Tattoo La Palooza / "Owlthulhu"

"Owlthulhu"

16" x 20"

Mixed Media on Aquabord

2012

TattooLaPalooza was back in June, so this post is a little behind. None the less, I had a blast there and the above image is a product of the recent studies I did with other art(ist) styles--namely Ashley Wood and Ukiyo-e--and I'm proud of what came out.

It seems I get a really good energy from working around other artists. Jeff Dekal, even though he is soft-spoken at these events, gave me some sound advice. I was working on sketched of owls and ideas as I hadn't decided on what I wanted to do. He came over and said, "You can prepare, but sometimes, you just have to just go for it". Simple enough, yes, but as I sat at the precipice of design and fear as it was live art being done with people walking by, it was the right thing I needed to hear to just get to work.

I even tried something new with the pallet knife for the moon coloring. The bars were an accidental measure to compensate for making the circle and owl so far to the left, but it invariably lent itself to the overall geometry and balance of the piece.

I'm happy of this amalgamation of the Sacred and the mythological with a touch of the Horrific. Glaucus, the Owl of Athena, combined with the symbolism of the moon (read: circle and outer space) and the addition of the Lovecraftian tentacled face meet in an interesting intersection. I loved watching the reactions from the people walking by who were attracted at first to the owl, and the moon, and the general appearance, but were then intrigued and even repulsed by the realization of that bit of green near its mouth...

Attraction and repulsion.

Accidental as it were, it worked out very well. My next piece is of a bear.

Traditional Illustration / "Time and Death and God"

Ye olde workspace.

"Time and Death and God" [Series]

8" x 10" (each)

Mixed Media on Aquabord

2012

Figure Stock: Felixdeon (deviantART) -- Time (Ukiyo-e), Death (Ashley Wood), God (Personal)

I really like how this series came out. It was a fun experiment to do three pieces in three different styles. I decided to go with Ukiyo-e, Ashley Wood and a personal style. The hardest was definitely the Ukiyo-e, but I learned quite a bit about the aquabord surface and its absorbant qualities in regards to ink and damar varnish spray.

The pieces are based off of the imagery from a section of Chapter 8 in Brave New World and their name is derived from the last sentence, "He had discovered Time and Death and God."

Mother's Day / "Mugen"

"Mugen"

8" x 10"

Ink on Aquabord

Mugen reference.

Here is a piece I did for Amber on Mother's Day. Mugen is more than a son-figure to her, he is an amazing ball of happiness that brings a smile to her face every day. He was also at the Vet a couple days ago and was VERY sick. I figured a portrait of him would be a fun way to show her just how much I love them both.

On the artistic side I absolutely adore this new surface I am working with. It's called Aquabord and it's a clay that has been adhered to a masonite board. It's archival and absorbs akin to watercolor paper, except there is no warping! Plus when you erase pencil from it, it doesn't mar the surface like watercolor paper. And it's already mounted to a surface.

Now I have to figure out how to make it wall-hangable without framing it. I used a mixed epoxy to attach to d-rings and tied a wire to it. It dried for 5 hours. When the gallery (a bar) hung the piece (another one I did yesterday) it was up for a short while before falling from the wall and chipping the corner of the piece. Fortunately it was a piece I had done purely for fun in a 'beer inspired' art contest, so, no great loss. Live and learn!