Down by the river- Where it’s warm and green

Okay so I said I was going to do Lupin the 3rd stuff next. That did not happen. (RIP Monkey Punch you will be missed.)

Instead a friend of mine got married, and wanted me to do some art for her wedding.

Since I was still arguing with picture concepts and ideas for the Lupin thing – and I love my friends dearly;  I agreed to  paint budgies and Vespas for a month. (She did not need to pay me to draw Vespas, but I’ll accept money.)

 

The basic art was stuff I’m sort of used to drawing for clip art, vespas, suit cases, assemble a map. The main bulk of the docket were portraits of her and her fiance’s budgies/parakeets that they’ve raised together. That is a bit out of my usual wheelhouse but I’ll try anything once.

 

In another attempt at trying something new – I decided to record me working on the last budgie and timelapse it up. I sure how I feel about this vid -or if I will try it again but here we go.

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Blood Saints

(I started this in January and took too long on it. But apparently the feast of St Agatha is this week so lets pretend I planned this. )

Okay – so the New Year has arrived – and is in fact – still here. I’m not one for New Year Resolutions – but I do tend to make the New Year an occasion for me to examine what I’m doing and how to improve it. With this in mind I should be working on social media and how to make my online presence a thing that exists. But I hate social media and am avoiding working on it so lets talk about Saint Iconography with a side note of women’s roles in history.

Warning – this will probably get a bit gory and rough. Because – history is rarely clean and pleasant. Also politics of now gets briefly mentioned. 

Nuclear Hellscapes and Travel Posters

Holidays crashed over me and the New Year started pretty rough.

A mix up at the pharmacy has left me with a bit of a brain chemistry issue I’m still dealing with. (For the record; double check labels and spelling on any medications you take.) It’s been a fun month or two.

But despite the weird mood swings, head aches and drowsiness I have actually gotten something done.

Sadly not sure of the

original artists of these

hell we are lucky to have scans in the first place

It might be somewhat obvious on here but I’m a bit of a history nerd.  I also love and collect vintage posters and post cards (well reprints anyway.)  A few years back during a cross country road trip I got introduced to the National Park posters from the Depression era Works Project Administration and fell in love with them.

The Works Project Administration was a program that was part of the New Deal to stimulate the economy and get unemployed folks working. In an attempt to get out of work artists producing and as a way to get art to the lower classes they started commissioning posters for various events and projects. Public Service posters, Health Reminders, local events, and in this case advertising the National Parks. For more information and examples the Library of Congress has more information and over 900 examples of said posters.

Me being a graphic design nerd and a bit of a gamer, I tried this style out for a location in Fallout New Vegas – because making travel posters for imaginary, inhospitable locales amuses me. I had a lot of fun making that poster and it surprisingly was a great eye catcher at my last convention so I decided to try to give it a revisit when I had the chance.

In Which I Ramble on about Ghosts and Ladies that Go Bump in the Night

So October is here, and gone.  I was intending to post this sooner but the month was a blur of comings, goings, deadlines and disasters.  Probably poor excuses, but it was a poor way to spend what is normally the happiest time of the year for me.

For the occasion of Halloween a local store decided to hold a monster themed art show and they were kind enough to let me join in the fun.

So I get in the show, no worries right? Well actually I realize that “Monster” is a pretty big heading. Are we talking classic movie monsters? Modern monsters? Urban legends? Zombies? The list goes on.

After a bit of mentally throwing darts at a board for ideas and coming up with nothing  a friend suggested I try to do something with “those Japanese ghosts like that one artist you obsess over.”

Art Process – Blood and Gold

I have a horrible turn around time. I will admit to that. Sometimes ideas will hit me and I’ll sketch and finish them up in half a day, or I’ll pace myself for a deadline. But other occasions I will come up with ideas, sketch them out and set them aside until I pull them out later and see what I can do with them.Though even I have to admit 2-3 years is a bit extreme even for me.

Wish Ya Never Met Her at All

Book cover art by Ernest Chiriaka – got a collection of paperback novel covers lately it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

I’m not sure if it’s my recent binge watching of Twin Peaks, or the stars aligning or if the stress of recent events has just gotten to me but I’m in the mood for some damn fine coffee, donuts, intrigue and murder.

Apparently no one who knows me very well is surprised by this.

My media diet in my formative years involved a lot of Alfred Hitchcock presents and  probably too many viewings and sing-alongs to the soundtrack of Chicago. So in my mind’s eye, murder usually involves a bit less gruesome corpses and murder basements and more slinky dresses and ladies done with your shit.Maybe there’s some wish fulfillment involved, I am not ashamed.