Advantages of Digital Art

I suppose the whole world is going digital. I like the ability to quickly make changes in digital art. For instance this is a revision to the last image from the previous blog post. You'll notice how many things were changed.

I'm pleased with this new style which I've developed over the last summer. It's quick, flexible, manages to incorporate line and has bright high-key colors. And I like the details too.

Cowpokes

Sketching: Writing refinements to some new stories. It's always good when you wake up and find that new idea that seems like the missing key. I stumble along in the dark until that key is found.

Drinking: Costa-Rican blend. My favorite cup of coffee is when it's just started to percolate... and only half done. At that point the subtlety of the coffee bouquet is sublime.

Looking forward to: Sunshine! (it rained instead)

Working on: About 3 different things simultaneously.
* New finish samples from the new book to be used as a mailer
* A school flyer for drumming up some school visits
* Reworking three new story ideas... (whittled down from about five)

Reading: 'Memoirs of a Victorian Gentleman' by Margaret Forster. A book I can scarcely put down. I've never read such an insightful description of what it's like to be a writer.

Artists are supposed to be fickle...

It is an artist's prerogative to be forever changing their minds.

I know I drive my spouse crazy with my tendency to change plans on a whim. But what can I say? Artists are supposed to be fickle and difficult to live with...

I had fun redoing my old blog at last. The new features are great... can't wait to find some fun Blogger apps to add.

Spring in the Northwest

Drinking: Just plain old whole bean coffee for me... Costa Rican ~ French Roast, please!

Delighted: I was delighted to discover some new (for me) natural media photoshop brushes. I don't know why I didn't try using these years ago. I see all sorts of new approaches to a more painterly style possible.

Weather: No snow here... and the sun is out and it's very spring-like. Mostly because it's a brand new year and the Holidays are over. Usually I declare spring shortly thereafter. There are lots of little green shoots poking up.

Amazed: I was amazed to discover that there is a beaver lodge right here in the neighborhood! Yes indeed... wild beaver on the shores of Lake Washington, right in the middle of Seattle.

We had heard accounts of them slapping their mighty beaver tails at sunset and we once saw one swim past in the daytime. They're nocturnal and very secretive. Oddly, their den is right beside a sewer outlet too...

I think it's nice that there are still wild places like that around in the city still. Here's a photo of the beaver lodge... notice the green shoots too.

Reading: Margaret Forster: Memoirs of a Victorian Gentleman. I think I'll probably wind up reading every one of Margaret Forster's books. It's telling when you can read any page and it seems like it was written just for you.

Drawing: Pencils to a new book with Northwest scenes in abundance.

Happy New Year!

The Amazing Ray Troll...

Lucky me! I had the chance to attend the museum opening of the new Ray Troll exhibit at the Burke Museum in Seattle.

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/cruisin/

This is one fabulous show. I'd say it's easily the best museum show I've ever seen at the Burke... (or even in all of Seattle). I can't think of an art show I've ever found more fascinating. This show will NOT put anyone to sleep!

What's not to be fascinated by? Astonishing fossils... fabulous artwork. And the amazing Ray Troll was there in person along with Kirk Johnson, the knowledgeable author. He's also the director of the Denver Science Museum.

Both the author & artist were on hand to deliver a scholarly, yet very fun talk on the opening as they strolled around the gallery.

I was amazed it wasn't more crowded. I felt like a nervous groupie when I got to shake Roy Troll's hand... but then that's how I felt when I met Maurice Sendak.

'Riding the Fossil Freeway' is an amazing book... nearly a decade in the making (and it shows). There's also an awesome huge map of the fossil filled West. Ray signed my wall map 'Scientific Surrealism'... which I find to be a fascinating idea for an art genre.


Ray said it took him years to figure out that 'scientific surrealism' was actually what he had been doing as an artist. Makes sense to me. I can easily understand how an artist might spend years before finally crystalizing exactly what it is that we do. I know I've got lots of half-baked directions waiting for a good descriptive title.

I had read 'Riding the Fossil Freeway' twice the summer before last. I think half the reason I liked the book so much are all the stories about camping and driving through the outback of the West. I've been to many of those locations. It must have been a great road trip, driving the outback of most of the West.

Seeing the artwork all together in the museum on the wall is very powerful. There are way-cool gigantic hand-painted images from the book that line the walls. The show will be open all summer, so anyone in Seattle really must go, imho.

Cheeriest of Jollydays...

Tis the season... despite my natural tendency for Scroogitude, I have managed to bring forth yet another Holiday missive.

This is from my new book 'The Twelve Days of Christmas in Washington', which looks to be fun... and a lot of work.

I'm thinking I'll do this finish art with plain old real paints... which ought to be a challenge. Despite how much I love digital, I think when you have a 32 page book to do, the frustrations of crunching files all day doesn't match the spontaneous joys of sloshing real paints. Getting down and scrubbing & sanding and repainting can be so theraputic... albeit frustrating at times. It's learning to live with the imperfections that's always the hardest thing.

So it'll be 'cold turkey' for me. But I've got some fun new textures and techniques up my sleeve.


Onwards & Upwards with the Arts! Dash away Prancer, Dancer and Vixen!

Barking up the wrong trees...

One advantage of being a freelancer is that you can hop on the bicycle whenever the sun is shining. Also I have been sorely neglecting ye olde blog. But that's okay, since I don't figure anyone actually reads it much anyhow.

In the meantime I have been busy deciding which tree to bark up artworkwise.

Finally, after much kerfuffling, I settled on the characters for a new book. That's always the stickler... This has been a classic case of the 'pre-book' jitters. I guess it's sort of a precipice, where the artist figures they ought to decide to change things now or forever cling to continuity.


So I have jittered and re-jittered umpteen times. All to a worthwhile effect I must say. I have been experimenting to no end with new techniques for painting on various surfaces... sanding, gessoing, different layers, thick, thin and on and on. Very educational. It all brings to mind that saying of Thomas Edison's about invention being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So true.

Usually I have to redraw an idea for a character 25 times... never stopping to realize all along that I'm barking up the wrong tree.

I really busted my backside reworking each version... and my inner critic was merciless. But I'm glad he is such an unrelenting S.O.B. because finally I came up with a new direction that I like much better. Sometimes an artist can be as dumb as a doorbell and not have a clue as to what they're doing wrong. And usually their friends won't tell them either.

Finally I figure out the right tree... then it's simply a matter of scrambling up to arrive where I really wanted to go all along.

That's how it works for me at least...

Weather: freezing cold but gloriously sunny
Wearing: flannel lined everything and long-johns
Drinking: ionized water
Listening: KMRE-LP

Johnny be nimble, Johnny be quick!

Today it's raining... as it has rained for the last 7 days. This afternoon it's supposed to be blowing a gale. But yesterday morning, we had what's known as a 'sunbreak' here in the Pacific Northwest. Out of towners find the idea of 'sunbreaks' to be an amusing novelty. But that's how the weather is here.

Some Northwesterners even use online radar to plan their outings to coincide with periods of rain lightening up.

But yesterday is what I keep in mind. It was sunny most of the morning! I should have taken a picture... glorious sunshine and shadows! So now, when such things happen, the first thing I do is pack up my paper & pencils and hop on my bike. It's sort of like a prison break. I know this sunbreak is not going to last. It's essential to not waste a minute.

Johnny be nimble, Johnny be quick! Catch that sunshine lickety-split!

I was glad I did. Biking to the nearby cafeteria and writing in a sunny window table is a little bit of heaven. I always think it's funny when people say, 'It's a beautiful day!'... what they really mean is it's a sunny day.

All Spiffed Up...

I just PDF'd off a painting... or did I FTP it? In any event, I don't know why I get so nervous when I do that. I much prefer the old fashioned mailbox and stamps and waiting in line. I always see the most fascinating people standing in line at the post office... whereas with FTP you only get to snoop around at cyber stuff. Not nearly as interesting.

I had a fabulous time shopping at Value Village the other day. I love shopping in thrift stores exactly as much as I hate shopping in malls. Malls depress me. They drain the spirit out of my soul.

Why do I like thrift stores best? First of all the prices are impossible to beat. I also much prefer clothes that are already a bit worn out... they match the rest of my wardrobe. (unlike those idiotic clothes from the high-end fashion stores where they want you to pay $145 for jeans that come 'pre-ripped').

Also the selection of clothes from thrift stores is far and away more interesting, with more character. High end labels, styles no longer made, assortments unavailable anywhere else... and all for a song. I also like how everything is in one store... so you don't have to troop for miles through a maze of flashing lights and glass counters full of glitzy junk like at the mall.


So I got all decked out in all my new thrift store finds... trying to feel like somebody else. That's the real reason I like thrift stores. For the first day or so it's like I'm somebody else instead of me, especially while they still have that thrift store smell. Eventually it wears off... and I return to being just me.

But I've prattled on too long, as usual. Anyhow, 2 cotton shirts, 2 corduroy pants, 1 pair of lined flannel chinos, 2 polartec pullovers and a light lined jacket... all for the price of 1 shirt at the mall. lol!

I was just thrilled to get a blog comment from the great nephew of Cromwell Dixon! Gosh... I know nobody else on planet earth much cares... but I do. Usually I feel slightly guilty when someone says they're going to buy my book... but in this case I'm making an exception.

Got Fungi?

Check out this mushroom! One thing about all the rain around here is the profusion of sci-fi mushrooms that sprout up in the most unlikely places. This one took me by surprise! It looks like the poison candy-apple that the evil witch gave to Snow White.


Or these odd concoctions... that look like Granny's lace knickers (as a writer friend once so aptly remarked).

Most of the exotic fungi that appear around here are more amorphous, slimy, and less picturesque. They are very often green or orange and grow on in places under the porch.

Technology - mixed up for monkeys!

Here in Seattle the perennial GLOOM has set in. After all that Denver sunshine, I'm ready to move! I think non-stop gloom is like a meteorological form of depression. Honestly, I don't know how people stand it sometimes.

Meanwhile... I spent the entire day yesterday trying to fix the scroll wheel on my wacom mouse. And failed miserably.

p.s. If you ever want to take apart your wacom mouse, you have to peel back the fabric on the base on the back end, what you will find there is a tiny screw. Just unscrew that and the rest pops off.

Or... if you're like me, you'll spend half the day trying to pry the top off with 4 screwdrivers, thinking, erroneously that it's held together by clips... (which is isn't).

Of course now that they've invented those USB cordless mice, it's easy to just plug one of those in to take the place of the wacom mouse.
The pen still works... no problem there. I hate how they've made the new wacom tablets so complicated. The Intuos 4 looks like it's got way too many bells & whistles. Or maybe it's just me...

Technology! It's a good mix for a monkey!