iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 05/10/2026

Harrison, theater kid, did great last week at Daydreamer Community Life Drawing, St Johns, PDX. Tonight, at 6pm, we have a new model, Marcus. Join us! (and, yeah, I am so out of it I have no context for this manifestation of Luigi. I may've initially mistaken him for the Purple Pie Man).

Color pencil drawing of a young white guy with wavy brown hair and beard wearing a red dinner jacket with black lapels. He is flat on his back, corpse pose, a roughly sketched Luigi plushy sits on his hip.

Color pencil drawing of a young white guy with wavy brown hair and beard . He is praying to a Luigi plushy balanced on a cartoon skull.

Color pencil drawing of a young white guy with wavy brown hair and beard wearing a red dinner jacket with black lapels. He is reclining, fingers interlaced over his belly.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 03/10/2026

Okay, detail shot of those two Skellies (and their skulls)

Oil painting detail of One Skeleton riding on the shoulder of another, looking up at Sky with arms raised.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 03/10/2026

QRP with your skull art! 🪦💀

Oil painting of two skeletons in a landscape. The larger one carries the smaller on their shoulder. They are walking along a road above a valley. The small one is looking off and raising its arms to a break in the clouds above. There is a coyote and the field below them looking back uncertainly.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 01/10/2026

North Portland art supply run via @trimet.org Always afraid this old text will disappear before i get a photo. #secrettexan

Bright sunny selfie of middle-age, beardless white guy in old palm cowboy, black-rim glasses, black tee-shirt with white magpie print, three pens hanging off collar, cardboard boxes under arm. Standing in front of wall with graffitti that reads Buddy Holly Lives.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 01/10/2026

Also, I just made my very first, very short, cartoon. It's called Ritornello, it's about going around (and around) on your bikes together.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 01/10/2026

October already? #KidLitArtPostcard Day? Wow! I am Gabriel Liston, an illustrator, painter, and writer. Rep'd by Andrea Colvin Creative Agency. Refining a couple of pb dummies currently, but open for illustration projects. lastwater.net

A kid lit art postcard using an ink brush and watercolor picture of a mother, wearing a skirt and heavy hoodie, sitting outside in a chair, holding some hot beverage in a mug as her small daughter next to her leans from her own little chair to wave at an older woman. The older woman, in violet sweats and sandals has paused and is waving a gentle finger back at the child. Text reads, Gabriel Liston. Represented by Andrea Colvin Creative Agency. lastwater.net

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 30/09/2026

I had so much fun with this!

Simple Pencil line drawing of two tiny girls on little scoot bikes going opposite directions and looking each other in the eye

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 25/09/2026

When you are out hiking and drawing in Forest Park, and people and dogs are doing cute things in the light, you really hope you can get around to painting them and sometimes you do.

Tiny Detail of an oil painting on linen. A hiker rests on a log in long late afternoon light as a doodle perches its paws on their knees and looks into their face.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 22/09/2026

Generally, i dislike transit schedule cuts, BUT I love a long @trimet.org transfer at NE Glisan and 39th.

Tiny pencil sketch of an equestrian statue by Emmanuel Fremiet, Joan of Arc, in armor, with a streaming banner.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 21/09/2026

Fresh flyer for Community Life Drawing evenings at Daydreamer. Tried to go with something kinda seasonal (truthfully tho, always just looking for excuses to re-visit this reference sketch).

Ink brush poster of a person in black seated, throne-like, with a hood and haunted eyes. Text reads Community Life Drawing, Monday Nights 6 to 9 pm, Daydreamer Public House, 7315 N Fessenden Street, St Johns, PDX, Bring fifteen dollars for the model please.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 20/09/2026

Noticed from the window of the No75 one morning last week. #publictransit #trimet #Portland

Ink and watercolor sketch of an older woman in violet sweats waving her finger at a small child. The child is waving back, sitting in a little chair in her driveway next to another woman watching her and holding a mug.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 17/09/2026

Some July 2020 vibes context for the PPB. (I was always too headached to want to stick around for the gas itself)

Ink and watercolor sketch of cops in gear sitting in benches in Lownsdale Square in front of a tall plinth with a bronze soldier. Red beard cop looks at us, says, Leave it alone. Text below reads, Thursday after the cops have taken the park. A young guy and I are standing near the cyclone fence. The kid leans on it a little.

Watercolor and ink picture of a bronze soldier of a tall plinth. Graffiti on plinth says fuck feds get out, and an anarchy A welcome to Portland. Figures walk past. Bottom text reads, Friday night 17 July, 2020, before the gas. Top text reads, the Monument to the serving Oregon volunteer infantry, sculptured by the Deaf, and likely queer, artist Douglas Tildan, commemorates the regiment's participation in the US War against Philippine independence, 1899-1913. A war that killed between 200,000 and one million Philippine civilians. In the early 20th century, many Portland law enforcement officers were veterans of the Philippine War.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 15/09/2026

Hey artists, share something! 💙 SOMETHING!!! #kidlitart

Ink brush sketch of a sad eye Newfoundland dog flopped on the floor, staring at us.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 06/09/2026

Had a client come through with some great reference material for a pet commission. Painting done, building the frame today. Enzo and Haystack Rock, oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches.

Oil painting of a small fuzzy black dog on a wet Oregon beach. A tall basalt outcropping looms in the waves behind him. He is looking at us wide-eyed, tilting, tongue flicking.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 03/09/2026

That's a lovely opportunity Brian, thank you. Here is my raffle ticket.

Watercolor illustration of a cottonwood tree in the snow on a late, sunny winter afternoon. Animal tracks lead to the tree then disappear. Beyond the tree, a child in a red hat, and making some sort of music, rides along on the shoulders of a big person.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 03/09/2026

Sharing this painting for #kidlitartpostcard day because I have been out making reference sketches (in Oregon) towards one picture book full of oil paintings, and because someday I'll have to set a whole book up at this particular lake*. #kidlitart #trout *in Colorado, but do you know which lake?

Oil painting of a young artist in a big hat sitting in the shade of a spruce tree drawing a very blue lake with a flat top purple mountain. A Fish and Wildlife office hikes buy carrying a very large bucket. Text reads, Gabriel Liston, Represented by Andrea Colvin Creative Agency, lastwater.net

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 02/09/2026

Curses! (to quote my Dad) Why did you get me thinking about roofs? Damn it. It is past time to do this again and we are Not ready:

Watercolor cartoon of two people cleaning moss off a steep roof. The young woman says, I will fall off the roof before all the moss is gone. The moss is an eternal probability therefor my falling off the roof before all off the roof is an inevitability.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 01/09/2026

Morning's pre-breakfast lettering exercise.

Ink brush poster reads, Hey Portland: Go, Portland Go is not grassroots—it is a scam by conservatives to sucker the rest of us.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 31/08/2026

This morning at the flea market, I found this brutal bit in a 1918 Stars & Stripes:

BAD DAYS FOR WHALES
[By CABLE TO THE STARS AND STRIPES]
America, June 27.-New York's
darkening order is a thing of the past. Not only the city itself, but Coney Island, too, is blazing riot-ously, with every bulb working over-time.
German submarine visitors have been practically forgotten by the big city, and even the newspapers have no space for them anymore.
The only sufferers now are the whales and porpoises, which are experiencing shocking fatalities every time a merchant ship's gunners see one, proving again that it is the innocent bystander who always gets the bullets in the shindy.
Seven dead whales washed ashore between Capes Henry and Henlopen testify to the enthusiastic accuracy of the gunners.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 31/08/2026

Am drawing a blank today, don't want to be drawing blank tomorrow (Monday 6-9pm at Daydareamer Pub St Johns, Portland, Oregon)

Ink brush script reading, Whom amongst you has offered but not yet been tapped to model for Monday night community life drawing?

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 30/08/2026

America's greatest pencil only gets better with use.

Pen cluttered drawer. The yellow pencil sitting on top of the pile, though partially sharpened, still mostly reads, Students today aren't ready for sex. The first couple letters of students are sharpened away, allowing one to imagine the further truncating of the text.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 30/08/2026

Map Quest is having none of it.

Screenshot of MapQuest showing Lake Ontario labled, Lake Ontario

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 29/08/2026

Wednesday evening's view from the St Johns Bridge (Cuttings, oil on panel, 8 by 10 inches)

A small oil painting of the Willamette River from up on the St Johns Bridge looking east. Pale white and ochre clouds angle across an evening sky. Little Mt Hood floats pink in a salmon and ochre cloud or smoky blanket. Below us, a motorboat pulling a waterskier, or at least a tiny blob that could be a waterskier, cuts a wake from the railroad bridge.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 28/08/2026

I am still very pleased with this eye.

Close-up detail of a pastel portrait of Dolly Parton showing a light blue line on her lower eyelid

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 28/08/2026

Uh-oh! I'm awake and feeling better, but now they're on to me!

Photo of two large dogs, a golden doodle and a Newf, standing and looking into the camera. Behind them is a couch and a very cluttered bookshelf filling the wall, topped with oil paintings, a globe, a ukulele.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 27/08/2026

Alright. When i get back from my migraine nap, someone better've put some money down on this little Colorado ice cave painting so i can go out and buy dog food before the hounds notice we're out.

April Ice Cave on the Upper Colorado, 9 by 12 inches, Oil on paper on panel. Junipers and piñon line a dry, sunny ochre and pink slope where a grinning, shaded, shelter cave reveals a mount full of ice teeth. A smaller, single tooth cave is visible at bottom. Painted from a note made on Amtrak's California Zephyr.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 26/08/2026

Only remaining available painting from the Newf Tinies: Evening Frenzy. #art #dogs #snow #cascades

3 by 4 inch oil painting of a Newfoundland dog romping through heavy evening snow, tongue out, eyes wide.

Panned back photo of 3 by 4 inch oil painting on paper inset into dark old piano wood of a Newfoundland dog romping through heavy evening snow, tongue out, eyes wide.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 25/08/2026

Dolly, or at least this pastel drawn in honor of my first covid vaccine shot, helped spring me from my longtime art gallery when our dealer turned full MAHA on us. RIP Lady Muleskinner.

Coloful pastel portrait of Dolly Parton based on 1973 footage of her singing Muleskinner Blues.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 25/08/2026

Reference vs Art I miss riding Amtrak long distances.

Small sketchbook page, watercolor made from a train window. A dark cloud with a bright spot hangs above a tiny desert town. A thick fragment of rainbow reaches from cloud to town. Cursive pencil text says, Eileen's, Cisco.

Oil painting on linen, 40 by 59 inches. A dark cloud with a bright spot hangs above a tiny desert town. A thick fragment of rainbow reaches from cloud to town. Plateaus above Moab, Utah silhouetted in distance.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 24/08/2026

There will be no model for Community Life Drawing at Daydreamer SJ/PDX tomorrow. It's too hot, and I am too broke and too tired. HOWEVER, folks are welcome to swing by the pub after six and have a drink, bring sketchbooks, and maybe comic/picture book roughs/dummies to talk over.

pencil sketch of a person laying on their back, one foot in air, pulling hard on the laces of their boot.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 23/08/2026

Wait! I FORGOT THE DOG! (okay, fixed it)

Detail of an oil painting showing a small, thick cattle dog with pointy ears trotting away feom us towards, more or less, some humans crawling down a steep slope

Oil painting on linen on panel of the slopes of a very low Oregon reservoir. Looking out from an inlet, we see four people slowly climbing down the steep, crumbly, and striated slope. In the foreground, a small, thick cattle dog trots towards them. There's a scattering of gray boulders. A clearcut patch is seen on a distant ridge. 11 by 17 inches

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 23/08/2026

New painting based on sketches made while canoeing in the Cascades this summer. Stumbling around this reservoir felt incredibly, darkly sci-fi.

Detail of the oil painting showing the four figures slowly climb down the steep slope. One kinda goes down on their butt. One moves confidently. One, coming up from below extended a hand to the fourth.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 21/08/2026

That was certainly Jon Klassen's take on it.

ink and watercolor illustration of Carson Ellis and Jon Klassen sitting cris-cross-applesauce next to a Klassen-style drawing of a campfire. Klassen says, I engineer whole books to avoid what I can't draw. In the end it is what you can make that feels complete.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 20/08/2026

In 1995 Portland, the go-to cafe bagels were called Big Bear, they were thick and bread-y, not even pretending to be NYC or Montreal.

Ink wash cartoon of young guy with long hair sitting in a tiny cafe spreading cream cheese on a bagel for a toddler

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 18/08/2026

I keep telling people this picture sold! But, no, i go looking in my stacks for one small horse oil (Evening Fire) and find these ponies instead. So who has Evening Fire, and who wants this one?

9 by 12 inch oil painting on paper showing two horses, somewhere in the Blackfoot Nation, grazing on knob of warm yellow grass. In the pale green hills behind them a patch of snow is protected by the shadow of another knob. Part of a series painted after sketches made out the window of Amtrak trains.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 18/08/2026

New notebook built today thanks to kid continuing to read Rebecca West to me while I fold, stitch, glue.

A stack of paper, tape, and a bone folder sit on a table next to a thick, dark book with a pasted-on illustration of a tower and stone bridge. The book is Rebecca West's Black Lamb, Grey Falcon.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 18/08/2026

Artist! Drop something creepy!

Ink and watercolor cartoon of a narrow waterway in an estuary. A woman paddles towards us on an SUP with a very small child sitting between her legs. Two other people paddle away in a canoe. Paddler in bow says, Okay—that was Twilight Zonie—I swear that baby aged a year since we first passed them.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 17/08/2026

Kylee is back to model for Community Life Drawing at Daydreamer Pub on N Fessenden in St Johns, PDX. (Monday night) 6-9pm. Bring 15$ for the model, and order a drink and/or snacks (I usually get a New Day N/A beer).

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 12/08/2026

For our block party flyer this year, I attempted to draw several of our local dogs from memory. Can you spot my two boys?

Cluttered black and white cartoon of six dogs watching a woman ride a mechanical bull. Her butt is off the seat but she still has one hand on the strap. In the distance a kid slips down an inflatable water slide. A man holds a kid on his shoulders, another works behind a grill. A pit mix turns to a fuzzy skipperkee mix and says, Five cookies says she splashes down in the kiddie castle.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 12/08/2026

Maybe you have surveillance footage of your cat you would like to put to good use.

Oil painting of a white cat perched on a sideboard biting the petals of some pink peonies

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 11/08/2026

If I get a request for a medium or large oil piece this month, that'll probably be it for the slots (I am balancing studio time between commissions and a few picture book pitches).

Oil painting of a woman on a black Arabian horse, accompanied by her Lab, looking out over the dry Eastern Oregon canyon country.

detail of the gelding's head and neck, mane blowing, ears and eyes alert. Red cliffs in distance.

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 11/08/2026

For any commission larger than a color pencil sketch, I include a multi-image graphite page (made for my own reference), so book tiles and oil paintings are almost a two-for-one.

Page of pencil studies, mostly heads, of a tiny black dog with short, shiny fur, big eyes, floppy ears, long lashes

Blue acrylic painting, on a sanded, sealed paperback book cover, of a tiny black dog with short, shiny fur, big eyes, floppy ears, long lashes

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Gabriel Liston @lastwater.net · 11/08/2026

Animal time! I have a few slots open for commissions this month (and, maybe, next). Unless we hang out a lot in person, videos make the best references. #ArtSky #PetPortraits #DogSky #CatSky

Color pencil drawing in blue toned paper of warn red hound splashing along a river beach.

Color pencil drawing of two orange cats, laying belly to belly, happily snarling and swatting at each othet.

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