Whateley

Lovecraft reminds you to go mad while you still have the chance.

The Big Sleep

Been a while since I used Painter. It's good to return to a medium that's a little less abstract once and a while, especially as my Photoshop is more and more reliant on splicing graphs.

Never Say Die

Another four hours never hurt anything. Except my hand. Carpal Tunnel, here I come!

Mr. Shiftlet

Hard Times for a Prophet

Prophecy seems to be the ability to wander out into the desert and justify it afterwards. Don't get me wrong. There's a certain insensible romance to aimless ambulation that inspires deeper, less perishable thought. If you can put up with the vultures, then the desert may be the brute naive's paradise.

Hellion

Gnostic

I made this in acrylics. Who knew painting also occured in analog space?

Halloween is a state of mind.

Most recent round of experiments has been producing some pretty out there results. I'm surprised at how much faster this method is, and it gives a much more 'real media' feel. I may very well be reworking my whole process in response.

Salem

Messin' with Photoshop again, trying to replicate more organic painting techniques. The trick is going to be combining a bunch of strains of painting I've done in the past into the structural discipline I've recently acquired. Could fall flat entirely, but in the meantime, should be good fun.

On Transigence

Enough. Life is entirely too short and precious to spend any more of it putting scale texture on imaginary bugs.

I am, for once, not being sardonic, sarcastic, or purposely obtuse. 11:40 PM. A Saturday night. Somewhere in the eighteenth hour of my ever lengthening quest for the perfect carapace, I officially had enough of the bizarre hyper-realist fit I'd nursed on and off for the last several years. At what point, I wonder, did I conflate 'goodness' with 'detail'? I'm not really certain. But, it's weird, kind of unhealthy, and not nearly as satisfying as it once was.

I'm going to be making a turn towards efficiency: the most psycho-symbolically accurate, purposeful use of each form. More planning, less muddled execution. That way, maybe I can get back to enjoying the things I enjoy, leave the house on occasion, and let nature handle the exoskeletons.

Liquidity

Water is a pretty complicated problem. I've got probably two dozen 'wave' brushes, none of which actually work, which means ever river, stream, gully, and ocean is a unique issue unto itself. On the other hand, even a modicum of success is worth some jubilation.

Quick! Make something up!

Ignatius Rourke only caused people happiness in life. In death, he must now endure eternity chained to super euphoric glow balls.

Good Morning, Planet Earth

It is always reassuring to wake up and discover the planet is still there.

Sorry, all, for my recent bout of reclusion. I haven't gotten much painting done while I've been job searching, but let these images serve as proof that I, too, still exist.

Dimensional Hyper Gnat

Trying to keep up a steady diet of Photoshop sketching, which isn't so difficult sans employ.

Sturm, Drang, Gradient Filters

Couple of newbies. I'm working with lower contrast/less color for  a while. Hopefully, that'll make it easier to nitpick subtle details when called upon to do so. The bottom one is a wonkish self portrait I like anyway.

Crowd Surfing

 

Crowd control is an interesting problem. Complex pieces have to be handled as fractals, more or less, applying the same compositional thought to each portion while monitoring the whole. Still, managing complex imagery is necessary for convincing world building. It's easy to tell when someone's gone through conniptions to avoid acknowledging their setting. I'll be doing some more complex studies for a while to see about tackling the issue.

For those who are wondering about how Archetype is actually coming alone (and for those aren't, but are compelled unreasonably to finish reading to the end of sentences), I'm pleased to say I'm working pretty steadily on a draft of the first volume. Having huge stockpiles of even the most trivial data on the story is proving rather helpful. Characters and settings can volunteer solutions of their own accord. 

That which is this blog.

In short, it's two things: 

1) Classwork

2) Archetype

What classwork means is pretty obvious, the other probably less so.

Many already know I've been working on a series of graphic novels for half a decade or so. That's Archetype. Thus far, after the ill-fated but "educational" draft way back in high school, it hasn't been anything but planning.

But it's been long enough, and I think I may finally have the experience and structure to make it work. I'm sketching out the first issue right now, with an ETA of--well, we'll see. I'll toss out some images from the character primer and some work in progress as it goes along.

Anyway, please, feel free to comment and share. Part of the reason I'm doing this is get ideas on how to improve, so, please, let me know what you think.