The terrible Itch

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Landscape thumbnail one

The two greatest things about my job (or maybe they're the worst?) are that the quest for ideas and images, and the prospects for improvement, are endless. So I keep searching for new approaches to art, and continuing my efforts to improve.

A commission has gotten me back on the landscape track. I love painting landscapes, but also enjoy drawing goofy illustrations. And I'm always fishing for a way to combine them. In fact, I want it so bad it kind of hurts.

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Landscape thumbnail two
 

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 Landscape thumbnail three

I like doing works like the two above, and am most often happy with the resulting paintings, but they are not what I need, deep down inside.

While the majority of the art-buying public seems drawn to realism and/or impressionism, I'm not there, either in my buying or my creating taste. Yes the verisimilitudinous (?) aspects of light are fascinating and wonderful, but I'm getting a bit weary of it in art. Something different is needed to scratch my Terrible Itch.

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Thought I was almost there with this one, done a few years ago, then other ventures called and side-tracked the landscape efforts. It's okay--looking back, I was nowhere near the mark.

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 Landscape thumbnail four

Am after it again, and I am excited.

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Here's a whole sheet of the thumbnails. Lots of media combinations here, from graphite and prismacolor to mixtures of graphite, brushpen, pen and ink, and white ink.

Not even close to what I want/feel/need out of this, but

the quest endures, and I'm scratching. Wish me luck.

And thanks for the visit!

One of the Best Ghost Stories

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Scrooge's Door Knocker. Mixed media on wood, private collection.

"One of the most enduring Christmas traditions is the telling of ghost stories and the most famous of all frightening festive tales is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol originally published on the 19th December 1843. It tells the story of miserly business man Ebeneezer Scrooge and his life-changing encounter with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future one creepy Christmas Eve night and has been filmed many times over the years. Perhaps the most creepy of all the adaptations is the 1971 animated ABC-TV special starring Michael Redgrave as the narrator and Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Indeed, this version was held in such high regard that it was eventually released to cinemas and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1972. With its emphasis on death, gloom, ghosts and horror this short film is a real treat for classic horror fans particularly during the festive season." *

Quoted the above because I couldn't have said it better.

I loved it then, I love it now. Here's the film in its entirety:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6IMZFwY50

I'm sure the movie's version of Marley's Ghost influenced me as a youngster, and I attempted this version a few years later, in art school.

But the film's artwork--in fact the whole film--is amazing!

Thank you for following my blog. I hope you enjoy this Holiday Season, and my best wishes for a contented New Year!

*http://www.classichorrorcampaign.com/2012/12/10/a-christmas-carol-scary-seventies-cartoon/