Watercolor paintings for the 2010 RoCO 6x6 show

*Dusts off the blog*

It's been a while since I've posted here. Work has been good and busy for a while and with the spring quarter wrapping up at RIT I'll have more time to make new things and show you what I've been up to.

For now, check out these three watercolor paintings I made for the upcoming 6x6 benefit show at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (aka: RoCo http://www.rochestercontemporary.org/). I've been drawing a lot of Mad Ball inspired artwork lately (primarily black and white ink pieces to ramp up to making a new Eat World based project) but I wanted to try working with some brown ink and watercolors to see what might happen for the 6x6 pieces. Below are the results.

Green Face


Purple Face


Bug Eyed Face


The ink I used is FW Acrylic Burnt Umber, and used Peerless watercolors http://www.peerlesscolor.com/. I'm typically a digital painting/color guy unless I'm screen printing something, but I really enjoyed working between ink and watercolors on these (especially since I could do it from a coffee shop or on the move). I'm definitely going to do some more pieces using this method.

I believe my three paintings (and all the paintings at the 6x6 show) are going to be on sale for $20 each. Proceeds benefit RoCo. If you're interested in picking up one of the three, get yourself to the opening this July! http://www.rochestercontemporary.org/6x6x2010.html. I think I will make prints of these faces too when I get some more print-worthy illustrations together.

I heard they have over 6,000 submissions. There will be a pile of tiny artwork to see at this show, so it should be pretty fun.

ArtOrder: Krampus

I just finished this Krampus piece for the last drawing topic of 2009 over at ArtOrder.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. Try not to get birched!

Zombie Roller Derby girl

I can't believe I forgot to post this after I finished it. I did this zombie roller derby girl piece for an Empty Room Studios calendar. I'll try to dig up a link where you can find it.

Too Art for TV 4 / Eat World sneak preview

Attention world...if you're in Brooklyn this weekend you should go to the Too Art for TV 4 group show opening. I'm in the show again this year with two massive ink drawings inspired by my Eat World zine. Here's a preview of one of the pieces:

Twisted monster mayhem and carnage in an attractive gallery space. I'm super stoked.

Here's the show details from the Too Art for TV website:

Too Art for TV 4
New York's 4th Annual Fine Art Exhibit for the Animation Industry

Opening reception - Friday, September 18th, 6pm-9:30pm

September 18th, 2009 through October 17th, 2009
at Erebuni, 158 Roebling St. Williamsburg, NY 11211

Erebuni is proud to present Too Art for TV 4, the fourth annual fine art exhibit for the animation industry. Featuring new works by 37 artists; Too Art for TV 4 is the largest and most vibrant show in this exhibit's history.

Animation artists are pop culture wranglers with strong design skills and a love of whimsy. Their profession is collaborative by necessity; an animated production needs many skilled hands to come to life, but the individual gets lost. Too Art for TV provides an annual opportunity for animation’s creatives to strut their stuff, unencumbered.

Featuring the international interactive downloadables known as "Cubeecraft" by Christopher Beaumont, the striking and bold beard-paintings of Devin Clark, the larger-than-life obsessive drawings of Elliot Cowan, the spinning "cinetropes" of film artist Eric Dyer, the dry wit of Chris George’s acrylics, the bright and huge murals of Andrew Bell, plus a wide variety of paintings, sculptures, toys, and video art by many more.

Awesome thanks to Liz Artinian and the rest of the curators! I'm heading out tonight to help set up the show. Rock!

Wizards of the Coast: A boy and his hammer...

The above illustration ©2009 Wizards of the Coast, LLC.

Jon Schindehette over at ArtOrder released this image today. I did this illustration for Jon / Wizards of the Coast through Empty Room Studios and since the piece was made public today I can share it with those looking at my corner of the internet. Jon refers to this piece as "A boy and his hammer", and that keeps reminding me of the movie A Boy and His Dog...I'd love to see that again!

I remember being a kid and wanting to see this movie since the VHS box cover appealed to me. My dad said no though! (rightly so! Thanks dad.)

Jon, thanks for the shout out today! Rick, (owner of ERS) thanks for the opportunity!

ArtOrder: Catastrophic Dragon (Earthquake)

Whoah! Dragon time. I've been trying to work on some environments in my downtime lately and yesterday I started getting really antsy. Environments are challenging to me since I usually draw things with legs and faces, so I decided to take a quick creature break. How convenient then that Jon Schindehette made this week's ArtOrder topic a dragon challenge! The topic this week was to create a catastrophic dragon...it's a new dragon subtype they're trying out that is sort of a container or carapace holding back elemental fury. The natural force for the topic is "earthquake". I thought about it and a really earth ripping earthquake would probably spill out magma like crazy. It's insides is a burning hot tumble of rocks, gems, and magma, while it's outside is like a rough and cragged hillside. It's body is almost composed like earth strata.

O.K. Dragon break is over, time to get back to drawing places.

Environments: Cradle of Life

I think this is done for now. I added in little white birds flying around the tree and nesting near the water pools. Now, onward to the creepy castle!

ArtOrder: B&W Vampires

Here's another submission for
Jon Schindehette's ArtOrder blog. This week's theme was a b&w illustration based around two vampire characters: Gwenth and Gareth. Jon provided this bit of info about he pair:

Gwenth: A female vampire, once a human, who excels at stealth and ambush attacks. She wears leather armor and carries two short swords. She should look both seductive and dangerous, but let’s avoid clothing that’s too revealing or risqué. She has short, dark hair, and is an effective assassin. If we see her partially obscured by shadows, that’s great.

Garreth: A male vampire, once a human, who is more of an up-front bruiser. He wears leather armor, and carries a heavy shield and short sword. He’s standing in front of Gwenth, almost protectively. He has pale, almost white hair, and the scars of several battles. He’s thickly built and muscular, and his mouth is open to reveal his fangs and vampiric nature.

I added a bit more to the brief too:

The way I interpreted the illustration was that before attacking their prey, Gwenth cuts, scratches and slashes Gareth (hence the scars). This gets him twisted up into a masochistic frenzy before she turns him loose on their unsuspecting quarry. Once Gareth's bloodlust is kindled and he has the front lines occupied Gwenth will slink through the shadows and strike their true target. The few travelers who have survived a run in with the masochistic pair recall the expression of grim delighted arousal that they shared on their faces.

I included the Empty Room Studios logo for shared recognition, since Rick Hershey introduced me to the ArtOrder blog. Rock on ERS!

Spot blacks rule and so does hatching with a brush. Woo!

Carney Art Show: Glitter Spitter Raisin Face

Here's Glitter Spitter Raisin Face! He's the painting I made for the upcoming Carney Art Show at Monkeyhouse Toys in LA. The shows theme is circus freaks. I hope it arrives on time!

I took this photo before adding a little more red to the background, but it's pretty final. I won't make it to the opening but if you're in LA you should go check it out.
The show opens on Saturday, June 27 and will run through July 12. monkeyhousetoys.com for more info!

ArtOrder: Unfamiliar Familiars

Recently I've been following along Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder. Jon is a Senior Art Director for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast and he's running his blog as a venue for inside info and sneak peeks at what's up with D&D. He also facilitates weekly/biweekly art topics via the blog and I finally got in on one. This weeks topic is Unfamiliar Familiars. Jon sez:

The concept this time is to step away from the normal familiars (cats, rats, snakes, ravens, etc.) and dream up something new and interesting...

If you know me at all you'll know I really dig axolotls. So a classy wizard would doubtlessly prefer an axolotl familiar over some other animal. In this case it's a dire floating axolotl, but an axolotl the same.

It would grant it's wizard master with water breathing and regenerative powers, so it would be a good companion for a wizard who preferred adventure in the elements over scholarly pursuits. Geek off!

Forest Oni market bag design

I'm submitting this design to a contest being hosted by GreenEyedMonster (www.greeneyed.com). Help me out by checking out the design on the entry page and voting high (if you like it, that is :] ). If the design gets chosen then you'll be able to get a market bag with the design printed on it. Keep the Oni smiling!

What are you waiting for? Go vote for my design! Ack!
https://www.greeneyed.com/contest_page.php?entry=36

2A4TV paintings are done!

The paintings are done! Here are both of them.Painting 1...

Painting 2...And some process! I decided to do both paintings of skulls after finishing the first one. Instead of redrawing the first thumbnail I used a mirror to reflect the image to start with.
Pencil on canvas. Painting number 2 isn't a mirror copy of the first one. I changed the expression on the second painting. I wanted this one to look sad instead of angry. I wanted them to look interesting side by side or back to back, so a little bit of semi symmetry was o.k.

Pencils next to painting.
Monk figured out he could warm up by sitting in my chair next to the space heater. Warmth mooch!
The green and blue base colors. I was having a rough time getting the colors right on painting two. I was being lazy about mixing too much paint, so I tried working from the tube if I could. It worked ok since the paintings are mostly flat colors.I started off painting the outlines this dark grey blue. It was too dark compared to the burnt sienna outlines on the first painting. They ended up being a dark olive green in the end.
Then I painted the outlines a dark blue, but I changed that too! haha. The tentacles got filled with a light blue, but that was mostly covered with the same purple color from painting 2.
Now comes shipping the paintings to NYC and then the actual show. You should go!

A\V Presents John Wiese, Tumul, and Pengo

New poster for a noise show on the 24th. This one is on 8.5" x 14" chipboard. I was happy to print on something brown!

Here's the link for the poster on etsy too:http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15356259
Get while it's hot! And ten dollars :]

huh... picnic table photos

I thought I posted this a while ago but I guess not. Here's some photos from the picnic tables Marlene and I painted up for our friend Tanis at Artpark in Lewiston, NY.


Forgetful me.

I Survived California + Hellgirl

So, consider this the final entry of the trip blog! I'm back in Rochester now. California was great and busy. Marlene and I moved to a new apartment too once we got back and we're getting settled in. July / August = intense this year...

I just finished up this personal project, a redesign of Hellboy as a lady! Strange but alluring.



I tried keeping it quick, so just a straightforward outline illustration for her. I hope you enjoy it. Maybe there's more girl drawings in the future...

updated portfolio + website facelift

Holy croaks! This took forever but it's done: peterlazarski.com/portfolio.php

Just in time for Battlestar Galactica and a late nacho dinner. Woot!

Mathematicians, Mose Giganticus, The Emotron

May 1 at the Bugjar in Rochester, NY. Come celebrate the return of the bands and commemorate the birthday of a certain Paul R. Martino! Be there or be rust.

Oni's squishing small things

I put together a submission to the open call for Fantagraphic's Beasts! Book Two. I did a pair of oni happy at work.
And the sketches (most of them) that got me there:



And here's the original greyscale image before I added on colors:


I weirded out my friends when I told them I wanted the little hell guys to look pink and sore... haha whoops! Huh huh, I hopes you like em!

Bilemaw!

Blech.

Here's a description too for extra nerd points:

Bilemaws are a foul species of dragon that some believe to be responsible for virulent outbreaks of plague. They exude an awful nauseating smell from their mouths and through vents along their necks. Usually the stink may signal the arrival of a bilemaw to the wary. While unpleasant, breathing the stench given off from a bilemaw isn't lethal. The real danger of dealing with bilemaws results from their foul dripping mouths. While flying overhead cities and villages their jaws will drip infectious gobs of offal, literally causing a rain of plague. Anyone unfortunate enough to be bitten by a bilemaw and escape will soon find their body rife with infection. Any attempt by the victim to seek refuge and relief among their friends and family will sadly result in the spread of the plague.

Little Boy progression