A labyrinthine prayer from Carmina Gadelica “…Carmina Gadelica is a compendium of prayers, hymns, charms, incantations, blessings, literary-folkloric poems and songs, proverbs, lexical items, historical anecdotes, natural history observations, and miscellaneous lore gathered in the Gaelic-speaking regions of Scotland between 1860 and 1909. The material was recorded, translated, and reworked by the exciseman and folklorist…
This year’s advent sketchbook is going to unfold like a narrative. I have no idea where this is going, so I’m along for the ride as well… Here’s how it begins… Editor’s Note: This series ended almost as quickly as it began.
My hands had a small cameo in a film where I drew the Cameo Theater, which was the theater in which audiences saw the film’s debut. A cameo of the Cameo in the Cameo. Cameo Theater, by Paul Soupiset, part of a title sequence of a 48 Hour Film Project by SimpleMan Productions, Jonathan Zitelman…
Three years ago, I invited a group of retreat participants to join me in a collaborative art-making project. Complicating matters — this was done with no verbal instruction: we were participating in a contemplative retreat led by Mary Earle, and had taken vows of silence for the day. It ended up being a sublime afternoon…
The SANDY WOOD & OTHER VOICES channel just went live on YouTube a few moments ago. A collaborative YouTube channel where Sandy brings together poets, painters, filmmakers, voice talent, photographers, and other creatives. Terminal Minotaur was the first video in the series, and was a collaboration between Chris Taylor, Sandy Wood and myself, with video…
In 2008, Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw released Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, a book for which I contributed 40 or so watercolor illustrations. Here are a few of the interior images. [share title=”share” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”true” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”true” reddit=”true” email=”true”]
[x_video_embed no_container=”true”] [/x_video_embed] I’m working on a new tattoo design (not shown here), but it led me to go find these old ones and post them. The weird thing about art for bodies: sometimes the artist does a great job; sometimes they butcher it; sometimes the recipient decides not to get it inked, and…
[x_video_embed no_container=”true”] [/x_video_embed] My Advent 2012 sketchbook, “Sometimes My Life Winds Like Bézier Curves,” is part of the library at The Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn, New York. You can view the whole book at your leisure here, or check it out in person, next time you’re in the City.
It’s strange to see a piece of art you’ve made years ago, having not seen it in person in the intervening years. Yesterday I was reacquainted with two such pieces. In 2008 I crated up two large pen-and-ink drawings on gesso board and shipped them to Los Altos, California, where they have resided in the…
This week I’m taking a personal break, vacationing in a spectacular redwood forest with a bunch of old friends at a Quaker retreat center north of Santa Cruz, California. When you’re miles from your studio with limited supplies, but your illustration client needs something right away, what do you do? Here’s the story of the…
[x_video_embed no_container=”true”] Drawing Close // Documentary on Illustrator Paul Soupiset from Isenhower Productions on Vimeo. [/x_video_embed] Kyle Isenhower and I have been working together, making short films together for maybe five years, trailers, interviews, adverts, and storytelling, all in the service of our clients. My part of that collaboration is usually illustrative with a little…
In addition to my Chartres Labyrinth series of paintings, which I’ll post soon, I’ve also been working on another series of paintings, this time with more dimension, and using found objects. I’ll post more in the series over time. Soupiset, Paul. Approaching Train. [2015]. Acrylic with found objects on 12×16 gesso panel and pine box.…
Drawing Close, Kyle Isenhower’s mini documentary on the illustration of Paul Soupiset, will debut here — and at Isenhower Productions’ website, sometime in the next few days. We talked to Kyle and he confirmed the film is basically finished, and is just awaiting the final musical score (being composed by a mutual friend of ours,…
Back in the spring of 2008, during a trip to New York City, I visited with Danny Gregory at his house. Danny edited (and invited me to participate in) An Illustrated Life — a luscious, full-color-throughout, 272-page tome featuring a “sneak peak into the wildly creative imaginations of top illustrators, designers and artists from around the…
This sketchnote of mine was included as a small part of the Mike Rohde book The Sketchnote Handbook, which was released November 30, 2012 to a worldwide audience. The book has since been translated to Russian and German. Mike is a brilliant sketchnoter, has grown to become a great public speaker, too, and has become…
Photo by Courtney Perry NOTE: Here is a Patheos interview with me from May 16, 2013 by Deborah Arca Yesterday I interviewed Patheos blogger and acquisitions editor Tony Jones about the new adult faith formation video resource called animate.Faith from Sparkhouse. One of the sparkling gems of animate is the captivating artwork that runs throughout the series, from the…
In the fall of 2013 had the distinct privilege of illustrating and designing The Vinedresser’s Notebook, by Judith Sutera, a Benedictine Sister of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. It was a freelance project, and at the time I was busy as a creative director of a design firm in San Antonio. I got the…
Below is a handful of logos, wordmarks, and symbols Paul Soupiset designed over the past years. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll highlight a few of the logos, show my sketchbook pages leading up to the idea, and show you the final color breaks as well.
In his 2015 book What Every Christian Needs to Know About Passover, popular speaker and author Rabbi Evan Moffic invites Christians of all types to explore the Jewish roots of their faith as they reconsider and experience the Passover Seder. Abingdon Press commissioned me to create a dozen illustrations as chapter openers for Rabbi Moffic’s…
Book cover design, title treatment, and watercolor illustration for Preacher Breath, by Kyndall Rothaus for Smyth & Helwys, 2014.
When I painted the linework illustration for the cover of Buddy Greene’s Harmonica Anthology, I filmed these two timelapse animations with my iPhone. Watercolor over black pigment liner. [x_video_embed no_container=”true”] [/x_video_embed] [x_video_embed no_container=”true”] [/x_video_embed]
Soupiset, Paul. Ave Virginia. [2015]. Watercolor, metallic leaf, dimes, on 24″x24″ gessoboard. Collection of Annette & Kent Kingery, San Antonio.
One of the many art experiments from Laity Lodge. I painted a dead branch white, and then invited people to come over the course of the week and paint and weave threads and ribbons — their prayers and psalms — onto the branches. Photo © Topher Ayhart.