A Favorite: Lyonel Feininger's Kin-Der-Kids

From The Kin-Der-Kids, by Lyonel Feininger

Right before art school, I ran across this picture in an anthology. It was infatuation at first sight, mostly because it instantly recalled W. Heath Robinson's illustration of Uncle Lubin in his balloon, but also because the characters and composition of the frame are perfect. 

Nonsensical and illogical art and literature have always been fascinations, and this phase of Feininger's works is electrifying to me. The comic ran in the Chicago Tribune on Sundays from April 1906 to November 1906.

The expressionistic figures are creepy and humorous, and the dialog is hilarious. I love the Aunt's quaint comments, and the cat's observations just kill me.

Mother of Moses!

 This frame from the strip is another one that hits the sweet spot.

There's a Dover edition of the complete strip that you can find here:

Amazon Link

If you aren't familiar with Feininger's other works--which include paintings, woodcuts, and intriguing wooden toys--be sure to look into them. There's a lot of info to be had, and this link gives a good take on Feininger:

Feininger Blog Post

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Five Hundred and Forty

The Cranky Bird Theatre Production of The Old Curiosity Shop (detail).

This is my 540th blog post.  I want to sincerely thank everyone who has followed and read this blog over the past 8 years. Writing an online journal can seem like navel-gazing at times, and trying to avoid that is challenging when posting at least once a week. Still, it's been helpful to me to keep a record of my art-life, so thanks for sticking with me!

The painting detail above is from my latest work for an upcoming show at Valkarie Gallery in October. The finished size of the piece is 18" x 24", and it's exciting to be showing this and other large pieces along with works by artists I admire.

 Soliloquy, ca. 2010

I was pretty happy with this theater-themed piece done 6 years ago, but am pleased by the evolution and improvement in my newest works.

I'll be posting details about the Valkarie show in the near future, and hope you can come and see all the works. In the meantime, check out Valkarie Gallery --they have fantastic new shows every month!

This month's show features the fine work of Hallie Packard

Don't miss it!

Thanks for supporting the arts, and again for staying with my blog all these years!

SaveSave

A Creature Design Technique

Blue Creature

A short post on an ink technique I enjoy.  This fellow was first drawn in pencil on toned paper.

Second step: Inking over the pencil lines (which would be the first step) with a crow quill pen and rapidograph ink.

Third Step: Adding white highlights with white acrylic gouache. When working on toned paper, I like to add the highlights before the cross-hatched shadows because I have a tendency to cover up too much of the toned paper (which serves as the mid-values) when I ink the darks. It's a personal problem.

The Fourth Step is the cross hatching.  

The Fifth step is adding transparent acrylic inks for color as seen in the first image.

A big "thank you" to Salvia at Pinzellades al Mon for the kind feature of my monstrous absurdities (visit that cool blog for wonderful, world-wide illustrations):

Pinzellades al Mon

Btw, feel free to email me at tomsarmo4{at}gmail{dot}com or comment here with questions about this fun ink technique!

Thanks for the visit, and for checking out Salvia's blog!