2 WIPS

It's a bad sign that I have more WIP posts here than finished pieces. I'm in a time of transition, I think, and struggling a little. That's where the lack of focus is coming from, something I should try and remedy, but the struggle and transition aren't bad things. Often, I've found that looking back these are very productive, interesting times for me work and growth.

It also might be that with work going as it is I only start painting at 11:00 pm or later.

Regardless, an idea for a series I've been tossing around in documents and my head for awhile is getting to come out and and play with mixed results. See what you think. Still some drawing problems to resolve I get too impatient with early on. They won't all be girls.

Sketchbook pages

Work has been so hectic lately that I've not really had any time to paint. If I'm at my computer, I'm working on the company project. That's not a bad lot in life, but it does mean I need to find other ways to keep practicing my 2d skills.
Thus, I picked up my first moleskin sketchbook a few months ago and finally broke it out a couple of weeks ago. It's great, and not because it was used by Rodin or Hemingway or it's hip, though all three of those things are probably true, I guess.
It's practical, it fits in my back pocket, and the paper is actually a great surface for drawing.
I've taken to pulling it out in meetings, at coffeeshops, and even at church this morning. Basically, all the places that I never have a full sized sketchbook with me because my 40+ work life isn't always about sketching.
I used to make sure I had three things when I was standing up to leave a place - keys, wallet, and phone. Now I have a fourth. I recommend it.

These are backlogged, and I'm about halfway done with the book. These are only the most recent four spreads. I'll try and post more just to keep myself doing this.

I like trees lately

My sister had her first child last year around this time, and I was supposed to make a tree painting for my nephew. I have it now, for his first birthday, and it's going home for Thanksgiving for him. So this is for Elliot.

I like painting trees. They're not exactly easy, which is surprising considering how often we see them. People can imagine trees very easily, but actually looking at one and drawing it makes you realize how very weird they can be. This a bit of a fantasy tree, so I can make up a lot, however.

Jess told me making the little boy float is weird. I like it, but I'm going to think on it.

Three works in progress

Nothing finished. I've hardly made it to my studio at all in the last month. Work at Big Huge has been great, but incredibly busy.
Still, a small number of things I played with. The more sustained projects will be updated soon.

Opening this Saturday

I've got a small show opening at Ancient Arts Wellness in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, following the Baltimore Book Festival.

Here's the flier.

The work is mostly medium to small sized oil paintings of landscapes and cityscapes.

The reception is from 7-9 and should be fun. The space is cool, the folks that work there are cool, and the Baltimore Book Festival is cool. Swing by if you get a chance and have some tea.

Pancake Breakfast Album Art

A couple of months back I did some album art for my friend Mike Midlo. We worked together on Time Team, but he also runs this awesome, rocking band called "Pancake Breakfast" out of Oregon. The album is called "Fire in the Barn," and Mike asked me to make a painting to go inside the LP and CD of a barn on a hill that had something unearthly going on with it. For inspiration, he sent me the 1937 Disney cartoon, "The Old Mill," which you should look up on youtube if you haven't seen it.
I love working with musicians. They almost always have such different ideas than visual artists, and such good feedback. I had tons of fun working on this piece, too, and I dig the music, so I hope I get to do more projects like.

Here's Pancake Breakfast's website. Check them out.
http://www.pancakebreakfastmusic.com/

I thought I would show some process work on this one, since it was such a good back and forth.

First, I sent Mike and another band member (and the web/album designer), Christa, the following thumbnails. These were all fast, simple color and composition studies to get some broad stroke feedback from them and get a sense of where their minds were going. It also helped me figure out what I wanted to do with the piece.

We took the ones liked best from the thumbnails and I developed them further, testing the waters for what we'd want to push further into the final piece.


From there, we combined elements that we liked as inspiration for the direction of the final, big one (and I do mean big. This went into an LP, so it was a large file).

After looking at it, though, we didn't feel like it was otherwordly enough, so we tilted everything and added a lot more value and strange light. The idea was to make it feel like something ominous and fantastic was on the very verge of breaking loose.

Then, with that settled, it was time to polish it for the final piece. Mike had one last bit of feedback, which was to add the feeling of wind. That's actually very difficult in a still image, but I'm glad he pushed for it. It made the final painting a whole lot better.

And that was how it went.

When he mailed me the finished LP, Mike wrote me a poem about the piece, posted below:

A storm mounts. Bones ache ... Howling souls. The wind heaves a heavy sigh.

¡There's a Fire in the Barn!

And a murder of crows scatter into the watercolor sky.

Thanks for the chance to do this, Mike, and good luck with the album release!

WIP for a friend

For fun, for a friend.