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| | Tuesday April 10, 2012
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Hey dudes! Here's another update about the benefit art show Jeanne D'Angelo, Ryann Casey and myself are organizing called Empty Night Skies. Again, all proceeds will go to Bat Conservation International to help fight White Nose Syndrome which has killed over 7 million bats in the North Eastern US and Canada.
Here's a new black and white flyer I did for the show.
There are over 40 artists participating and ALL of the work we've gotten so far is amazing! I'll post pics of some of the pieces when we shoot them. So, if you're in Philly or the area and you want to buy some very reasonably priced artwork from some amazing artists for a great cause come to Grindcore House for Empty Night Skies!
------------ | | Monday April 2, 2012
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Hey dudes! One giant update today and it's about a project that has been consuming most of my time the last few months. Jeanne D'Angelo, Ryann Casey and myself are organizing a benefit art show called Empty Night Skies for Bat Conservation International to help fight White Nose Syndrome which is destroying bat colonies in the North Eastern US and Canada.
"Named for a cold-loving white fungus typically found on the faces and wings of infected bats, White-nose Syndrome causes bats to awaken more often during hibernation and use up the stored fat reserves that are needed to get them through the winter. Infected bats often emerge too soon from hibernation and are often seen flying around in midwinter. These bats usually freeze or starve to death.
Mortality rates approaching 100 percent are reported at some sites."
The show will be at Grindcore House here in Philly with over 50 artists from all over the world participating including Paul Romano, Jeremy Hush, Ketch Wehr, Anthony Pedro,
Heather Gargon, Kat Gun, Kat Moran, Joe Boruchow, Eleanor Grosch, Jack Barfield, Justin Gray, Amy Duncan, Dilek Baykara, Halsey Swain & many more!
So on top of organizing all that, I've been attending sad lectures at The Wagner Free Institute about White Nose Syndrome and working on my own ridiculous piece.
This madness is based on the Aztec legend of the Hero Twins and their encounter with Camazotz, the Death Bat! So here's a short summary. During big festivals, the Aztecs would have huge ball game tournaments and losers would be decapitated and have their heads hung in trees near the court. A princess fell in love with one of the severed heads, got impregnated by it's spit and gave birth to The Hero Twins. They, in turn, decide to try to break their father's spirit out of the underworld and go on a Hercules-esque quest. At one point they're in a cave and have to hide in their blowguns. The one brother pokes his head out to see if the coast is clear and Camazotz swoops down and decapitates him. Not letting that slow them down, they call upon the animals of the forest to bring a replacement head and a coati shows up with a gourd. That seems good enough, so they continue on their quest. At some point they're caught, executed, cremated and their ashes are thrown in the river. Not even that stops them, as they reincarnate as catfish to complete their quest!
Here's a progress shot:
The very first sketch had a way more horizontal feel to it but then I decided I like the complex billowing of the wings when they're more compressed. I then drew half, flipped the drawing and inked it on the other side with a light box, folded it, inked the other half (well only the symmetrical parts) and then scanned it and colored the hell out of it.
Anyway, this will be on display and for sale (with the original drawing) at Grindcore House for Empty Night Skies so if you're interested, head over there and buy it! You may save a bat's life.
Also, as always, you can check out my ongoing Lovecraft bestiary blog Yog-Blogsoth. I posted news there a week ago about how I'm working on collecting those drawings in zine format so expect more about that soon!
------------ | | Monday March 12, 2012
| Hey dudes! Two updates for you. The first is a shirt design for Atrocity Solution from Wisconsin.
You can also see this cool in progress shot of me inking on a different sheet of paper with Kids In the Hall on the computer.
The second update is my piece for the Mythology and Forgotten Gods show at Phantom Hand.
I chose to do a drawing of Lilith that's a combination of the Sumerian/Christian/Hebrew myths as well as H.P. Lovecraft's description in The Horror At Red Hook. I did a ton of research to add all the doodly bits and details. She's portrayed with animals she's associated with (jackals, owls, goats, ibexes, hyenas)in artwork and Sumerian legend. There are also a lot of early theories about Lilith and menstruation, defiance (the oroboros is a sign of rejecting god in Alchemy), temptation (some believe she was the serpent who tempted Eve hence, the apple) and infant death (some people still draw a circle around cribs of children with the names of the three angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof as a way to ward off Lilith). I hope that wasn't too nerdy...if it wasn't and you want even more you can read some of the actual quotes on my Lovecraft blog
HERE.
------------ | | Wednesday March 6, 2012
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Here are two cards for shows that I have work in. One is up now and the other is upcoming. The first, is at Phantom Hand and the opening went really well. There was a good crowd and a bunch of great art, including a really cool piece by Justin Gray.
The second, is the official card for the show at Black Vulture Gallery that I mentioned 2 posts back. Jeremy Hush, Eric Eaton, Kat Gun, Dave Fox, Seldon Hunt among others will be in this show.
I'll also be participating in Phantom Hand's next, and possibly last (unless they get an extension on their lease) show entitled Mythology and Forgotten Gods. That piece is done and I'll post it soon.
------------ | | Tuesday February 14, 2012
| As promised, here's the other major piece I've been working on this year. It's a very complicated shirt for Adepticon's 10 year anniversary.
This is probably the most detailed account I've ever kept of my process. So, here it goes...
This first image is a very early thumbnail that I sent to Matt (a friend and organizer of Adepticon) and the neighboring image is a more refined sketch with some alterations made after some of his suggestions.
After getting approval for the second thumbnail, I started on the finished drawing. The lefthand pic is the complete drawing. The righthand pic is the fully inked drawing after it's been scanned and cleaned up.
This next step is pretty time consuming and not fun. I go in and individually select every "layer" in the drawing, so that later I can go in and pull things out individually or push things back with color and light adjustments.
I usually have a pretty good idea of what the colors are going to be before I start off, so I don't need to add flat color to everything first. As you can see I just completely render each part as I go.
The next image is after everything has been rendered and all the digital elements have been added (sky, clouds, mist, blood, etc), and the abutting image is the completed final piece. I've used layers to push things back or slightly alter color to help the central figure pop and not get lost in a sea of details.
I feel like I glossed over a major part up there. When I go from final drawing to inking it's usually pretty annoying. I smear the drawing and after it's inked and have to erase the pencil marks, a ton of ink gets pulled up by the eraser. So I've tried a new method recently where I use a lightbox to ink the drawing on a new sheet of paper. That means no clean up at all! It's been helping a ton and saving me all sorts of time.
Hope that wasn't too annoyingly in depth. I'll be posting some more stuff soon!
------------ | | Monday February 13, 2012
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Hey dudes....so I know this is my first real post for this year, but I've been busy. Instead of doing Funaday or either of the heart shows in Philly, I decided to just really focus on two pieces. I'll write about he first one today and the second one tomorrow.
The first piece is for an upcoming show for a "morbid, ritualistic" themed show called The Breath Of the Black Muse at Black Vulture Gallery. Here's a sketch and the pencil drawing.
This is a surprisingly tight sketch for me (as you'll see when I post my sketches for the other piece tomorrow), and the pencils don't diverge too much from the thumbnail.
I have to admit my piece is very influenced by Ghost being in constant rotation while I work.
Here's the finished piece.
Tomorrow, I'll have some really in depth process shots of the new Adepticon shirt design I did.
In other art news, I had a piece in the Confidence Is Not A Four Letter Word show at
Paradigm Gallery. It wasn't anything new but the theme of the show was to put in a piece that you were content with, which doesn't happen too often.
I've also started a Tumblr called Tum Bleyond if you're interested in the things that interest and influence me and my art.
------------ | | Wednesday January 18, 2012
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I do have some updates, but this is more important for now. Expect more soon...
Stop SOPA and PIPA!
Watch THIS if you want more information about what SOPA and PIPA could mean for the internet. It only takes 5 minutes and really breaks it down well.
And watch THIS if you want to remember a slightly different case of control/censorship (or at least until I get sued and have to take it down).
------------ | | Friday December 2, 2011
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I know I skipped a month but here's a bunch of updates to make up for it!
I did a record cover front and back for an Australian band named Monuments as well as a tshirt design for a Philly based tattoo shop/art space called Black Vulture Gallery. Larger versions of all these images are in the Records section and the Shirts section.
I was also asked to be in an autumn/Halloween themed group show curated by Paul Romano at Gallery 309 here in Philly. I didn't have time to do any new work but I did get 1 color prints made of three of my newer pieces. (thanks to Awesome Dudes Printing!)
The show was great and there was some amazing artists involved. Some of my favorites were Jeanne D'Angelo (obviously), Jeremy Hush, Paul Romano, Eric Eaton, Ketch Wehr and Anthony Pedro. Here are some pics.
PS-A bunch of friends and I have posted our best of the year music mixes on a blog called Songtrade. If you're interested in what's been fueling my nonstop illustration bonanza this year click HERE and find out!
------------ | | Tuesday October 4, 2011
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Here's a bunch of new stuff! The first things are a two new record covers (for the full story and larger sizes on both go to the Records page) and then a new shirt design for Grindcore House, the all vegan coffee shop here in Philadelphia.
This next image is the cover for the book that went along with the Dead and Dreaming show at
Paradigm Gallery.
The opening was amazing and the show is full of amazing artists. You can buy the print on demand book here.
------------ | | Monday August 8, 2011
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So here's the other huge thing I've been working on. I got invited to a group show based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft called
Dead and Dreaming. Of course I freaked out. I wanted to do something more than just the single monster on a blank background bestiary style like the stuff on
my blog, Yog-Blogsoth. So I chose to do a portrait of Wilbur Whateley from the The Dunwich Horror, with his "father" holding him. This is the end result.
These are all going to be printed in a book and we were asked to provide in progress shots. Here's that.
Notice, in the bottom pic, all the movies. While I was working on this, Jeanne D'Angelo was working on one of her most detailed and intense pieces. Sooooo, we went through a LOT of movies. I have to say the Video Nasties documentary really saved our asses. A full length documentary with two separate 3 hour long featurettes. They were all the trailers for the video nasties with introductions by critics and filmmakers. Amazing stuff. And Kim Newman is in it and he's great.
Also watched during this process, Marble Hornets, Nightmares In Red, White and Blue, Invasion Of the Body Snatchers, Nightmare, Zombie Holocaust, Happy Birthday To Me, Not Quite Hollywood, Spine Tingler and The Prowler!
------------ | | Sunday August 7, 2011
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Hey guys! I have a giant update today. I've been holding back because a few of these pieces couldn't be released due to clients requests. Now it's time!
First up are three black and white symmetrical stuff piles! The first is a flyer for a Punch show here in Philly that R5 is doing. The second is a logo for my friend Eric's zine Rumpshaker, and the last is a flyer for an Australian goth/industrial dance night called Hexx. You can see higher res versions of these on the flyers and logos pages.
The next piece is a cover for a new low budget horror movie from the director of Beverly Lane. This one's a slasher called Idiot Gore. I'll also post a higher res version of this on the Miscellaneous page.
There's even more but I'll try to make a post tomorrow so as to not overload this one.
------------ | | Friday July 8, 2011
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Here are my three pieces for the From Whence We Came show tonight. They're a Marine Sow, a Ziphius and an unnamed antiquated cryptid. The show opens tonight at Benna's Cafe in South Philly. Again, my friend Ryann Casey organized the show to benefit the Sea Shepherd and Oceana.
------------ | | Thursday July 7, 2011
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Hey everyone! Still waiting to post those two secret pieces, but in the meantime, I've got 3 pieces in a show tomorrow (July 8th) at Benna's Cafe in South Philly. The show is called From Whence We Came and it was organized by my friend Ryann Casey to benefit the Sea Shepherd and Oceana. There are some amazing artists involved including, Jeanne D'Angelo, Ketch Wehr, Kat Moran, Justin Gray, Peter Wonsowski, Eleanor Grosch, Melissa Farley, and a bunch more!
------------ | | Thursday June 23, 2011
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Ok, so there's been a TON of stuff going on even though I haven't been updating this month.
For one, my blog, Yog-Blogsoth has been getting a huge amount of internet press. You can check out the blurbs/articles from Boingboing, Weird Tales, Wired, and even this Hungarian blog Sotet Jovo!!
I also did an interview about Yog-Blogsoth with Pittsburgh based author Jay Dinitto.
As far as non-blog work goes, I finished up a logo for a friend and I'm halfway through a dvd cover, BOTH of which need to be kept under wraps until further notice. So, expect images soon!
------------ | | Thursday May 26, 2011
| Hey guys. Just an update, the show at Grindcore House went amazingly well! I sold a third of the 68 drawings at the opening and saw a few more go the day after! I've been focusing on that and Yog-Blogsoth so I thought I'd post some comparison pics.
I've been working on this project for a while now and as I've been going back over the old pieces I've found some that I wasn't quite happy with.
First up is this Shoggoth. I wanted to make it look more fluid and capable of moving fast if it needed too. I also realized Lovecraft never mentioned "mouths" in his description, just eyes.
My Deep One wasn't the worst but I was in the habbit of putting tentacles on everything to make it "Lovecraftian". They weren't necessary and didn't help any. I think the new design is more in keeping with the fishy/froggy idea Lovecraft had in mind.
So the Elder Things are probably the most minutely described creatures in all of Lovecraft's fiction. Three paragraphs worth of anatomy. I took way too many liberties when I took my initial go at it.
I also thought that the Mi-go could use a mouth but now I realize the lack of a traditional face is one of the things that makes the Mi-go so alien. I also made it more of a "crustacean".
If you want to read more about this show you can check out the Philly Weekly blog article here.
------------ | | Tuesday May 10, 2011
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A few new things. First up is the card for my upcoming Lovecraft themed show at Grindcore House in Philadelphia.
It'll be Friday, May 20th from 7-9pm.
Secondly, you should check out this cool interview Jeanne did over at The Living Doorway.
------------ | | Wednesday May 4, 2011
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Hey everyone. Sorry I skipped a month with updates but I've been on vacation in Ireland and England with Jeanne.
As you can see, we went to Stonehenge, but we also visited Newgrange and Knowth, two awesome neolithic sites in Ireland.
I was also working one two "secret" projects. The First one is a flyer for an upcoming Tragedy show here in Philadelphia that I couldn't post it until now.
The second was a shirt for my friend Derek's band, Stockpile. It was his birthday last month and I contacted the band about doing a shirt for them as a present for Derek. It worked out really well and he loved it!
Ok more updates soon including my new Lovecraft monster show this month at Grindcore House!
------------ | | Wednesday March 16, 2011
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Here's a new piece I did as a present for my friend Sal at
Peasant Magik. There's some not-so-subtle references to Big Trouble In Little China and The Golden Child in there.
I've also got another process shot of this one. I tried a different approach. Since so much ink pulls up when I erase my pencil marks, I drew the left half on one sheet of paper and then used a different piece of paper to ink it with a lightbox. Then, instead of folding it in half to get the right side, I flipped the original sheet over. the only problem I encountered was that, once flipped, my lightbox wasn't strong enough to see through something on the backside of a sheet of paper.
Check out the slightly larger version
here.
------------ | | Monday March 14, 2011
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Hey everyone!! My show with Jeanne was last week and it went better than we could've hoped for. Tons of people came out and it was packed from start to finish.
There's pictures on the Part Time Studios website, but more importantly they set up a
Webstore of our stuff. I bunch of people have contacted me about purchasing prints in the past and until I set up my own store you can buy framed originals AND prints
HERE!
Also:
Easton Allyn asked me to do a cover for him about 6 months ago. However, due to a huge backlog of work, one solo show and one split show, not to mention him having no deadline, it took until now for me to finish it. That being said, I'm super proud of how this one came out. The level of detail and color are beyond what I usually accomplish and I'm going to try to make this the norm from now on. There's a larger version in the Records section section.
------------ | | Tuesday March 1, 2011
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Here's the final piece for my show at Part Time Studios. It's the largest piece I did for the show and the largest in reputation as well! Leviathan!! Here's an excerpt from Cathy Rose's excellent book Giants, Monsters and Dragons that includes an quote from the bible.
"This vast creature, over 900 miles in length, with seven heads and 300 eyes, is invulnerable and encircled the world in the great abyss or the depths of the cosmic ocean.
'Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out"
"He maketh the deep to boil like a pot; He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment'
-Book Of Job 41:19-33"
Here's another process shot.
1-Another crappy thumbnail sketch.
2-I did the water, monster and boats separately but here's the inked versions all together.
3-The Leviathan rendered.
4-The water rendered.
5-The Leviathan masked.
6-A close up of how you can see the creature below the water.
Soo...don't forget, if you're in the Philly area my show with Jeanne is on Friday March 4th from 6pm-10pm.
------------ | | Tuesday February 22, 2011
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Hey dudes...it's been a hectic weekend. While finishing up my final piece for my show at Part Time Studios with Jeanne, I got asked to do a last minute shirt design for White Horse.
Here's the thumbnail I did for him.
Pete, one of the members of White Horse and I go way back. He was my contact when I did the window box for the Missing Link storefront in Melbourne. He's also in Occult Blood, who I just did a tour poster for. He was having a crisis getting a shirt done for their upcoming tour and asked me (on Thursday) if I could get a design to him by Monday. So, that's four days with delivery on Monday. I think the final product came out pretty sick considering.
The final product shows how stupid my sketches are. We decided to go more vertical than horizontal, and I added the snakes to compliment the curves of the horns.
As always, there's a larger version in the Shirts section.
------------ | | Monday February 14, 2011
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Here's a shirt design I just finished up for Adepticon 2011 in Chicago. It's a reimagining of their existing logo which you can see on their page. I'll be doing more art for them as the convention draws nearer.
There's a larger version of it in the Shirts section.
------------ | | Thursday February 10, 2011
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Hey guys. Just a quick heads up that I'll have 6 of my small animal pieces in the Flaura and Fauna show at Beautiful Blooms tonight in Northern Liberties (Philly). The opening's from 6pm-9pm at 1011 N Hancock St. Also in the show are Alicia Neal, Justin Gray, Jeanne D'Angelo, Kat Moran and Ryann Casey.
------------ | | Monday February 7, 2011
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Hey dudes! Since I got such a positive reaction to the last set of process shots, I thought I'd add a few more. These are all post scan steps of another piece for my show with Jeanne D'Angelo at Part Time Studios on March 4th.
These first two image are the raw scan and then the digital clean up.
After that there's the layer masking and the rendered color (unfortunately I forgot to save a copy of just the flat color, which would come in between these two). While the layer masking looks simple it's a pretty strenuous and time consuming procedure, but makes the other steps easier.
Next up is a shot of after I've added the haze and murk to push layers back in space. Lastly, is the final piece with the light, fish, bubbles and blood clouds added.
I'm sure you've been looking at these and silently wondering what the hell that weird drawing is. Well, it's the Ahuizotl. It's an Aztec creature described as a dog with monkey (or raccoon) hands (including an extra one on the end of its long tail!) that pulls people into the water and then devours their eyes, nails and teeth. Nothing else. It's amazing.
Hope you guys liked this little how to. I'll be posting more soon!
------------ | | Wednesday February 2, 2011
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Hey guys! More show updates. Here's the Mermaid and the Margygr diptych.
"Margygr are a type of mermaid in the traditions and folklore of the poeple of Greenland. They are described as hideously ugly with piercing eyes and a flat face.
Mermaids are female water beings in the form of beautiful young women from the head tot he waist, the rest of their bodies being like the tail of a huge fish. They are often seen sitting on rocks...whilst singing and enticing curious sailors closer to dangerous rocks."
-Giants, Monsters and Dragons-Carol Rose
I also just did two interviews for The Polygraph and Disengage.
Enjoy!
------------ | | Monday January 31, 2011
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Hey all, I've been busy drawin' away for my show with Jeanne D'Angelo at Part Time Studios in March. Here's a card for it.
The picture on the card is one part of a diptych. The right half (pictured) is a traditional European Mermaid and the companion piece is a Margygr (a Greenland Mermaid).
It's all sea monster themed pieces by both of us. So far I've got 13 pieces done, 10 of which are Jenny Hanivers or things people used to think were actual sea monsters. Like Sea Monks and Bishop Fish.
I'll post some in progress pics soon, as well as details of some of the finished pieces.
Oh, I almost forgot the info for the show! The opening will be on March 4th from 6-10pm and the address of Part Time Studios is 2031 Frankford Avenue Philadelphia PA. It would be awesome to see you there!
------------ | | Tuesday January 11, 2011
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Hey dudes. I've got an update for you from last year. This is a record cover (front, back, and insert) for a band called Beat the Red Light. They told me I could do whatever I wanted and this is what they got. Pig jesus. I think they were a little surprised so, there'll be some alterations before this is through.
All these will be up larger in the Records section.
I also have been working full bore on my show that will be with Jeanne D'Angelo at Part Time Studios in March. I'll post pics of the first 10 small pieces next time.
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