The Rhythm Method

It has been a busy two weeks as I've been preparing for my move and trying to finish up the Dwellings show. This will probably be the last that I post to the blog even, since I am going to my parents house for my birthday, where telephone is the height of technology. I love them but there are times when I wonder if they are ok with these moving pictures and what not.

Anyway, last week I was asked to do a poster for an R&B band called the Rhythm Method in New Hampshire. They have a really good sound. Kind of a moving funk beat to it all. Unfortunately as busy as I was the best that I was thinking of for the longest time were plays on the rhythm method procuring babies. I didn't really figure that the mid forties individuals in the band would really appreciate a fetus dressed up like John Lee Hooker so I kept the type and changed the image to a very nice turtle.

Here it is.

Hope you like it. I was stoked just to draw a turtle. Lets be honest.
See you folks in a week.
peace
-Mike

The Perils of Digital Color Re-Creation

Living in the Slums is a piece that I have been working on for the "Dwellings" exhibit which is coming up far too soon. I have had some issues with this piece on its surface, i.e. it was feeling empty, because there wasn't enough color and it was entirely too peaceful for what I was trying to say. Now I've resolved that. I used direct color compliments to really amp up the struggle of the piece, but have still kept the bird itself in relative calm and midtones. It is after all the environment that is the conflict, not the individual.

As in real life, most people will come to find whatever is their home as normal. They will consider their station in life, get used to it, and albeit they may want more out of life, they are still comfortable with what they have. It is more for rich, domineering individuals to come and tell the lower classes that they aren't living well.

Anyway, that is what I was thinking about while making this painting, and although the digital copy has been a frustrating loss of my color palette and its delicacies, hopefully you will get an idea of what I am trying to get at.

I guess in the end, the moral of the story is that converting your images to digital is kind of like seeing a painting through different eyes. Perhaps it would be better to compare to translations of language. No matter how good a translator is, there is something lost in telling a story in a different language. Take for the instance the Bible written in Hebrew. I was once told that there were roughly 6 ways to translate a four word excerpt to English.

When thinking that way, maybe my colors don't look so bad in the digital copy.
Til next time.
peace
-Mike

Productivity and the Disappearing Timeline

The Dwellings show is coming up fast, and somehow my paintings are slowly coming together, but I think that this is going to end up being a super crunch time painting show reminiscent of sleepless college projects. I am feeling very good about the paintings though.

I managed to turn a board around from a painting that had no value to me to the beginning of a cool little subset of Dwellings. It is going to be a burbs mini series. No birds in these pieces, just stacked houses. I feel like it will really get the idea across better without any characters in the piece.

Here is the first:

Not only did this turn into a cool little piece, and afford me a small sub-series, but I also started to work with a palette that I have not used in several years on this piece. I think it will balance off of the blues and browns that I have become so predominant in my other work. Very exciting.

The second piece that I have to post today has really been a long time in the coming. I have had the drawing done for this piece for a couple months now, but was hesitant to paint it. I think I was worried that I wasn't ready yet technically to do a good job with it, but these proved to be false apprehensions as I feel like I completely nailed it yesterday. I rolled from start to finish from about nine to seven in the evening.

And here it is:

I'm having prints made of this piece and will be giving them away with every commission that is ordered before October 15th. So if you'd like a print, be sure to get on the phone and have me start a painting for you and we'll get you one!

Now my brain is fried, so I think I will call it quits for the day. Be sure to check back in the next couple days. There is still more to come.

peace
-Mike

Bruce Bartlett Trio

I finished my first poster for the Stone Church on Zion Hill, in New Market, NH this last weekend. They apparently liked it, because I have a second project for this week. I am really liking this type of work. It depends much more on concept than my painting work. Painting work is very much building a body and then figuring out how some pieces of it go together, and illustration work is more starting within somebody's elses parameters and going with it.

It is nice to have the dichotomy in my work right now. This piece, I worked up digitally, with some confidence that I absorbed from reading and listening to people that I have found through Escape From Illustration Island. If you ever need inspiration as an illustrator, or need to find fonts or someplace to get work. EFII is the place to go. Thomas James has put together an amazing resource and is quite the illustrator himself.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the most recent gig poster:

I have also finished my piece for the postcard for Artstream Studios, "Dwellings" show. I am so stoked with these hand drawn type pieces. I started another one today that is even cooler, and it kind of blows my own socks off, cuz I didn't think I could pull it off.

Anyway, here tis.


Hope y'all like it. Let me know what you think. Pretty soon I will have a bunch more images up in just a little while, all of you New Hampshirites can come catch the opening and see the whole thing.
Take Care.
-Mike

I Live High Above the City

I have actually got a whole bunch of new work going right now, which is awesome. It is very much overdue, but better late than never. This show is really going to be amazing. I am quite confident in that. Here is the latest piece in the series of Dwellings:

I like this piece a lot, though I know that it is much simpler than some of the pieces that I have been doing recently. I also put a quick Mighty Lark piece together for my Etsy Page, which is available here.


It's just a quick piece, but I think it's pretty cool nevertheless. I still have a couple pieces available through the C.A.V.E. gallery here. These are both fairly inexpensive pieces and pretty cool. Be sure to check those out.

Lastly, I've got another poster gig for the Bruce Bartlett Trio, who is playing at the Stone Church in about a week. I have to wrap that up in the next day so that there will be plenty of time to print and flyer the area. Here is the preliminary sketch.

What do you think. I really dig the electric pole bit. It's making me very happy. I will have some more stuff up for you soon. Especially if I get some batteries for my camera. I am working on a couple pieces that I am not so sure I want to scan in pieces because they are bigger than I usually work. I will try to get those up soon.

Until then, y'all take care now.
peace
Mike