The Hanged Man

The White Lodge Gallery held their annual Black x-mas show. This instalment Horror #4 show was this past week-end.  I created something to auction off, here are the steps.

Jim dropped off this slab of MDF to me to create an art work for the exhibition.

I gave it a good coating of black gesso to create a ground for painting.

I painted this reclining skeleton and attached his legs to a tree trunk. I rubbed in a bit of black on the bones to help create a little bit of texture.

I then painted in the background with copper paint. Ooooh shiny!

I then poured ammonia to patina the copper surface.

I then clear coated the piece to protect the surface and added in a bit of interference pigment to give it a bit more sparkle. After it dried I sanded the surface a bit.

I went in with black line and some white to put in some tarot card inspiration.

I went in with more black to help pop out the skeleton and gave it a textured clear coat on the surface.

And here it is hung for display at the gallery. I liked how it looks up side down. :D

KRISHNA creation + Horror 3 show

A peek at the self portrait I've been developing the past while.

We start with a charcoal sketch on the canvas of me playing the flute.

I ended up not liking the original legs I drew in. I decided to go with one in front of the other and in the other direction than originally planned.

Resulting in this. Interesting accidental discovery is that the erased out lower half is darker and better represents the proper fall of light tonality.

At the time this was the studio space I was working in. It sure has come a long way since them. You can see the smaller Krishna canvas on the right on my newest easel acquisition. I sprayed the image down with fixative an gave it a quick clear coat to lock down the charcoal particles.

Krishna has blue skin so I rubbed in some pigment off a rag.

I then used a little left over green paint to outline the figure to help me "see" it better. I'm going to leave a little mystery today and end this post here.

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WHAT TO DO TONIGHT!!!!!

 Read the FFWD ARTicle!

I have two small works in the Horror 3 show at the House Gallery tonight, go see it there are tons of great local artists in the show, so go damn it, no excuses!  FB Event click here!

The real HORROR....

I lost everything. Every file, everything thats good and holy in the digital realm ;( When I went to get the superdrive replaced in my newest laptop I didn't think it would come to this....

I had my expense repair returned on Friday. Saturday was lines up at the Apple store with people who badly wanted their iPhone 5's. Alas, I don't think Steve jobs is the devil, but his empire seems oddly hypocritical, a "cooler. more sophisticated, hipster" version of 1984. My computer would not boot up, so though repaired, I had to go back to the Genius bar to get my system to start. In order to do this, they had to wipe everything and re-install the OS. This all happened suddenly that I didn't back up my most recent and most important work. SH*T!!!

To make a the story short.....
Lost all my iPhone contacts, tons of images, documents, invoices, reference photos so on and so forth, oh and all my software. Damn. My brain is on a self inflicted soup of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) SO for me, this is an opportunity for a new start. I have a new uncluttered computer and life, ready to start fresh, like spring ;)

Rather than mourn the loss, I got wet in the studio.

I sprayed my surfaces and allowed a variety of pigments to stain my supports.

The wet surface is highly reflective and really brings up the pigments.

After it dried I gave it a vigorous scrubbing with 80 grit sandpaper.

I think it takes not only blindness. bravery, balls and confidence and commitment.

I revisited the pieces with some black, iridescent silver and the original dark blue.

Outlined in black gesso, enhanced with the deep red in the shadow areas and outlined in black gesso loosely and allows to drip.

Highlights, shadow and drips of raw umber add more layering this studio session.

I did a raw umber drip over the entire surface. This piece gets some gold added to the highlights and a bronze is added to the eyebrows.

More to come.......

Horror faces

I am creating two 8"X8" pieces to hang on the wall of the House Gallery Horror 3 show.

The Gallery provided two pre-cut MDF boards to work on. They were not primed, so I primed one in black Gesso and the other in traditional white gesso. I drew out a basic design and rubbed the back in charcoal. I placed the image and traced over top my initial drawing to transfer it to the surface below.

Then I worked over top the charcoal with black or white gesso respectively, to lay down the line work.

I decided to block in the horror faces with silver and gold opalescent paint to give it a slight shimmering quality.

I then went in with  a dark blue onto the skull.

I used a dark red on the face on the white ground.

I followed it up with a lighter blue and red paint on each.

There is still another session in the studio to be had, to go further develop these pieces and to bring them to fruition for the show.

Come to the Horror show to see the finished pieces, to keep in touch like the gallery page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/houseglry

Wheel of Deluded Existence - starting the painting

I started this thangka for the upcoming horror show. Also referred to as a wheel of life, it is based on classical Tibetan Buddhist imagery. It depicts the realm of existence associated with unenlightened beings.  It may not be the ultimate in the 'horror gore show of hell', but it is the one that the majority of us call 'reality' and that in itself is very scary, indeed.

I started with a 30' X 40" wide profile stretched canvas. I use the width of the profile and the straight edge to create a border around the image since I found my past works crept too near the edge of the canvas.

I need to find the center point and a vertical and horizontal axis. I do this without a ruler, just a straight edge and compass or string with pencil tie to it. I go from corner to corner at first drawn with a red pencil. Once I have a center I draw circles intersecting the lines an creating points of origin for my vertical and horizontal axis which I then draw in with the straight edge.  I also draw circles from the center point for the inset images to be create later on.

The next step is to draw in MARA, the demonic deity that holds the wheel of existence. I do this with graphite (a mechanical HB pencil.) Graphite does not readily stick to the surface well, it is workable but needs to be adhered with fixative, I also coat the drawing with a clear acrylic primer.  I also use various other colored pencils to help me organize additional elements on or around the central figure.

Once the majority of the painting is sketched into place (which takes many hours), I can start to work with paint.  I block in solid areas of color starting with my large brushes loosely working from the largest darkest shapes and  moving toward the lighter colors. There is alot of preplanning here in my head because I already know that the majority of these dark colors will get covered with lighter ones later on to create a bold popping effect. I move inward to the more detailed areas, which tend to be from the outer edge in toward the center, this pulls the eyes focus to the center of the artwork. After the outer MARA figure and background are blocked in I will begin work on the wheels of existence which require finer tools, and concentration.

Stay tuned for more updates to follow this and other current works =;)

Cleanse the Palette

I just got a call from a good friend of mine to tell me that today is the day that one must cleans and purify ones tools. I just so happen to be on my way to the studio and will now do such a thing before beginning a new work for the upcoming horror show.  Poster below:

I am planning on making a Tibetan inspired calendar with a strong Haida influence on the under painting/line work. Who knows what will come of it. Fingers crossed that it works out, we will see;)

The all seeing hand. It can perceive and do!

Also: I am beginning work on a commission for a children's book cover. I quickly sketched out this fall tree before having the author show me what sorts of things she had in mind.  She definitely wants  to go way darker, I think I can handle that.