Random sketching delights

Here are some recent sketches I completed for fun and just to get back into a habit of working with pencil again. I am going to be finishing up the edits for issue 2 of my comic/graphic novel script ad have every intention of beginning to tackle my rough page layouts again ASAP. I will still be working on my paintings in the down time and have every intention of posting a third and possible final stage to the lightning painting. In this collection of sketches we have some attempts at Don draper from MadMen, Superman, a female detective type, and a piece of a prisoner praying. As well as some brief studies of a skull. Hope you enjoy there will be more to come. 

Ride the Lightning

     After taking a break from my most recent panting (Goodbye Blue Skies), I decided it was time to begin the second phase of the process. I have known for some time that it was going to be a chaotic storm with crimson skies, set against a dark, and foreboding background of black. This second stage of the painting process was dedicated to me working on additional color values for my darkest areas while smoothing out the bridge between highlights. The next mission for this session was to block in the overall appearance, and placement of the heavy lightning storm. 

     To start the night off right, and set the mood for this menacing oil piece, what could be better than a good ole pandora station composed of the Big 4 Gods of Metal? If you are unfamiliar they are as follows (and in my order of preference) Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. We can also include some odd balls I have spiced in for my brutal metal master mix including: Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Judas Priest. 

     I began prepping my materials as I always do, and while I ate a bit of muffin, (sharing some with my painting buddy Harper -- a tortoise shell cat); I looked over reference images of various types/colors of lightning. What I find most odd and somewhat eerily coincidental is that all the music from my mix this evening referred to storms, electricity, or darkness of some variety. As I began to paint I was introduced to my canvas by the most epic and appropriate "Call of Cthulhu" - Metallica, then as I started working on the darkened areas, Iron Maiden began to play "Fear of the Dark". Perhaps even more bizarre is the matter of me hearing "Ride the Lightning" as I worked on striking the electric bolts to the cloudscape. 

     Fellow artist friends and blog followers, I would love the feedback on the last colors/placement of the lightning as well as the changes to the highlights, and shading of the piece from this second session. One thing I did have trouble with is trying a decent approach to the lightning form and shape. I thought a pallet knife would work well and it didn't, so now I have to fix the areas where the bolts look like sky spaghetti and not dangerous blast of energy. 

     

A new product that definitely stretched my paint volume out was liquin (gel medium for oils). Working with this product was fantastic and made a little bit of paint go a long way. I definitely would recommend this product as a must have with oil paints to extend the coverage of a small dose as well as preserve the opaqueness. This is a much better solution than thinning with turpenoid or spirits as they damage the binder of the pant and affect the opaqueness and cover potential.  

"Good Bye Blue Sky"

     Today I decided that Lily and I needed an adventure on my day off, instead of sitting in the house all day. Despite the rain, we took full advantage of her time awake (when she wasn't napping) to have a long overdue lunch meeting with my dad (Lily's Poppi), and to go shopping for some art supplies.  

     I packed her up in the car-seat with plenty of toys for the road, and a fully stocked messenger bag (that I double as a mans diaper bag), and hit the road en route to Plaza Art. Unfortunately fate did not smile upon our visit as they had three blocks around Grace Street completely closed off and it just happened to be where the store is located. This would have been my first trip ever to a new art store downtown since the terrible news of Main Art closing. 

     Since that time I have been forced to rely on the limited provisions of the Michaels stores in my area.  I am a firm believer that things sometimes happen for a reason, and today was nothing short of fate.  I have never given much thought to the A.C. Moore stores since they assumed ownership of Ben Franklins Arts & Crafts locations here in VA. This is not because I have anything against them, but more so to do with the fact that I usually bought most all of my supplies from Main Art. There is something to be said for a local business especially one that caters to the artist, rather than a chain store for many reasons.  You are always able to order really specialized and obscure art supplies, materials, and tools.  I can remember fondly a trip made to Main Art where I had them order me Koh-I-noor rapidograph pens made specifically for inking animation cels, and the clerk there never seemed intimidated or confused. They really June their stuff!  

     Well back to the purpose of this posting, and today's fateful turn of events. Lily and I stopped by A.C. Moore on the way home from the busy rush hour congestion of Richmond City. I was mostly trying to kill time, but a small part of me hoped that I would find some new interesting art supply to tweak my creative interest for the evening.  While casually browsing the aisles of the art supplies, I happened to come across a set of 18 oil paints n clearance for $5.00 as well as some terpenoid on sale from $13.00 to $8.00. After the initial apprehension about painting in oils went away I made a solid purchase the cashier evened a coupon for me so in total I spent like $11.00 for a decent quality set of oils an some terpenoid cleaner. 

     The inner self defeatist had apprehensions again at home as to the complexity of painting with oil, and I almost talked myself into returning them for more acrylic paint instead. While I was checking up on Facebook I noticed my friend Brittany was selling a unique and quite impressive eye painting. We started commenting back and forth about art, and it really inspired me to "unplug" for the evening and take a journey into a painting.

     The ritual in full effect with no way to stop, I began my meditative, and methodical preparations of gathering my materials, organizing my workspace, and cracking the first tubes of paint. The first things that I noticed was that the oils had a rather pleasant smell almost joke olive oil and a whipped buttery, cake frosting-like consistency to them.  I began to play with the canvas and some basic colors to matte in a background. My second revelations was that the paints really have a long life, and blend and move across the canvas with the whisping of a brush just like we have all seen Bob Ross do when applying large areas of color. 

     My painting ended up leading me into a sky-scape, but this time based on the colors I had played on the canvas, the mood and tone was that of a blood red summer skyline. I had so much fun blending and playing with the live paints as they stayed creamy workable the whole time. Could this be that me and Oil paints are a match after all?  I still like hard and controlled mediums like Acrylic, and Drawing instruments, but I am starting to find a therapeutic quality to letting go with things like Watercolor, and now Oils. Maybe this is because they beg the painter to let go and explore not worrying about working against the confines of the medium. Here is the initial stage of my latest painting entitled "Good Bye Blue Sky".

***Sorry for the poor photo quality as these were taking on the iPad and not my digital camera. 

 

Sneak peek at my graphic novel progress

    I am going to be posting over the next few months or so little teasers of my comic/graphic novel progress from scrip to toughs to initial pencils, inks, flats, and final colors. I will not be sharing any story details as of yet or any of the pages in sequence as I plan to set up a comic press blog and also put he end result to print. If you would like to know the general story plot email or call me and we can chat. When it comes down to it I am really worried about my ideas being taken or the story being spoiled before it is finished. Sorry! For now I hope you enjoy the teasers

Brightly cH@0tic & Melodic

     Today I took the time to do some research on a new painting endeavor which for now will remain secret and TBA. I will say this much however that I plan on exploring a painting project here ASAP that will be focused entirely on process art. 

     I need to take some time to breathe and break the confines of structure and preconceived ideas. Sometimes it can be valuable and therapeutic to an artist to release from all of the rules, and simply enjoy the journey of creating; as well as the overall actions of rudimentary skills being applied. This has led me to dive back into my love/hate relationship with Jackson Pollock. As long as I can remember have had issues with the Post-Impressionism and some Contemporary movements for their almost snobbish lack of definition, detail, and purpose. 

     There are many schools of thought and infinitely many more numbers of subject matter and mediums in the art world. That being said what defines "art"? For me personally, art is a means of communication, a universal language that transcends spoken bounds allowing for a learning and dialogue between the artist, viewers, and their internal selves. I had trouble identifying with the likes of Andy Warhol, Pollock, Yoko Ono, and many others in this movement due to their lack of respect for this responsibility to use art with a purpose. In more recent years it has become a self revelation that art doesn't always have to be shared with others, doesn't always have to have a purpose, and doesn't always have to mean something. 

     Why have I been able to finally been able to get on board with this side of the art world? It has a lot to do with my own self exploration and the feelings I have been working through. I am able to see that artist like Pollock were using their non-descriptive, loose, abstract, expressionist, no-holds-barred process of creating art, to allow them a vehicle for working though their internal thoughts, ideas, and struggles. Almost like a catharsis or purging there is no real reason or meaning but the feeling that the "art" has to come out. For the artist it could mean everything, and nothing, be private, or shared. 

     Likewise for the viewer the reaction to a nondescript piece could fall the same way. This is also similar to the create and destroy art process or even the creation of crafts. In the end the real "art" lies in all the parts not just the end result. It can be the methodical nature in which materials are selected and prepped. Then move into getting ones feet wet like a curious child. To following the directions to the end goal, and/or to the destruction of the piece as a lesson of the temporary nature of things. I was even considering how from a therapy and meditation standpoint one may quilt, knit, wood carve, or create something with specific structure and instructions. Not unlike how a Buddhist would work on a zen garden or colored sand art mural, or how a political demonstrator may have a person cut strips of their clothing or leave comments in a box. Even how pollock splattered paint just to release, move forward, process, discover ect... 

      I have a new respect for this dialogue the artist has with him/herself, their materials, and the journey with all the power it can have to let us come to new understandings as we work through tough things. I took some time to create a "digital pollock" today and I called it "Brightly cH@0tic & Melodic", because I kept hearing a rhythm in my mind as it was created. When I slowed down and sped up and stayed loose, I was appreciating just the visuals as the color and lines took form for me. Hope you like!!! 

Wise words from a fellow artist friend

http://mmmmmaddiee.blogspot.com/2013/04/big-sister-advice.html?showComment=1366770927576&m=1

Latest ink sketches

     I have been spending about an hour or two each night working on my inking skills and getting back into a sketching groove. I have started brush inking ann trying to learn the style of Craig Thompson a writer and graphic novelist I greatly respect and admire. So I have broken out my ink and pen nibs as well as a synthetic sable style #2 sized brush. I decided just had fun with no real restrictions or preconceived plans. 

     The goal is to be exercising my drawing muscles (both in technique and in my mind), and begin my journey with story-boarding the first "issue" of my graphic novel. I say "issue" because the idea is to release the entire story in a long format not serialized like a monthly comic would be. To make things easier in work flow I do break down the work and story into segments as if it were being released one installment at a time. 

     My best friend Richard has been giving me some writing pointers for pacing my story and fixing issues with scene focus, number of panels per page, and some small rewrites. Hope you like the uploads. Also lastly I found an old abstract I did for the ART IS RESISTANCE movement and I wanted to show that ink work on this post as well. I am nervous about showing to much of my character art at this stage or giving away anything about the story on the blog. Email me and I will let you check it out away from public upload.