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.

Dune book club: The Gom Jabbar

I'm taking part in Dustin Harbin's Dune Book Club. I've read Dune before and enjoyed it immensely, so I was totally down for reading it again. I like book clubs too (or the idea of them at least) and also the idea of an internet book club.

Dustin asked us to read the first 40ish pages for today. I thought the meeting between Paul Atreides and the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (what an intense name!) and Paul's test by the Gom Jabbar was awesome, so I drew a bit of that as a tiny comic for this week.

I'm also reading Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces, so while that's still fresh in my mind I've been picking up bits of classic myth structure in Dune that Frank Herbert may have left behind. I'm looking forward to discussing those bits!

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!