Cocaine Napalm Beach Party

Nothing like a serene picture of a pleasant party on the beach to shake you out of the winter blahs. I tired to fix a lot of the drawing mistakes with this painting but it's far from perfect. This whole painting/monoprint schtick started in a really weird roundabout way. I was trying to do some ultra slick genre stuff by ripping off Frank Quitely. Who is one of the best storytelling artists around:




Some of that stuff is archived on here and you can see that my mimicry was a miserable failure. I typically work on way too many things at once so it got shoved to the back burner when I started working on other sutff. A friend of mine told me it was some of the best stuff he'd seen me do, so I tried to do some Fine ART with it. I made some line drawings and screen printed them on etching paper. I started watercoloring them which wasn't really satisfying on it's own, even with the Old Holland brand paints which are a bit thicker and have better pigments than the other brands. I started spray varnishing them to seal it so I could glaze more colors over the surface. I start with a couple of layers of acrylic and then move onto some heavy enamel oil glazes. It's a real roundabout way of doing things but It's seems to be a good way form me to keep the thin cartooning lines that I'm enamored with and still layer on the color and contrast with the glazing. I've ended up starting a lot of these things The same way Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac did, by treating the paper with lifting preparation solution and applying a base color. A nice trick to give the painting an overall color temperature/mood.




First two are Dulac and the third is Rackham. Probably not very bright of me to include those pictures along with mine as I will suffer greatly by comparison. They used line to "lock" the registration of the colors when they were printed, I like it aesthetically, but I wonder if they only used it out of necessity or if they would have abandoned it if the printing technology was better.

I've got at least 7 to ten things started and halfway finished. It seeming like lately as soon as I get the idea roughed out I have a hard time staying interested in finishing it after I am forced away form it by important things like returning work e-mails and other boring madness. If you made it all the way through this odd rambling, contact me and I will send you a prize.

Beating a Dead Horse

The galkyd glazing I use for the final layers of darkness make an accurate scan almost impossible. It has a slightly more yellow tint to it and the nuggets of enamel and pigment make little white dots but, aside from all that it turned out okay. Last time with this image I promise.

Magical Apparition (etching)

Here's a new one. I'm not especially pleased with it but it's a war of attrition at this point and it's probably not getting any better.

Sexy Slaughterhouse Photohoot

Part 2

The first attempt was a disaster which I fully apologize for. the painting was crap, and the lighting was bad, etc. I fixed most of that stuff and redrew the image. I decided to make My Misery Engine comic black and white like this, instead of the full color. It's the only way it could ever be finished in a reasonable amount of time. I'll have two to three of the pages following this one by the end of the month.

Odds and Ends

It's pretty typical of my working process that I start to many things at once so here are some drawings for various projects. I also have three paintings started, two comics, and about four etchings. Not organized in the slightest. The batgirl/deer is and idea that I "borrowed" from Ms. Sarah Jackson, she is a wonderful person and probably won't stab me for it.

Afterthought

So here we go. Progress. I've been beating this thing to death for weeks now slaving over the scraping and burnishing to get just the right range of tones. I'm not completely satisfied but I'm moderately satisfied, Marcusspeak for "it doesn't make me want to stab myself" Here is a detail view for people who enjoy such things:

Beat Down

I've been slaving away on etchings and monoprints for awhile and I haven't posted too many new works so here goes. There should soon be a flurry of visual activity for you enjoy or ignore at your discretion. This is a very subtle portrait of the main character of a comic I've had kicking around my head lately. I've got a chapter or two written out long hand so I should be ready to get going soon.

sketches and equipment odds and ends

Here are a few character sketches for a new comic I've been considering. I actually wrote a big chunk of it before drawing anything which is an unusual working method for me. I think it's got some good parts but time will tell. kind of slotting it at about 200 or so pages so It could take forever and a day since I'm squeezing it in with so many other things.





These are the greatest pen tips I have ever used in my entire life. The line quality control is almost magical. I no longer want to live without them. They are Nikko brand Japanese tips. If you are serious about ink drawing hunt them down.



I spent the last couple of weeks building a vacuum press for serigraphy. I got the plans from Andy MacDougall's screen printing manual which is chocked full of tips about screen-printing and has the added bonus of not being written in the sixties. It works wonderfully and was pretty inexpensive to build. Junior, one of my students, has named this press "Neal"

Socially Acceptable

The right life coach can make even the most grueling social engagements a breeze. get a move on before all those beautiful ladies find a more legitimate suitor.

I haven't been slacking, honest. I just have a million things have finished and I am too much of a control freak to show any in progress stuff. Happy Valentine's day suckers! I'll be relaxing in my darkened skull lined cave mocking your happiness. Bwhahahaha!

For God's Sake Think of the Children! (and my image)

does a good deed "count", in a metaphysical sense not a concrete one, if it involves shameless pandering, proselytization, or preening self promotion? all of the above?

They still need a shitload of help. Red Cross donation page

Keep in mind there are a lot of people already working to make it worse : http://www.zmag.org/zvideo/3323

a short history lesson: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23623