Inklings II previews & taking pre-orders

Well after searching high and low for a printer the past several months and being frustrated at several turns, and delayed, and delayed again, I've finally found what I was looking for.

The proof arrived in the mail today, and it looks good, so I'm going ahead with the run.

The other good news is that because it took so long to find a suitable printer, I eventually added another 6 pages of new art that came about during that intervening time span. So this one's 56 pages of ink scribbles.

If all goes as expected, they should be ready by the end of this month. Currently taking pre-orders for shipping approximately the first week of June. As with volume 1, I'm offering two options:

* book for $20.00
-or-
* book with an ink sketch on the inside cover for $35.00 (if you ask here nicely, I'll do a requested subject).

Here's a peek inside the covers:

Delving Below

I find all kinds of interesting forgotten things when I go delving around in old boxes in the basement. I was searching for some of my Tree Free Greeting cards today so that I could send one to my mother-in-law for mother's day. I knew they were hiding somewhere in the basement. They were of course in the last box I thought to check. But during the hunt I came across some other interesting things:

* My home-made Wiz-War game set. An addictingly entertaining game. Too bad it was never reprinted. The next unsuspecting visitor to my home will be forced to play this.

* Photos of my brother and I at the Takashi Murakami installation that was a pleasant surprise at Rockefeller Square in NY when we were there years ago.

* My old Rapidograph technical pens. I had a real love-hate relationship with these things. On the one hand, they were my treasure, $50.00 bought from my hard saved stash of Chinese New Year lucky money as a teenager. But they were more trouble than they were worth, always getting clogged. I prefer nice disposable gel pens these days. Picking them up, I got flashing visions of laboring over a sinkful of hot water trying to unclog stubborn nibs.

* An unsent letter from 2001. I suppose it got lost in a shuffle and I forgot to ever mail it.... I was in Japan, having just quit (sort of) my software job. As I read this again in the dingy basement it struck me how confused I was back then. It's easy to forget, now that I've found my niche. I'm often asked by artists who are starting out how I went about it. Well, this isn't that whole story (maybe I'll get into it another time), but it is a glimpse into some of it. The intended recipient never got to read it. Someone should.

* * *

October 14, 2001

Dear ##### --

Greetings, from Japan.

So... I am here now. It is very odd how quickly it went from being something in the distant future, to Now. No longer speculation and the safe distance of "a time yet to come." The weeks sped past, and then I was giving notice to the landlady. And then to work. And then after a flurry of stress and packing and unpacking and packing once again (San Francisco ->Los Altos -> Tokyo), suddenly theee months have whirled past and that date that was "three months from now" has become "two weeks ago".

I finished a book today - The Forgetting Room by Nick Bantock. It's a combination of art and story. Anyway, the thing I thought might be of interest to you, and worth sharing, was an excerpt in there of one of Garcia Lorca's poems:

The duende is a power.
The duende is of the earth...the dark sounds, a struggle, not a concept.
The duende is not in the throat, it surges up from the soles of the feet.
It is of blood, of ancient culture, of creative action.
It calls one out.

*

I have settled in here finally I think, after two weeks. It still feels a bit like an extended vacation, but I have not been lazy!

You see...at first, months ago, the Grand Plan* was to go here and work for Plumtree Software part time and do art as well with the rest of my time. But in July I went to a fantasy convention**. I was there as an artist for a small company I did some illustrations for - they paid for the trip in order to have me there at their table to talk to fans/customers. Well it gave me a chance to go and be among other artists who had made that world their life. For four days, I mingled with them, asked questions, was welcomed by them, and when i got home I suddenly wondered what was I doing as a programmer? I was so demotivated at work, and at night I was painting in a frenzy.

The need faded a bit after a month, though I kept wondering if I should quit Plumtree. I could do it. Monetarily at that point, art brought in enough. But...I would miss the people. But...there's the apartment. But but but....

At the end of August I went to another convention in Atlanta***. I'm afraid after that, my "but's" were evident to me as only excuses. And so...after considering it for a month, I told Plumtree I would not be working at all in Japan.

Thus...I am here, on indefinite leave of absence from Plumtree (though I doubt I will return to it) working full time as a freelance artist.

I went to a flamenco class‡ last Tuesday. Afterwards I came home and flopped to the couch, exhausted. And then it hit me -- that I could lie there and luxuriate and enjoy relaxation without the nagging feeling that I should be painting with those sparse two hours I had in the evening. Because I can paint all day now and do all the other things I want and need to do at night. I can read, or write this letter to you. It's such a wonderful feeling of freedom!

[....]

* * *

* The "Grand Plan" upon leaving Berkeley was to spend 2 years maximum at a software job while working my way into art. In the end the lure of the dot-com era and stock options kept me for 3.5 years.

** It was my first Gencon. Until then, I'd only attended small local shows, and the prospect of flying somewhere for a convention was daunting!!!

*** My first Dragoncon. I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to Robin Wood. She scolded me plenty for spending far too much time away from my table when I could have been making many more sales. But I was pretty wide-eyed and couldn't get enough, wandering around.

‡ Flamenco is surprisingly popular there. Had no trouble finding a class to take, and it was a nice way to meet new friends, seeing as I spoke maybe five words of Japanese.

Stationery Available

As requested, I'm now offering stationery based on those border designs I had been recently posting. You can find them here.

On the website I'm currently only selling them in packs of 10 sheets of an image. If you instead want to mix and match a selection (minimum 10) of any of them, feel free to drop me an email and it can be arranged.



Two more new ones:

And more to come over the next few days.

Rainy days & more Inks

Musical sound of raindrops outside all day. I love the rain...when I can stay nice and warm indoors. Unfortunately had to run out and do my Friday stint of errands (which includes a jaunt to the post office to drop off the week's orders) and got rather soggy. Me soggy, not the orders.

At any rate, off to prep for a flamenco/belly-dance fusion show at La Taza tonight. A little under the weather from a cold last week, but pretty much recovered by now. At least I can't spread it to any of the other dancers or musicians seeing as they've all already had it at our last show 2 weeks ago!

Meanwhile, some more inks for your enjoyment:

* 1st image - narwhals!
** 3rd image - feeling silly: "rawr," goes the kitty. *scamper* goes the rat. "rawr," goes the kitty. *scamper* goes the rat. "RAWR!" goes the rat. *cower* goes the cat.
*** 4th image - inspired by this
**** 5th image - intentions to take this concept, rework the composition to be not so obviously a border design and probably paint it sometime in the next month.

Inking Distractions

Holed up with a nasty cold. Mostly over it by now at least. Constantly sneezing and feeling generally miserable has made it hard to concentrate on Work.

So, bit of a self-distraction to play with this sidelong personal project. What these little drawings are for, I'll keep as a surprise for now, since I'm still not certain I'll be able to find a printer suitable to my needs for this one just yet. We'll see. Meanwhile, inking's always good fun for me.

(Skeletal snake and birds in that second one a bit of Socar Myles inspiration.)

Moonbathing

"Moonbathing"
10x15 inches
watercolor
Prints, details, and original available -click here-

It is said that to be touched by the moon's rays in slumber is to court lunacy. I look up at the moon on a still night, and feel that spiderweb trailing of silver light across my face. No heat like the caress of the sun. No sign of that ghostly trailing of light except what my imagination fills. A peace steals across the room, the stillness of meditation, of delving down within.

Cast off the masks, the faces for the daylight. Second skins. This face is for happiness. This face is for responsibility. This for necessity, for presentation, for expectation.

One by one, set the masks aside, like sentimental necklaces tucked into a jewelry box, each one a present gifted by a time, a person, a place, a need. Remembered and hoarded. Until suddenly the box is overflowing. The garnets glitter seductively, the jade beckons with a mossy caress of comfort.

In the moonlight that pierces through the window, they suddenly look like plastic and glass nestled in the velvet.

Which face was real? A bare face is a forgotten sensation now. Naked and vulnerable.

Turn aside, move to the silvered panes. Tilt the face up to bathe in that primal light of the moon, to let the silver fingers trail across brow and nose and lip. More delicate than a cobweb. More intimate than the touch of the dearest lover. She lays a silver mask with her silver threads. The only mask that matters.

Open the eyes. It's invisible in the night. It melts in the sunlight, and leaves in its wake

freedom.

* * *
Walk-through for this painting:
Concept (Sketching)
Day 1 of Painting (Background and Setting)
Day 2 of Painting (Main Figure)
Day 3 of Painting (Finishing up the details)

Progression of a Painting: Moonbathing (part 4)

Part 1: Concept
Part 2: Painting the Background and Setting
Part 3: Painting the Main Figure

And here we come now with Part 4: Finishing up the Details!
Final installment, continuing from where yesterday's post left off...

10x15 inches
Strathmore lightweight illustration board
Colors used in part 3:
Winsor & Newton pan watercolors: Burnt Umber, Payne's Gray, Ultramarine Violet, Lemon Yellow, Reddish Brown, Naples Yellow
a few Kremer Pigments: Elderflower Purple, Stinging Nettle Yellow

* * *

Step 13 - Upper Tree Trunk
I finish painting the tree trunk. The upper portions are more exposed to the light source, and so would be more bleached of their "natural daylight" color (i.e. brown). And so basically I'm repeating steps 9-11 in these areas, except limiting my palette to just purple tones, making it more monochromatic with the sky.

* * *

Step 14 - Closer to the moon
For the branches that fade into the ghostly light of the moon, I use Stinging Nettle Yellow to paint those in. I'm careful to maintain those white arcs of "light" I've created while laying in the background even now, by avoiding painting directly on them. Essentially I treat them as a hard edge.

* * *

Step 15 - Masks & Nails
Starting in on the final details now.

For the nails I use a no 0 round and paint them in with Payne's Grey. I leave the nail heads white, and lift a little around them to just soften the brightness a bit and help them blend in more naturally.

The shadows on the masks are painted in with Ultramarine Violet.

* * *

Step 16 - Finishing off the Masks
I finish off the details in the masks by adding the last touches of shading and highlights to them. I'm using a mixture of pretty much whatever is on my palette at this point -- which is purples, Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber, bits of random yellows, some of what was left over from the previous painting I worked on.... My palette doesn't ever really get cleaned out unless I want a really pure or pale color and I don't want it to be dirty. Then I'll scrub it clean. Otherwise, I like it to be a mess like this for picking out random neutral tones.

The ribbons on the masks are painted in with a mixture of Reddish Brown and Naples Yellow.

* * *

Step 17 - Hair
Okay, back to the hair now which I had postponed earlier. After completing the rest of the piece, I can get a better idea of what overall color schemes are and determine what would work best. In this case, white is actually looking pretty good. So just to finish it off, I go back and add a few more shadows with Elderflower Purple, and define some strands with Stinging Nettle Yellow, and on the tips of those little trailing tendrils, clean them up a bit with a white gel pen.

* View the final finished piece *