Sketching Ideas and a Blob Painting

It's been snowing nearly every day here in Colorado. Some days don't feel like dealing with traffic to the studio, so I've been sketching a lot. The collage above shows some sketches and a few details of a finished painting (seen at the end of this post).

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This fellow was a quick one--sort of an unconscious bit of drawing. Since all my gouache is at the studio, I used a Pentel Brushpen for the outline, a pilot Hi-Tec-C pen for the crosshatching, and a few Prismacolor pencils for the color.

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Same with this fellow. The visible red lines are my initial drawing; I use a red Verithin pencil for that, on either Kona brand paper, a brown paper bag, or wrapping paper.

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Then I finally plowed through the snow to the studio and painted this Squashed Pea Fellow with Acryla Gouache. 

Yeah he's weird--I make no excuses--I draw and paint what comes to me, not what I think will please others. To me, that's the philosophy that has added richness and progress to all the arts.

If you share that ideal (and like eclectic art-weirdness) follow me on Instagram:

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One Fair-Enough Question, and an Answer to Another

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I'm often asked, "Where do you get your ideas?"

It's a fair question to which there are many answers. I read a lot of folk and fairy tales and fiction, and I look at a lot of old and contemporary illustrations. Those stories and images 

inform--semi-directly--a lot of the works I create. But...

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...sometimes the artworks arrive from my unconscious/subconscious being. When sketching for relaxation, figures and characters just work their way from my brain and heart down my arm and out the fingers that hold the pencil; or in this case, the brush. I liken it to the old-style darkroom experience, when the paper was placed into the developer and the image magically appeared onto the photo paper. There's no pre-visualized image; I put the drawing implement down and let the image happen. And it is magical, and I never tire of the experience.

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This work-in-progress happened like that. After some unconscious sketching of figures that really did not resemble this fellow, I dipped a paintbrush into black ink and drew directly onto the primed canvas. To be accurate, I painted the outlines freely with a #3 round brush, allowing the figure and the objects to stay undefined. 

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Then I looked for references for the clothing and the objects, adding the details as I saw fit. Because I'd primed the canvas with a reddish-orange ground, I was able to paint over and adjust the initial, loose lines and clean up the parts of the drawing I wanted to preserve.

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Above are a couple of detail crops of the finished piece. 

Still haven't a title for it, but it's 12" x 30", and will be in an upcoming show.

***

I got an email yesterday inquiring about my "average painting process".  I sort of use an average process but it does vary a bit with each artwork. Here then is the process sequence I used for this piece:

1--Coated the gessoed canvas with a reddish ground (in this case a mixture of Art Spectrum Fine Tooth Colourfix Primer (Terra Cotta) and Maimeri Polycolor Yellow Ochre

2--Painted the outline using a brush and India Ink (sometimes I use thinned, black Polycolor, but I like the smoother flow and value of India ink a bit better)

3--Fixed the ink with clear acrylic spray varnish (otherwise the application of subsequent acrylic washes will cause the ink to run)

4--Touched up and corrected the initial brush drawing with the reddish ground and black Polycolor

5--Mixed four values of grey-green Polycolor (dark, medium dark, medium light, and light) in sealable, plastic cups

6--Painted the shadow areas--keeping the grey values accurate to the local value of each area

7--Painted the lighter grey areas

8--Added highlights with white Polycolor

9--Added tinted glazes to punch up the green hue in the character's eyes, and some white tinted glazes  to soften some of the highlight edges

10--Varnished with a coat of acrylic gloss medium. When that's dry,  added final coating of Soluvar (which gets rid of the "tackiness" gloss mediums often have, even when dry).

I'm open to all the questions folks ask--they are a sign of interest in the work I create, and much appreciated.

Thanks for checking this out : ]

Another Goblin and a Creature-in-Progress

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Working on lots of new characters--and many of them turning into wood cut-outs--for a new, long-term project. Here's one!

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And here's another--a work-in-progress.

I'll keep you posted, as more are on the way :)

Thanks for the visit!

Animal Parameters at Valkarie Gallery!

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For the third year in a row, I'm excited to be part of a fall show at Valkarie Gallery!

Animal Parameters is coming soon, and my works will join the amazing art of

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Karrie York

http://www.mikiharderart.com/

and Miki Harder 

Please click on their names for links to their sites and more of their art!

Here's a little preview of a few of my works which will be in the show:

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For folks who like fantastic creatures, here's a Lava Monster! A few illustrators and I were discussing how to create a stone creature who oozed lava from cracks in its hide, so I tried my hand at this fellow.

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I love owning sketches by artists, so I make many of mine available to collectors. And I gotta have a few Cranky Birds in every show.

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My animal works are most often images that spring from real animals but end up imaginary creatures.

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And dragons are animals, right?

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So I hope you will join us for Animal Parameters!

Here are the particulars:

 And be sure to check out Valkarie Gallery's current show Elements and Curiosities, featuring the works of Valerie Savarie and Sharon Eisley!

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Also, Innate Tapestries: The Endless Stage--a 96 page book full of my paintings and sketches--will be available for purchase at Animal Parameters. I hope you will grab a copy!

 Thanks for reading, and for supporting us artists!

Origins and Processes

 

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 A Meeting, detail crop. 

Toned paper, plus (in order of use) Verithin colored pencil, Pentel Brushpen, Uni-Ball Signo white pen, Maica Pilot Hi-TEC-C pen, transparent acrylic inks).

Visitors to my studio often ask from where my ideas come. They come from many sources; books I have read or am reading, past and current experiences, conversations with fellow illustrators, and dreams. This one definitely came from a faceless voice--in a otherwise forgotten dream--that exclaimed "We meet ourselves!" Kept hearing that in my head all the next day

 so I started sketching the alligator-like creature, and the rest of the drawing emerged. And yes, I know that the image is weird as all get-out.

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Didn't take the time to take many in-process shots, but you can see

 the red Verithin pencil under-drawing here. At that point I put the drawing away.

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Had a bunch of acrylic paint that I'd used for a previous painting. Not wanting to waste it, I sketched out a similar image onto a cradled hardboard using charcoal. Refined that using a brush and black acrylic, then painted this version (detail crop).

But the previous drawing kept calling to me, so I returned to it and finished it after a lot of cross-hatching :)

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Here are both artworks for comparison. Other than creating pieces based upon a dream-exclamation, I'd wanted to explore the effect of light shining from within. In this case it was coming from within the creature-tail. 

They're each 8" x 10", and will be among many works for of a three-person show at Valkarie Gallery this October! More about that soon.

Thanks for reading!

Challenges and Surprises

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Character design sketch

Kept seeing the "Make the art you want to see" quote on Facebook. Guess it was originally by a fellow named Austin Kleon, and it was actually "Draw the art you want to see".

Just as repetitious ads and billboards make me want to scream with boredom, I get weary of clever quotes quickly. People complain about cat and food photos on Fb, but my top thumbs-down vote is with quote-cliches.

Still, Kleon's phrase sticks with me, because it is a challenge. Doing just that is not easy. 

In actuality, I try to draw the art I see in my head. It's never exact. But enjoyable nonetheless, because the drawings are different enough from the visions to keep surprising me.

And that's about it.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Blob Inspiration

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Last spring I got obsessed with blob-creatures. Pretty sure these were dredged up from a childhood spent pushing money into gumball machines. Once I got a plastic eyeball that opened and closed when tipped.

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And once I got a green rubber blob with six, rubber-hairy legs.  I treasured both of them, having spent a lot of quarters for a year or so before getting those two. They've been packed away in a box in the basement for decades, but obviously still cast their spell.

Thanks for reading this inane post. 

 

(To make it a bit more edifying, here's the process: First I sketched these in H pencil on toned paper. They were then outlined using a Pentel Brush Pen. I shaded them with cross-hatching using a crow quill nib and india ink. Highlights were added using a fine brush and white acrylic gouache. The color on the green blobs is translucent acrylic ink flowed right over the gouache, and the white cross-hatched background was done with a Gelli Roll pen.)

You are where you are

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Little Guys. A sketch-in-progress.

Showing my work; to a client, in a gallery, a show, or even on the web, often makes me nervous and nit-picky about my progress, ability, worth. That's natural I guess, but not pleasant.

Sometimes it's good for an artist--for anyone--to step back and realize they are where they are right now, and that it's got to be a good place.

Here's my smudgy latest sketch, non-embellished. I'm pretending to post it without reservation. 

I really don't know which little guy is me.

Thanks for the visit!