The Witch's Tale

From the same Tune In For Terror! card set , this one illustrates The Witch's Tale radio horror series. 9"x7" - watercolor and ink on illustration board, 1992.

Tune In For Terror!

While still in college, I created a set of illustrations to be published as trading cards. The project was born as promotional tie-in for a series of old science fiction and horror radio plays. I was assigned the task of creating works based on classic horror novels.

It looks like there are a small amount of the cards available for purchase as a case at www.monsterwax.com. The bulk were destroyed in a fire according to the info on that website.

Here are the pieces I did. They are all approximately 9"x7" - watercolor and ink on illustration board, 1992:


The Masque of the Red Death - Edgar Allen Poe


The Time Machine - H.G. Wells


Dracula - Bran Stoker


Frankenstein - Mary Shelly

I also did one for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but I cannot find the original. It was he weakest image of the bunch so not much of a loss.

Date Rape

Illustration for a magazine article about date rape. 8" x 10" - Watercolor, 1993

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.