When my kids were little we watched a lot of Spongebob. We were at ground zero, catching it when it first aired. The surreal humor, the timing, the writing that both adults and kids could appreciate? It was magic. To later find out that the series was inspired by the Ween song “Ocean Man” made it even more amazing.
I had been meaning to do this tribute to the episode “Graveyard Shift” (S02E16) Where at the end, the lights start flickering and the crew of the Crusty Crab wonder who the culprit is, only to find out it is Nosferatu!
It’s just so out there. What kid is going to know Nosferatu? I loved it. So here is my tribute.
I’ve had the idea for this piece for a while – it was inspired by the Lofi-beats to study to girl, but walking outside in the snow. Originally I had headphones or earmuffs, but I went in a different direction. overall I like it, but I feel I could have done something different with the background. It looks better as a print, but I don’t know if it’s print worthy – at least not a full-size print.
Baby it’s cold outside.
I worked on this through my winter break, while I battled a severe cold, possibly RSV. Weeks later I’m still not recovered from it. This was done all digital with Clip Studio and a Wacom Tablet
I used to think that pain was the driver of art. When I was a teen, I thought my art was a product of suffering, but come to find out it was a RELEASE from suffering.
Fast forward, I am an adult nearing 50, and everything hurts. I am now realizing that the physical pain is a blocker to my creativity. I’ve got arthritis seeping into my joints, making just moving around a struggle. I sit down to create art and nothing comes out, at least nothing worth anything. And I know not every piece is a winner, but everything just seems like crap. Physical pain + clinical depression = no art.
So how does one break out of this? I tried to do a piece based on a friend of mine’s character, but the whole thing came out crappy and uninspired.
I mean, the dude is a skull and I couldn’t do anything imaginative with it. I posted it and it was met with a collective “Meh”. And I agree, it is “meh”. So that was a failed experiment. It was done with all digital and maybe that’s the issue? I’ve become addicted to it for sure, but I really haven’t mastered it. Most people seem to like the look, but I had a friend comment on the sterility of it and I have to agree.
Even sitting the way I used to causes pain. I wish I knew the secret to channeling pain into creativity, but the combination I have seems to have the end result that I don’t want to do anything. I think I just have to stop being hard on myself and when the creativity comes, it comes. After I did the Salem show this year it took me so long to recover that I didn’t do any shows for the rest of the year. I just signed up to one in April of next year, so assuming I get it, it will be the end of my rest period.
I guess inspiration will come when it comes. There’s no easy answer. “Existence is suffering” they say. “Life is pain” they say. I wish I could make some good art out of it, that’s all.
I’ll have a piece in the 2022 Ralph Baer Day art exhibit at the See Science Center in Manchester NH, exhibit runs March 12 – May 21. Opening night is March 12 from 6-8 with free admission, after that regular museum admission is required to see the exhibit. Hope to see you there.
I’ll be at my first show of 2021 – the Northeast Comic-Con in Boxboro MA. July 2-4 (although I may not show on the 4th). I’ve got 5 NEW PRINTS to debut at the show. Come and see me. I’ve missed you.
Like many of you, I was super happy to see Boba Fett again, and I loved his new look. Therefore, I decided to do some fanart!
This one was all digital, because I need the practice. I used an old Wacom tablet (the one without the screen) and Photoshop.
First, I sketched out a general idea of what the piece would look like
Next, on a new layer, I did the lineart
Next, I blocked all the colors, and then kept all the distinct items on separate layers
Next up is the background, and I HATE doing backgrounds. I took a photo of one of my Slave 1 toys and used it as a reference
From there I used it as a guide to trace over, added it in back, and it still looked poor. I tried to cover it up with a Boba Fett logo from the Book of Boba Fett series. I think it came out OK.
I had applied to take part in the Ralph Baer Day exhibition early in the year, but never heard back. Two days before the show was set to begin I got an email notifying me of art drop off times! So I had to quickly scramble to get a piece done. I’ll admit that it’s not my most creative or interesting work, but I had to go with something familiar in order to get the painting done in a day.
Step 1: Compose references in Photoshop
Step 2: Using the source image as a guide on a locked layer, sketch out the basic form with a tablet.
Step 3: Using that basic sketch as a guide, do linework on a new layer.
Step 4: block out colors using linework as a guide. Again, on a separate layer.
Step 5: Display the finished layers while hiding the work layers.
Step 6: Now, because this is for a gallery, I wanted to make an actual painting on a canvas. I printed the image out in actual size. Because the canvas is larger than my printer, I had to tile the image and tape it together afterward.
Step 7: transfer the line art to the prepared canvas with carbon paper. Then block out basic colors in acrylic.
Step 8: Whisky
Step 9: start the line art with black acrylic.
Step 10: Last touches include the detail on the bricks and clouds!
Step 11: Drop it off at the gallery once the paint dries!
I had the privilege of taking part in the Ralph Baer Day exhibit at Jupiter Hall in Manchester NH. Ralph Baer was one of the founders of the home video game, and he hailed from Manchester. Each year on Ralph’s birthday in March, the city hosts Ralph Baer Day.
All the art was video game related. I had two days to put a piece together. I did “Dokuro Mario”
