RECEPTION for the Florence Show

I said I'd put this up here as soon as I knew and then I went and nearly forgot.

The reception for the 2010 MSU Florence Study Abroad show will be on October 8th. I don't know the times yet, but I suspect that it'll be sometime around 7pm. I will keep everyone updated (for realzies this time) as I learn more.

Digital Interlude

Occasionally, I'll come across something that I want to do really really well, but that I am really really bad at.

Like, I am spectacularly bad, you guys. No, for cereal.

For years this has been digital painting. And it is still digital painting. But I'm gonna get better, gosh darn it, and at least now there are recognizable objects.

Some recent examples:

More to come?

Florence Paintings

Ever have one of those days where you realize that your art blog doesn't have that much art on it? Yeah, let's fix that. With every single painting I did while in Florence this summer (don't worry! There are only 12 of them)

Let's do this chronologically (or as close as I can get. I don't quite remember what came before what all the time)

The very first day we painted, we were taken to one of the busiest places in the city. It was...daunting. The fact that I was used to working on canvases nearly as tall as myself and was now restricted to 14''x20'' paper rectangles didn't help.

Or that I had become emotionally distanced from my work in the last class I had taken. This is only important because the moment of reconnection was a huge breakthrough for me later in the class.

Second day of painting. We were supposed to head up to the Piazza de Michelangelo. Instead, it rained and we ended up on the steps of the Pitti Palace. Then we got yelled at by a curator or director or some other sort of fellow who ran the place. We left very quickly after that.

At last! The Piazza de Michelangelo. My professor and I both agreed that I should have stopped working on this one way before the end of class. There is such a thing as overworking!

Speaking of overworking...I covered this one in paint so quickly (whole thing in about ten minutes at the beginning of class) that everything else I tried to do later turned to mud. So I scraped it off and tried again. I did that probably 15 times in 3 hours. Looking at it now, I really like the atmosphere and depth of it, but at the time I was just frustrated out of my skull.

The Piazza de Santa Spirito. Still overworking the paint, but I started to let thinner washes and the paper show through in patches. A lot of people aren't fans of leaving the raw canvas (or paper or whatever) showing through, but I've always through that when done well it creates a positive texture contrast.

These were both done the same day. Theresa kept telling me to slow down, make rules for myself, and maybe even bring multiple surfaces to work on in a single session. So I did all three of those. I can't even begin to describe how much of a difference it made to me. Painting suddenly felt right again.

We didn't have time for a group critique that day, which is why I think my next one surprised so many people.

Orange and Blue! Favorite of favorites, even though somehow most of my paintings either come out purple or green. There was very little on-canvas color mixing in this one, which for me is highly unusual. Wherever possible I restricted it to adding more white to an area, and that ways it. I also got to play with filling in organic shapes with solid graphic shapes, which was a very meditative process. I had only ever done it once before on a piece called 'Grand Theft Chicken,' which was not very well received by my teacher of the time. Very glad I went back to it.

Venice! The first day in Venice! Absolutely fantastically wonderful, all of it.

The painting is ok.

This is one of my absolute favorite images of the trip. I wish all these pictures had come out truer to the actual image, but with this one I wish it the most (Well, maybe I wish it more for the next piece, but it's a close thing.) I love the graceful architecture of the city, and getting the opportunity to just...do this. Ah! Venice, why are you so amazing?

Back to Florence, to an outdoor museum. We weren't allowed to paint or use charcoal, so this was all done in my favorite .7 lead mechanical pencil, and then when I got back to my apartment I added some ink (.3 monowidth pen, if I remember correctly) and watercolor (winsor and newton travel set.) This is really one that you have to see in person, but you get the gist of it maybe?

Our final piece. It was hot, I was sunburned, and there was ABSOLUTELY NO SHADE. We were near the train station and everyone was miserable. I didn't really...end on a good note. But I did start to work the paint thicker on this one, and I do think that that was a good idea. Contrast! Texture! All that jazz!

If you are interested in seeing some of these in real life, I am putting together an exhibition at the Kresge Art Center for everyone who went on the trip. We will be in gallery 114 from September 27th to October 8th. More on that to come, no doubt.

And now for something completely different

Classes start tomorrow, and so I think I shall leave you with this:

You're welcome.

[found in a whole foods in Naperville, IL]

1 Day and an epic nap later...

If you ever happen to find yourself thinking 'hey, I wonder if I should do this 24 hour comic challenge thing or not' I suggest you do it. When you do it, there are some things you should know:

1. Bring caffeinated beverages. This is fairly obvious, but if you don't plan ahead, you could find yourself dead in the water

2. If you think you have the time, and maybe even if you don't, you should probably get up and walk around. Going to the bathroom is a good excuse to leave the room for a minute

3. People will complain while they work. This is expected. You should complain too.

4. Have nothing planned for the next day. Maybe not even the day after that.

5. Greasy or sticky snacks are bad news bears. You do not have time to waste in cleaning your fingers.

6. The right drawing and inking tools make all the difference. It takes me most of an hour to do with an unfamiliar pen what I can do in twenty minutes with my pentel brush pen.

7. There is no such thing as planning ahead.

8. Work small. Both times I have done this, I have worked fairly large. It has turned out to have been a bit of a mistake. And also a marker eater.

9. Bring more ink than you think you'll need. You probably won't run out, but if you do you're screwed.

10. Sell the resulting work. There are very few other times in your life where you'll be able to answer the question of what it's about with "I don't even know, man" and have it be a selling point. Also, it's a great thing to trade with other comic artists

11. Get as many people involved as possible. This includes non-comics people. At the very least, even if they don't participate, they can bring you emergency supplies. And if they do participate, then even better.

12. Chances are, the result will not be a masterpiece. If it is, you are a freakish monster and I would like to give you all my money.

13. Give yourself an art-break the day before. Put your feet up, watch some movies, go for a run.

14. Get some sleep, if you can. Most people I've talked to have trouble sleeping the night before because they're too excited.

15. Have fun, dammit!

But of course, that's a small list of things I can think of off the top of my head (because I am simultaneously sleepy and obsessing), and for a more complete list, you should try it yourself.

I plan to post the completed work ...somewhere...on the internet soon. Just as soon as I scan, edit, and find a place to stick it so that it's readable. Possibly here, now that I think of it.

I will also soon post my paintings from Italy (I still have to get good images of them. It's mostly an issue of light, unfortunately. It has to be really perfect, or some of the more conceptual elements of the later ones won't come through.) When I get those up, I'll talk some more about the trip. I'm still digesting it a little bit. It was definitely one of the best times of my life.

I'll probably also spend a post talking about books, which I have been reading plenty lately. Man, I love the summer.

But for now, it's time to hunt down the wild dinner.

Brush Pen!

There have been questions in a couple different places as to what brush pen I'm referring to when I start singing its praises (because....I always manage to forget to link to it. This is your brain on derp.) You guys! It is totally this one and you should buy it:

http://www.jetpens.com/product_info.php/products_id/1793&utm_source=pr&utm_medium=site

No html for you today.

Space: the reaction post

It's been a while since I promised a reaction post, and while the delay is true to for m for me, I'm afraid that this will be something of a let down. Especially considering that I had planned drawings and graphs and things specifically for this, and then my scanner died.

Well, that's what editing is for, isn't it?

My general reaction, boiled down to basics, was this: good convention good! Although there was the usual comedy of errors that seems to crop up whenever I get involved with anything, I managed to float around in happy land for most of the weekend.

This doesn't mean that I didn't notice some of the, shall we say, inherent problems that managed to crop up. I've built up a bit of a buffer for these things because I'm a frequent reader of communities like wtf_sexism and fanficrants (warning: may break brain. Basic knowledge of fandom recommended before entering), but the way that many writers rely on easy tropes and obvious sexism is something that does need to be addressed. My friend Leslie does a wonderful job of this in her reaction post here.

As an addendum to the above, I would like to say that if you ever find that I am falling into the same traps with my work, let me know so I can correct my course. I do try, but cliches and comic books go together like strong earth magnets and computers: they're so hard to separate, but they're so bad for each other.

But, as I was saying, the convention on the whole was an awesome experience for me. I met a lot of really excellent people and spent way more money than I made (and I am happy to report that I did make back the table cost and a little more besides), which is what I was looking for going in.

Besides the usual familiar faces (most notably Ryan Claytor, my teacher and creator of And Then One Day; Jay Jacot of Comics Obscura; and Matt Feazell, creator of The Amazing Cynicalman), I want to mention Max Ink of Blink and the lovely team over at Ringtail Cafe. I had many great conversations with both Jackie of Ringtail and Max over the course of the weekend, and thinking back on it now I'm still grinning. I'd like to give a special bit of thanks to Max, who put me on to this great new brush pen that I'm a little bit addicted to. As terrifying as it is, inking is one of my absolute favorite parts of the process, and finding a tool that does what I want and doesn't hurt my hand the way using a brush and ink does is exactly what I've been looking for.

...that for which I've been looking? Gyah, I don't even know anymore.

In conclusion: A++, would exhibit again.