Sneak Peek Illustration of “The Monroe Family Bed Wishes To Die”
Sneak peek at an in-progress image for the Paper Darts Press publishing of John Jodzio’s book, “Get In If You Want To Live.”
My illustration is already finished and much improved with the color overlays above, but you will have to wait longer for another tease.
This illustration is for the short story, “The Monroe Family Bed Wishes to Die.”
Intriguing, huh? Stay tuned to Paper Darts and here for more details.
Paper Darts Project: Get In If You Want To Live
Pre-order one of the limited first editions of John Jodzio’s upcoming short story collection, Get In If You Want To Live, set for official release on October 15, 2011.
Pre-ordered books will be shipped immediately following the official release on October 15th, or are available for in person pickup at the release party.
Get In If You Want To Live is a collection of 19 fiction short-shorts. Pushing this project far beyond the ordinary, each story in the collection is accompanied by a specially curated illustration from hand-selected local and international artists, including Jennifer Davis, Ruben Ireland, and Andres Guzman among others.
The entire book will be designed using the eye-popping aesthetic and inventive graphics that Paper Darts Magazine is known for.
Here is the list of participating artists, I’m so amazed to be grouped with such talented people:
In the Studio: Finished artwork
All Good Things to Those Who Wait, graphite, watercolor, ink
I’m finally finished with this piece! Yes! It was a lot of time outside of my schedule, but well worth the restarting and trial and error to get the final piece. Very please.
New Art: They Creep
They Creep, silkscreen, collage, paint and marker
A little surprise piece I did one evening while taking a break on the long drawing. There’s mostly color misprints now to cut and collage together. I didn’t think there was much left to explore with this set of prints, but it’s starting to become its own little series with all the combinations I’ve been coming up with. Now with the color prints I have some new territory to work with the same figures. I’ve really maximize the possibilities with the multiples, my graduate school would be pleased.
In the Studio: figures fully rendered
Figures are fully rendered. I spent a bit of time on an art submission and an illustration project, so progress has slowed down a bit. Once the background is drawn, there will be adjustments made overall to finalize the drawing. I’ll be excited to see this finally finished. So much work has been put into this drawing, I would hate to see it unfinished any longer.
New art: Resilient (mixed-media drawing/print)
Resilient, mixed media (silkscreen print with ink, paint, color pencil, and marker)
This was one of those pieces that I almost didn’t finish because of how much of a hot mess it turned out mid-process. I’m not sure reworking a discarded print as a drawing was the best path. So much time was spent just trying to fix and not finish it in a timely fashion. I learned my lesson with that one.
Small nitpicking aside, this piece was made for an upcoming show submission/call for art at 323 East Gallery. Whenever it gets framed, I plan on floating the paper above mat board to create a shadow effect along the irregular edges.
Art Inspiration: Collage Art (Max Ernst and Dan Hillier)
(I usually separate my artist inspiration posts, but I found these two bodies of works to relate that it seemed silly to separate.)
I dabble in my own love affair with collage. I don’t usually incorporate found art or magazines pages with my current practice of work, but I find inspiration in how these two artists (one historical and one contemporary) make use of collage to create a surreal and off kilter characters/scenarios.
Max Ernst (historical artist and known for his surrealist paintings, but I’m more a fan of these):
Max Ernst’s technique was the traditional cut and paste together approach.
Dan Hillier (contemporary artist):
Dan Hillier’s art is (unless somebody else can tell me otherwise) primarily digital collage, but you can see the parallels to historical artworks.
(the last one is my favorite)
In the studio: More graphite!
Render, render, render…. ughsoboringiwanttoclawmyeyesout.
Also, I took photos of my roadsides that I’ll use for reference. Pretty pleased with myself.
Now I just need to combine the features I want from these photos and I got myself a background!
Epicenter/Epicentro: Retracing the Plains
The Dirty Printmakers of America brought The States of the State Portfolio to be exhibited in conjunction with artist/printmaker John Hitchcock‘s exhibition/presentation. The webpage detailed the event and have videos and photos that make me green with envy. My print gets to live a more exciting life than I do*. Such is life.
*I’m just glad I didn’t have to ship it myself…
In the Studio: graphite drawing and ink washes
(meh. White balancing studio photos becomes such a pain. Ignore weird color issues.)
The drawing is underway. I don’t know how some artists do it, but graphite drawing is BORING. Bluh. I find myself constantly taking breaks. I think next time I want to do a grayscale image, it’s going to be intaglio or litho print. It’s more fun when there’s toxic chemicals involve. Heheh.
detail shot. I need to consider making the bottom antler broken since I think it’s technically going through what will be the road’s surface.
Originally, I thought I was going to leave it as a drawing, but there’s a lot of artists out there that built their entire portfolio on just graphite works. I figure I have more to gain by mixing some watercolor/ink washes to mimic my most recent screenprints. Got to keep my artwork somewhat consistent, right?
Some trial and error on the mistake drawing… really glad I didn’t attack the real drawing like I did here. Also, I want state again that I’m glad that I started over on the drawing. The paper I had the original on was cotton based and terrible for erasing and painting. Look how the deer face rubbed out? No regrets now.
It looks a little busy/messy right now, but ideally that will fix itself once the environment is set in, background/foreground pushed around, yadda yadda… but I’m excited that I took a risk with the ink. It added some spontaneity, an emotional environment, and a sense of play in the process. Now it’s time to refine with more pencil and begin drawing out the roadside.
