And the full painting:
Because I'm me, I spent longer on it than I had originally planned- so tomorrow I think I will set up a smaller one, stick to my time-limit and see what happens. I was just too happy to be playing with paints today to stop.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Still Life
So I have been doing a lot of charcoal stuff lately and decided, after being inspired by Rob Rey's beautiful still lifes, I wanted to spend some time painting to keep up my practice. I haven't done a proper still life in... a long time. So I set one up all nice like- even did some clever umbrella action to control the light. Here's the set-up:
And the full painting:
Because I'm me, I spent longer on it than I had originally planned- so tomorrow I think I will set up a smaller one, stick to my time-limit and see what happens. I was just too happy to be playing with paints today to stop.
And the full painting:
Because I'm me, I spent longer on it than I had originally planned- so tomorrow I think I will set up a smaller one, stick to my time-limit and see what happens. I was just too happy to be playing with paints today to stop.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Starstruck
I am very happy to share my newest painting. This piece was made to be a two page spread for Michael Kaluta and Elaine Lee's groundbreaking space-opera comic, Starstruck, currenlty in re- release from IDW. The updated book is made all shiny with brand new drawings and covers by Michael, additional words by Elaine and some beautiful color-work by Lee Moyer. These are some of my favorite people in the industry and I was so honored to be asked to take part in their baby.
The short story behind this piece is that it depicts the murder of Sambo Thrace-Smith, the worst playwrite in the universe by Kettle Black, leader of the Guernican Art Squad. To get the full story, you need to go buy issue #10 of Starstruck. But really you should buy them ALL. Because they're really, really good and unlike anything else you've ever read.
The short story behind this piece is that it depicts the murder of Sambo Thrace-Smith, the worst playwrite in the universe by Kettle Black, leader of the Guernican Art Squad. To get the full story, you need to go buy issue #10 of Starstruck. But really you should buy them ALL. Because they're really, really good and unlike anything else you've ever read.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Rust painting
Here is the painted version of my Rust drawing for ArtOrder. You can read about the meaning behind my interpretation in the previous post.
I think it still needs some tweaking if I'm honest. A unifying glaze, and cooling down that foreground hand to start. But still- not TOO bad for a couple days work!
I think it still needs some tweaking if I'm honest. A unifying glaze, and cooling down that foreground hand to start. But still- not TOO bad for a couple days work!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Rust drawing
"A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust"
~ James Stephens
Irish poet and storyteller, 1882-1950
This is my Charcoal drawing for the latest ArtOrder challenge, which was to create an illustration from the above quote. I LOVE these sorts of challenges because they demand that you think outside the box. I knew immediately that the first rule for this piece was to avoid swords and spades as imagery. I thought about it for a while and then, randomly, picked up my favorite book The Neverending Story and opened up to the chapter I was currently re-reading. (I have plans for this book, but in the words of Ende "That's another story and shall be told another time.") Anyways one of the characters has an army of metal giants that she controls with her will. Towards the end, when her evil plans have been thwarted, she looses all control of these giants because her will no longer has a purpose and they kill her. I thought, 'well this is all just too serendipitous'.
"They were puzzled, because they knew it was Xayide's will alone that had moved the hollow giants. So, they thought, it must have been her will that they should trample her to death."
The giants are the personification of Xayide's twisted thoughts and desires. But because all her plans involve manipulation and power, her thoughts are hollow and they prove to be her undoing.
"For years the hollow, black-metal giants stood motionless on the heath not far from the City of the Old Emperors. Rain and snow fell on them, they rusted and little by little sank into the ground, some vertically, some at a slant. But to this day a few of them can be seen."
Now onto the paint!
~ James Stephens
Irish poet and storyteller, 1882-1950
This is my Charcoal drawing for the latest ArtOrder challenge, which was to create an illustration from the above quote. I LOVE these sorts of challenges because they demand that you think outside the box. I knew immediately that the first rule for this piece was to avoid swords and spades as imagery. I thought about it for a while and then, randomly, picked up my favorite book The Neverending Story and opened up to the chapter I was currently re-reading. (I have plans for this book, but in the words of Ende "That's another story and shall be told another time.") Anyways one of the characters has an army of metal giants that she controls with her will. Towards the end, when her evil plans have been thwarted, she looses all control of these giants because her will no longer has a purpose and they kill her. I thought, 'well this is all just too serendipitous'.
"They were puzzled, because they knew it was Xayide's will alone that had moved the hollow giants. So, they thought, it must have been her will that they should trample her to death."
The giants are the personification of Xayide's twisted thoughts and desires. But because all her plans involve manipulation and power, her thoughts are hollow and they prove to be her undoing.
"For years the hollow, black-metal giants stood motionless on the heath not far from the City of the Old Emperors. Rain and snow fell on them, they rusted and little by little sank into the ground, some vertically, some at a slant. But to this day a few of them can be seen."
Now onto the paint!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Waterhouse post
(Disclaimer: First attempt to write anything of large scale on two days of cold medication and fever. Please be kind.)
So over MLK weekend a large group of us (artists, art directors and art enthusiasts) pilgrimaged up to Montreal to see the massive Waterhouse retrospective that is showing there until February. I could go on and on about the joy of the train ride up and back with such titans of the industry and inspiring folks as Irene Gallo, Greg Manchess, Kurt Huggins, Zelda Devon and Scott Brundage, the added fun at the Biodome, and the pleasure of sharing this show with so many people I admire- but Irene has done a much better job than I could and taken nicer pictures over at her blog. And her amazing photos here. So I will mostly just show stuff from my sketchbook and talk about a few things that I took away from this retrospective.
Saying this show was inspiring is an understatement. I always liked Waterhouse just fine, but looking at his work up close and seeing what a master storyteller and handler of paint he was humbled me. In his early works especially, his attention to detail and handling of every aspect of narrative from facial expressions to body language to value to color to brush strokes to edges only made it clear how much I have yet to learn. When at his best, not a single aspect of any given piece was thrown away.
Of course, being the portrait lover I am, I spent a lot of time swooning over his faces. Waterhouse knew how to capture an expression that told volumes, and several times I was as entranced with what was going on with the background characters as with the main subjects. Such as the two old men in Mariamne sitting in quiet judgment and whispering amongst themselves.
Here are some more faces. Many from Waterhouse, some from life and one from my head, while trying to illustrate "Dark Light" (thanks for the term Kurt!) at lunch between viewings.
I first saw "The Lady of Shallot" in London in '08. I won't lie- I might have cried a little that first time. But seeing it again after nearly 2 more years of training, and amongst all his other work- it didn't pale one bit. I noticed a hundred more details on the second viewing that just made it that much better a piece to me. The thing that most impressed me this time was, perhaps, realizing that the only thing truly in focus in the piece is her face- and as you move further out from that point, the paint and edges blur more and more. It's very subtle, (not something you can spot in reproductions) but it speaks volumes about the mastery of the painter and the story of this isolated woman he was telling. Of course, I had to try and capture her haunting expression.
Even after spending nearly 6 hours at the exhibit saturday, I went back Sunday for some more. The Magic Circle was another really popular piece at the exhibit. It was one of his simpler works, but that just made the details he included more effective. The dust on her skirt, the hint of fire from the circle, the live ouroboros around her neck and how drinking in all these details meant you didn't even notice the cave of people around a fire in the background until the 4th viewing made this piece especially riveting.
One of the things I think that I most appreciated from this exhibit was the way Waterhouse was never afraid to throw a main figure's face into shadow. The way he could hide features, and still not loose any emotion of the piece really got to me in a good way and is one of his devices (among many) I look forward to trying. It will no doubt be years and years before I can effectively use (or even fully understand) many of the things I appreciated in Waterhouse in my own work, and certainly I will notice all new things should I see any of these pieces again...but I think that is part of the joy of this whole artistic journey.
Happy Arting!
So over MLK weekend a large group of us (artists, art directors and art enthusiasts) pilgrimaged up to Montreal to see the massive Waterhouse retrospective that is showing there until February. I could go on and on about the joy of the train ride up and back with such titans of the industry and inspiring folks as Irene Gallo, Greg Manchess, Kurt Huggins, Zelda Devon and Scott Brundage, the added fun at the Biodome, and the pleasure of sharing this show with so many people I admire- but Irene has done a much better job than I could and taken nicer pictures over at her blog. And her amazing photos here. So I will mostly just show stuff from my sketchbook and talk about a few things that I took away from this retrospective.
Saying this show was inspiring is an understatement. I always liked Waterhouse just fine, but looking at his work up close and seeing what a master storyteller and handler of paint he was humbled me. In his early works especially, his attention to detail and handling of every aspect of narrative from facial expressions to body language to value to color to brush strokes to edges only made it clear how much I have yet to learn. When at his best, not a single aspect of any given piece was thrown away.
Of course, being the portrait lover I am, I spent a lot of time swooning over his faces. Waterhouse knew how to capture an expression that told volumes, and several times I was as entranced with what was going on with the background characters as with the main subjects. Such as the two old men in Mariamne sitting in quiet judgment and whispering amongst themselves.
Here are some more faces. Many from Waterhouse, some from life and one from my head, while trying to illustrate "Dark Light" (thanks for the term Kurt!) at lunch between viewings.
I first saw "The Lady of Shallot" in London in '08. I won't lie- I might have cried a little that first time. But seeing it again after nearly 2 more years of training, and amongst all his other work- it didn't pale one bit. I noticed a hundred more details on the second viewing that just made it that much better a piece to me. The thing that most impressed me this time was, perhaps, realizing that the only thing truly in focus in the piece is her face- and as you move further out from that point, the paint and edges blur more and more. It's very subtle, (not something you can spot in reproductions) but it speaks volumes about the mastery of the painter and the story of this isolated woman he was telling. Of course, I had to try and capture her haunting expression.
Even after spending nearly 6 hours at the exhibit saturday, I went back Sunday for some more. The Magic Circle was another really popular piece at the exhibit. It was one of his simpler works, but that just made the details he included more effective. The dust on her skirt, the hint of fire from the circle, the live ouroboros around her neck and how drinking in all these details meant you didn't even notice the cave of people around a fire in the background until the 4th viewing made this piece especially riveting.
One of the things I think that I most appreciated from this exhibit was the way Waterhouse was never afraid to throw a main figure's face into shadow. The way he could hide features, and still not loose any emotion of the piece really got to me in a good way and is one of his devices (among many) I look forward to trying. It will no doubt be years and years before I can effectively use (or even fully understand) many of the things I appreciated in Waterhouse in my own work, and certainly I will notice all new things should I see any of these pieces again...but I think that is part of the joy of this whole artistic journey.
Happy Arting!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Gandalf!
So I've been working several things: one of which is a Gandalf portrait and thought I would share it in its "sketch" stage.
I tried a different way of working this one- just using some photo reference, and sketching first with a blue pencil and then with raw umber directly on a gessoed panel. There's something lovely about the freedem this warrants- much like drawing with charcoal. It's got some colors on it now, and perhaps I will share another progress shot soon.
Back to the easel!
I tried a different way of working this one- just using some photo reference, and sketching first with a blue pencil and then with raw umber directly on a gessoed panel. There's something lovely about the freedem this warrants- much like drawing with charcoal. It's got some colors on it now, and perhaps I will share another progress shot soon.
Back to the easel!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Bits from the sketchbook
Time to start keeping up with posts more regularly! Here are a few things from the sketchbook:
First an old wandering wizard and his traveling companion.
I love winter for all the interesting layered fashions that people wear around the city. The bottom was a lovely woman on the subway with a great hat. The top figure was done from memory of a neat jacket a girl was wearing on the street.
I'm very lucky to be living in the heart of Park Slope, where there are so many interesting people on every corner. One of my favorite regulars is the Accordian Man. He sits out on various corners and plays some really lovely music- and I have always had a soft spot for accordion. So one evening as I was waiting for a friend, I sat at the Connecticut Muffin and sketched him for about 20 minutes.
First an old wandering wizard and his traveling companion.
I love winter for all the interesting layered fashions that people wear around the city. The bottom was a lovely woman on the subway with a great hat. The top figure was done from memory of a neat jacket a girl was wearing on the street.
I'm very lucky to be living in the heart of Park Slope, where there are so many interesting people on every corner. One of my favorite regulars is the Accordian Man. He sits out on various corners and plays some really lovely music- and I have always had a soft spot for accordion. So one evening as I was waiting for a friend, I sat at the Connecticut Muffin and sketched him for about 20 minutes.
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