Happy Things-August
Hello everyone!
Here are some things that made me truly happy in the month of August (in no particular order)
1-Gouache: I've been looking a people’s work they've made in gouache a lot for the last few months and finally decided to jump in and get some. What a crazy medium-it's like watercolor crossed with acrylics. I'm still pretty bad at them, but it's a lot of fun.
2- 11/22/63 by Stephen King: I'm only in the first quarter of the book, but already I'm totally in love with the idea, the setting, everything. This is the little diner in the book "Al's Fatburger" equipped with a time-traveling pantry. Awesome.
3-Our 3rd Floor: There's this amazing space in our new house with windows facing the Channel and a little daybed with a window beside it. When it storms I make a point to go up there and read or draw.
4-Engagement! After dating the woman of my dreams for a little over 5 years everything finally came together where I could propose. It's an amazing feeling. She's the greatest!
5-The Martian by Andy Weir: Ok, so I read a lot this month. Actually this was an audiobook, but whatever. There's a dude stuck on Mars who has to survive the most hostile environment any human has encountered for a very long time. Yeah, it's basically incredible and you should read it.
6-Bread: I have tried baking bread a total of 4 times in the last month and every time it's gotten slightly better. This is one of my hilariously deformed loaves I made one day.
7-Cold-Brewed Coffee: I drink a lot of coffee. Probably too much. The only rub is it's been in the upper 90's and over 100% humidity here on the island most of the summer. Cold-brewed coffee is incredibly delicious especially when we get the beans roasted locally from Eastern Shore Roasting Company.
8-Macrodontia cervicornis or Long Tooth Beetle: I bought a male specimen of this beetle at an art walk in Salisbury and it hangs on my studio wall for me to see every day and think "that thing is awesome"
All this comes from Ennis and I keeping a 'happy things' journal on and off for the last couple of years. The idea is to write down some things every day that made you happy. It helps you see the good in every day and keep your spirits up on the bad ones. Also Fran Meneses over here has been doing the same thing but illustrating it and I borrowed that format because I thought it was totally brilliant!
Gooey Sentinel Updated
Here's the final version of my 'Gooey Sentinel' (I'm terrible at names) that I made available for printing over at Society 6 and on my site.
Here are some mock-ups for what it looks like printed in a few different ways.
Here's the final progression .gif I made for the various stages of this project. I'd say it was successful for me technique-wise, but the reception from everywhere online has been lukewarm to say the least. I've been posting the stuff I'm making everywhere that I'm a part of and just can't seem to connect with any more than a couple people at a time.
I don't even know if anyone is even reading this right now. It doesn't matter either way. I'm just going to keep doing it - for myself more than anyone. I know if I keep making stuff and putting it up to share, and talking to other artists something will happen eventually- it's the time in between that's always the hardest with things.
Forest Altar
Hello everybody, I just finished up this painting this week and thought I'd put up some images and talk a little bit about my thought process through some of it.
Forest Altar - 2014
9x12"
Ink and Watercolor
So if you've been keeping up with my work for the past few months -thanks if you have, by the way- then you might notice a very striking similarity to the late, great illustrator Jean Giraud aka Moebius. This is not by accident, I mean he's a figurehead in comics and illustration with good reason. It's not only his style though, that I'm attracted to, I love his line making and atmosphere but the narrative he's able to convey. The stories in his works are mystical, detailed worlds that I am always dying to know more about. That's really what I want to strive towards. The idea of 'world-building' has always been extremely appealing to me and has been something I've always done.
In this image I wanted the sense of discovery to come across, that the traveler- who is at this point anonymous- has come upon massive statue in the middle of what I hoped would be a very dense jungle. This composition is actually very similar to a recent Killian Eng piece, but art being what it is, I took what I liked and added what I wanted to be there. I have an immense respect for his work and what he's doing and he's another that was massively influenced by Moebius, but has put his own spin on that type of work. I'd very much like to do what he's doing right now.
There are some close ups here so you get get a little better idea of what's going on. I actually scanned it in at 1200dpi on the amazing Epson 10000xl we have in the office which I think offers a really good reproduction on a screen as you're likely to get. I boosted the levels in Photoshop slightly, but really there wasn't any need for post-production on this one. I ended up being really happy with how things came out for the most part. I've been doing a lot of 'campsite' pieces lately, where my explorer is very obviously out in the world, well exploring. I haven't figured out what role the Crystals will play in my little fiction but, their mystery is part of the appeal for me. The idea of this mystical, powerful force existing in a futuristic science fiction world is extremely interesting to me. I'm not sure if that's the case for anyone else, but I feel successful in this one.
Above are some process shots of the making of this thing. I recently converted my inking/painting surface to a Fabriano Hot Press Watercolor block, which was a real turning point for me. The problems I had with buckling, smearing etc were gone and I could really focus on what I wanted to make instead of working around the technical limitations of the media. The lines are vector-crisp and the paint is brilliant and clear. The only problem I've faced is how quickly it dries for flat washes (you can really see that in the sky) but I'm getting better I think.
Feel free to share my stuff on your chosen social platform, but please do me a favor and link back to this site or use my name.
New works (in progress) for December
Hello all!
I've been busting my butt making new stuff so I thought I'd put some stuff up here and talk about how things have been going kind of wrong.
Red Fox in Snow - 2013
9x12"
Ink and Watercolor
detail (sorry for the watermark :/)
There are some problems going on with this guy, and it's definitely not the last stab I plan on taking at the red fox. I like using really diluted ink as a wash for snow ( I love red foxes in snow) and I think his washes are ok for his coat. The face is pretty rough and he has somehow grown two rear left feet. Weird. I'm not being self deprecating for no reason here though, I think it's a really good way avoid repeating stupid mistakes. Practice.
Popular culture aside, I really enjoy everything about foxes-the mythology, their mannerisms, and obviously the way they look. When I lived in West Virginia all of the foxes must have been exponentially more cunning than the ones in Maryland because I have seen at least 6 in the two years I've lived here. That's been really interesting to me lately though-seeing animals in parking lots and driveways that previously I'd only ever seen from a distance. I've seen a 10 point buck in my metro lot 3 times just hanging out. He doesn't have a thing in the world to worry about compared to his WV cousin.
Crystal Discovery - 2013
4x6"
Ink and watercolor
I've been thinking about the intersection of logic in crystals and fungi lately. More on that later. This is a really quick little thing I did all in one day. To be honest it was mostly practice, so it's pretty rough around the edges as well, but over all I like the idea and composition.
Odd Deposit - 2013
9x12"
Ink and failure
I worked on this guy for maybe 10 hours altogether and I bet the very first thing you notice is that weird and lumpy circle above the mountains. Life is full of lessons and the one I learned that day is this: if you're going to a bunch of time on something, do the most complicated part first. How many times have I drawn a perfect circle in ink? No times. Zero amount of times. Why then would I wait until I was done with this entire piece to try and freehand that sun? The good part about the situation is that it scanned in really cleanly and I think I can color it digitally and take that sun out. It's a real shame though, I wanted to paint it.
Dark Djinn - 2013
9x12"
Ink, coffee, failure
ugh the bleed, THE BLEED
The last one here is similar to the one before it in that I messed things up right at the end, though I didn't spend nearly as much time working on it. 2 big things happened on this one I spilled coffee on it, and used the wrong type of pen. The coffee thing isn't a huge deal, I just scanned it in and can paint it digitally, but apparently the pen I was using had a different type of ink that did not agree with the paper. The unfortunate thing about it is you can't see the bleeding until it's too late. The only parts affected were really small details but it still bothered me. Ah well, live and learn. That's kind of what this whole post is about I guess: learning. Someone wise told me once that experience is only gained by failure and that you must not be afraid to fail. I've been gaining experience by leaps and bounds the last month or two and a lot of that experience has stemmed from doing something either entirely avoidable or just careless. All of these are works in progress or works that need to go in a different direction-though that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes changing course can be exactly what you need.
Additionally, I'm still gaining loads of experience in keeping up this site and if something goes wrong or looks weird or is broken I might not know about it. So if something weird happens when you're here, shoot me a quick email and I will extremely grateful.
Crystal Discovery no.1
I did this little 4x6 work in a day and I came away fairly satisfied with it. I've been creating this very elaborate fiction about the nature of these crystals so mainly I wanted to practice how they looked. Let me know what you think!
Crystal Discovery - 2013
4x6"
Ink and Watercolor on coldpress block