A portrait of one of my favorite artists, Frank Ocean. I queued up a playlist of his music, put it on repeat, and went to work. Three hours later this was the result. The base is a pencil sketch with watercolor, brush pen, and oil-based Sharpie layered over.

One of my favorite paintings. It's a giant 4'x5' oil painting of my brother and I as kids. It took about a month and a lot of paint to complete.

An oil painting of an old photo of my brother drooling over cake.

A portrait of one of my favorite artists, The Weeknd.

This piece is a combination of Sharpie, Brush, and Prismacolor markers.

Photo source ishtodo

One of my colleagues had a close friend who lost her niece to brain cancer. Her name was Alisha and my colleague asked me to paint a picture of her. I wanted to create something bold and vibrant, so I used oils and bright colors.

This was the final painting in my high school art class. It's a reinterpretation of a photo from National Geographic magazine using oils. It’s pretty large (~4'×4') and took me about two months to complete.

his painting won me won Best of School at the Fremont Union High School District Art Show.

I love drawing my brother. I can capture him on paper much better than any other person. This piece is a charcoal portrait I made of him when he was in high school. I was trying to be cool and added the feminine figures coming out of his head. I don’t think it worked with the portrait.

This was my first oil painting. I completed it as an assignment in an art class I took in high school (with a great teacher by the name of Lee Akamichi). The image of the boy was taken from an advertisement in a magazine. I loved his grin, missing teeth and all. The orange background and blue-tone image was a requirement for the assignment.

A chalk pastel drawing (on newspaper) of Alonzo Mourning lifting weights. This was my first drawing in the art class I took in high school. 

A self portrait of me wearing a kurtha and pajamas. I started with a sharpie drawing and layered oils on top. The sharpie seeped through the oils and create a cool effect.

One of my favorites out of the Sharpie and Prismacolor series of figure drawings.

Another figure drawing with a limited color set using Sharpie and Prismacolor markers. I love this one a lot because I was able to get a bit of green in without throwing off the color balance.

In this drawing, I decided to use a limited color palette, but used different colors to accent the hair.

Another figure drawing with a limited color set. I started with a black Sharpie outline and then quickly blocked in color with Prismacolor markers.

I’ve started to play a lot more with color at figure drawing sessions. With the poses being at most 20 minutes, you don’t get much time to lay down the color. A combination of a limited palette and large blocks of color help me speed up the progress and, for the most part, finish the piece. This one, like the rest, is composed of Sharpie and Prismacolor marker. The difference is it’s one of the first using the technique and I hadn’t quite figured out the right color palette.

A painting of an old photo of me when I was 4 years old. I spent a long time getting the left side of the face to look right. In my frustration, I used smudged it with a cloth, liked the effect, and decided to keep it. 

A woman sitting in a dress during a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A drawing of a woman laying in bed. I absolutely love this drawing. When working with marker I like using a limited but bold color palette and this one exemplifies that. The combination of red and magenta really pop out the woman’s figure from behind the blue comforter.

An oil painting of fog rolling over the mountains along Highway 280. I painted it from memory. 

A project from a UC Berkeley drawing class. The goal was to make a collage and then reinterpret it on a large piece of paper with pencil and charcoal.

A chalk pastel drawing of a man holding his calf. Another one of my abstract drawings from college. The human figure was drawn from memory.

A self portrait from a photo. This was an assignment in a drawing class I took in college. It’s a pretty big drawing, almost 4×4′ and made with a combination of charcoal and pencil. I used an eraser and my finger to smooth the base strokes and then went over it again with a charcoal stick to get sharper strokes.

A self portrait from a photo. This was an assignment in a drawing class I took in college.

I did this chalk pastel piece in college. Women had me both frustrated and mesmerized at the same time and art was my outlet for all this emotion.

I was browsing through Google Images and found this photo of a dancer. The pose was so expressive and had such gorgeous colors I had to make a quick sketch from it. I tried abstracting the figure out a bit and playing with the color of the flesh with Prismacolor markers. The enveloping black is done with brush pen.

A colleague had a close friend who lost her niece to brain cancer and asked me to paint a picture of her. I did a series of studies from photos before starting the painting. For this study, I used ballpoint pen and Prismacolor marker.

When I hear or read a name, I have this weird habit of immediately typing it into Google Images and browsing their photos. I was just introduced to Jimi Hendrix’s music and while listening to it I was browsing his photos. One of them caught my eye and I decided to make a quick sketch. The outline is made with Sharpie and filled in with Prismacolor markers.

An oil painting of my brother when he was 2 years old. 

This was originally an attempt at a portrait of my brother (from a photo). I ended up getting frustrated with the drawing and instead decided to experiment with color. I used brush pen for the outline and Prismacolor marker to fill it in.

A brush pen sketch of a woman from a unique angle. Using both a grey and black pen I was able to carve out the shape and contrast it against the softer shadows.

I drew this charcoal portrait of an old man at a figure drawing session in the Mission. The combination of deep chiseled wrinkles and perfect lighting created some gorgeous contrast that I tried to capture with this sketch.

This 20 minute pose by the model was wonderful and really inspired me. One of the few sketches where I tried to clean it up once I got home but couldn’t find much to clean up. The medium is pencil.

Another figure drawing with a limited color set using Sharpie and Prismacolor markers. In this one I experimented with leaving out blue and using green instead. I wasn't that happy with the results.

Another abstract drawing from college. I decided to make a drawing of my right hand by holding it up to a mirror and sketching with my left hand. I got bored with the piece and decided to experiment. The medium is charcoal.

A charcoal sketch of a woman posing from a drawing class I took in college.

A charcoal sketch of a woman posing from a drawing class I took in college.

A charcoal sketch of a reclining woman from a drawing class I took in college.

I have no idea why I decided to draw a spoon. Some may claim its a phallic symbol, but I say it’s just a spoon.

One morning, I decided to take a bike ride along the Embarcadero with my drawing pad and a sharpie. This was a quick sketch I made outside the Ferry Building.

A few 5 and 10 minute poses done with graphite stick. The poses were wonderful and I actually found some time to pop the figure out with some deep blacks

Another sketch of a woman from a figure drawing session in the Mission. This was a 5 minute pose and the medium is graphite stick.

A sketch of a woman in a pose at a figure drawing session. The initial sketch is done in graphite and the deep blacks are done with a charcoal stick.

I drew this portrait of my dadu (grandfather in Indian culture) in 2009 when I was visiting Mumbai. My grandfather loves to read and he we will read the entire newspaper every day. He splits this task into two sessions: the first occurs in the morning and the second after lunch (at this point it’s usually the Bollywood tabloids). As a kid, I spent this time laying on the bed next to him listening to the city and watching the combination of glucose overload and mundane gossip put him to sleep.

Great 20 minute pose that I was able to capture with a graphite stick. I’m most proud of the hair since I was able to capture with just a few strokes instead of overdoing it like I usually do.

A charcoal sketch of a nude woman from a figure drawing session in the Mission

A charcoal sketch of a woman posing from a drawing class I took in college.

Another Sharpie sketch of a reclining woman. I think this was a 5 minute pose. The technique involves quickly building the shape with the edge of the Sharpie marker (so you get faint squiggles) and then making a dark outline of the shape. This way I don’t have to commit to my initial strokes. I also like the treatment of the shadows using directional lines; I very rarely get them to look right.

Another Sharpie sketch of a sitting woman.

I usually don’t put any 1 minute poses up, but I love this one because of the technique and simplicity. I started out by building the form with the edge of a Sharpie marker (hence the lines aren’t very dark) and then tracing an outline around the resulting squiggles. It has a cool effect.

A sharpie sketch of a woman sleeping. I love this sketch because its such a simple but expressive pose and I didn’t need many strokes or shading to capture it.

I was sitting in a terminal in SFO waiting for my flight when I saw this boy. He didn’t look like he was in a good mood and had this deadpan stare at the floor. I whipped out the sketchbook and made a quick sketch in Sharpie.

For awhile, I was obsessed with Indian paintings. I did a few pieces to combine Indian styles with my personal style.

Pencil sketches of a French model from a figure drawing session in the Mission

Pencil sketches of a skinny African-American man at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A pencil sketch of a reclining woman at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A sitting woman drawn with a Sharpie.

A pencil sketch of a reclining woman at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A pencil sketch of a woman in a dramatic pose from a figure drawing session in the Mission

I love to draw fleshy people. Their rolls create great (and sometimes challenging) shadows that are fun to capture on paper. This model was no exception.

Pencil sketches of a woman in stockings from a figure drawing session in the Mission. 

Pencil sketches of an old man at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

Pencil sketches of an asian woman from a figure drawing session in the Mission

A pencil sketch of a nude woman posing at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A sketch of a woman with back problems. I’m just kidding, this was another pose at a figure drawing session in the Mission. I think it was a 2 minute pose. I used a graphite stick.

A 1 minute pencil sketch of a nude woman posing. Simple, but I love how expressive a few simple lines can be.

A pencil sketch of a reclining woman at a figure drawing session.

A pencil sketch of a woman at a figure drawing session in the Mission.

A pencil sketch of a woman at a figure drawing session in the Mission

A pencil sketch of a woman posing at a figure drawing session in the Mission.