The Howling

Eddie Quist 10" x 12" - Oil, 1991

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Like many others, I was extremely impressed by the H. P. Lovecraft penned tale The Shadow Over Innsmouth when I first read it years ago.

Lovecraft's vivid descriptions of a traveler stuck in a strange, ocean side town where the towns people have been inbreeding with sea creatures for years inspired a couple of my illustration projects and some sketches.

Finished!

I spent the weekend with the full hit of the cold I was fighting last week. I am starting to feel better but this has delayed progress on my new paintings.

I did manage to finally finish the Dogs in School piece. The custom frame piece was ready on Saturday morning and it worked. A quick trip to ace for a rubber mallet and some upholstery nails wrapped things up. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ship it out until Monday but now it is on it's way to Vancouver, WA.

I will post at a later date with further details on the project with links to the website that Patrick is putting together.

Foetus

I have always been fascinated by pre-birth imagery. I have several reference books of images of the various phases of gestation.

Here are two self promo pieces inspired by that imagery. The top image was done during the college years and the one below is an unfinished piece from 1997.

Vampire

This is an old personal piece from 1992. Oil on Illustration Board 11" x 17".

Oil Painting: Materials and Methods

So I dove in and signed up for an evening painting class. With thoughts of returning to school to get an MFA in my head, I decided a good test would be to take a class to see how things roll. Since it has been almost 16 years since I graduated from Ringling there may be many cobwebs to clear.

The class is at the San Francisco Art Institute. I chose Oil Painting: Materials and Methods which appears to be focused more on the technical side of the medium. There are many options with oil so getting a better understanding of the materials will be a huge plus. I studied Illustration in school which was all about getting the work out really fast and not designed for long lasting work.

This begins the last week of Jan. It will be good to connect with fellow art students as well. I feel very separated from the SF art community since most of my time is spent in the South Bay in the tech world.

I am patiently waiting for the email to let me know what to expect and which materials to bring to the first class.

Multi-tasking

After an enjoyable few day break for new years celebrations, I am back to my work. The Dogs in School piece is now done...other than the custom frame piece. I re cut, painted and attached the wood frame this weekend. Final paint details were done this evening.

Over the years I have jotted down ideas for paintings in my sketchbooks. After reviewing various lists, I compiled a new list of pieces to work on this year. A trip to Flax to use up the last of the balance on a gift card got me 3 new canvases to go towards these pieces. I also picked up some brushes and some damar varnish.

I realized while working on the last stages of the Dogs in School piece that there comes a point while waiting for layers to dry that I could and should be working on secondary pieces. So in between detailing on DIS I prepped the new canvases and finished up the drawing on the two next paintings.

I am going to try to complete at least two paintings a month this year. As of tomorrow I am back at the day gig which consumes the bulk of my weekday time so we will see how this goes. I am up for the challenge.

Film Image Series

I am a film geek. When I first jumped back into painting back in 2005, I did a set of acrylic portraits of film actors. I wanted to use bold color and a more graphic style than my usual work. My research for images began focusing on old noir films but expanded to films as late as the 70's. The first three are all women. The next in the series will be male actors.

Forgive the poor quality of the images. The paintings are sealed with a glossy finish making it hard to capture with my nice but point and shoot camera. I have plans to work with a photographer to get high quality files in the near future.

Back to FCP...

I spent the bulk of creative time today and Saturday in front of my computer cleaning up two more of the old FCS shorts: Damn Calm and Pigs. This completes the 1993 set. Something still needs to be done with Inheebreated Confessions and there is also the disaster that is Twisted Weekend 2.5. That one may have to remain in the never to be seen again archives. I can at least cut it down to a more manageable length and trim most of the awful dialog.

Dogs in school is still in the short sitting for touch up, spray then wait to dry phase. I mistakenly cut two pieces of the wood frame a touch too short so another hardware store trip is on the plate for tomorrow. I hope I can find another piece of the same lumber that I used for the other pieces.

Manual Labor...

Progress continues on the 'Dogs in School' painting. I have finished the bulk of detail in the faces. There is a grid that needs to be masked off and painted. One stage of this is in process. I probably should have done this part with acrylic but the piece is in oil so I am sticking with that delays and all.

My landlord, Gerry, let me borrow a frame cutter he had to cut the wood I bought for the frame. The frame cutter is a nice tool. I think I will add one to the list of 'to purchase one day'. This fancy contraption made it much easier to cut the wood down to the exact lengths needed. For previous frames I used a hand saw which really sucked.

The wood pieces need some coats of paint or stain. I am still trying to decide the exact shade for them. I will take a look at options at the hardware store tomorrow.

While waiting for the masked grid to dry between coats, I am moving on to the clean up of the final set of Fival's Corn Shank shorts. The quality of these shorts are rough to say the least but they are a funny time capsule of the end of my time at Ringling.

Scanning and Dogs in School...

I was able to finish 'Stage 1' of the scanning of my old art. Most of this was illustration projects from college and various sketches from my days S.O.T.A. FX. It felt good to finally get these things in digital form and my new scanner does a beautiful job capturing the detail for clean up in Photoshop.

I am in the final stretch on the 'Dogs in School' painting. Patrick, the show's curator, has given the deadline of Dec. 31, 2008. I believe I will be done by the end of this weekend leaving me a few days of cushion from the due date.

One thing that will delay the delivery is a custom piece I am having made for the frame. On Monday, I met with the shop who will be fabricating the piece. They can construct it in a day...after the holidays. A slight delay but a necessary evil in order to finish the painting as envisioned.