:remix, recover:

I continued working on an "assignment" from the 20 day portfolio renovation project, this being reworking an old work with hopefully the better knowledge and skills of today. I chose one of first ever Photoshop pieces I did, and I think it shows. Mid-90s, version 5, I believe, not CS5. I cringe now. But I sometimes also cringe at last year's work.

This was pre-digital camera, so I had to dig up and re-scan the original photograph. As a result it was of a lot lower resolution than I'm used to.

I think I've learned a lot more restraint and subtlety with effects and retouching over the years, so I didn't go overboard this time. As far as concept, I came to see the the door as a gateway, and so she became a guardian or a greeter, to the universe beyond it. Again a major lesson I took away was the idea of trying to plan out concepts beforehand, so, a goal for the year.

In the closer future, I'm again offering up my Valentine's Day cards for sale up on Etsy, another goal for this year is to finally make that work somehow. This is an ancient image for me, so perhaps it's time for a new one, although I doubt one will be made in time for this year.

I'm also pondering selling the framed version of this image. It's non-digital, so it would be the true original.

:artchaeology:

Amongst the other creative projects that I've been setting into motion with the new year, I've been taking part in a 20 day portfolio renovation project being taught by another artist, Brooke Shaden. The first thing that I discovered when I dug out my battered old physical portfolio, other than the need to buy a new one, was that since I work in so many different media, it actually affects the cohesiveness of the whole collection. So I've decided that I now need separate portfolios for each one; illustration, photography and the Homunculus dolls. Of course this is also assuming that people will want to see physical examples rather than just go online these days.

Since Shaden works with photography, I decided to focus just on that for the challenge. Since I still have that day job problem, some days I haven't been able to complete assignments but I can go back to them at some point. I'll need to for the other media anyway. There's a private Facebork group set up for people to post their contributions and discuss the assignments.

One aspect brought up that I feel I need to work on is storytelling, or concepts and messages. Thus far most of my photoshoots have been collaborations with the models and generally improvising as we go on, and I try to interpret something from the shots later. I think I'm pretty successful in that, although it still is mostly "just" portraiture and no real "messages." Not necessarily a bad thing, but it would be interesting to have a concept to begin with before a shoot.

One day's assignment was to create an entirely new piece using the lessons of the previous days. I didn't have time to set up a new shoot, and self-portraiture isn't really my thing, so I went back into last year's shoots for some "outtake" to work on. I chose this one because even though it was a bit blurred it still looked good to me, and the mood was a bit different than many of the other shots from the same session. I worked on the color, lighting and background, and am personally quite pleased with it, especially with how quickly I created it. Sadly, as often seems to be the case with the pieces I like most, I didn't get much of a response when I shared it to the group.

Another assignment was to rework an old piece with the knowledge and skills that you have now. I chose this piece, and of course now I cringe at it. It's one of my first Photoshop pieces (using version 5, I believe), and doesn't it just scream that? This was pre-digital camera too, so to use the original I had to dig up and rescan a photograph. Consequentially it's quite lo-res. We'll see where I can go from here. But truth to tell, in the past I've had to stop reworking old pieces and learn to just move on to create new ones. Most final versions of what I do are really what I consider the "good enough" version.

:beneath the skin:

This past weekend I went out with my Holga camera again, but didn't finish the film roll in it, so I can't show anything from that yet. And I also went back to working on the Tiffany photos again, finishing another one last night. I'm pleased with how quickly I seem to be working now, or at least learning when to stop. I could've played with the various Photoshop layer modes seemingly forever, though. I am looking for a more "damaged" look again, but a lot of the modes leave very little of the original photos visible, and I am still proud of the raw originals, so I didn't go overboard.

I had an earlier version that I completely scrapped, so that's yet another reason to praise working in digital, as the original photo was never really "lost." Although believe you me, I make sure to have several backups of everything, and at least one print made of my artwork.

There are at least three photos layered here, with one chosen mainly for the watery texture. I usually go dark, literally, so this time I chose to fade to white.

In my continuing cleanup process of the boxes and such in my apartment, I finally ran across several folders full of old artwork, much of it from my years at MassArt. Much of it wasn't as embarrassing as it may have been at some point, but I'm pleased that I've improved much since then. Also related to our digital present, back then they had us creating most of our assignments by cutting up colored Pantone paper, which both was pricey and time-consuming. I'm sure they do most, if not all, of it on a computer screen now. Oh you kids have it so good, you have no idea.

:2015 rewind:

Looking back at the past year of entries written here, I saw a lot more artwork done than I originally thought I had before reviewing, although most of it was photography. Not in itself a bad thing, but I don't want to abandon other media. The simple fact is still that it takes less time to take and work on photography than to paint or draw, and sadly an excess of free time is still not a luxury in my current life.

That and other things were repeatedly commented on, like redesigning the website, so I have to make sure that another year doesn't go by without addressing that.

The winter and snow was condensed into nearly one month, and I tried to combat the doldrums by working only in black & white, which was interesting, but there already was an excess of white all around us.

I made up for the gloom in summer, getting to the ocean and sunsets whenever possible. And a spur of the moment trip to Montreal as well.

I did get a few drawings in, from pencil to ink and computer coloring, and I'm pleased with them, but again wish I could complete them quicker. I could never do a monthly comic book at this kind of pace. I do have a graphic novel idea or two still in my brain.

I finished another regular novel for NaNoWriMo again. I haven't revisited it since I finished it in November, but I plan to this weekend. I want to get one of if not both of them published this year. The lack of actual readers last year made me not bother offering it to people this year, but I do need some sort of outside editor to help complete them.

I'm not generally a crafty person, but I painted a few cat banks for my sister in a Dia de Los Muertos style.

There were a few pieces in gallery shows, and I plan to keep on that path. I'm hopeful to make a few more Homunculus dolls and get a show for all of them again.

The nearest I got to being published was being included in a book of artwork of Krampus. It'll do.

I had two fun photoshoots this year, and of course I hope for many more this year, although I'm well aware that I still have room for improvement. I already have ideas for some extra gear. I still wish others would realize that I'm available, or that those who showed initial interest would actually follow through, but I'm probably just going to have to resort to paying for models again.

Last weekend I visited an exhibit on Pixar, at Boston's Museum of Science of all places, and once again it filled me with the desire to somehow find a way to work there. It looks like such a wonderful place to do so, and of course it'd finally be a place to utilize my talents, not like the entirety of my day job history. I've actually applied to them in the past. But I didn't see any current job openings on their website. I know enough from my job hunting research (yes, must escape from that day job, still) that often jobs never even make it to being listed a fair amount of the time. But I need to have something more relevant to show them if I am really to pursue it.

:long ago and far away:

I'm still working, slowly, on the photos from October. If I get an hour in a day I feel successful. Ideally I'd like to have the whole day, but, well, I'll get to that point some day. These are just the first steps, color correction and some editing, I'm not entirely sure where I'm going yet but these aren't the final results.

I really like this shot. She looks both at ease and strong and if you knew anything about the kind of year she's had, you'd be glad to see it too.

And I've said it before, but adding props just seems to add something to the shoot as well, in her case.

Unless you've been in a media black hole, and I honestly can't judge someone who is, you may be aware that a new episode of "Star Wars" is out this week. I was around for all the previous ones, and saw the original, unaltered one in the movie theater when it came out. It definitely sent my artwork in different directions to say the least. I managed to unearth this ancient drawing of what is probably still my favorite character.

:back and forth:

This past week was mostly prep work on older artwork than creating new ones....going through the shots from last month's shoot and sending them off to the model. Out of 300 shots I narrowed it down to 90. I may do further things with them but they stand fine on their own for now, I think.

Also going through the shots from last week's shoot. Again, just simple clean up and color correction for now. I probably won't be able to revisit them until December, as most of November will be taken up by NaNoWriMo.

I was also selecting artwork for display in a show in Rhode Island, and because it's being held in a library, not much of my recent work can be shown, either because of slightly gory themes, or nudity. Interesting. So I had to go further back into my catalog than I had originally planned.

While I want to move forward and keep changing, I used to do a lot more layering with textures and lettering. Far back enough that when I had to go out and photograph said textures myself, I used a film camera. It'd be so much easier now, of course. I wonder what the places where I got them developed at thought I was doing. I like that my current photos stand well on their own, but I may try and revisit this style. Still need to have my work to stand out in some way not like others out there.

:the opposite of color blind:

The website planning is plodding along, don't ask. It appears that I usually procrastinate on projects or situations that I find either overwhelming or difficult. I need to set an actual deadline for it and see if that doesn't speed me along. There was a big hubbub this week about Google now requiring websites to be more smartphone-friendly for them to show up in search results. I got an email from Google Analytics about a month ago, so it wasn't exactly a surprise for me. Just another diversion from the paths of projects that I'd rather be on instead.

As of late, I seem to be thinking about or planning artwork more than actually making it, other than the pencil piece I completed a few weeks ago. The model liked it and re-posted it on her Instagram, where it got over 900 "likes," which does feel good, but that's the currency we trade in these days, it seems. Too bad each like wasn't also a dollar, hmm?

After a winter of working entirely in black & white, I'm thinking of going in entirely the opposite direction, crazy with color, which is so not my style to begin with. I remembered doing a few pieces (shown below) back in my art school days that were done on colored paper, so I may go in that direction for starters. It was surprisingly difficult for me to find pads of multi-colored paper, that weren't aimed at children at least, plenty of grey pads though.

Another goal is to get into more gallery shows, and that has stalled because, frankly, I've not been feeling very confident in my artwork that it would be accepted. There's an upcoming show, in a comic shop of all places, that I'm considering, so that could be a good start. Being a comic shop, you can imagine what the theme might be. In this case, superheroines. Thus far I've thought of trying depicting Battle Angel Alita, Tank Girl, or Zatanna. We shall see.

:time capsule:

Continuing the archaeological dig that is my life, I came across a folder marked "works in progress," that will need further examination, but a quick glance through it unearthed a lot of source material for an art piece about 9-11 ( that probably wouldn't have the same impact now than if I had done it closer to that date - oh well ), evidence that I've been planning my next tattoo for quite some time, and these little paintings from 2000:

As near as I can tell, these were done to test out different brands of acrylic paints, to see which one I'd prefer. Painting was never my favorite medium, I could not get the control out of it that I could in other ones. Especially not oils. I often said that the first thing that I learned in art school was that I hated oil painting. And I think the oil paintings that I did only recently dried.

One reason for this digging, other than the hope of finally being free from clutter, is an attempt at inventory. This past weekend some friends of mine were the victims of a fire. They are fine, but they've lost damn near everything they owned. ( money is being raised for them here )This sort of thing terrifies me. I do have renter's insurance, but have yet to make a list for it, so this is showing me that it's long overdue. However, they expect you to know when you bought things and the price you paid for them. Who keeps tracks of such things?? Overwhelming.

As you might imagine, in my case the biggest loss would be my artwork. Totally irreplaceable. I don't want to become paranoid, but I wonder if I should store such things elsewhere. I often see storage facilities and think, that's a sure sign you own too much stuff if you need storage outside of where you live. But now I'm pondering it.

:forward into the past 15:

Nothing creative this week beyond some photos, but nothing terribly spectacular, so I'll dig into my old works again for a random picture.

This was done for illustration class at MassArt in 1989. I hope I don't have to tell you who it is. If so, then I failed (I know I really didn't because I graduated). If you want to see more of my past work, the previous blog entries in this series are in the 2009 section.

Kind of appropriate that I chose an art school piece, as I was in a comic shop today (bought the first two issues of "The Wicked & Divine" - much recommended), and two other people in there, including the owner, also went to MassArt. It was an interesting conversation, almost like three generations of alumni. We all talked about hidden rooms that we found while there. And the shift from fine arts to a more commercial curriculum. And those weird performance art majors & teachers (of which the owner was one).

:tumbling within:

Mostly a week of more introspection, as I perused the box full of sketchbooks some more. I'm fascinated both by some of the forgotten ideas in them that I think could still work and could probably pull off better than I could back then, and also the often cryptic writings along with the drawings, some of which I can tell had to do with several different relationships I was going through at the time but are in some sort of shorthand that makes no sense now, so I presume I expanded on them elsewhere in other writings that I haven't unearthed yet. I did notice that writing overtook drawing at some point, and I changed that by having two separate little books for those different outlets.

Also linked to the past in a way is an exercise on Facebook that I'm involved in right now that involves artists, when people "like" the post, you give them the name of an artist and they are supposed to find something of theirs that they like, whether they know the artist or not, re-post it and spread this virus even further. It'd be nice to see Facebook full of more artwork than ads by the end of the week (although I have ad-blocking in place). I was given Salvador Dali, which was an easy choice, as he was an early inspiration of mine. I also recalled that when I was in art school he was barely covered in my art history classes and he also passed on during that time too.

I've noticed thus far that I've chosen more recent artists than older ones, which probably says a lot about me. In fact I did find a lot of art history uninteresting. Dave McKean, Moebius, Michael Parkes, Joel-Peter Witkin, Ralph Steadman, Masamune Shirow, Aubrey Beardsley, Rick Berry, Mark Ryden, HR Giger, Max Ernst, Robert Williams, Man Ray, Rick Griffin - not many of these are ones you'd find in a big 'ol museum. At least not yet.

So that this posting isn't bereft of visuals, here's a shot of last Saturday night, when we got our first big snowfall of the season.

:documented:

Slight pause in working on the photos from the last shoot, as I may have said before, I'm planning one that may use possibly ten layers and I need the right time and state of mind for that. Sometimes.

For the past few days I've been looking through a box full of old sketchbooks that I filled up, little ones that I would carry around with me anywhere should something pop into my mind, and it appears that it often did. I'm up to 16 of these things by now, which I started around when I went to art school. Appropriately enough those early ones were filled with ideas for class assignments and some very ambitious ideas that didn't bear fruit. It appears sometimes that I'd have just a title or a character and I'd think it would lead to a comic story of some such, but it didn't always stick. I have no idea where I got something like "Pinkfish Rising" from, and apparently I was stuck after that. There are plenty of "cool" song titles and lyrics and such scattered throughout, too, not that I made music beyond some bizarro noisy tracks and collages that I really need to get off of cassettes and into digital format soon.

At times these little books are like a diary, I can definitely trace the rise and fall of one relationship and the long desert after it just from the drawings and what I wrote -  I'll spare you the writing -  plus notes on concerts I saw or trips that I took, like my first time to New York City (wasn't that good), and lists galore. I still make too many lists, this just reminds me that I need to get better at following through on my ideas and plans. It's just that too often real life gets in the way.

So I'm still not one for resolutions but I hope to improve upon this in the new year. Just looking at these sketchbooks alone show that I should have a much larger body of work.

:precarious:

This past weekend I succeeded in doing a photoshoot at a location that I had found only a few months ago; usually it can take months or even years for such things to come to fruition in my world, so this is encouraging. The weather even seemed to work in our favor too - it had been rainy all morning but stopped by the time we got there and it wasn't too cold, windy or sunny. In fact the sun didn't come out from behind the clouds until after we left. Spoooky.

To fully capture how these cliffs looked I would've had to either shoot from a boat or use some bizarro lens, but I believe I did my best. I'm still sorting through the shots.

  

 







Despite all the seriousness you see in these shots it was a fun shoot. One can strike dramatic poses overlooking the sea for only so long before you start cracking up.

After all that, in the evening I went to catch the Cinematic Titanic show, which is a live show put on by former cast members of Mystery Science Theater 3000, of which I may be still a tad bit obsessed. This is the farewell tour, alas, as their separate lives make it too difficult for them to get together or tour regularly anymore, but they did it for six years or so, and were thrilled to finally meet their fans. They said they really didn't get much direct feedback back in the day. Except for maybe the letters and artwork people sent in to the show, which they often showed on-air. With that in mind I remembered that I had done a drawing myself, so I managed to unearth it and gave it to Joel himself. He seemed pleased by it.

Mind you, this was done in the proto-internet days, no YouTube or even DVDs, so I drew this from a freeze frame off of a VHS tape.

My experiment in giving away free downloads on deviantArt of my Halloween pics is over, and what was the most downloaded? Can't say I'm surprised:

Let them eat cheesecake, I suppose?

:tis the season:

It's getting to be that time of year again - Halloween! Although you'd not be thinking that way in Boston today, with the temps being in the 90s. But since I hate winter more (and heating bills), I don't complain about it.

No idea yet what I'm doing for the holiday itself, especially since it's on a Thursday ( meh ), but it's still a fave of mine. I shouldn't jinx it, but who knows, maybe we'll get another snowstorm.

I have no new artwork in that theme, yet, although I may see if I can create a long-overdue new homunculus doll in that vein. But I decided as an experiment of sorts to allow free downloads of my "Halloween is My Xmas" series on deviantArt until Halloween. I just checked it out, people have already started. People just love free artwork, sigh. But if you want to buy actual printed versions of them they are available on my Etsy page.

So far this is the top runner:

I talked about these in further detail in a past blog entry.