M   I   C   H   A   E   L      G   R   I   F   F   I  N

Still working in ballpoint to improve accuracy, I did another sketch today… I was inspired by the anniversary of the march on Washington. Wondering what Reverend Martin Luther King would have thought if he knew that in less than 50 years the United States would have an African American President, I started a sketch of President Obama. Martin Luther King was a man with incredible courage and someone I’ve always admired – things have come a long way in some ways but there will

Still working on speed and accuracy… learning when to walk away from a piece. I’m also looking at doing a piece on depression… a couple of years ago I had quite a personal struggle and am happy to say that I’ve made huge progress with it. It’s something that I think should be talked about as it can be a very serious and potentially deadly thing. The painting will deal with this heavy subject and period of my life - I’ll talk about it more as it develops but here is a study I

I’ve recently started to realize that one has to simply learn to be happy with what they produce as far as art is concerned. I’ve been looking a lot at some of my favourite contemporary artists as well as some of the classical artists that have always inspired me – my work will never be like their work. I could imitate styles and copy their paintings and drawings but doing that would be doing a disservice to me unless it was for the sole purpose of learning technique. I have

I’ve been working on this piece for a while and hope to have it completed soon… it’s a small portrait of my girlfriend in oil based clay – most of my sculpture has been done in this lately as it’s an excellent medium to experiment in, I find. I’m using this study to work on the muscles of the face and neck that I’ve been studying lately. I’ve been following one of my favourite contemporary realist artists on Facebook – she is a graduate of “my dream art school” and was a teac

It’s been a while! I had some time off and got wrapped up in some other things instead of devoting time to my art like I’d planned….. but I’m back to it again. I found myself with some spare time today and did a sketch of a face I found on Google. Nothing too exciting as far as progress is concerned but it’s something. Now… for the muscles of the neck!! Tomorrow I plan on getting some more anatomical drawings done and am working at re-learning the stuff I’d forgotten in my an