NEW SERIES – Gabe Leonard

Gabe Leonard style…

I can’t seem to quit this. I’m 191-ish images into this series. Honestly, that number might be off by one or two… my filing system in the beginning wasn’t as consistent as it is now. Still love it…because it makes me work. It makes me learn. I’m a little bit better every time I finish a series.  That’s what it’s ultimately about.

For the next series, I’m rendering my family in the style of contemporary painter Gabe Leonard.  His is not a name that is top of mind, but his work is first rate. Expressive isn’t a good enough description. He manipulates the figure as much as he does the paint medium. His figures are distorted, but somehow even more alive because of that distortion. This should be a challenging series to complete… and by “challenging” I mean, “Holy hell, why did I pick Gabe Leonard to paint in the style of? What were you thinking?! Make sure that Apple Pencil is sharp, dude… you have seven more to do!”

Something like that.

 

Categories: art cartoon process self-critique

New Series – MOEBIUS!

Moebius – Attention to detail

For the next Family Series set, I go back to the early 1990s (again).

Around 1990-92 I was really into comic book collecting. This was the guilded age of the special edition cover, when Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield ruled the pages. I was especially into Spiderman…not too much DC, lthough I still picked up all of the Superman titles: Action, Adventures of Superman, etc. It was a great time to be a comic reader.

One day when I was at my local comic shop (which is still in business… but in another town) I happened to see a poster of Iron Man drawn by a one name artist: Moebius. It didn’t look like all the other posters…Iron Man looked mean… and made less of iron and more like stone or some sort of weird marble masonry. I bought that poster instead of comics that week. I remained on my wall thru my high school graduation. Then… poof.

It didn’t catch on fire or anything… I just took it down.  Eventually, it was thrown away (inhales sorrowfully).

So I remembered that poster and the work of Jean Giraud (Moebius) when thinking of my next series. Feels like the 1990s again.  Hope you dig it.

Categories: art studio

Frank Page Triple Self-Portraits

The tradition continues

A new-ish tradition for me (Since 2017) is to recount my life to that point by doing a self-portrait in the style of illustrator Norman Rockwell’s famous Triple Self-Portrait.

It’s an interesting way to document what things (at that point) are important to me and to see what, in my mind, has dropped off the radar.

Here is this year’s installment along with previous years so far. Click or tap on image for a larger version.

Categories: fun history illustration

Tags:

A disposition in time…

Disposition or dat position…

My current John Singer Sargent series is challenging… I may have mentioned that before.

Normally, producing the piece for the day doesn’t pose a problem… sometimes, I anticipate a problem and just get up earlier (yes, for those that know me, it IS possible).

This morning, the stress of a series of out-of-my-control problems began to make my eye twitch. Dealing with the problems cut into my iPad time.  Consequently, today’s Sargent Series piece… of me…was taking longer than I budgeted for. I thought of delaying the post or just skipping today… but I decided to finish it as much as I could and post it like that.

Kinda glad I did. The stress of the morning… and really the last few months is evident more in this unfinished piece than in anything I’ve done so far.’

When you don’t know when to stop, stop… you may already be finished.

Categories: art