Which are my favorite art mediums and why?

There was a time in my life when I transitioned to acrylic paints to create my first paintings. I was fresh out of college and beginning my personal journey exploring my own style without the limits of a classroom environment and cookie cutter classes. Acrylic paints offered a more precise and easier application for me and one I could get sharp details with. My paintings evolved to a point where they were complicated and saturated with lots of detail. My style became very complex with small worlds within other worlds. After a while, it took me months to finish one painting spending thousands of hours on one complete work. I still enjoy acrylics for their precision, but over the course of the last 10 years have moved back to pencil to manifest my visions from my mind onto paper or board.

Moving to pencil as my main source of medium was a smooth transition that felt right to me. Pencil is my medium. It is like finding that perfect shirt or pair of pants that actually accentuates my figure and makes me look better. I love precise details in my work and colored pencil has given me that control. I prefer Berol Prismacolors for their buttery soft consistency and using the white pencil as a blending tool gives you a rich matte finish like a painting. I have used pencils so much the last 10 years they have become "one" with my arm and body. They are an extension of my overall creativity and process. The ideas flow from my mind through my arm and the pencil moves like auto pilot without too much effort. I have confidence in my knowledge and control of them. It empowers me to reach new heights and explore even more conceptual approaches.

The smell of freshly sharpened pencils and the broken lead puts my mind into a creative trance of euphoric pleasure. The only thing to come close to that feeling is a freshly brewed coffee when I awake. I will continue on my journey wielding my colorful pencils that look like a beautiful garden waiting to blossom and continue to wonder what they will produce next.