Author: jeremysutton

This video shares the keynote presentation, Portrait of a Risk-Taker: An Artist’s Risk Management Journey, I delivered at the 2017 RISK Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 18th, 2017. The theme of this year’s conference was art and they invited me to share an artist’s perspective on risk.

I started with a brief introduction to my personal journey of risk-management, explaining how I transformed from Physicist to Artist.

I then provided a historical context to the relationship of art and risk, highlighting a few Art History Risk Champions, from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. In this segment I explained how, without risk, there is no art. An artist is a risk champion who both embraces and manages risk.

In the final segment I created a live portrait of an audience member, using an iPad Pro 12.9, Apple Pencil and the app Procreate. As I painted the portrait I reviewed and demonstrated the risk-management strategies I employ as an artist. They are listed here (below) as numbered in my slide show with one extra added and a couple slightly modified (as with all art, a list like this is always a work in progress!):
#1 100% Commitment
#2 Mise En Place
#3 Fill in the Blank
#4 Think Ahead
#5 Get on the Dance Floor
Start Rough
#6 See as Abstract
#7 No Undo
#8 Vive la Variété
#9 Step Away
#10 Reframe the Question
#11 Say the Most with the Least
#12 Make Marks Meaningful
#13 Less is More
#14 Fini…for Now
#15 Enjoy the Journey

If you just want to head straight for the dancing, final portrait and time-lapse replay of the portrait, then that all happens in the final two minutes!

The music featured in this video includes:
“Moten Swing” by Bennie Moten and his Kansas City Orchestra (1932)
“Roll Over Beethoven” by Chuck Berry (1956)
“Get Up Offa That Thing” by James Brown (1976)

The conference took place in the historic PSFS (Philadelphia Savings Fund Society) Building, now the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. Opened in 1932, it was the first Modernist skyscraper in the United States (and one of the first to have air-conditioning). Designed by architects George Howe and William Lescaze, the building, constructed in the midst of the Great Depression, used marbles, granites and rare woods sourced from 32 countries!

Big thanks to Melanie and her wonderful team at the Nonprofit Risk Management Center who put this conference together and inviting me to be their keynote speaker.

Thanks to Mary Ann for being such an inspiring and brave portrait subject!

It was super fun and inspiring to see your presentation.
~ Erin G.

Wonderful presentation!
~ Richard S.

I am available to be a keynote speaker at conferences, meetings, off-sites and retreats. I adapt my presentation to each event and can focus, to share a few examples, on the relationship between art and technology, how to find your creative flow, taking the creative leap, risk-taking in art process, the anatomy of a portrait, painting with purpose, intentionality in artistic process, the balance of structure and chaos in creativity, the roles of serendipity and spontaneity in painting, and so on.

The New View Paintings by Jeremy Sutton
First featured artist to kick off the Martini Splash Third Friday Art Reception
Friday, August 18th, 2017, 5:30-7:30pm
Bloomingdale’s, The New View, San Francisco on 2 (2nd Floor Designer Ready to Wear Department), 845 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94013

Paintings that were displayed in this exhibition included the following (shown here with some photos from the reception):

San Francisco Scenes
(and other Cityscapes)

Cable Car on Powell

30″ x 40″ pigment print and acrylic on canvas, 2016

Jeremy with Catherine, Christina and Shahla

Looking Down Divis’

33″ x 47″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2013

Sarah, Deborah, Jeremy and Katia

Golden Gate Bridge

47″ x 33″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2014

Lights on Mid-Market

23″ x 18″, pigment ink print on canvas, 2009

Catherine with “Lights on Mid-Market”

Avalon Olds’

36″x 26″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2014

Katia matching “Avalon Olds”

Shahasp

Shahasp

48″ x 48″ acrylic on canvas, 2017

Shahasp study

24″ x 36″ acrylic and pigment inks on canvas, 2016

Afternoons

Jeremy taking with Monica and Germaine

Cherwell Idyll

40″ x 30″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2017

Summer Afternoon

38″ x 63″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2005

Gatsby Stroll

23″ x 18″, pigment ink print and acrylic on canvas, 2015

Martha and Michelle and the Afternoons

Musicians and Dancers

Destiny and Hero looking at the Musicians and Dancers

Frankie Centennial Dance Jam

38″ x 19″, pigment ink print and acrylic on canvas, 2014

Flamenco Fiesta at El Farol

24″ x 19″, pigment ink print and acrylic on canvas, 2012

Luxomatics at Club Deluxe

15″ x 10″, Caran D’Ashe Neocolour wax crayon and red wine on paper, 2016

“Parallel Play”

9.5″ x 7.5″, pigment ink print on canvas, 2017

Sarah and Peggy looking at “Parallel Play”

Erv

26″ x 40″, pigment ink print and acrylic paint on canvas, 2014

Simon in front of “Erv”

At the Mobile Digital Art Exhibition Grand Opening (August 11th, 2017, Pacific Art League, Palo Alto) with my iPad sketch of Happy Menocal

The juried Mobile Art Exhibition included, as you see in the photo above, my iPad sketch of fellow artist Happy Menocal.

Happy Menocal Sketching at Opening of the new Apple Store Union Square
Time-lapse replay, 2016, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate

Teaching the iPad Figure Drawing Class at the mobile Digital Art & Creativity Summit (mDAC17) in Mountain View, on August 13, 2017, with model Kassamira (and approximately 60 students).

In my class we drew from the model and explore movement, shape, line and tone, starting with short and moving poses and ending with longer poses. We used the app Procreate.

On the artistic side, we honed observational skills, experienced capturing the essence of a pose with rapid gestures, and worked with positive and negative shapes, and use of line and value contrasts. On the technical side, we learned how to import and transform backgrounds; choose, adjust and customize brushes and brush looks; work with layers; and playback, save and share the entire creative process as a time-lapse replay video. Here are a few examples of artworks created during the session:

Gestures by Alan K.

Focus on positive and negative space by Alan K.

15m drawing by Alan K.

5m drawing by Caroline Mustard

5m drawing by Rhoda Draws

See the posts from my earlier mDAC Figure Drawing Classes at mDAC 2015 and mDAC 2016.


Teaching the iPad Figure Drawing Class at mDAC15 with model Inky

NOTES

Class prep:

1. Install Procreate
Please make sure you have the latest version of Procreate installed on your iPad ahead of time.

2. Have a Stylus
If you have an iPad Pro then the Apple Pencil is a must, and that is the combination I highly recommend! The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are an mobile artist’s dream combination! If you are using a older / different model of iPad that doesn’t work with the Apple Pencil, then see my iPad Art Tools page for other stylus recommendations.

3. Pre-Charge Your iPad and Stylus
Please ensure you fully charge your iPad and, as relevant, your stylus, overnight before class.

4. Label Your Equipment
Please clearly label everything, especially your iPad and stylus/es, with your name: it’s very easy to accidentally pick up someone else’s stylus.

5. Make a Dedicated Art Apps Home Page
I recommend organizing your art apps and grouping them together in a dedicated art apps “home page”. As you swipe from one home screen full of app icons to another, these pages are what I am referring to as “home pages”. Some may prefer grouping art apps into a folder. You can move app icons around, including from one home page to another, by pressing and holding on any icon until they all shake. Once they are shaking you can drag the app icons from one position to another, and when you drag them to the edge of a screen they jump into the adjacent home page. To stop them shaking, click on the home button, the round depression at the bottom of the iPad below the screen.

6. Place Your Settings, Photos and Camera Icons in Your Dock
Using the same technique for moving app icons around, I recommend making sure your dock includes the Settings (looks like a set of gears), Photos (looks like a multi-colored flower) and Camera app icons. The Dock is the row of icons you see at the bottom each home page, that remain the same whichever page is being viewed.

7. Capture and Organize Backgrounds
With your iPad please photograph some thick fine art papers, distressed walls and all sorts of interesting textures and surfaces. Then select these in your Camera Roll, choose Add To, create a new album called Backgrounds, and save them into this album. We’ll be making use of them in class.

Ten handy drawing tips:

1. Look before / as you draw

2. Make every mark meaningful & intentional

3. Be committed to your marks (no undo / redo)

4. Draw fast – don’t fuss or worry about mistakes

5. Draw loose – have fun, be fluid and flow

6. Start with big, bold statements

7. Use all your paper – draw to / off edges

8. See as an abstract – the positive and negative
shapes in and around your subject/s

9. Go for the feel, the lines of force, of the pose –
imagine holding that pose yourself

10. Less is more – suggest and be selective – ok
to leave unfinished and incomplete

Portrait of Johanna created from life in Mission Burrito in Oxford, UK. Johanna is a fellow Lindy Hop dancer who was also attending the Oxford Lindy Exchange (a swing dance weekend event). This drawing was created on an iPad Pro 12.9″ using an Apple Pencil and Procreate app. A group of us went to the Mission Burrito opposite the Oxford Union where the Lindy Exchange had taken place at the end of the event. I love the flexibility and portability of the iPad as an “on the road” sketching tool that I can use anytime anywhere. It facilitates spontaneity, as in this case. It also is a nice way to share the joy of digital paint magic – especially when I show the time-lapse replay at the end of the process!

This video shares samples of some of the artworks I created when I was invited to draw live iPad portraits of VIP Influencers in the Sonnet VIP Hospitality Station at the MURAL Festival 2017 in Montréal, Canada. You’ll get a sense of the incredible creative energy and atmosphere. Each portrait subject received a digital copy of their portrait immediately on completion, plus a time-lapse replay of the process. I’ve included the Influencers’ social media handles in the video and listed them below for convenient copy and paste. Check their wonderful Instagram feeds!

You were an absolute pleasure to work with, and I hope to work with you again on future events.
~ Jordan J.

Jeremy and P.O. with P.O.’s portrait!

Here are the portraits in the order they appear in the video, with the social media handles of the VIP Influencers:

@oliverdoor

@lysandrenadeau

@lolittadandoy

@pobeaudoin

@justinedufourlapointe

@chloedufourlapointe

@maximedufourlapointe

@aniklacasse

@mikechabotfitness

@heydahye

@mllegeri

@the_french_0ne

@robertsval

@eatdrinkbcarrie

The hashtags for this event included:#Mural2017 #OptimismCan #AvecOptimisme @sonnetinsurance @sonnetassurance

In preparation for painting these portraits I created a custom background to paint over. The background included elements of the Montréal skyline and used client-specified colors. Besides being the background of my portraits, it was also used at the event as a photo backdrop. You can see examples of the photos posted with this background by looking at the #OptimismCan and #AvecOptimisme hastags on Instagram.

A big thank you to the entire Sonnet team and partners who were such a pleasure to work with, and to all the wonderful subjects who kindly sat for their portraits during the MURAL Festival.

Video Credits:
Intro segment (up to 00:22s) includes clips from the MURAL Festival 2017 video.
Production: ABCDF
Music: BŌYS TALK – Ascension
Timelapse/Motion: Loïc Romer
At the 00:23s mark there is a short animated sequence that shows what the Sonnet-sponsored mural “Black Moon” by muralist INSA looks like when seen through INSA’s Gif-iti AR app.
From 00:23s through end of video:
Production: Jeremy Sutton
Music: “The Cupid Shuffle” DJ Baddmixx from the album Baddmixx Exclusives Volume 1

Live painting the scene at a company conference welcome party in Las Vegas, Nevada. What you see unfold here in 30 seconds was painted over three hours, projected on large screens to the left and right of a main stage.

The final artwork created live during the evening using an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Procreate app.

Here are photos from the event:

Leece, 2017, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate

This iPad sketch was created directly from life during my 2017 Spring Open Studios Art Exhibition in San Francisco. Leece sat for about 45 minutes and she loved the result!

This video shares a virtual reality based performance at a corporate event in Las Vegas. The tools used included the Oculus Rift and Google Tilt Brush.

Reactions:

“…energetic, innovative and exciting!”

“…terrific, looked wonderful.”

Jeremy Sutton, Ying Quartet at Kohl Mansion, 2017, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate

This drawing was created on February 12th, 2017, from life during a concert of the Ying Quartet at the historic Kohl Mansion, part of the Music at Kohl Mansion program. This drawing was created in the second half of the concert when they played Beethoven’s String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3, “Ruzumovsky”.

Replay video showing how the drawing progressed from start to finish.

My Spring Open Studios Art Exhibition was part of a weekend where hundreds of artists open up their studios to the public throughout the Mission district in San Francisco (Mission Artists United web site). Within the historical industrial building in which my studio is located, 1890 Bryant Street Studios, around 70 artists showed their work. I showed my latest creations, digital and non-digital, ranging from live iPad portraits and drawings of musicians to traditional figure drawings and an on-going acrylic portrait (the Friday night reception live demo performance shown above). Each day of the show I created a live iPad portrait of a visitor. Here are the three portraits.

iPad sketch of Armistead (iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate)

Armistead being drawn

iPad sketch of Rachael (iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate)

Rachael being drawn

iPad sketch of Leece (iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Procreate)

Leece being drawn

Great group of artists in our building!

(13m 25s) Stories behind some of the artworks that were displayed at my Spring Open Studios Art Exhibition.

Below is an iPad sketch I’d made earlier of Sarah playing the harp:

Jeremy working on his painting of Shahasp in a live art performance to the musical accompaniment of harpist Sarah Lamb (photography by Jay Cunanan)