Monday, September 21, 2009

Ravens and Workshops


"Corvus Moon"

Corvus Moon - Threadless T-shirts, Nude No More
"A murder of crows
one finds a fanciful perch
almost haiku ..."

I have a new Threadless t-shirt submission in the running! Won'tcha please vote (high :]) and perhaps leave a comment?? Chances significantly improve with public support and i'd be much obliged with yours!
Based on one of many ideas involving ravens/crows I've been tinkering with-- I feel like bird motifs seem more popular in design these days. Hopefully I can ride a hip wave or... glide on a favorable wind~


Walsers Workshop

This Saturday (9/26), I will be doing a drawing and painting lecture demo at Walser's Art Supplies and Digital Printing. I will be talking about Grumbacher brushes and ink techniques and how these can be applied to the commercial illustration field. I'll be touching on both development and technical use of the mediums. There will be four sessions throughout the day between 10AM - 4PM. Seating is free but limited. You can also score some free product samples too! Click on the image to see the PDF details :]

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Medicus Rex


NouveauBots/Robotica

The third installment in this series of Alphonse Mucha inspired peices. I've got several more themes I've been wanting to take a crack at-- just a matter of carving out the time. I love playing around with and bringing together dissimilar concepts like mechanical things with very organic or plant like ones. I found a beautiful book on Mucha on the bargain shelf at Barnes & Noble and couldn't resist trying apply the plantlike forms to a new age. The book's also a fascinating biography of how he made it as both an illustrator and fine artist throughout his career.

I'm also looking to see how old and dead languages can relate to technology. Both Latin and binary are pretty vital to our language and communication, but we don't really pay much attention and they run in the backgrounds of our daily lives.

In the previous ones in this series I used tech symbols without much intention... I'm inclined to switch them out for things that make more sense to them now~ For this one, finding the origins and use of the caduceus medical symbol was an interesting read. My next one is looking to be a bit more topical... which means I better jump on that soon in case it turns out to be a fad~

[about the title: he just looked like a "Rex" to me... maybe he's operating on his own motherboard? eeew gross~:P ]

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Divingbell Behemoth


Movers and Shakers

"I have seen landscapes...which, under a particular light,
made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.
Nature has that in her which compels us to invent giants:
and only giants will do."

--- C.S. Lewis

I found this quote on Charles Vess' site and thought it fitting. I'm working on a series of watercolors of local beaches and marinas that are destined to have giants in them. The above monster was one designed to fit into one of these paintings of Huntington Beach Pier but found it's way into this old postcard look instead. Now I just might want to do olde tyme postcards instead~