After being in awe for the hour, after what was supposed to be a quick minute checking out just one piece for this article, I came to the realization that many of Franklin Booth's ink pieces show something magnificent. With his intricate linework, wonderful composition, and hectic scene, I find it hard to look away.
This Week’s Art: Sickert’s “The Camden Town Murder”
What I find fascinating about art is how much the idea of audience interpretation comes into play. Whether it’s a detailed illustration, or something abstract, there’s always a sense that good art brings the viewer into this new world, for better or for worse. In this case, in a much more overt way than the painting […]
For most of my life I have been a fan of truly intricate artwork. Not necessarily photo-realistic, which I can take or leave, but art pieces that have wonderfully tiny details throughout. Think the engraving work of Gustave Doré, the incredible works of Franklin Booth, or the fascinating details created by Bernie Wrightson in his adaptation of Frankenstein. […]
So, let’s get this out of the way first. I haven’t had a chance to read the story that inspired this illustration yet, but a story about death carrying off a dead soldier’s beloved is right up my alley. Having been an inspiration for Poe, vampire stories, and all manner of 18th and 19th century horror, […]
It may be clear to some of you who are familiar with my (more or less) past life as an illustrator and fine artist, but I have a bit of an odd streak. That’s what makes us all unique, and I wouldn’t try to be normal for all the money in the world. I think […]
This Week’s Art: Falero’s “Witches going to their Sabbath”
When I am talking about art, I often point to nudity and gore as being the “easy way out.” Much of the time they are both overdone, mostly for shock value when there is no real concept behind the art. Here’s some nudity! We’re awesome! There are times, though, where an artist has taken the […]
This Week’s Art: Cole’s “Course of Empire: Destruction”
Every morning, I wake up and look across the room at a Thomas Cole painting. Well, let’s face it, I’m not enormously rich so it is actually an old print. The print is of one of Cole’s five “Course of Empire” paintings, in this case “Consummation.” It’s been a personal favorite for a very long time, but […]
This Week’s Art: Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With”
“The Problem We All Live With” is one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous paintings, and has been discussed frequently by so many others that I encourage everyone to seek out those articles. That said, it being one of my favorite pieces, I hope I have something to add to the cacophony of voices in the […]
Sometimes, I see an image and I feel that I’ve been in that situation, that I’ve lived through something similar. It might be the artist’s technique, or the medium that was used, or maybe it’s just something in the way the character looks. This Schikaneder painting is one that has always given me pause, based on all three […]
This Week’s Art: Gentileschi’s “Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
When it comes to painting any religious doctrine, particularly the Old Testament, there are literally thousands of paintings. It’s a popular, yet somewhat touchy, subject. There is a reserved reverence for many biblical paintings, and you often lose the sense that the stories within are based on mythology and the intimation of a higher purpose. […]
This Week’s Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “The Banjo Lesson”
One of the challenges of memorable art is capturing an emotional moment between people. It can be something extreme like a moment of action, or something very subtle in the way a profile looks. Hitting the middle ground of softer actions and subtleties is difficult, it can lean one way or the other very quickly. […]
This Week’s Art: Goya’s darkly satirical painting “Witches Sabbath”
There’s a lot to unpack with Goya, especially for someone like me. I love traditional art, the kind you find in paintings that are hundreds of years old. I also love horror art, for those few fans I have left or those who have visited my art site it’s a fairly clear thing. So Goya speaks […]
This Week’s Art: Spitzweg’s “The Butterfly Hunter”
Being a slightly eccentric and sarcastic person, I am often drawn to characters in books, film, and art who are also eccentric and offer a bit of satire. Carl Spitzweg painted quite a few images that are perfect for my sensibilities, and looking at "The Butterfly Hunter" hits me right where it should on a cold, dark day. Considering the darkness of last issue's Doré painting and the upcoming Goya piece, I thought a nice break with something more humorous would be good.
This Week’s Art: Doré’s “La Famille du Saltimbanque: L’Enfant Blessé”
It is not a small painting, which is certainly part of it. Doré's La Famille du Saltimbanque: L'Enfant Blessé is over six feet tall, and seeing it made me literally stop in my tracks. Those are the moments I live for, the very reason why it is important to see art in a museum or gallery.
This Week’s Art: Levêque’s “La Parque (The Fates)”
Levêque was really hitting all manner of emotions with this piece.He painted the Roman versions of the fates, the Parcae. Rather, while I think he captured the essence of the Parcae, what he really captured here was existence itself. This is the spectacle of fate, on hand to show life and death in action.
This Week’s Art: Schoonover’s “Hopalong Takes Command”
I’ve always loved this piece by Frank Schoonover, though that can be said for many of the pieces I’ve seen by the artist. He was one of the classic illustrators, and being primarily an illustrator myself it’s easy to see why he’s always been one of my favorites. Hopalong Takes Command is an exceptional example of Schoonover’s […]
There’s probably something to be said about me when it comes to the reasons why I like “The Prisoner” by Yaroshenko. Maybe I’m a darker soul, a lonely one, or even just someone who contemplates life frequently, but this type of image really speaks to me. It’s not that this painting is particularly complex, either. […]
This Week’s Art: Processions in the art of John Singer Sargent
As I was looking at John Singer Sargent’s work, in anticipation of writing today’s article about his wonderful “Cashmere” painting below, I started looking at many of his other works. Now, that’s not at all unusual, I find myself leaping down the rabbit hole when it comes to art most of the time, and looking […]
This Week’s Art: David Roberts’ Great Temple of Aboosimble Nubia
There are certainly artistic sways to and fro, but his accuracy is truly astonishing. Roberts not only captured the sense of being there, but accurately captured the details as well. He used time honored tricks for showing scale as well, such as the fine folks shown in the close-up below. They don't seem very interested in being so close to these epic statues, I guess that's not the reaction I would have personally.
When I talk about art, and believe me that’s pretty much every day of my life, I often touch on the things that I really love about particular pieces. Sometimes it’s composition, or texture, even just a color within the piece. Sometimes I get very technical with it, often it probably comes across more like, […]
This Week’s Art: Souls on the Banks of the Acheron
Welcome to the first of what I hope are billions of words about art, and mostly what I think about certain pieces. Before I get started, let me just preface the whole works with the idea that the wee image here probably isn’t going to do much justice to the work. So, on all of […]
Coursework: 5 Unique Tools To Take Control Of Your Paintings
Artist April McConn looked out the window of her studio, taking in the flat landscape of the Colorado plains as she started her new painting of ancient Rome. McConn has spent the last two years creating popular paintings of life in the Roman empire, despite not having access to the massive architecture the Romans are […]
It is truly interesting that fan art is this week’s topic, since it is something I am not only intimately familiar with as an illustrator, but this week my freelance life centers around that very idea. One of the things I enjoy doing is interviewing the cover artists for Apex Magazine, and I am sending several […]
The transcendent experience of seeing an original piece of art in a museum is substantially better than any reproduction could possibly be. Seeing the original artwork in a museum offers reflection, education, and admiration that a reproduction can not provide. The unique crafting of the original artwork piques interest for further works by the artist, and similar artists and movements, far more than any reproduction can match. This article was originally written for my classwork with CSU-Global, a portfolio project. I have adapted it from a strict APA style to a more web-friendly style.
I like to customize my Moleskine sketchbooks before I start using them, and sometimes that can be quite an elaborate process. Partly, I customize them so that they are easier to recognize and find if lost. Instead of just looking for a generic, small sketchbook, I can tell people to look for something more unique. […]
When I was standing in line at the local coffee shop, I overheard a couple of people talking about something awful. That happens, certainly, it’s not unusual at all (I often stand in coffee shop lines). One of the women in the group, after hearing the full details of a plane crash, said, “That is […]
Whether I’m creating some new piece of art, or taking a photo, even writing a story (wait, “he writes?”, you say), I have always loved creating things. I especially love to create things that have, shall we say, an unusual feel to them. I love the fantastic, the supernatural, and all of the strange things […]
Most of time, life is pretty boring. We go through our lives, through our day to day procedures, and very little changes. Sure, each day and each week have their little ups and downs. After all, I did just eat a Snickers bar and stub my toe, at nearly the same time. But for the […]
Life influencing art, scaring the bejesus out of me
Earlier this week, author Ray Garton (who’s awesome, and you should read all his stories) asked on one of the social networks (the blue one) about sleep paralysis. For those who aren’t familiar with the phenomenon, sleep paralysis, also known as night terrors, is perhaps the scariest thing you could ever imagine. You wake up […]
I’ve been a big fan of the works of Zdzisław Beksiński for a long time. They are like dreams and, often, nightmares, come to life. Beksiński himself even said as much about his own work, and from what I’ve read about him he was a fascinating person. Especially in the many ways that I feel the same […]
Some of my favorite art pieces are those that show emotion, that have an energy to them. True, most beloved pieces have an energy all their own, even if it’s subtle. But there are some pieces where that energy is something more evocative. I’ve seen many of Giovanni Boldini’s paintings over the years, often of the […]
This Week’s Art: Dore’s Death, Life-In-Death, and the Ancient Mariner
I read a lot of poems, and one of my very favorite poems is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It’s a dream made for an illustrator, filled with such great visions, and it’s probably one of the reasons that it’s been a popular poem for so long. I have a […]
I love the illustrators of the early-mid 20th century. Rockwell, Wyeth, Pyle, and many more, they just have this great sense of drama and storytelling in their work. Even without knowing the stories that they went with, as is sometimes the case, the images still cause a reaction. Case in point, this image by one […]
The first of my renewed “This Week’s Art” articles, where we discuss a particular piece of art, is Vasily Polenov‘ Birchwood Alley (Oil on canvas, 1880). Here’s what it looks like, and click on it for a larger version. 19th century Russian art is something I’ve become more and more intrigued by over the years, and this […]
Art & Design: Promotional materials to leave behind
It is a good idea, after an interview or portfolio review, to leave behind some manner of promotional material for yourself. That could be as simple as a business card, or as complex as a brochure. The idea is that the person doing the review will have something to refer to later, hopefully to get […]
I think it’s important as an artist to look at various kinds of art each day. Just as it is important for graphic designers, filmmakers, authors, and anyone with a creative side, seeing the works of others can help a creative person learn more about what they do. In that respect, I used to write […]
I’m gradually starting to get caught back up, after a disastrous few months. I decided that I didn’t want to end 2011 with nothing completed, so I manged to kick out two pieces of art in the last couple of days. The first was the skatedeck art, The All-Mighty Dollar (see it here), and below […]
For awhile now, I’ve been interested in trying new materials to work with, something other than canvas or paper. A few artists that I know paint on wooden skateboard decks, and I thought that would be something very interesting to try. My friend at the local Rendition Gallery (go check it out folks) ordered a […]
I’ve been busy for some time now, and I haven’t been able to post the newest ebook cover that I created a couple of months back. I thought it was time to show it off, so here it is. For those that follow this blog (both of you), a few months back I was in […]
This is my latest ink for the Alphabeasts project, and hopefully the last one I need to catch up on. I started with “C” (here), coming in a little late, so this one catches me up to the current letter. An algul is a mythical/legendary vampire woman, in Arabian mythology, and I thought it would […]
In The Wrong World; Digital, story illustration for Peter Straub’s story Variations on a theme from Seinfeld Published in Cemetery Dance Magazine, 2009
Death From Below; Digital; published as the second endpaper for the novella Scratch by Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance, 2009); Companion piece to “Death From on High”, also on this site.
Death From On High; Digital; published as the first endpaper for the novella Scratch by Brian Keene (Cemetery Dance, 2009); Companion piece to “Death From Below”, also on this site.
Most years, when I can spare a little extra money, I try to enter a couple of competitions. First on the list is always the annual Spectrum competition, for the best of the current year’s fantasy/genre art. I was lucky enough to have been chosen for Spectrum 9 many years ago, and I’ve always wanted […]
Now, before we begin, let’s just say that my years of being an engineering student are way, WAY behind me. But I was looking at a couple of sites today that discussed the Golden Ratio or the Fibonacci Spiral, a quasi-magical scientific idea (let that roll around in your head for a minute) by which […]
From start to finish: The Cover of Brian Keene’s Scratch
I like seeing how art evolves, from the beginning of the thumbnail sketches all the way through the final product. I think you can literally see an artist’s though processes as they work through issues, try new things, and complete what their vision is. In my case, it might be more like watching chaos unfold […]
I never just charge into a piece for the sake of doing art, I always let it mull around in my head some first. Sometimes I have a pretty good idea and I just need to smooth things out. Other times, there’s a lot of thought in what the scene portrays, who’s in it, what’s […]
Since January of 2010, Jason Sizemore and MG Ellington over at Apex Magazine have given me the opportunity to talk on their blog each month about art, and how I create it. Now, so far, it’s been mostly rants about the things I see wrong with art and with the various genres I’m a part […]
I’ve been very anxious to show everyone this, and now, upon the release of the novella, I can do just that. Below I’ve attached a number of pieces of art that I did for author Brian Keene’s book Scratch, just released from Cemetery Dance Publications. Scratch, if you don’t follow Keene’s work (and his followers […]
I’ve been a part of a local gallery for several months now, and it’s been a great experience. Having been an illustrator for so many years, it’s been interesting to explore the prints and fine art side of things. Luckily, the On Display Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado (just up the road from home) specializes […]
Sometimes, I shudder to post new ideas or new techniques that I try. I never know if they really work out, if they are ok but just need work, or if they are so awful that the sun will shrivel up and we’ll all die. But, I also think that as an artist I always […]
Last year, a couple of friends (Mike Oliveri, Cullen Bunn, and a few others) were really talking up using a small writing or sketching book to jot down quick ideas. I’ve carried a larger sketchpad in my backpack for a long time, but I’d considered something smaller to compliment it. So, I ended up purchasing […]
Awhile back (and by “awhile back” I mean “over a year ago”) I wrote an art blog of Frederic Edwin Church’s beautiful painting called The Icebergs (check out the blog here… I”ll wait.) I won’t bore you with the specs again (I’ll be boring you with other ways now), but seeing it in person I […]
I happened to be in the local Barnes and Noble earlier, and the latest issue of Cemetery Dance (#63) was on the shelf. I did art in that issue for the great Peter Crowther’s story “Memories”, which was a nice story and visually fun to work with. Here’s what that art looks like, comments always […]
Now that the visitors are all gone, I’m getting back on track with things. There have been a few developments, and there are a couple of reminders here, so let’s get going. My art is featured in an actual, physical gallery locally now. The On Display Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado, has a number of […]
I’ve been trying to get back into art as strongly as I can, especially with my being a guest at VisionCon in January. It’s been tough, between family life, day job, being out of town for said job, and so on. But I managed to squeeze in some time this afternoon, and I created an […]
I still get the occasional question from folks who want to buy a print of my work. So, I thought I'd ask if any of the below pieces would be good print choices.
I think where art can be a good thing is the ability to get the feelings and emotions out on the table, without necessarily having to explain all the things you are really feeling. I’ve always felt that art comes down more to what I want something to look like than any emotional release for […]
I don’t always get to just experiment and have fun with Photoshop, and tonight I had a chance to so I ran with it. This takes the place for tonight’s sketching, something I’ve been trying to do every day. The images below are for possible use with the great site The Big Adios (or at […]
