I finished off the Dark Horse cover and decided to go back to an old sketch. The colored part is still very much in the “slop” stage, so the shapes haven’t been refined and the colors are subject to change, depending on the background that gets used.
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.
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:
