I flipped the colors on this one, it started with the lighter pallet , but I felt it was getting a little lost…at least in the present composition. This is part of the “Westerly Strut” sub-series, but it could really go with Butterbroda “proper” as well. On a side note, I’ve started to color the “Felled” drawing, it still has along ways to go, but will post the WIP soon.
Title: Negotiating the Prairie Iguana
Originally this was meant to be a diptych,like the other I had done. Aside from liking triptych and diptych, there was also a practicality angle (in terms of shipping) bc I have the materials for shipping 5″x7″ prints, but not 8″x10″. But I decided that breaking the images into two halves doesn’t work for the flow of the composition. So I reformatted this as well as “We Shall Pop A Cap” to 8″x10″. I’ll likely have these printed on a glossy stock as it provides scratch protection, which these bigger prints may need. Once they’re under glass, the difference in surface finishing to the 5″x7″ becomes a non issue.
Title: “All of Me, 1k”
Back in early 2000 I did several Salish style animal pictures, I sold them on shirts a bit, but the designs have pretty much been shelved for a long time. Recently, I thought about trying to work some of that Salish style into my present work, either in “spirit” or more literally. I sketched out this new piece a few weeks ago, and yesterday I finally dove and got it done. The fun part about using the Salish style is that I normally have the larger encompassing figure planned out, but after that part is drawn I wing it, carving shapes into the larger outline and then experimenting with what types of figures work in the voids and spaces.
Update 02/12/10—Finished devils grouping. I’m also close to finished with the entire drawing itself, I just need to do a little shading.
Title: Better Adversity’s Burden, than Beast
The devil and cowboy are from the CD art, with some very minor edits and the additional background added. I find myself making the backgrounds on this sub-series lighter than “Butterbroda” proper…not sure why that is, but I’m sticking to it.
“Devil’s Rodeo” is a song title from the album “The Sporting Life” by Diamanda Galás and John Paul Jones (bass, Led Zeppelin). The album was released in the early 90’s and was one of my favorites back then and I still listen to it from time to time. The music is comprised of Galás (vocals), Jones (bass), drums and occasional piano and organ. Instrumentally, the sound is driven by the bass, which sometimes takes on tones of Morphine (circa “Cure for Pain”)…I always enjoy when bass takes the forefront. Galás provides uncompromising vocals which morph between the sound of voice and instrument. Give her a listen:
A friend of mine contacted me today and let me know that he saw some of my prints in a video at Lynda.com. The video is of the talented creative team Mexopolis (Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua) who create the cartoon series El Tigre. The prints only appear on screen briefly, it took me a few views of the video to catch them. I think that clip of the video may have have been shot in the Subtext gallery in San Diego. You can view the full video here if you didn’t click on the “video” link above.
Title: “Shared Evaluations oft not Share Appreciations”
Another from the Westerly sub-series. The girl and candy apple originally appeared on the CD art, with the apple being held by a hand which came in from the edge of the liner note page. I redrew the hand and added the witch. The visual suggestion of a wing, on the witch’s right side, was added for a little more weirdness…I had played with putting her other arm there, but it seemed distracting…the wing was more subtle and added a component to the story telling.
Title: “Our Intentions Carved a Path of Rave and Ruin”
Another for the Butterbroda—Westerly Strut sub series. Originally I created this for the “Chasing Giants” CD, but it was sidelined for another pict. The colors were in a different combo, and I swapped out the cream background for a solid blue to make the silhouettes of the guns stand out.
I planning on using some of the CD packing art I had created and using them in a sub-series for Butterbroda of western themed pictures. The first is a dyptic of two 5″x7″ panels titled, “We Shall Pop a Cap”. I hope to have ten or twelve image when I’m done, but may add more if the ideas keep coming.
I was getting ready to start coloring another of my older drawings but decided that it was a little boring. Originally the picture was a wooded scene with an arm, sword and wing emerging from a covering of leaves. I intended it to be tranquil, albeit a picture of a dead angel, but I decided I wanted a livelier image. I’ve increased the original wing size as well as revealing the angels head, which will be held up by a devil. I’d prefer not to cover up the background details, with the devil, but the foreground is the main focus, so I’m still experimenting.