the portable city

by definition, not static

by Shel Kahn

reprioritizing / replanning / restructuring

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small posts to be enjoyed en masse

  • wall of heavenly green

    Can’t resist a backlit forest! I love this especially because it feels like a Paul Saari or George Outhwaite painting.

  • Wolf in oil pastel

    painted on canson mi-tientes pastel paper

  • immortal tiles

    I just love the soft glow of artificial lighting on worn tiles!

  • flaming… hot? probably

    sunlight! graffiti! one weirdly distracting white sedan!

  • oil pastel study

    in a Robert Bateman sketchbook, using Neopastels from Caran d’Ache.

  • red and yellow and blue and green

    delightfully sunny alleyway

  • glowing concrete

    Visited a beautiful and slightly apocalyptic building at the perfect time of day.

  • cute bike!

    My friend bought the absolute cutest bike and has kindly invited me to photograph it whenever. And I loved the warm light here especially.

  • streetlights

    playing with long exposures and wrangling values after to make things feel more nostalgic.

  • Dusk with Patio Umbrellas

    I love a dramatic sky!

  • The Creek

    Love this creek at golden hour.

  • alleyway photography

    fucking around with extreme colour grading in lightroom and having a very nice time!

  • rec: short horror comic

    This short horror comic by Scott Base is making the rounds on tumblr again! and as it has haunted me for years, I feel it’s worth sharing:

  • the sky was the colour of a screen tuned to a glitched signal

  • Dog Sketches in Procreate

    Drawn with my non-dominant hand:

  • asking for recs

    i am starving for all the “how to art direct but not at a AAA company” content the universe can provide, certainly so i can continuously get better at my job, but also because I don’t yet have a language for what I’m doing all day every day at work and, like in this Lee Petty talk, I often unlock awareness of decisions I’m making simply by giving them a name.

    Would love any recommendations! I’ve dug through gdc’s youtube archive and hunger for moooooooorrrrre

  • freelance artist psa from your friendly neighbourhood art director

    please, please, please god, please, put your website address on all your social medias

    and then
    please,
    please, please,
    PLEASE
    put your email on your website

  • a wish for the internet

    I’ve been trying to nurse a sketchbook habit back into existence this year, and one of the things I desperately miss is a place where I can share drawings as ideas and not as achievements.

  • regency novel dialogue metaphor

    So I found a metaphor that helped me explain the appeal of Jane Austen and similar movies/books:

    • the dialogue that happens on screen is about as relevant to what’s happening in the character’s minds/hearts/etc as an interview with one of the hockey players before a team game
    • much like the fun of watching teams play one another over the season and collect rivalries and beefs they would never just, like, explain to a reporter, the fun of the jane austen plot comes from the reader’s ability to put together all the clues to the emotional rollercoaster happening behind the scenes
    • which builds tension and anticipation to the inevitable face-off/all-out brawl/intense emotional confession scene

    which then leads me to the thought that a jane austen novel maybe is to a hockey season what a harlequin novel or hallmark holiday movie is to, maybe, wrestling?

  • Character Portrait – Smoking Out Back

    This piece was painted using textural chalk and pastel brushes in Procreate.

  • The Quartzite Crystal Island

    Digital piece, never quite finished.

  • Classical Crystal Island

    Speedpaint sketch exercise; digital.

  • A Temporary Peace Crystal Island

    Ink on paper, 8 x 8″, 2017

    A Temporary Peace Crystal Island

  • The Devil and the Huntsman Crystal Island

    Ink on paper, 8 x 8″, 2017

    The Devil and the Huntsman Crystal Island

  • Anaesthetize Crystal Island

    Ink on paper, 8 x 8″, 2017

    Anaesthetize Crystal Island