Grotesque Me #4

I’m working on the pricing for the different media for this project. In the meantime, I thought I would give you more information on this project.

I chose the word grotesque because of the mixing of human and different creatures. These hybrids are not necessarily hideous in nature. Quite the contrary in most cases. There are mermaids, harpies, gorgons, faeries, draconians and many other.

I have pieces that I will start posting after the first of the year so that you will have examples of the type of work you can expect.

Fingers crossed for the pricing and where the project sales will be posted. I’m very excited about the potential of this work! Broadcasting news of this it is critical to bring it to life. Please help by sharing my posts throughout your social media. Every little bit helps. Thank you in advance!

Grotesque Me 3

I’ve been working on some rough sketches for a project. I hope to start it the first quarter of next year. It will have many creatures classified as grotesques! It will be an interactive project where you can be part of the creation of this work! If you’ve ever wanted to be in a piece of fantasy art, this project is what you’ve been waiting for.

You get to decide the creature that you would like to become. Also, you will choose how much the creature resembles you. I will take your characteristics and blend them with your creature choice! The level of the transformation will be up to you. The range is from your likeness to total creature, or somewhere in between. The choices are totally yours.

I can help you choose if you’re not sure what creature you like. I can also help with the level of the transformation. With some other details we can bring your creature to life! Well, at least the image of your creature. The scene, illustration technique and color options are also open choices.

Line drawings of some of the creatures will be posted in the next up date. These will be For reference and to start things off. Also, in the next posting, I will provide a rate chart so you can decide what level of illustration you will choose.

As examples I’ve used myself to show how this will work.

Fantasy Self Portrait Progression Study 07242017.jpg

Latest Commissioned Tattoo Design

I have finally finished my latest commissioned tattoo design and got the green light to share from the owner. This was interesting in many ways. The owner wanted the pocket watch to represent the the date including year, night time indicator and the time of course. Per their request the name is not posted here. The image would be turned horizontally for an outer forearm tattoo on the right arm with pocket watch being at the wrist and the name running from the sunflower to the pocket watch at the bottom.

The blending of nature and mechanical was a small challenge. I decided to let the links of the chain be the transition point. Because I wanted there to be a level of realism, each link had to be created individually so the shading would come out right. I wound up using the IPad Pro for part and Manga Studio for the rest.

 

Tattoo Design A 10222019.jpg

Family

I felt an update has been long overdue. I’ll start with this. It’s been a few weeks since my mom passed. Earlier that week I found out that my dad has cancer in his lungs and lymph nodes. Smoking cigars is what brought this on. He started his first of 3 rounds of chemo and radiation last week.They had been divorced for more years than they were married. My dad had remarried. My mom didn’t.

I credit Edgar Rice Burroughs for instigating my desire to create fantasy art. Long before this my dad introduced me to his hero’s. The stories about Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Hop Along Cassidy, Lash LaRue and the Lone Ranger are his favorites. We would watch the reruns on tv. We would catch Star Trek, Superman, Batman, the Green Hornet, the 6 Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Favorite Saturday morning cartoons were Hercules, the Roadrunner, Speed Racer and Astro Boy. My brothers and I learned to love these great stories.

I get creativity from both sides of my family but the stories of the fantastic come from my dad. His side also gives me musical abilities which my daughter gets to explore in college and maybe even a career. We get more than our last name from my dad. As I mentioned it an early post, he made us the first generation in our line to pell out name as Thaxton. Another interesting thing is how much he wanted me to go into the sign business. Funny thing is that illustrating is somewhat like designing signs. You help others visualize a concept in both.

Thanks, Pops, opening this fantastic world for me,

A Great Loss

I’ve had a lot going on, lately. With work and my art, its been tough to squeeze out time to create. My daughter and I began our yearly adventure at Dragon Con.

Friday night after I got off work we went to pick up our badges with a close friend of hers. After getting the badges we decided for them to checkout a K-Pop event. My phone has been giving me problems lately. The map wouldn’t function and I was getting calls that either wouldn’t open, wouldn’t connect, drop calls or failed messages.

When I got a better signal my wife was able to get a message through. Someone was knocking at our door at home but it was late and she didn’t want to answer while she was by herself. Shortly after another couple of messages came through.

The last one was telling me that my Mom had died. We left immediately.It was so hard to keep it together all the way back home. I waited to tell my wife and daughter until we were home together.

It was very difficult to keep everything together. We were able to get to her house and see her before they took her. Her health hasn’t been good but this was a shock for us all.

The thing is we were going to visit on Monday to talk to her about my father recently developing lung cancer. This has been the hardest week of my life.

This is one of Ma’s proudest moments. In 1983, when I graduated high school, Ma also graduated with her GED.

Grotesque Me 2

So, what really is Grotesque Me? You might ask. The answer will be revealed soon! Check back to catch the update on this interesting mystery!

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If you are curious please like and follow me here and on most social media. Thank You!

Grotesque Me! Coming Soon!

Hey Guys! There’s something new coming! Stay tuned for info and updates!

If you are curious please like and follow me here and on most social media. Thank You!

Sketching An Imp Head On IPad Pro

I guess since I draw and have for most of my life usually with a No.2 pencil (or a 4H most of the time) and scraps of paper, I have to try the drawing tools more. So on this IPad Pro I used the Sketching tool with an HB pencil option. It works a lot like a real pencil. The line quality is good. Scribbling, hatching, general basic shading works pretty well. Once I started blending, though, everything turned out more like paint and not so much a drawing. Still I like the results of this piece.

I originally Left my working lines on the right side so that anyone interested in how I created this image, could see how I designed this piece. It’s another in the latest project I’m developing. This is the Imp. A vicious little tormentor that loves to pull evil pranks on the unsuspecting travelers.

Latest Updates 1

I thought I would update you guys on my current status on my projects. Before that I wanted to ask a question of you:

When you don’t have your materials redily available, what do you do about creating?

My position on this will be explained within this post.

Here I am working on a very long term project, “Relative Perspective”. (I plan to share the whole journey once it is finally finished.) I’m having breakthrough after breakthrough and making good progress, for this project. I find myself delayed, again. It’s not from any issues with the work.

As I have mentioned before, having a portable art tool has been a liberating benefit. My daughter is enjoying the benefits with her school work. Because she has assignments due, the tablet is spending time with her this weekend, again.

Luckily I have traditional work to continue. I was able to get some sketching done last night. I plan to bring that journal with me out today so that I’m making progress. As much as I hate multitasking and it’s horrible side effect, symptoms of procrastination, at least one of the projects waiting in the cue gets attention, today.

I’ll have to remember my mindset when I can resume “Relative Perspective”. I hope my daughter does great! I’ll keep plugging away on the other work.

Practice Work 1

I’m working on the mushrooms for “Relative Perspective”. Each time I try to do them I’m finding they don’t match the realism level the rest of the piece already has.

I decided to find photo examples to study.

I think I finally understand their intricacies now. What do you think?