The Next Deal-EEE-O

After Ill-Suited For The Pleasantries opens (Monday, January 13th), the next thing on my plate is a collaborative project called Spine-Taneous (I was secretly hoping we would spell it Spine-TAIN-eee-ous, but alas......)

I could do a long blah-blah-blah about it (which I will do in an upcoming post), but instead I will just leave you with this image.

The ONE-NIGHT ONLY show is on Saturday, February 1st.  More on this soon!

Grab Bag of Progress: Part I

These are some of the other pieces I am kicking along towards completion.  They may or may not be completed in time for Ill-Suited For The Pleasantries.

There's a good chance this piece is going to be called Hemisphere.

This piece is coming along in the 'process' relatively far without somehow getting a title.  I think as the imagery begins to solidify a title will suggest itself.

A decent shot of the surface to give and idea of how the 'relief components' work with the rest of the piece.

Just a few more elements.....

Now it's time to add some color.  I'm leaning towards returning the whole piece to its original color scheme with just some extra background 'white noise' so the colors probably won't be fairly bold and contrast-y with the base image.

But then I noticed an old palette with a cool purple color on it that I mixed for a totally separate painting and never used.

Yeah, that purple.....

...and actually I have a pretty nice blue that's just getting a thicker 'skin' on it everyday.

So basically, the muted color scheme just got thrown out the window for this layer.  Future layers of imagery may bring the piece closer to the original color scheme.  Incidentally, I'm starting to refer to this piece as The Promised Land (Of Sky Blue Waters).  That might stick as a title.

After adding a few more details.

Now it's ready to be hazed over.

And just like that, it's hazed over.

Now for something completely different.....

No-Tay-Shun after the addition of some 'hot pink' -a modern cure-all if ever there was one.

This is now the second image I have posted that is, for some reason unknown to me, extremely large.  Not quite sure why.........

Moving along, this next piece has the working title of  Dreamscape D-Lux.  As always, titles and images are subject to change.

I'm in the process of laying down the first layer of imagery.  The head shape, thought bubbles, and the chunk of corrugated cardboard are really the only things that are keepers.  The rest of the image is on 'probation'.

95% of the way done applying color on the first layer -just a few things left at the uppermost bit of the canvas.

Everything has color.

Now to subdue some portions of top.  It's not much when you compare it to the image directly above, but its just enough to change the visual emphasis.

Seeing how well the image works, I may not add another layer of imagery to this piece.....

Stuntman

Good Grief.  Some pieces are harder to love than others.

I'll have to dig around and see if I have an earlier image of 'Stuntman' that pre-dates the one below.  I think I can sum up how hard Stuntman is 'to love' by saying that in multiple piece EX-CH-AN-GEs with Terry Rathje and Heidi Hernandez, when I have given them free pick of available pieces to work on, both artists have repeatedly rejected the 'opportunity' to finish Stuntman.

I guess it's time to do my own dirty work.

Initially I wanted to lay down a few shapes and some masses of color.

Once that dried, I began to add some line work.

....and a touch more....

Several hours later.........line work................done!

My initial plan is to add some isolated patches of vibrant colors as an underlayer before I haze everything out with a wash of white/yellow ochre.  The plan* is to return the surface to the khaki color I started with, just with a bunch of 'activity' below the surface.  *Please note the plan may be subject to abrupt revision.

Here it is before I go in and add some more line work to flesh out some areas.

All nice and 'fleshy'.

I want to put the finishing touches on a few more areas -including adding a face to the large figure in a space suit with a doll house torso on the left before I consider the possible 'hazing' in Stuntman's future.

Something like this.....

That pretty much sums up the first layer.  I'll live with it for a few days and see if more layers of imagery are in the works.

Putting A Stake Through The Heart Of The Redux

Relative Location Redux is nearing completion.  I just have a few color passages to lay down and a little more line work to complete.  It will be one of several new pieces for Ill-Suited For The Pleasantries -which opens at Black Hawk College in just a few weeks.  The timing works out well, since my next project (which is a collaborative effort) opens about three weeks after the Black Hawk show.  More on that one in the near future........('near future' being 2014).

I caught an article on NPR a few weeks back while I was waiting to pick up the Four Foot Assassin.  Unfortunately, I don't recall the author's name, but the topic was the history of hot air balloons and some of the adventures those early pilots had.  The author made a point that the first camera-based image taken from a balloon marked the dawn of the aerial surveillance age.  That idea stuck with me enough that I included it in Relative Location Redux.

I have incorporated flying ships/balloons in earlier works (as in the photograms below), but never with a prominent pilot character at the helm.

So I included a slightly modified version of this rabbit/bunny figure from an earlier piece called Halcyon Days of Yore.

Here it is without its carved frame.

Now with whiskers, flying goggles, and longer ears (and no breakfast).

Once the lines are dry, it is time to add the color.

I actually had six or seven version of this devil character before I found one that was remotely acceptable.

Before.

After.

Coming Soon: A sneak peek at Stuntman!