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

Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

My tribute to one of my favorite films "of all time". Some friends of mine were opening a club night with a minimalist/cold-wave music theme and they asked me if I wanted to bring any art with me. Being the only person exhibiting, of course I was honored and it motivated me to make this painting I had been imagining for months! Being a Blade Runner FANATIC I cranked it out in 3 hours. It's 4 foot by 2. Wouldn't a cartoon of this movie and novel be great?

Blade Runner Blues

Acrylic on Canvas

October 2012

Krytios Soto flyer

My current flyer.

iamamiwhoami

They say the northern folk are cold. Jonna Lee and the mysterious collaboration known as iamamiwhoami seem as "cold" as the surface of the sun. Explosive and highly emotionally charged music accompanies surrealistic videos of performance art that is filled with mythic, dreamy imagery. The sound is part danceable, part sad and bitter-sweet, and part ominous at times.

This image was mostly inspired by the video for clump. Although ultimately a caricature (I try to work in the realm of "cute") it brings to mind certain beings from European myth and folklore. Obviously Fairies and Trolls but I was also inspired by the Basque woman of the forest, Basa Andere. A being who seduces men by combing the short fur on her belly with an enchanted golden comb.

Kin

Pencil, Photoshop

October 2012

AUSTRA

It's been nearly a year and a half since the release of Austra's album Feel it Break and personally, I'm still spellbound. I totally missed them when they came to my city, Miami, because I was out of town (of course!). Despite that, you can say I'm pretty floored by this band. While my favorite singer on Earth, Björk, is a great example of unpredictable atonal sound, Austra gives us music that's still surprising and bold while rich in melody and harmony. Beyond that, their songs express a broad range of emotional states and their lyrics are quite poetic. You know, anything I'd say just wouldn't capture it. Personally, I think they're awesome and they were worth depicting in a cute cartoony fashion. 

I had originally made sketches for what I believe to be the six important people that comprise Austra, including the two girls and the young man with that amazing long hair that appears in some of the videos. But I wound up with these three because it worked compositionally. Sources say that the band is really comprised of three. I'm not so sure about that. I may still try and use the remaining three for another portrait. 

This piece is dedicated to the song Spellwork, which already has visuals in the form of the video. But it's one of my favorites. For all I know, their all a bunch of devout staunch athiests. But the song has such a mysterious and mystical quality to it.

Anyhow, I've been making a few of my favorite musicians in this style. I'm just putting out creatively whatever and whoever I draw inspiration from. Musicians give us so much it's only fair to reciprocate. Up next: iamamiwhoami

Spellwork

Pencil, Photoshop

October 2012

Spacer Woman

I'm a spacer woman

Don't you worry 'bout me

I don't want to hurt you

I just want to love you

My tribute to Italo Disco band Charlie and their song Spacer Woman from 1983

Spacer Woman (pink remix)

Pencil, Photoshop

October 2012

The Mutara Battle Part 2, Wrath of Khan Tribute

This is my second illustration to one of my favorite movies of all time, Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. I based Kirk's image on that memorable (kinda funny, actually) scene where he yells "KHAN!" and then they loop his voice over and over again "KHAN! KHAN! KHAN!"

As usual the image at left is reduced to 12% from the original illustration on my hard drive. 

The detail image at right is reduced to 25%.

The Mutara Battle 2

Pencil, Adobe Photoshop

October 2012

The Wrath of Khan in two parts

The genetically advanced, perfect soldier Khan has stolen not only the starship Reliant but the powerful Genesis experiment as well in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the dramatic ending of the film he follows the Enterprise into the mysterious Mutara Nebula, a turbulent region of space that disrupts both of the starships' sensors and disables their shields. This is part 1 of my tribute to this climactic battle.

As usual the image at left in the preview is the full illustration reduced to 12% from the original, while the detail at right is reduced to 25%.

The Mutara Battle 1

Pencil, Adobe Photoshop

October 2012

Blade Runner Blues painting, version 1.0

After months of imagining myself making a painting for one of my favorite movies of all time, I finally grabbed a 2 x 4ft canvas that I had prepared with shades of blues about a year ago and dropped these cartoony caricatures on it. A local event, Cinema Tekka needed some art, so I cranked this out in about a day's time. This is actually a picture of it before completion. You can still see the pencil marks all across it. 

The major changes being Joanna Cassidy's Zhora character, in which case lightening her eyes did wonders to her. And I added a "spinner", the flying police car from the film over Deckard's head. 

I'll be posting a better picture of the finished thing hopefully later today. I had to rush it to the venue where it was displayed and getting a good picture of it was difficult.