A Lovable Beast

When you opened the door to the condo your instincts forced you to cramp up as you heard snarls, scraps, and flaps of wet jowls  If you didn't have solid ground you might as well be a bowling pin, cause the lovable beast was charging towards your legs right now.

"Kimbo!", his owner yelled out. Kimbo was a English bulldog, a lovable dog who didn't know his own strength. He was always excited by guests and loved to get close. It was hard to resist his cute under bite and his big eyes, if you were lucky he would relax just enough for you to enjoy his company.

The lovable Kimbo was a perfect subject for one of my digital drawings, the drawing above is the finished portrait which was completed after Kimbo's passing. With this portrait I wanted to have some subtle high impact colours, and heavier usage of darker colours to bring out special features like his eyes. To me, this piece portrays strength, loyalty and unconditional love. I actually enjoy the rawness of my pet portraits, unlike my child digital drawings I don't need to be overly cautious of how soft the final piece needs to be.

Not only was Kimbo a joy to draw, It also made me really interested in the unique face of the bulldog. Bulldogs have a unique history, with their species developed for bull or bear baiting. The sport was fairly simple, the dog that grabbed the bull by the nose and pinned it to the ground would be the victor. If you are already an avid Bulldog fan or just a lover of animals, this could be the next piece to add to your collection.

Above is the first pet drawing I completed, again another good friend of mine requested a drawing of his pet. I would completely enjoy doing more pet portraits in the near future.

A new Beginning

Winding down from a busy day of work, my wife and I were just getting ready for bed. As I was brushing my teeth I glanced in the mirror and noticed the large bags under my eyes.  Hoping for a good sleep, we both jumped into bed, turned the lights off and settled in. 

"Turn the lights on", my wife sputtered.  As I flicked the lights on she pulled the blankets from her, I looked down and realized it was time.

On February 10th, 2012 "Gia James Simpatico" was born.

After doing several children's portraits for clients and friends, I now had the opportunity to use my daughter as my next subject.  I found it interesting because children's portraits are one of my most popular requests, but they do pose a challenge for me.  My style tends be raw, organic and fast which doesn't always lend itself to the soft lines of a child's face. so these pieces do tend to be more time consuming than others.

Below are some examples of children portraits I have done. As you can see colour is still important to me and I feel that its an element that will never leave my work.

For more child portraits please check out my portfolio at www.simply-simpatico.com.

Ritchie Valens Made Me Do It

In the eighties I was captivated by the film "La Bamba".  It was the story of Ritchie Valens, his music, personal life, and his aviophobia (fear of flying).  Towards the end of the film you see the small plane take off into the snowy night with Ritchie and Buddy Holly.  If you are familiar with his story, you know that this was the plane ride that claimed their lives.  Watching that film for the first time was life changing, and one thing stuck with me...small planes + bad weather = the end.

Fast forward twenty years, I was in Seattle for a search marketing expo. The entire expo was about search engines, website conversions, social media and analytic's -  not a place for a designer to get his creative juices flowing!  Fortunately for me, one of the booths at the expo was featuring an artist drawing portraits, these portraits were the typical big head and goofy glasses kind. I stood and watched the artist as he drew effortlessly and with astonishing speed. I could smell the graphite from his pencil as the artist banged out drawing after drawing. Watching the artist really got me thinking about picking up a pencil and actually drawing on paper again.

When the day ended I quickly grabbed a cab and headed over to the airport. I arrived at my gate, and could see the rain streaming down, smearing the airport windows.  My gate number was called for boarding and the small group of ten headed through.  As we ran outside to the plane, they made us wait in line as the crew did some final checks. As I waited I myself inspected the plane, the small passenger plane, the one which was about to take-off into the stormy skies.  It was that moment that the scene from La Bamba came rushing back, the equation that meant the end...

The loud engines roared, and we began our ascent into one of the most turbulent flights I'd ever been on.  In between bumps I sat in my seat thinking, if this was the end, what would I regret?  As I reflected on the last couple years, I realized I really missed being creative for myself, doing experimental work to fill up my creative tank. Ever since I had started my company, I'd been using my design skills to help others.  I was just a tool fulfilling their vision.  I realized I needed to get back to creating for myself.

We landed and (feeling very thankful) I grabbed my carry on jumped out of the plane and into a cab. While in the cab I brainstormed about my first project, and I knew I wanted to mix traditional drawing with digital somehow.

Above is the very first portrait that spawned my Digital Drawing collection. The drawing was a milestone for me, as it really made me understand the importance of keeping up with personal projects to allow for creativity to stay abundant and fresh.  During my explorations with this piece, I found a style of drawing that worked, figured out the digital process that would be required, and the colour theory for the style I was after. Drawings #2 and #3 (shown below) came shortly after.

Interested in viewing more of my work, have a look at my digital drawings here at www.simply-simpatico.com