Weird new painting

Pony Ride, acrylic on wood, 20"x24"

I had a piece of wood so I made this painting... I was going for a crappy, drab sort of mood, but it's a pretty cheery looking piece, hey? Anyway, it was a bit fun to paint. Maybe I will go back and do some more blind contours next.

Cartoons of cartoony looking people

I found these two ladies in Vice Magazine's hilarious Dos and Don'ts.

http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=349&country=uk

The chick looked so much like a Jamie Hewlett drawing that I had to draw her. The self-caricature on the left was me trying to push towards the kind of extreme grotesquery practiced by the lovely Marlo Meekins.

http://lambiek.net/artists/h/hewlett_jamie.htm

http://marlomeekins.blogspot.com/

Rare 'n' unreleased!

These strips were either unfunny or didn't gel with the rest or didn't make any sense or all three. I have no idea what the bottom one is about.

New Stuff by People We Know!

Some exciting projects on the g-o for b'ys this month!

Visit http://www.monstergarage.com/ every Wednesday to see new pages from the graphic novel that Scott Keating is illustrating, Chopper Zombie!

And, In Stores Now! The Underworld Railroad, illustrated by Mr. Paul Tucker.

Available in St. John's at Timemasters or from Paul himself. And from www.vipercomics.com .

Things

Halloween Decorations

This year I got it in my head to build a window display. It's pretty simple, a landscape made from cardboard along with a few set-pieces made from carved and painted styrofoam. The big 'attraction' is a floating ghostly skull which hovers between the archway in the front. It's done using 'Peppers ghost', an old stagecraft illusion which is used heavily by David Hoffas. I projected a simple animation on a sheet in the background using a fresnel lens and a tv. Here's a terrible picture of it at night. You can sort of see the skull there.

And some details:

The Archway with a little snippet of the TV which helps create the Peppers Ghost illusion.

Anyone else do any fun decorating this year?

Grant Writing Tips

Barb Hunt had a grant writing talk on the weekend and my friend Ya-Ling went and today she gave me the notes. There's some good stuff in there, so I scanned them in and here they are. There are also notes about organizing group shows... On that note, the deadline for Canada Council Grants is December 1st. Apparantly, you have to have three juried shows.
www.canadacouncil.ca
Link to Assistance for Visual Artists (Project Grants)

To meet the above definition of a professional visual artist, you must have:
*produced an independent body of work
*made at least three public presentations of work in a professional context over a three year period (this means juried exhibitions)
*maintained an independent professional practice for at least three years.

There ya go!! Get to it now, and apply for city and provincial grants too! If this stuff below is too hard to read, lemme know and I'll mail you a hard copy.

New Paintings

Carousel Ponies, 3'x2.5', acrylic and permanent marker on canvas

(not quite finished)

Cowboy with Seahorse (after Julian Opie), 2'x2',

acrylic and permanent marker on canvas

Two new paintings in the works for me this week, that's a lot! The seahorse painting is for RCA's Flattering the Masters show, which opened today. Their big fundraiser auction is on November 4th. And today we printed a similar design at Living Planet, so go on down and get yerself a new shirt.

It's in 3-D!

Check it out! AA sent me a 3-D sketch pad! It doesn't seem to work quite as well on the compy, but if you have some blue/red 3-D glasses at home, slap 'em on and have a look.

Two new paintings

I finished up two paintings before I finished up the albums posted down below this post. It takes me a while to document stuff sometimes. The top one is made from a hunk of Masonite I was using for a cutting board, and I just used the gouges as guides for the paint. The bottom painting is mostly pigment experiments with kool-aid, fabric dye and jello type stuff. it's got some fun textures if you see it in person.

SUPERGOD! The Party Controls the Gun. dual album release

Two new full length albums of hard-listening experimental music made by me available for sale in time for Halloween. SUPERGOD!! The Party Controls The Gun - volumes: Horses & Lazerbeams. you can listen to some highly obnoxious tracks on the myspace page http://www.myspace.com/supergodsupergod
tell me what you think of them when you get the chance. I've been working on them on and off for close to a year in-between more important things. now for five dollars each or two for eight bucks you can have an hour and forty minutes of psychedelic madness to kill some time.

Art Bank!

The deadline for submissions to the Canada Council Art Bank Purchase Program

is October 15th! Visit the website!

From the site:

Please keep the following points in mind when deciding which work to submit:
One (1) work per artist (if more than one work is submitted, the entire submission will not be accepted); work must be current (within last 5 years); and the artist must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada

The work must be suitable for public display in an office environment

The amount available for this program is $350,000

Artist, artist’s gallery, and/or artist’s representative may submit (submissions of work by deceased artists will not be accepted)

Slide or digital image is acceptable. Multiple slides will be accepted if required to best present the work. Note that slides offer the best quality of reproduction of the work to the jury (please refer to: The Guidelines for Submitting Digital Images for the Art Bank Purchase Program in MSWord or Adobe Acrobat format)

Work will be juried in November 2007
Results will be mailed in December 2007
If work submitted is sold, alternate work will not be accepted

Hey, here's some stuff

Here's a new website, very similar to drawn.ca with lots of pics of contemporary art, illustration, etc., etc. It's called, It's Nice That. Have a look-see!

AND

The next deadline for NLAC Project Grants is quickly approaching! September 17th. Visit the website for details and your application form.

24 HAM

The 24 Hour Art Marathon at Eastern Edge was this weekend and it seemed to me to be a great success. Very well organized, and a good crowd despite the ugly wind and rain. Here are some pics; if you want to see more I put a crapload up on Facebook. The Live Auction is on Thursday; check out 24hourartmarathon.blogspot.com for details!

Screenprinter Dan, 12"x15", acrylic and permanent marker on canvas

Steve Topping's Van, 12"x15", acrylic and permanent marker on canvas

April and Scott and April's cousin

Karen and Jennifer

Mike, CFP, and Corey (and Pat, above)

It's done

Well, I did finish the painting. It's at the Leyton gallery in St. John's now if you have a chance to drop in. Had a bit of trouble with the composition with this one, so I followed some advice and tried putting a rectangle in the background. I like it!

Makin' it work

I've recently had the urge to paint some tractors! Although I believe this is some sort of lift thing. Anyway, here's the beginning of my next painting.

New work from Tucker

Check it out! You can read the first chapter of a graphic novel illustrated by our Mr. Paul Tucker, called The Underworld Railroad. Download the PDF at Viper Comics.

I couldn't resist sharing this one

Visit LOL BOTS for gems like this.

Looks like a fun one

From Akimbo:

AWOL Gallery is seeking submissions for Toronto's most anticipated summer group show. The 5th Annual Square Foot Show 2007.

RSVP DEADLINE: June 25th, 2007

To RSVP please send a completed/signed contract with the submission fee to:

AWOL Gallery 78 Ossington Avenue, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario M6J 2Y7
More info and download artist forms at http://www.awolgallery.com/

CRITERIA:All artwork must be exactly 12" x 12" inches (the outer dimension of the piece, framed or unframed) and no more than 5 inches thick. Work cannot be hung on an angle, so plan your work to be level.

AWARDS: A "People's Choice Award" of $200.00, and two "Honorable Mention" awards of $100.00 will be announced after the first week of the exhibition. The winners will be determined through ballots cast by visitors of the show.

SHOW DATES: August 3 to 26, 2007 RECEPTION: August 3, 2007

Anatomy books

A couple years ago, while struggling to finish a figurative painting for the Stephenville Theater Festival, I realized that my knowledge of human anatomy was laughable. Art school had taught me nothing on the subject (I assume because it’s considered academic or fascist or something), and my digital animation training had covered only the basics.

I decided I would teach myself, and quickly became obsessed with the subject. Two years later, and I am still obsessed. I have become an insufferable anatomy nerd.

In case anyone else is interested, here’s a bunch of reviews of the anatomy and figure drawing books I own.

Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm

This is probably the best one for beginners. It’s a bit facile and dated, but covers a lot of ground and has tons of genuinely useful tricks. Pick this one up if you’re trying to emulate 1950’s illustration (lots of square jawed men and big-hipped, high-heeled women).

Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth

I’m really ambivalent about Hogarth. There is a clarity and consistency in his diagrams that you won’t find elsewhere, but there’s also something truly repellent about the way he draws the figure. His are not “real people,” but rather enormous, gay, Nazi automatons.

He also seems to have a bizarre fixation with muscle, excluding bone, skin and fat from the discussion altogether.

If you’re going to pick up a Hogarth anatomy book, I would suggest getting both Dynamic Anatomy and Dynamic Figure Drawing. The former contains detailed breakdowns of muscle groups and the latter some nice schematizations (ways of simplifying things into larger geometric forms).

Hogarth’s best book, in my opinion, is not an anatomy book, but one entitled Dynamic Light and Shade.

Constructive Anatomy and Bridgman’s Life Drawing by George B. Bridgman

It took me a long time to warm up to Bridgman, but the more I study his books, the more I realize that he may be the best of the bunch.

Bridgman’s approach is brutal, and at first, rather off-putting. His figures are broken down into rough simple masses, their angles and curves exaggerated grotesquely. But unlike Hogarth, who distorts to suit some bizarre German ideal, Bridgman does so to clarify form. The more you study, the more you begin to see the logic and truth in his diagrams.

A lot of bigshot artists studied under Bridgman: Will Eisner, Norman Rockwell, and my favorite guilty pleasure, Frank Frazetta.

Figure Drawing for all it’s Worth and Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis

Fellow TADA member Paul Tucker turned me on to Loomis about a year ago. He’s fantastic, but for some bizarre reason, all of his books are out of print. Luckily, you can get them on the internet as PDF files. He’s a nice mid-ground between the practical but facile Hamm and the in-depth but somewhat opaque Bridgman.

Loomis’ way of constructing heads is the best and easiest I’ve come across. I also really like his way of doing “figurettes,” though I find his schematized hips awkward.

I highly recommend that you download all of his books.

Atlas of Anatomy by nobody

Picked this up cheap at Chapters. Not really intended for artists, but the first chapter has some really vivid illustrations of bones and muscles that I’ve found helpful.

Drawing the Human Body by Giovanni Civardi

This is the only anatomy book I own that might end up at a yard sale. The text is endless reams of medical jargon. The pictures are lifeless renderings from the model. No schematization, no diagrams showing the underlying bone and muscle. Crappy book.

Artist’s Guide to Anatomy by Gottfried Bammes

Bammes published a book on anatomy that’s touted as being the best in existence. However, it’s in German and it’s really expensive, so I had to settle for the slimmer Artist’s Guide to Anatomy.

This book is a collection of studies done by his students with just a couple drawings by the author. The text is not terribly illuminating, but many of the pictures are stunning. Bammes teaches his students to break down and schematize the figure, but in a much finer way than Bridgman.

Bammes also has a very nice book on animal anatomy.

Facial Expression by Gary Faigan

Faigan’s drawings are hideous. But he really, really knows his shit. This is a brilliant and exhaustive study of human facial expression. Visuals are a mixture of drawings from the model, medical diagrams, classical paintings and photos both staged and candid. Very highly recommended.

Internet stuff

http://www.reybustos.com/

There’s some very cool stuff here. Check out “Rey’s Anatomy.”

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1432

A two-page post on the Conceptart forum by a guy named Kevin Chen. Gorgeous drawings and diagrams, somewhat along the lines of Bammes.