Styles and experiments

For those of you attached to my usual work and who might be concerned for the turn my experimentation has taken this past week, have no fear, I'm not relinquishing my signature style anytime soon. I get far too much pleasure from that to give it up in the foreseeable future, and have many ideas lined up to still get around to.

I offer this sneak peek of the current piece as proof that I'm still at it. (It's just the upper third of a larger piece in the works right now). And besides, there's Dreamscapes II I'm hard at work at too.

However, I am finding myself struck by random urges these days to play around with things that have not even occurred to me in years. Digging through the garage I came across markers and watercolor pencils and once-treasured-Prismacolors that I hadn't spared a thought for in a decade. Pulled them out, dusted the boxes off, scattered the spiders (who seemed to have decided that my discards were their treasures), and lugged it all upstairs to my studio.

At any rate, thank you for the encouragement for these little artistic jaunts I've been taking the past few weeks. It has been interesting to hear feedback to this recent work.

Heavy Skies

Some more mucking around experimentally. Markers, pencil, and ink. Inspired a bit by some photos my friend John Shannon shared of Yorkshire Dales in the UK. Stark oak branch silhouettes stretching to the sky. Somehow not so different in that aspect from where I am half a globe away. The skies have been fickle today, flashing back and forth from spears of sunlight to splattering rain.

A change of pace - strange dreams

A question I get asked often enough that it should be on my FAQ (but isn't) is whether I paint what I dream. Before I can form an answer, the first question is often followed up by comments of how my dreams must be utterly fantastic.

Nothing could be further from the truth. When my brain shuts down at night, it shuts down. If I had to paint the incomprehensible blather that my mind comes up with when I'm sleeping...well, I'd probably put myself to sleep (again) in the attempt. Generally it's prosaic, mundane imagery slapped together with about as much cohesion and story as a three year old would be capable of with a set of refrigerator poetry magnets, and the buildup of a shaggy dog joke.

And so I was as surprised as anyone the other morning to wake up with some rather vivid images in mind that begged to be put to paper in some form. Strangely, even in the dream I remember stepping out from among city streets to see this towering emerald giant, and wanting to pull out my travel journal to sketch on the spot (I suppose I would have been sorely disappointed upon waking to find any dream drawings to have been as ephemeral as the dream itself), but was pulled along through the rest of the journey by inexorable forces. Passage along a thin rocky path that wended its way along the spine of two oceans colliding, lit by the thin torchlight of city lamps.

At any rate, witness the first two images I have ever done from dreams. I guess I can't answer the question any longer with, "No, I never draw from my dreams."

The Maw

There's a neighbor who's garage always stands open, empty, gaping, black. You can see the moss growing on the wood inside, see the rootlets of shade loving plants piercing the walls of this ancient edifice, and the iron struts bearing it all up. It's dank, it's creepy, it's primal, it's just... well... it's the Maw.

And up above, the most glorious birch tree climbing to the sky.

A sunny afternoon in Oakland. Allergies going nuts.

Here's a nice challenge, seeing as I usually hate drawing perspective to start with, let's do a sketch not only that involves perspective, but is done without rulers, pencil, or guides! Sounds great! Well, I suppose I should get myself warmed up, seeing as I intend to go on the San Francisco Sketch Crawl in a couple of weeks. I've been looking forward to it, missed it the last two times due to prior engagements. Not missing it this time!

Potential

"Potential"
size: 12x16 inches
medium: watercolor

As usual prints, original, and all that Good Stuff, available at Shadowscapes.

Painting through the weekend to finish this piece up, since it's not a paying commission, and I've got some deadlines set up for myself to get started on once Monday rolls around. Gotta get back to having a few more chapters hammered out before the end of April.

NPR's "Planet Money" podcast kept me company for the last half of this one. Yeah, I'll admit it's not the rousing source of passionate fantasy inspiration you'd expect me to be listening to. Ironically the dire and materially rooted topics were an odd contrast to painting such a hopeful themed piece. That's the strange workings of my mind. It rolls along several tracks simultaneously. Dryads and tree spirits while listening to economic fiascoes and bailout plans.

Reminds me of how Dana is always a bit disconcerted to see letters and packages in the mail for me from the fantastic company and artist names of people I'm working with, tagged with "Inc." or "Co." at the end, or heading legal papers and contracts. "It's so bizarre!" he exclaims, to see these otherworldy names that conjure magic images in your head...rooted to something so mundane as a corporate and legal identity.

Arizmendi yummies

Friday afternoon errands. Running around Oaktown, shipping orders, groceries, returning videos. I decide to take a detour over to Arizmendi Bakery which I haven't visited in a while. One of my favorite places, from my Berkeley days even, over at the sister establishment Cheese Board. Who couldn't love a place that has a pastry called "Chocolate Thing"???

The place is always packed. Testament to the aromas of baked savories and sweets. People are squeezed in on every available seat, and elbow to elbow at the counter. But as if by magic, somehow by the time my name is called and I go up to the counter to pick up my slice of pizzasourdoughyumminess, a spot opens up. Always. It never fails.

Maybe they have a brownie keeping watch over the place to ensure happily seated customers.

Progression of a sketch: Potential

New painting concept sprang to mind last night.

Sketch #1:

Dug through my sketch books around midnight for a starting point. I find that discarded concept sketches for other paintings often provide a good springboard. For example this was initially a sketch for the Tarot Ten of Wands, last year. I ended up using a completely different sketch for that final painting.

Toyed with this for a bit, made some changes to accommodate the new vision.

Still though, not quite what I wanted. Wasn't going to work in its raw form. The same reasons I discarded the sketch the first time for the tarot were cropping up. I like the emotion of it, and the tender feel of clutching the orb, but the pose doesn't feel quite natural, and the aesthetic lines of it are not yet there.

Okay, so on to Sketch #2:

After a bit of scribbling and a layer of eraser dust in bed, had a basic figure just to get the idea out of my head before dropping off to sleep. Cleaned it up some more this morning.

Still unhappy with it. It's a much more refined line. I like the legs, like the face. But the body now is much too stiff. There is not connection to the orb that she holds. It's just an object resting in her lap.

Sketch #3:

Hopefully this one can be "just right."

Grabbed tracing paper. Traced the legs of #2, curved her body around the orb more to be a protective embrace and to try to capture that feel from #1 that I liked. Tilted the page at an angle to shift the weight. I think I have it this time. Going to continue in this vein and start refining the anatomy.