Tiny Trifecta

Tiny Trifecta @ The Cotton Candy Machine

Tiny Trifecta opened this past Saturday to great enthusiasm and success! Incredible turnout for astounding work from reknowned artists! YUP. So thrilled to have been a part of it. Most of you have probably seen my final images through my instagram account or other promotions so instead of just final images, I'm taking another stab at showing you guys some of the process of creation. The process here includes some reference I used, color mock-ups, tight sketches, and steb-by-step painting progress images. Hope you enjoy! ( My pieces are sold out but remaining pieces from the show become available online Tuesday June 17th - check it out! www.cottoncandymachine.com )

My contributions to the show! Largest piece 5 x 5 in. All acrylic on wood panel

These are some excerpts from my brainstorming drawings that best represent the final images. You can see the seeds of ideas here if not practically the final pieces.

Tightening those sketches, planning for the board dimensions & color placements

This is a painfully rough, digital color mock-up. I even collaged in some of the reference to save some time. I just modified the color and light of it as needed to meet my needs.

Step-by-step progress of "Summer Daze" 4 x 4 in. Acrylic on wood panel

"Over the Lake" tight sketch & friends (Little ghostie and maggot peeking in there... :) )

Another rough color mock-up. Again I chopped up and tweaked and pasted my reference materials right into the mock-up. It's sloppy but time efficient. Mostly, I can already see what I want in my mind, this is just for a reminder.

Step-by-step progress of "Over the Lake" 5 x 5 in Acrylic on Wood Panel


This piece was much simpler in imagery so really it was just about building layers and playing boldly with color.

Fun with reference! Use the universe and web-i-verse to bring your concepts to life. I find that using reference allows me to take a simple idea and really flesh it out; give it new depth, meaning, texture, context. The idea is a seed, reference (or what I call "Researchpiration") is the Miracle Gro.


Rainbow cake! My absolute favorite treat :D And inspiration for the lip colors I used in "Sweet Talkin' Son of a Bitch" above

"Over the Lake" reference/inspiration. The color in this wasn't what I wanted but the overall mood of it was spot on.

More inspiration for SOB lips. I added a crystal to the tooth in homage.

Clearly reference for "Summer Daze"! I really wanted a floral motif but I wanted much more dynamic color. This was great reference for variety of texture and scale in the floral arrangement.