Monday, September 30, 2013

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Ornaments of Gold

I really love this song from Siouxsie's Peepshow album from 1988. It's hard to find music with such a visual narrative evoked in it's lyrics. I was actually torn between this song and "Cities in Dust" from Tinderbox of 1985. This is why there's references to antiquity, like Anubis and the Sumerian Lamassu. But in the end, the idea of the allure gold, which looks terrible on my complexion btw, or precious metals (she mentions silver a lot in the song) was what seduced me visually. I switched to a 5-fingered, more proportionate style than my usual 4-fingered cartoon figures for this one. The preview is reduced to 20% of the original, which is vinyl album-frame sized.




Ornaments of Gold

Pencil, Computer

26 September 2013




Ornaments of Gold (Minimal Version)


Monday, June 3, 2013


I've been reading T.E. Lawrence's translation of Homer's Odyssey and it's got me on a Greek mythology kick again. I'm not sure this meeting between Odysseus (Ulysses) and Poseidon (Neptune) is in the book, since I'm not finished with it. I was influenced really by the movie with Isabella Rossellini and Armand Assante that came out a few years ago. Although they never really showed Poseidon in that adaption. I started making the sea god with white hair, but I don't like Zeus or Poseidon as grandfathers. Proteus and Cronus seem more like gods that would be depicted as aged. Half way thru I considered making the god's skin scaly. But the ancient Greeks saw their gods as being a lot like people. I also wanted him titanic in size to reinforce this man-vs-nature contrast.




Poseidon's Warning
Pencil, Photoshop
May 2013

Friday, May 10, 2013



A New Hope

Acrylic on canvas

May 2nd 2013

For this year's May the Fourth festivities I made a 2 by 4 foot tall painting of one of my favorite movies of all time. An homage to posters, book and comic book covers, A New Hope is one of those "kitchen sink" pieces where you cram in as much as possible to tell a story.  

Star Trek Art: The Sensor




The Sensor 
Pencil, Photoshop
June 2012


I've decided to upload bigger previews of my Star Trek inspired art. Reduced to 25% of the print. My first image in a series that pays homage to the Star Trek universe but in my cartoon style. "The Sensor" is an interpretation of one of the more memorable scenes from 1979's Star Trek The Motion Picture in which Mr. Spock encounters a gigantic copy of the Deltan Ilia that overwhelms him as he attempts a mind meld with it. While most Star Trek fans count Wrath of Khan as their favorite from the original movies, I have a nostalgic place in my heart for this first movie. The effects are fantastic and there's enough camp and overacting in some scenes to keep you awake even through the long V'ger sequences.


Thursday, April 4, 2013

Thor, Defender of Midgard


Thor, god of lightning and storms, rescues a child from a Jötunn (giant). The giants in Norse myth are beings that at times are at odds with the gods, even though both races sometimes marry and even have children together. Not all are monstrous in appearance and Thor himself is half giant. There is a fairly typical pattern in many cultures in which the thunder god is an ally of mortals. Anyhow, I didn't want Thor to strike the giant directly in this rendition but rather scare him off. While some of my very favorite movies are very violent and I'm not exactly the nicest person on Midgard, there's already enough over-exposure of violent images on TV and in contemporary art. Not to mention I do have pieces that actually deal with violence, so a bit of balance is needed. 
As usual, the zoomed preview is reduced to 25% of the original print.




Defender of Midgard

Pencil, Photoshop

April 2013