iPad! I then got painting on the iPad in earnest, leading to my teaching iPad art workshops and performing live iPad painting at special events, including the Hockney show.


”Portrait
Lyana sitting for her portrait at an event organized by the Monaco Government Tourist Office. Notice that her name is in the structure of the brush strokes used to portray her. The next two portraits (below) were created at the same event. All portrait subjects received both a JPEG image of their portrait plus a video replay of the painting process of their portraits so they could watch it unfold brush stroke by brush stroke!

”Portrait
“Kyle” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 


”Portrait
“Shambhavi” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 


”Portrait
“In Thought” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 


”Portrait
“Simon Playing Double Bass” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 


”Portrait
“Tuyen Playing Piano” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

 


”Portrait
“Key West Patio” – painted from life on an iPad Air using the Sketch Club app and Adonit Jot Touch stylus, 2014

Rosa, created in Inspire Pro on the iPad, 2013

Drawing of Joe

”Joe

“Joe”, 2014, 9″ x 9″, 2B Grumbacher Pentalic Woodless Pencil on Fabriano CFM Ingres 90 gsm acid free paper

This drawing is a result of simple pleasures: sitting outside in the Coffee Bar patio one morning with an excellent caffe latte while sketching my good friend Joe. The simple pleasure of making a sketch from direct observation of a subject, as a opposed to drawing from a photograph, cannot be underestimated. It’s something I encourage everyone to do! In this case part of the pleasure was leaving lots of empty space on the page and deciding when enough was enough…

”Joe

”Joe

”Joe

January, 2014

Drawing of David Rubinger

”David

“David Rubinger”, 2014, 9″ x 9″, 2B Grumbacher Pentalic Woodless Pencil on Fabriano CFM Ingres 90 gsm acid free paper

I was recently invited to teach at the FOTOfusion 2014 conference at the Palm Beach Photographic Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. As I walked into the exhibition area on the first evening I was stopped in my tracks by an incredibly moving, personal and powerful set of photographs on display, “My Eye on Israel” by David Rubinger (available as a beautiful coffee-table book and as an iBook which includes videos). I had the great pleasure of meeting David and then drawing him. The finished drawing is shown here (above) plus some documentation of the process (below).

”David

”David

”David

As I walked around the exhibition of David’s photographs one in particular seemed very familiar: the photograph of the bloodied song sheet with the “Song for Peace” that assassinated Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin had just sung and was in his pocket when he was shot. David photographed it the next morning. It was that photograph that had led me to create my portrait of Rabin back in 1996.

”David

January, 2014

Looking Out

”Looking

“Looking Out”, 2014, 24″ x 24″, pigment ink and acrylic on canvas

This painting depicts looking out on the beautiful Prinsengracht. It is inspired by my recent visit to Amsterdam where looking in and out of windows is a big thing! People in The Netherlands tend not to have the ubiquitous privacy-protecting “net curtains” I grew up with in London. Instead, as I understand the Dutch history (and any Dutch readers please correct me on this), the culture was to show one’s possessions through your windows as a means of establishing status and showing the attributes of wealth. As much as folks like to look in at windows, it is just as interesting when your room overlooks a canal, such as in the old center of Amsterdam, to look out at life going by. People walk and cycle much more in the Netherlands than in America and probably than in most other places in the world, and this activity on the streets makes looking out of a window all the more fascinating.

”Looking

For those interested in media, process and technique, this painting, my first of 2014, was created entirely using Corel Painter X3 on an iMac with a Wacom Intuos5 M pen tablet. I used this painting as an exploratory playground for going through and reminding myself of all fifty Impasto brushes in Painter. The Impasto brushes are designed emulate the effect of applying thick paint on your canvas. The process of creating this painting will be the subject of this month’s video tutorial here on PaintboxTV.com.

I really enjoyed painting the scene through the window. I treated each window pane as a mini-painting and used different combinations of brushes in each.

My artistic inspirations for this painting were primarily the thick ‘impasto’ painting technique of Vincent van Gogh and the focus on pattern, shape and design of some of Henri Matisse’s work. I was also inspired by van Gogh and Matisse’s marvelous bold expressive color and use of outline, and David Hockney’s approach to widening your vantage point and getting away from one point perspective.

If you’d like to see another painting also inspired by my recent Amsterdam visit, please see “Amsterdam Canal”.

January 1, 2014

Amsterdam Canal

”Amsterdam

“Amsterdam Canal”, 2013, 40″ x 26″, pigment ink and acrylic on canvas

This painting was created as part of a tutorial titles “Thick Paint: Inspired by Van Gogh” which you’ll find in the Painter X3 In-Depth section on this site. I love the vistas in Amsterdam as you look down the canals at the bustling life where bicycles, house boats, tall houses and, at this time of the year, beautiful golden leaves, all vie for attention!

Another painting also inspired by my recent visit to Amsterdam is “Looking Out”.

December, 2013

Sublime Jazz

”Sublime

“Sublime Jazz”, 40″ x 26″, pigment print and acrylic on canvas, 2013

This painting was created as part of my creativeLIVE Intro to Photo Painting: A Creative Approach Using Corel Painter X3 workshop. My inspiration was a photograph (below) that I took of Gwenda and David dancing to the music of the Danny Brown Trio at Bruno’s Pizzeria Cucina on the Fillmore during the Fillmore Vintage Couture Ball. I love the way that Gwenda and David were lost in their own world as they moved to the sublime jazz… hence the title of the painting. Thanks to the Danny Brown Trio, Gwenda (of ArtAmbassador.net) and Dave for their unwitting inspiration!

”Jeremy
Original source photo

”Jeremy
Start of the digital painting on the set of creativeLIVE

”Jeremy
Post-print painting on the set of creativeLIVE

November 12, 2013

”Jeremy
David and Gwenda dancing in front of painting at the Verdi Club, San Francisco, March 2015

”Jeremy
David, Gwenda and I in front of painting at the Verdi Club, San Francisco, March 2015

Jazz Four

”Jazz
Series of four paintings as they were being painted in my studio, each 24″ x 36″, pigmented ink and acrylic on canvas

”Jazz
Framed and on the wall…

I call this series “Jazz Four”, even though strictly speaking it is “Jazz Two or Three + Blues One or Two”. The series of four portraits depicts legends Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and BB King. The series is being created for Dan, who selected the subjects and also the song themes for each subject: “It Don’t mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)” – Duke Ellington; “Strange Fruit” – Billie Holiday, “What a Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong and “The Thrill is Gone” – BB King. In each case the words and sheet music for the song is woven into the composition. The portrait of Duke Ellington was inspired by a photograph taken by Reggie Jackson, the great uncle of my friend and amazing jazz singer, Kim Nalley, who kindly gave me permission for its use. Thank you Kim!

There is a story behind each portrait: the elegance and pride of Duke; the pain, pathos and beauty of Billie; the outer/inner conflict of Louis, playing a song about joy and yet looking pained and whilst being a State Department-sponsored Jazz Ambassador to the world facing such discrimination at home; and then BB’s unadulterated passion and joy as he sings the blues about the thrill being gone….Each one a complex tapestry of emotion that tugs at our own hearts.

”Jazz

October 2013

Repose: A Single Line Scribble

”Repose

19 3/4″ x 25 1/2″, brown sepia Faber-Castell pen on fine art paper

This drawing is a fifteen minute single line “scribble” life study of Daisy. For the duration of this pose I kept the pen moving on the paper in a scribble manner, adjusting the density of the scribble according to the relative lightness or darkness of the value or tone I observed. This is a great loosening up exercise both for your arm and body as well as for your line itself. I drew this standing up with the paper vertical on an easel and looking between the paper and the model, never stopping the movement of my hand on the paper.

”Repose

This drawing will be on display at my Fall Open Studios, Sunday, October 27 (11am – 6pm).

October 2013

Annette & Hanson’s Wedding Day Collage

”Annette

Double Happiness

2012

Pigment ink and acrylic on canvas, 62″ x 20″

“Working with Jeremy was an absolute pleasure. His work is outstanding and his service and attention to detail was absolutely AMAZING. Hanson and Annette were blown away by the artwork that Jeremy framed and delivered to them. They said that they had never seen anything like it. We feel that working with Jeremy and gifting this to our great friend and mentor in the photography industry was the BEST gift we could ever give. If you want some thing over the top custom and fabulous Jeremy Sutton and his fabulous smile and master craftsmanship are definitely the way to go.”

Mary Fisk-Taylor, M. photog., Cr., CPP, ABI, API

Hayes & Fisk the Art of Photography

“Wow! That is very cool! That is different and unique. As a professional photographer I have seen a lot of things and I have never seen anything like that. I love the dance and the shuāngxǐ – Double Happiness. That’s absolutely gorgeous.”

Hanson Fong

I recently had the pleasure and honor of being commissioned by Mary and Jamie to create a very special wedding present, a Wedding Day Collage Painting, for their good friends, world-renowned wedding photographer and international instructor Hanson and Annette. The painting encompasses and captures the significant moments and symbols of their wedding day, including the beautiful and touching tea ceremony with their mothers, their wedding cake and flowers that Annette designed, the bamboo that Hanson arranged, the table settings of their family table no. 2, their first dance, and the Double Happiness Chinese character. It was a great joy to see the expression of surprise and pleasure on their faces when they first saw the painting! They loved it!

I shall be using this artwork as one of the examples in my new Painter Collage Techniques DVD.

”Jeremy
Jeremy, Annette and Hanson with painting just after the unveiling (photo by Peggy Gyulai)

”Hanson
Hanson and Annette enjoying the painting after hanging it on their wall

”The
The Tea Ceremony with their mothers

”Table
Table setting of the family table No. 2

”The
The shuāngxǐ or Double Happiness character symbolizes the joy and harmony of the wedding couple

Jeremy

January 25, 2013