Artist for the Month of February

Kelly Kyv lives in Greece and was gracious enough to let me interview her for the month of February. When I first saw her work it struck a chord in me. I knew she was someone I wanted to interview and was on my list, I was grateful she responded.

Her drawings and sketches dance between shadow and light and are unapologetic. It is if she continues to nurture her inner child through her creativity. Her sketchbooks are like her journal, conveying emotions, personal and yet innocent in their own way and with just the right amount of weird.

I remember when I first saw your work, I thought, she has the weird that I like. Though I felt that there was a Timothy Burton influence, it also reminded me of some 19th Century book illustrators. I also felt you also had some influences that seemed familiar to me, but your unique style made it hard for me to pinpoint. What artists and styles influenced you the most? What books and  films inspired you the most?

I enjoy his work, but my influences came from a much earlier time than Timothy Burton’s work. What I do have in common with him is that I too was inspired by Vincent Price, especially his voice! But instead of Timothy Burton, I’d say Charles Schulz more so. I grew up I the early 70’s and would watch all the classical Disney movies and any cartoon of that time. 

And your guess was correct, anything of Victorian nature.  This is why I admire your art Ezekiel, and the way you have mastered ‘ 19th century’ in your art .  I  just want to thank you for inviting me to be interviewed by you. 

So yes, the Victorian illustrations in all the classical nursery rhymes. And as for reading books I have a weird relationship with them, I love everything about them, smell, feel looking at the photos. Everything except I find it very difficult to finish one. 

All these things, enchanting were inspiring to me. School also played a big role. For me, there was nothing enchanting or interesting, but rather cramped, forced and confusing. I noticed everyone else seemed to be understand everything just fine and all I could understand was the language of art. Fortunately, to my relief, I did have sufficient art classes throughout all the years. 

Sorry my list is long, but I often mention a teen’s art work that I saw because it was an ‘aha moment’. It could have been a copy from an album cover or something but at that age of 9, but after seeing it, I realized you can be a rebel through art. And lastly I must add that , my brother gave me Jack Hamm’s “ How to Draw Cartoons" for my 13th birthday and I needed nothing more in life after that. (how one angle of a line can give an expression on a face)

I still have it after 30 odd years. 

I notice you do a lot of your work in sketchbooks. I am thinking that it maybe for multiple reasons. I know that sketchbook paper is a lot more friendlier to mediums like ink and pencil, but I suspect you always have a sketchbook with you or near you. I also suspect you are a notorious doodler. Am I right? 

Yes, I especially had to doodle in school. (it calmed and secured me). This way, I don’t have to wait for anything, I don’t have to be able to afford anything or to find time either. Anything that I have at the moment is good enough. 

Excerpts from her sketchbook

Excerpts from her sketchbook

One thing I enjoyed looking at most where your sketch journals, it's like looking into the mind of (and this is in no way an insult) a creative schizophrenic and I actually dig that. In fact, in a sense envy it. People who keep sketch journals are to me at least, those that have to draw. It's like an extension of who they are. It's obsessive in a highly creative way. How many sketch journals do you have? 

I do have many. I’m such a hoarder with my art and do find it difficult to part with them. 

One thing I like about your style is that though it may seem frenzied, it actually accentuates the areas that you focus on the most, like the eyes or expression of the characters you draw. That is what drew me to your work at first, the impact of the expressions on your character's faces or the soulfulness of their eyes. I suspect you are highly observant and that you have a high sense of empathy. That sketching and drawing is how you channel it. What strikes me most is your dark twist in humor, it's like, "yeah I know things can be scary and dark, but I can also play here." It is as if you take situations or memories that could overwhelm some and stand them on their head. Am I on the right path here? 

By nature I tend to over observe human behavior. This is why I shy away from people as well  and when it gets overwhelming , I just have to let it spill out,  onto the paper and just let the unconscious do whatever it wants .. I guess that’s why the art may get darker or absurd. It’s not me being dark, it’s the dark I saw and I’m trying to communicate this information in a more positive form. I need the absurd, it makes me giggle, smile or laugh. They are such a great way to express affection towards yourself and others. And no one can deny that they have not seen the dark and light side of life.

Where do you want to go with your art? Have you ever thought of illustrating a story of your own creation, or are your illustrations, one continuing story?

For the last five years I've been putting aside enough pieces that would fit into a Halloween booklet. I’m not certain if it’ll ever it’ll manifest but  I’ll continue my daily doodles, journals regardless.

You can see more of Kelly Kyv's work on her Facebook Page

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Why INK and Why Now and it is all Hopeless In Maine's Fault

Panels from Hopeless In Maine by Tome and Nimue Brown

Over six years ago I ran across online comic that really inspired me. It was called Hopeless in Maine by Tom and Nimue Brown. Both art and story drew me in also the attitude of the Browns, the go for broke determination that fueled its existence, was ultimately paid off with Hopeless in Maine going into publication, a role play game and other projects that will eventually come to light. The Browns now live in the UK and Hopeless in Maine is thriving well.

Hopeless in Maine RPG

But the seed that Hopeless in Maine planted in me led to an online comic that I began working on called Sanctus Sanitorium, unfortunately after 32 pages I was derailed with cancer and having spent almost a year of going through chemotherapy and treatment, I didn't have the strength to return to it and much of the plot which was in my head got lost in a chemo fog.

Panel excerpts from Sanctus Sanatorium

I have been in remission now for over six years, knock on wood, and I couldn't shake loose of some ideas and characters that have been haunting me for decades. Then tragedy struck again, five years ago I lost my father to pancreatic cancer, one year and one month later, my Mother passed away from congestive heart failure and months after that, my brother died of a rare form of blood cancer. So Sanctus Sanatorium, a Gothic steampunk tale got lost in the ether.







About a year after that, I lost my best friend, someone who had been with me through my cancer ordeal and the loss of my entire immediate family,  my cat Poe. Poe was an exceptional cat, more so, he was Legacy. He was extremely empathetic, read me like a book, knew how to manipulate me, knew how to push my buttons and he knew how to make me laugh. I fought hard to combat his declining health and dreaded his loss. When the decision was to release him for his suffering I broke down and wept as they administered the drugs that put him to rest. If I had not done that, his suffering would have been much greater than I could bear to witness. His ashes now sit in an urn on my shelf.  He was sixteen years old.

Poe

Shortly after that, Lenore, the black Egyptian goddess that was Poe's pal and partner in crime, died of a broken heart, literally, she had what the vet described as an elongated heart.  She now rests in my Mother's garden.

Lenore

Knowing that the best way to honor their loss would be to rescue another cat, I went to Pets and People and found Marlowe, who is the inspiration for INK. Marlowe was a special project cat, being feral and cringing when anyone attempted to pet him made his chances for his adoption slim. But his orange eyes did me in. Now Marlowe is not only spoiled and loves to be petted, he follows me everywhere, kind of like the puppy I never had.

Marlowe, under a year old.

Last September I decided to retire, you see cancer changed me in a lot of ways and one of those ways was not wasting away at a call center job even though it paid extremely well. My life had returned to a cycle that I could not break. Go to work at a highly stressful job, go home, sleep, repeat. I decided to give my creative outlet its voice and return to what I love doing since I really don't know how long I have left to tread this sodden earth. I don't live in the daily fear of cancer returning, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to take the lessons I learned from cancer and make the most of what time I have left. So INK was brought from creative aspirations to paper.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to pay homage to the felines that I have known in my life as well as bring characters that have haunted me for decades and create a world that appealed to me that they could play in and I, myself could get lost in. INK is entirely a vanity project. It takes longer for me to do a page, since I am not relying solely on pencils and digital means to create it, but old school tactics, pen and ink. But in this I am trying to do quality over volume. I started in September and now only have 5 pages done with page 6 near completion. As soon as I sort some other things out in my life, progress may go a lot faster.

Banner for INK

  If you choose to support INK, you can do so in different ways. Either buying a Tee Shirt that has my original art reproduced on it or by subscribing to my Patreon account. Even if you don't choose to support it, I am am hoping you will enjoy it anyway...and at least give it a nod and maybe some attention that you will pass along.

Artist of the Month for January

I was sitting here this morning trying to work out marketing strategies, preferably I would rather put a pencil in my eye. So I decided to detach, let go so to speak. I always feel as though I am whoring a bit when I push my work. I guess I am old school, the work should speak for itself, but in this digital age that simply is not the case. So I return to what one of my original themes of this blog site is, Artist of the Month.

Now not all Artists of the Month have to be artists I have met and I have never met Barry Windsor-Smith. I always wanted to. I have read several of his interviews, own Opus 2, have a copy of the Studio and collected (which sadly are gone and now all I have are reprints) his Conan comics that he drew for Marvel. I have always wanted to meet him, show him the body of some of my work and tell him, "Here, you are responsible for this." Maybe it is better I didn't meet him, if he rejected my work my inner child would suicide on the spot.

I am choosing Barry Windsor-Smith for Artist of the month for a few reasons. One is that it is January, the start of a new year and also coincides with Machine Man which takes place in 2020. A title Barry worked on.

The other is that Barry Windsor-Smith inspired me like no other artist, not just by his style, but by watching his grow. This growth I witnessed from his early Conans to his work in the Studio and beyond convinced me that one can get better with dedication. Barry Windsor-Smith is the heart of dedication. I can think of no other artist that with determination and belief blossomed as much as he. He also introduced me to the Pre-Raphaelites, which broadened my artistic vision. Watching Barry grow made me believe I could too.

There are the stories of how he sent work to Stan Lee and Lee invited him to come to Marvel, which he did all the way from England and ended up drawing his first strips on park benches in New York. Can you think of the determination it took to do something like that?

Frost Giant's Daugher

I first noticed Barry's work in Conan 1, which was unique but his style was in its infancy and you could see that this was someone trying very hard to define his mark. Then came out one of my all times faves, "The Tower of the Elephant". Barry showed that he was developing his own sense of graphic narrative. One of the pages had no word balloons using only panels to tell the scene. To me, it was magic. Then by issue  # 8, the "Frost Giant's Daughter"inwardly I knew Barry was the man to watch. That was in 1970.

Tower of the Elephant

In 1973, Barry did "Red Nails", in a black and white format and also "Song of Red Sonja" which was his last work on Conan. The disappointment in his leaving the series for me personally caused me to drop the Conan titles all together. The replace- ment artists just didn't seem to capture the fantastic as Barry had done. I moved on. The magic had simply gone.

Red Nails

During this era Barry formed Gorblimey Press and began selling prints of his work and then in 1979 he joined Jeffrey (Catherine) Jones, Bernie Wrightson and Micheal Wm Kaluta and created the Studio. Four comic book artists that showed the art world that comic book art should be taken more seriously. This was later vindicated when Barry's Artemis & Apollo sold for $ 75,000 and Bernie Wrightson's illustration for Frankenstein auctioned off for over a million just last year.

Artemis and Apollo

The Studio fired my imagination. Barry's work had opened up a new world for me in the fantastic. All four artists tripped my imagination and fired my desire to create. But behind it all I could see Barry smiling, whispering "take what we do seriously."

Barry's logo for the Studio

Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Michael Wm Kaluta and Barry Windsor Smith

Stan Lee never though Conan would take off. He came close to shutting it down, thought it was a pretty book but would go nowhere. I won't delve into the friction at Marvel that developed between them and Barry. A lot of it is gossip. Barry did continue to do work for Marvel off and on. He wrote and drew the Weapon X backstory and also started his own series for another label, Valiant Comics, Armstrong and Archer and the Story Teller series.

Barry disappeared from the scene for sometime. Apparently he has been working on a new graphic novel entitled Monsters. It is reported to be over 300 pages. Who the publisher is and the publication date is yet to be revealed...but I am anxiously waiting.

Thank you Barry, for your inspiration.

A New Year, Patreon and Begging on the Corner

So Christmas came and went and now we enter into a New Year full of resolve...

...for the record I have already broken one of my resolutions, I am hoping it is not a trend.

Self Marketing has never been my forte. I always feel that inner dialogue creeping in with its insidious whispering...

"You are just going to embarrass yourself"
"You thought you were good enough"
"They (whomever they are) are just laughing at you waiting for you to fail"

So on and so on.

In spite of that self deprecating dialogue, I went and did it anyway. I created a Patreon site. Patreon is an interesting beast, people donate money to you to create or support your project. You in turn, the creator, gives benefits and exclusive content depending on the donation. I like the concept but like anything else on the internet, if no one knows about it, no one comes. If only Field of Dreams' statement of faith were real, you simply build it and they will come. But unfortunately cinema may reflect life, sometimes its through a mirror darkly.

Now, I know I am painting a negative picture, I am really am not, just explaining the tasks of getting noticed. It's not easy and often risking and I have been really good at avoiding rejection, in fact I have turned it into a fine art. In spite of all that, I persisted anyway.

My goal has always been to create and fill a niche that I believe is there, finding the niche takes effort and time that I would rather be creating, but it demands itself to be done. So here I go again, standing on the street corner like a beggar, but instead of a dog, I have a cat on a leash and holding up a cardboard sign with "Help Fund My Funny Book" scribbled on in with crayon. In an odd perverse way, I kind of dig that imagery.

If I have garnered any of your interest, this is the link to my Patreon site. It set up to fund INK, an online graphic novel I have been planning for months and finally set down and began to do it.

So far three pages are up, pages four and five and near completion. You may determine from the style and the amount of ink spilled on it, no pun intended, INK takes a lot of work and frankly I wouldn't have it any other way. I want to be able to take all I have learned about pen and ink and use it to create a world that I could get lost in as well as pay homage to cats that gave me friendship and comfort in my life.

If the concept of subscribing to INK is not something you want to commit to, though if you do you will have access to pages seven days before web release, I have created a Tee shirt from one of the panels. The cat is Mistress Lenore, actually based off of a dear cat that recently passed away at the age of fourteen.  Her name was Lenore and she was the queen of the house.Just click on the image below to take you to the Amazon sales page.

Also as a note:

If you noticed that there was no Artist of the Month Entry for December, I skipped December due to the Holidays. It will pick up again this month.

Artist of the Month (November)

I have been following Heiderbou Hasegawa's work for sometime on Facebook. She has a definitive style that reminded me of 19th Century storybook illustrations. She was gracious enough to allow me to interview her for November's entry.


Your work has a storybook quality to it, much like 19th Century illustrators like John Tenniel who illustrated Alice in Wonderland. Who were your early inspirations when you were growing up? What illustrators inspire you today?

Unlike a lot of artists, I never really thought about art when I was growing up. Oh I did the occasional art/crafts projects at school, but art did not play a significant role in my life so I didn't have artists that I admired..

It wasn't until I was in my late 20's-30's that I actually saw books by Frazetta and Vallejo and those 2 played a huge role in what I drew. I used to be heavily into the fantasy/dragon/warrior type of art...but even that ran it's course after several years as drawing just wasn't that important to me. I was more fascinated by creating things with my hands, either jewelry or miniature sculptures.

I attended an art college but during that time, I guess I wasn't "ready" to "learn" or accept what was being taught. I was more interested in art history rather than the actual hands on drawing or creativity portion. Although I did get my BFA in drawing, it didn't hold my interest very long, lol.

 Today, I admire artists like Franklin Booth and all the  others who have a great understanding of ink line work. (I certainly can't list their names because I don't know them, lol.) When I see artwork that is intriguing or inspirational, 90% of the time I don't even know who the artist is. I am just in awe of how they've managed to capture the essence of what they are depicting, in awe of their technical expertise and how the art "feels". I've seen "beginners" who have the "IT" factor, technically they are still growing but their work already has that special, personal quality about it. Those are the artists who inspire me, the ones who go beyond the technical aspects and make the piece personal.

The rabbit is a reocurring theme in a lot of your drawings, there is a story there isn't there? 

Hahaha...I guess there might be. The bunny arose from a meeting with someone who listed their dietary habits (apples, carrots, pears, etc.) and I said to that person "Good lord, you eat like a rabbit!"

Two or three of the original drawings were the results of a psychological break from my then current life. (Hmmm, maybe that's too much insight, lol.) Currently, The Bunny is just a good character and he does whatever he wants, or whatever I want him to do. Perhaps he represents things that I want to do?? LOL. I think what's interesting is how some people have began to think of him as "real".

You work in ballpoint pen, called Biro art, I have done ballpoints and love the medium because there is a certain amount of control that ballpoints give. 
What are your favorite ballpoints that you work with and do you take lightfast (lightfast is the ability for ink not to fade in direct sunlight) into consideration? 

I found the pens that work best for me are the cheap ones that you find in Dollar stores. Also the multi-color ones where you get eight colors in one pen and those can usually be found in office supply stores. I also have BIC and Papermate colored ink pens but typically you can't get fine point in those, except for the Cristal BICS. Whenever I am in a store, I ALWAYS check out the pens and right now I have a huge backup inventory so I don't have to buy any for quite a while.

 I never used to consider longevity in any of my drawings, be it ballpoint or ink, until someone really got on my case about taking better care of my artwork, lol. So needless to say, when drawing with ballpoint pens, it wasn't a factor UNTIL I hung one of my drawings and over a couple of months the ink color changed and the drawing started to fade. THAT was disturbing as it was a drawing I did like but luckily I had scanned it prior to displaying so I have it on file. To answer your question, I do take fastness into consideration now but that doesn't stop me from using the cheap pens that I like (and typically aren't fade resistant). I don't display my original work at home, I have prints that are 98% accurate in color and that's what I hang, lol.

 I have attempted color ballpoint before and I know how hard it is to work with them, yet you seem to have a good control of the medium. What are some of the best colored ballpoints to use? 

 In my opinion, the best are the ones I listed above. I think people have to understand that when you do ballpoint work, it's all in the layers, especially when you're dealing with color. I rarely have "pure" colors, that is the ink right out of the pen. Most of my colors are from layering 3 or more colors to get what I want.

You also have experimented in sculpture and created some really interesting mechanical boxes even creating your own gears out of material like cardboard. They are really clever, are you going to create more? 

I really enjoy doing 3 dimensional work and researching how to get things to work. Assemblage art enables me to get "off the paper" and think differently and I love the tactile aspect of doing it. Also to have it look good "in the round" is a different type of challenge. I'm quite sure that I'll do more cabinet boxes (I hesitate to use the word "shrine" because that leads people to think "religious" and my pieces are anything but, lol) but I don't now when that will happen. That's the great part of being an artist, you can do ANYTHING that you want! I don't think I could ever do just one thing , I get "bored" just drawing...or if I hit a wall and can't think of what to draw...so I'm thankful for the other things available to me. Life is short, don't limit yourself, you never know what you can or can't do if you don't try, right? 

Do you think you will create a written book about the adventures of the Rabbit? Your work has a definite graphic narrative. Also have you considered doing children's books? 

I did a book of the Bunny but it was made up of drawings from an Inktober and didn't "read" very well. Also, I hated the flimsy paper it was printed on. Others have mentioned me doing  children's books but I haven't a good story line yet so maybe one day I will try it again.  And this time I'll do it in color! 

 What music do you listen to while you create? 

I'm not a big music fan when I'm drawing . Music deeply affects my mood and what I "see" inside my head and if I'm drawing, I don't want something detracting from the path I'm on. Crazy as this sounds, I can have a movie or some cooking show or other nonsense on  and it doesn't affect me! In fact, I purposely turn the TV on for the visual and background noise. However if I'm doing jewelry or assemblage work, my choices range from opera to metal....anything and everything EXCEPT Jazz! 

What authors inspire your imagination?

Currently, I'm a historical novel reader but I like to read just about anything that catches my eye, lol.( I used to read all the major fantasy authors and had a massive collection of books ) I've read a lot of  Conn Iggulden and Sharon  Kay Penman novels and hope to read Iggulden's Genghis Khan  series next. When I read the non-fiction  "The Vatican Prophecies" I ended up doing 2 drawings from it so inspiration can come from anything and everywhere.  I really do love to read but have to limit myself or I'll be stuck on the sofa reading all day, hahaha.