About a Lost Cat and Mechanical Chess Pieces

It’s morning, slept late after working the past few days on a piece and trying my hand at self-promotion and marketing.  As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, self-promotion has never been my forte, but you are never to old to learn I suppose.

Usually when I am working on the drawing board I listen to either music or podcasts. I have been following the No Sleep Podcast for quite some time.  Not only is the No Sleep podcast well produced, if you are a fan of horror stories, you will find some well executed episodes that are well written with solid voice acting.

The other podcast that I have become a fan of is The Lost Cat.  It is hard to describe the Lost Cat podcast, its eccentric, surreal and a gem.  Some have compared it to if Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett all showed up at a party and began telling stories about a lost cat and their attempts to find him. The writer Andrew P. Clarke, who resides in London, is also the narrator and  a song writer, singer and uses his talents in each episode and spins not only a hypnotic tale, but also interweaves a song that is often cryptic and soulful. Think if Tom Waits had a love child with Nick Cave.

In other news I finally finished The Red Knight pen and ink drawing I have been working on. I really pushed myself on this one, I confess there were moments that I also thought it wasn’t going to work. I learned a lot from the piece, also gave me ideas on how to define the pieces that will follow it.

The Red Knight is a minor character in Alice in Wonderland who kidnaps Alice momentarily and is rescued by the White Knight in a comical jousting match.  I decided to make the Red Knight a mechanical chess piece. Since I am doing a twisted version of Wonderland, I felt it would fit.  Now comes the clean up and digital coloring process then I will make it available on Tees, posters, prints etc.

Halloween and the Trials of Self Promotion

As we near the end of August and creep into September, the air is becoming slightly cooler and with the coming of October, trees will shed their leaves and Halloween will come dancing down the pavement in a cascade of dead leaves and light, eerie laughter.  October is my favorite time of the year. Halloween horror movie fests, night coming quicker, the air is pregnant with mystery.

This Fall I find myself focusing more on producing and selling artwork. I fully confess that I target a niche audience, this has caused me some limitations in being able to advertise my work to its potential. Also, it has hampered me because I know that much of my work will never appeal to mainstream. I also confess this is fueled by a bit of arrogance, conceit and vanity.  Yet, in my feeble haphazard way I still meander down this path most likely to get lost in the woods and may have to set off a flair to be found. But you only live once.

I also have never been good at self-promotion, in fact most artists would rather be in front of a drawing table or an easel that ply their wares on the internet. But I am learning slowly and find that you must give as much into self-promotion as you do the act of creating. It can be disheartening, but it is the way it is.

Since Halloween is upon us, I do have horror themed Tees available on Amazon as well as Zazzle.  You will find the shirts on Amazon are cheaper, but the quality of the shirts on Zazzle, especially for black Tees, are higher, thus more expensive.  Zazzle does two passes on Black Tees with white ink to insure the image is probably defined.  Amazon, I am not quite sure yet. I have ordered from both and both have met my expectations and those that didn’t, I reworked and resubmitted. 

Below are designs that are Halloween themed available on Amazon:

 



Or you can visit my Zazzle Shop, not just for Tees, but posters, prints, postcards, playing cards, sketch books and more...

It has been almost over two years since I posted on this blog. In fact, I abandoned it due to changes at my place of employment, change of work hours (I have become a member of the graveyard shift brigade) and financial issues have dominated much of my time and thought.  Truth is I haven’t had much time for creative endeavors.  A lot has happened over the past two years, somethings to be grateful about and others that left a dent. I find that when I disregard or put creativity on the back-burner eventually I get out of kilter.  My return to the creative muse has been long overdue and a necessity.

I have decided to start a series primarily for Tee Shirts based on a twisted version of Alice in Wonderland. I know the concept isn’t new, American McGee originated it and Timothy Burton ran with it so I figured it is fair game for me to do and apply my own, somewhat haphazard vision.

Below is the first in the series, The White Rabbit. The original was done in pen and ink, ballpoint pen and pencil. I was really pleased with the outcome, but I decided if I wanted to do it for Tee Shirts I would have to make it pop a bit. Hence my return to digital coloring via my Walcum Tablet and Photoshop. 

Below are the two versions, the original pen and ink and the digitally colored version.

I waited before posting the Tee Shirt for sale until I received one from Zazzle to check the quality of it. I received it today and was pleasantly surprised that the enlarged image held.

After seeing the final product I decided to place them for sale on a new section I created entitled "Go Ask Alice."  This will be the first in the series. The characters in Alice in Wonderland are odd enough as they are, but I intend to add my own eccentric touch. Apologies to the purist. 

In other news, seems that my Oncologist only wants to see me once a year instead of my regular visits. I am officially in remission. So I may just grow into that creepy old man feeding ducks at the pond yet.  

Week of Strangeness, Upon Being Adrift and Nap time

Been a strange week. Had to process a lot. I survived a layoff at my place of employment, watched what I posted on a movie site turn into an ego thing (note to self, self stay away from movie sites...it is the new religion) and finished the piece below.

I am quite happy with the piece, I will have to spend the rest of the week doing cleanup to get it ready to be printable.  I also need to add a few finishing touches to it.

Finishing a piece is like leaving a relationship. Now I feel rather adrift. Deciding what I will commit to for the next couple of months is rather overwhelming in a sense. (it takes me a couple of months to finish a piece) I am sure the inspiration will come, when I try to force it though, it never works.

So in the meantime I have been attempting the social networking thing. I am now on twitter @ezekiel_crowe . I am not a pro at the # hashtag formula yet, in fact I don't know if it makes that much of a difference. I am still in the testing phase.

For those of you that like my work, it means a lot to me. Thank you.

Now I think I will feed the cats and take a long nap.

Pen and Ink Doesn't Want To Fade Away...

I have had a love affair with pen and ink since I was a small lad. I think mostly due to the fact I grew up on the black and white comics of my youth such as Creepy and Eerie. They were published by Warren Comics and also included titles like Famous Monsters and Vampirella.  A note here, Vampirella was created by Frank Frazetta and became a guilty pleasure for many a hormone afflicted teen aged boy.

Uncle Creepy by Bernie Wrightson

On the right is Uncle Creepy drawn by Bernie Wrightson, whose work in those publications really inspired me. I believe the first story I read that Wrightson did the artwork was based on Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat. Other artists such as Reed Crandall really educated me on how to use line work. I have to confess much of my art instruction came from those magazines by trying to emulate their work.

Though back in those days drawing materials were not in ready supply and I practiced on typing paper with felt tips. I knew back then that the only thing I wanted to be in this world was a comic book artist.

Although it never happened, I don't regret a single minute I spent by myself drawing odd creatures and super heroes like the Shadow and the Batman until my eyes grew tired.

Cousin Eerie by Bernie Wrightson

As I grew older I watched as the artists that inspired me in my youth grew artistically. Wrightson's Frankenstein opened a new world for me in what pen and ink could do. In the introduction he mentioned Franklin Booth and that sent me on an odyssey to find out all I could about how to render in pen and ink.

Now I have always been a book shop hound and always had a small library of art books. Though I took art in High School, my instructors didn't know what to do with me so they usually sent me off into a corner and told me to do what I wanted. So most of my instruction came from those books. For me, the book Rendering In Pen and Ink became my bible. 

Rendering In Pen and Ink

The volume was filled with examples by early 20th Century illustrators including Booth. For me, pen and ink was sort of an alchemy, a mysterious use of line, shadow and form. I was awe of the mastery of many of the artists and set out on a quest to learn as much as I could. I moved from felt tips to crow quill and later to technical pens. I also played with ballpoints and loved them but was dismayed to find out that they are not light fast and will fade in direct sunlight whereas India ink will not.

Below is an example of my ballpoint work.

Memento Mori Ballpoint

Anymore I stick with Unipens and Microns, they are the best disposable replacement for technical pens and not nearly as expensive. They are also light fast and do not come with the hassle of cleaning that technical pens come with. They also come in very fine sizes, which I love because I am obsessed with detail.

Below is a piece done with Micron pen inspired by Franklin Booth.

Charon done in Micron Pen

I get the inspiration that Wrightson obtained from Booth, his work inspired me as well. The way he depicts forms with lines seem almost effortless, graceful. Below is a video of a compilation of his work. 

Pen and Ink is far from being a dead medium, though there are many that will tell you different. Facebook is riddled with them and I will highlight some of them here and there in this blog.

Pen and Ink will not fade away either in the sun or with time...it endures.