Portfolio Review: Incubus Singer Brandon Boyd Shares His Paintings and Drawings

Brandon Boyd is best known as the lead singer for the rock band Incubus, but the musician also has a talent for visual art. His evocative sketches depict characters that seem to spring from the page. Boyd's controlled lines and touches of color demonstrate a skilled confidence, but he claims that most of his works seem to draw themselves—he speaks of his drawings as if they flow freely and haphazardly from his pen.

Boyd had his first solo show in 2008 in Los Angeles. He has continued to sketch his whimsical figures since then. He often works while listening to music or reading, drawing inspiration from lyrics and quotes. We got a chance to look at Boyd's impressive works in our Portfolio Review: Incubus Singer Brandon Boyd Shares His Paintings and Drawings.

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"This piece I still enjoy today because of its relative absurdity and the random bits of old pop culture it makes reference to, perhaps unconsciously. When I look at it, I see Jaba the Hut mixed with a famous Orangutan I used to go visit at the San Diego Zoo when I was a child. The Orangutan is sitting amongst some clouds as if in an exalted state and the children, who remind me of the two kids from Twilight Zone episode #36 'The Bewitchin' Pool,' are asking his advice about something. This painting lives with a family member now."

"Another from the series entitled 'Ectoplasm,' this painting is a vibrant, psychedelic turquoise and was a real joy to paint. Probably because of the colors and the way they dance about the canvas, but also because the girl, smoking in the picture, definitely wanted to be heard! And though I think she should probably quit smoking, she was and is indeed an energy to be reckoned with."

"I love drawing and painting profiles if you haven't already guessed. I freehand them, and I'm always surprised and happy to see who shows up. Here is a beautiful girl who's hair is a bundle of strange worm-like forms. I penned it on some very old paper I found at the flea market."

"This was one of a small series I did in my sketchbook while traveling during 2011 and 2012. I didn't really know (nor do I ever) what I was getting at when I penned it, but it speaks to me in hindsight as a traveler with a special skill who has temporarily lost his way. He's emerged from the heavy wetness of the deep, threw together some clothes just to cover his bits and is now ready to find his path again. But he'd lost his bow and has only his arrows left. He needs to borrow your phone..."

"I was reading Michel Foucault's History Of Sexuality and taking notes in my sketchbook alongside drawings. This curious old lady is suspicious of his quote and isn't hiding it at all."

"This was a simple and enjoyable exercise in spilling watercolor onto a page, letting it dry, then finding the familiar shapes amongst the noise. I was listening to Tom Waits, and right as his album Rain Dogs was wrapping up, I saw that a resemblance of his profile had shown up in the drawing. So titled it in homage to that song."

"I spent the better part of a year in a watercolor sketchbook spilling colors, letting them dry, then finding shapes, people, dreams, and monsters amongst the randomness. This piece is one of my favorites from those experiments. He made himself known early, and it appears his special talent is in hair styling and in his ability to know what his upper lip smells like."

"This image is the cover of my newest book So The Echo, which come out September 5, 2013. It is one of many I did at the beginning of 2013 that were a part of my experiments in randomness. The Eye of God, the All Seeing Eye, or whatever you'd like to call it, is a reoccurring Jungian archetype that I enjoy. It represents so many things to so many people, and I am no different in that regard. It speaks to me on multiple levels. But put simply, it is a visual representation of the Universe becoming aware of itself through the human experience, hence the human eye and the light of illumination spilling forth."

"Yet another experiment in finding familiar shapes amongst spilt colors. Herein, our heroine is brave and bold enough to reach directly into the void."

"I think this is a self portrait of sorts, drawn when I was about as far away from the ocean and surf as one could possibly be. I remember missing the salt air and the familiar comfort of the ocean's embrace, so I sketched myself effortlessly sliding along a sweet right-hander. I used to draw waves ad nauseum on my schoolbooks, and this image pulls me back to a time when I only surfed and didn't have a job or a care in the world."