Art House Co-op Sketchbook project vol. 3 - Artist and Student Colin Alexander

Colin Alexander has been a student of both my husband (Gregg Emery) and I for the last two years. He is one of our 'die-hard' visual artists at Dwight and yes we have a few however Gregg and I would not have been in the art house exhibit if not for Colin. Colin Alexander's Art House Co-Op Sketchbook Cover

I'm a big fan of Colin's paintings and with this sketchbook challenge he made use of his painterly style, in his illustrations. Often he prepared the page with a paint treatment prior to illustrating on it - however the image below is coffee stained! Each time I turned the page - I came upon a whole new world that he created - he's an artist with wanderlust which is certainly evoked through the imagery.

meant as a self portrait

Sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander

I especially appreciate the fresh, raw and uninhibited use of materials, some of which include drawing over masking tape! Colin's sense of design with borders and framing of the picture plane also lend a sophisticated yet simple (therefore universal) quality to his imagery.

sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander

For the deer, the concept was to illustrate the idea conveyed in an Emerson poem,

"forbearance"
"Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? Loved the wood rose, and left it on its stalk? At rich men’s tables eaten bread and pulse? Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust? And loved so well a high behavior, In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained, Nobility more nobly to repay? O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine!"

The color control in the compositions is just as vital to the whole - look at the muted pink and babyblue figures (some of which represent police) juxtaposed against the colorless victim.

This police image is a response to:

"getting pulled over by the police the day after christmas; 3 days after i got my license. I'm making a turn at a corner where it's busy (friday night downtown burbs), but no one's about to cross. So the police pulled me over and then gave me a ticket for failing to yield to the "pedestrian" and for having too many kids in the car. I think the too many kids rule is bogus, as it shoots holes through carpooling, which a lot of kids are doing with out being wild and crashing through shop windows. So a night that was gonna be a good night of pizza became ruined cuz of rules that aren't thought through."-colin

sketchbook excerpt by Colin Alexander excerpt from Colin Alexanders Art House Sketchbook

Colin even made a pop-up house in his little moleskine sketchbook! These images show only a fraction of all the work and I encourage readers to check out Colin's Art House sketchbook vol.3 page to see more!

Hope you enjoyed this peek into another art house sketchbook project vol. 3 artist! Let me know, since I'm sure Colin would love to read your comments.

Comments

[Ogun]

I genuinely felt like a kid on christmas flipping through the pages of Colin's sketchbook, that same joy- while being inspired at the same time.
I love the deer&quote, the police&quote, and the HOUSE<3(sucha great surprise).

[Barb]

You're right...his work is really great!
Peace & Love,
~Barb~

[lenox knits]

What a unique artistic expression he has. It's amazing how he is able to get across some really deep thoughts in such a simple and honest way.

[Mrs. Whetsel]

Amazing work!! I love how he really pushed the boundaries of a "sketchbook".

[isabella]

colin rocks

[colin.]

You have no idea how much this meant to me. I wanted to thank you in person last week before I came and said again through the inter-tubez now.

Hearing you lather on the praise through all this has been a real ego stroker, considering how much I loved manimals. I felt like I was cheating when I was making this. I told my mom I was already feeling the crunch of the deadline and I was doing mine in the style that I was doing it, but I felt bad cause you were feeling the crunch and you were actually making yours good.

But I'm glad that there were some things in there that seemed to pull the right strings at the same time with some people out there. Many thanks again, to everyone, too!

[Ji Min]

that's awesome!
haha. poor colin......no awesome pizza night? boo-hiss~