Finally Finished

Well, I've been in a pretty deep creative funk for awhile. Trying to brute force through it doesn't seem to work much but you can't beat emotion as a motivator. On top of the usual depression over still being broke and working for a pittance in a job that bores me after 3 years of this damn economic depression, the plain truth is I was missing the kid. So I finished my painting of her.

New techniques reveal just how tacky our ancestors were

Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that's required to see them as they were thousands of years ago.

Although it seems impossible to think that anything could be left to discover after thousands of years of wind, sun, sand, and art students, finding the long lost patterns on a piece of ancient Greek sculpture can be as easy as shining a lamp on it. A technique called ‘raking light' has been used to analyze art for a long time. A lamp is positioned carefully enough that the path of the light is almost parallel to the surface of the object. When used on paintings, this makes brushstrokes, grit, and dust obvious. On statues, the effect is more subtle. Brush-strokes are impossible to see, but because different paints wear off at different rates, the stone is raised in some places – protected from erosion by its cap of paint – and lowered in others. Elaborate patterns become visible.

Read the rest of the article here

hi larry, us

Dude cracks me up.

Unfortunately, sounds too familiar. *warning: dirty words*

"It's like Twitter"

Eh, it's a job

kidding... drawing rarely feels like a job.
Was working on some more digi-stamps for Coll's site

Here's a colored version of the kitty

Bisbee, Arizona

Two of these grim fellows guarded the entrance to the house beyond.
We named them Baruch and Balthamos.


The History Room
The Schoolhouse Bed & Breakfast


The Lavender Pit
This used to be a mountain.
Mined out in 1974.

Saw this near the museum in Bisbee.
Not Banksy, according to my small bit of research, though Banksy was in Utah recently.


Not sure if this is an abandoned lot that had graffiti or if the rubble were part of the exhibit.
The former, I think.


One of the nicer bits of random art.

Saw this flower on the entire trip. It grows, along with dozens of others, at the top of a ling spike. An explosion of green spikes guard the base.
We wondered if the flowers were as petal-soft as they looked. They weren't.


Two of these guys hiding in the vines.


Going into the Queen Mine

"Pickles, the drummer...

...doodly doodly doo."

Some doodles while waiting to leave work.

Copic Marker Classes

Ya know how you put stuff somewhere, totally planning to take care of it later? Yeah.

Back in April, My awesome friend and flying monkey wrangler Colleen sent me off to get my Copic Marker certification so I could be her site's resident guru. It was pretty interesting and although I have been using markers since before there were Macs, I still learned a couple of things. I also got some epic markers and a couple of multiliners.

Anyway, nuff plugs. With no further dudes:


Yeah, not too many male motifs to be found.


Some doodles.

Sketches

I scanned some sketches I've been working on for CopicMarkerScrapbooking.com
This series is based on the Wizard of Oz


The Cowardly Lion



The Scarecrow

Biennale

Okay, here's the short version:

About 7 years ago, I got an email invite to this event. It was an art festival in Florence, Italy called Biennale. Kinda like Basel Miami I'm assuming. Anyway, I didn't think a lot of it, especially since I really couldn't afford the $3000 entry fees, not to mention the travel expenses. I requested the full package anyway and received it a few days later. It was a pretty impressive packet of info, but, still relatively broke, I put it in my files.

Flash forward a few years to 2007. I'm working for Phoenix Art Group and someone mentions Biennale and I say something about getting an invite a while back. Chick about choked on her dried vegan seaweed. Apparently it's a really, really big deal and getting invited is too. I don't think she believed me, to be honest, and I couldn't find the info pack after all that time.

So I'm watching one of my favorite films; The Big Lebowski, and at the scene where The Dude has returned to Maude's place at her request and the "video artist, Knox Harrington" (David Thewliss) is there. Eventually Maude comes home and after a bit, the phone rings. Knox calls to Maude and says, "It's Sandra, about Biennale."

Every time I hear that I cringe, thinking of the big opportunity that I missed.

Jump to yesterday. I got my second invitation to the event!



Yeah, still can't afford to go, but at least I have some time to raise the funds, right? Yeah. It's 2700 Euro to enter. That's about $3350 in real money. And again, doesn't include hotel or airfare. But still cool to get the invite!!

Sneaker Art

I bought these high tops awhile ago. Decided they needed something.

First, I clean the toe of the shoe with some alcohol.


Using a pencil, I roughed in what I wanted to draw before going in with a marker.


Using a black Copic marker with the brush nib, I simply ink my design.


If you make a mistake, Copic markers clean off easily with alcohol.


The finished product!

New Name, New Direction

So, it's been some time since I posted here and I figgered it was time to reboot this thing. Hence the new name and new focus. Where before the focus was art and art news in general, I'm going to use this blog more to both get my work out, but also as a motivator for myself. Inspiration is only half the issue. My biggest problem as an artist is motivation.

So stay tuned

Frank Frazetta

Sad news today. Epic fantasy artist Frank Frazetta died today. His most famous works graced the covers of Tarzan and Conan novels, as well as Molly Hatchet's first three albums.

DaVinci's Last Supper Online

The Italian art site haltadefinizione.com has put up the definitive Last Summer image on their site. 16 billion pixels! 1,600 times more detailed than the typical 10 million pixel digital camera.



Yahoo News:

By COLLEEN BARRY, Associated Press Writer Sun Oct 28, 7:40 AM ET

MILAN, Italy - Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper?" As of Saturday, all you need is an Internet connection. Officials put online an image of the "Last Supper" at 16 billion pixels — 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera.

The high resolution will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not — including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting.

Full story from Yahoo News

Woman Finds Masterpiece in the Trash

Four years ago, Elizabeth Gibson was walking her dog in New York's Upper West Side when she came across a painting lying in some trash. Thinking it was too "powerful and beautiful" to be in the trash, she took it home.



Turns out that it's a painting done by famed Mexican artist, Rufino Tamayo, and had been stolen some 20 years ago. She returned it to it's rightful owners and is receiving a $15,000 reward, plus a percentage of the auction price.

The full story from Yahoo news

Feh

As an artist, there are times when you come across someone's work and are blown away. You simply fall in love with their work. Then there are times when this happens, but you get the added benefit of realizing how much you suck as an artist. I mean, by comparison, you stink and you should quit and go work for Whataburger. This is one of those guys:



Not only is his work amazing, it's in a genre I wish I could break into, but for one reason or another, haven't taken the plunge. That's the other aspect of artists like this. They make you feel like you are wasting your talent by not pursuing what you'd really like to be doing, while making you realize you couldn't compete anyway because he is so amazing.

The Wow Factor

There are a few contemporary artists that I admire, mostly because they have a gimmick. Ron Mueck for his amazingly realistic, yet oddly oversized sculptures of people, Damien Hirst for his vision and David Mach, for his wire hanger sculptures.



Yeah, this is made from bending white coat hangers.

Source

Damien Hirst Plagiarism?

For an artist who normally is surrounded by controversy, who indeed has nearly made a career of controversy, this is one bit of hubbub he probably doesn't need. The newest Damien Hirst project involves art pieces that mimic stained glass and are constructed of butterfly wings. Apparently there is another artist who has been creating art with this same technique for at least 10 years.

Damien Hirst Butterflies Controversy

Full Story from ArtNewsBlog

Statue of Buddha Returned to Pakistan

Among a number of artifacts that were illegally exported from Pakistan and are now being returned is a statue of a starving Buddha that at least one expert in London thinks is fake.

Starving Buddha sculpture returned to Pakistan

But leading London expert says it’s a fake

By Martha Lufkin | Posted 22 March 2007

NEWARK. A group of artefacts said to have been illicitly exported from Pakistan were handed over to the Pakistani government on 23 January by the US Department of Homeland Security. A prominent London art expert believes that one of the objects restituted, a “Starving Buddha”, is a fake. However, US Customs said that the Pakistani government had determined that the objects were authentic.

Full Story from The Art Newspaper.com

The Louvre Dubai

As previously noted, the Louvre is planning to sponsor a museum in Dubai. The prospect of this has the art world in an uproar. Critics of the idea say that it's completely a monetary decision.

"The Louvre is selling the use of its name to Abu Dhabi for $520 million. The building will cost a mere $108 million to build, but to slap the Louvre name on it, Abu Dhabi will have to part with more than half a billion dollars!

Is a name really worth that much? I can understand a cola maker wanting to use the Coke name or a shoe maker wanting to use the Nike name, but how does a museum justify paying $520 million to use the Louvre name?"

Full Story from ArtNewsBlog.com

DeviantArtist of the Month

~carts is an artist I found on Deviantart.com. I really like his style as an illustrator, but also as a painter. His blue underwear piece is very cool, as are his portraits.