Been thinking about doing something with this for a long time. This is based on Matisse's, "The Green Line," a painting I've liked for years.

The first 'shin hanga' style image I did was a Rembrandt self portrait and it started a small group of portraits done in this way. Shin Hanga was an early 20th century woodblock revival in Japan but it brought in a lot of western ideas, sometimes using perspective, shading and other such things. I've found some that are typical subjects for prints, Kabuki actors, but instead of being highly stylized, they're a mix of traditional imagery and something of a likeness.

The challenge for me in doing this sort of thing is to mix the styles while keeping the image recognizable. The most notable thing in the Matisse original, besides the colors, is the brushwork. There is none in mine. Details have to be boiled down without losing the feel. What I ended up with feels good to me but is so simple that I'm sure it will seem easy, or too simple. That's ok. I'm happy with it.

Not the most flattering view perhaps but I wanted the challenge. What I SHOULD have done is measure the original and start with a canvas the same size. Or do a grid. That way, I could better use the negative space to get things right. As it is, it turned out pretty well. I really like this style, which is more or less connected to the Shin Hanga style I did earlier portraits in. The more organic feel comes from inking in Procreate with a technical pen then turning the line work into a vector. Or, if I really wanted to learn a new skill, I could make them into silkscreen prints, or 'serigraphs' if one is being snooty.

Haven't had a lot to post as I'm working on a big painting that's going to take me awhile. Needed to wait for some paint to dry so sat down to do a quick sketch on the iPad of a screen shot I'd taken awhile back. I wanted something looser than I'd been doing. Paint gets too tight, I get too tight. The iPad allows me to be a lot looser than I trust myself with paint.

Calling this one done. So easy to keep going and overwork it. A good experiment, both with me painting again and with a very limited palette (I REALLY miss blue!), it's not entirely successful but I think it was well worth doing. I could keep poking at it but I think I've taken it as far as it should go. What little spontaneity it has left will be lost. Glad I did it.

Quickie for today, just kind of riffed on my last self portrait. Haven't drawn the rabbit-thing in a long time. He is one of my avatars and I guess, though I never thought about it before, he represents the innocent part of me that's done some growing up. Pencil, Procreate, Affinity Designer.

Another day, another sketch. Every time I have to do a video call of some sort, I adjust my seating which shoves my face towards the screen and the nice people on the other side get this view. Or, I can't tell if the camera is working. Procreate, Affinity Designer.

Today, I turned the current style on me instead. Getting me to fit was a trial, and I had to really shorten my torso and limbs. The head, hands and feet look too big on purpose. I actually like it quite a bit. Was smart enough to make it a size that could be printed, just in case.

The rogue, or as we called them in high school, the thief. I think they're getting less weird, which is kind of a shame but are better drawn? Sadly, the thing of which I'm most proud is the tattoo on his arm. Still fun to do. I want to try and make them more grotesque again. Or I'll let them do what they're going to do.

Did another one of these today. They're rather fun and now I find myself wanting to do a set of some kind. They'd also make good blacklight posters, if that was still a thing.

Ok, I ended up having some time tonight to work on this. I fixed the one foot, added some notes and drew out the text for "Bard." Don't know that this will lead to anything or be a t-shirt but there it is. I had fun. It's weird.

More weirdness. I've been watching videos online of an artist who seems to be pretty successful in today's market to the point that he not only sells paintings, takes commissions but sells lots of merchandise and had a store. Thing is, to my eyes, he's not really that accomplished; it's all style. And that's fine! Dude is making a living on his art. That's a dream a lot of us have. So I thought about it, or stewed, took some of his lessons to heart, mostly about t-shirt design, limiting colors, using black as one of the few and adapted one of my more grotesque styles towards a D&D inspired t-shirt design. I added modern elements because that seems to be a thing and it was fun. Started off in pencil. Just DREW the damned thing. Then I scanned it, brought it over to the iPad where I inked it in Procreate (which took a good long time, and there's still a big, fat mistake in there), brought it back to the Mac, vectorized it and colored it in AD. It's still a WIP: one foot needs to be replaces and the lettering is just a placeholder. Not totally sold on THOSE colors but I think they're pretty much it. I like it, and would easily do more. Long day's work, but I enjoyed every moment of it.

More of this crap. Foozer is the name of the comic I'll probably never do, but there's no character that's actually named that. Strangely, this comic will work best, I think, when I don't think at all about it. No sketching, no plotting, just DO. Harder to do when sober. Well, we'll see. The characters are strangely soothing to draw. It's all meaningless. Just fun. So be it.

Remember when I said no more comics? Ignore this shit. I got in a mood for Vaughn Bode stuff the other day, even though I've never read it before. I just remember selling it when working at the Picnic. But there was a freedom of the earliest of underground comix, where one didn't have to plan, one just did. And I was looking through some of my older stuff and came across Joe Flash, a character that only I liked. I wondered if I could do stuff that had no real plot, no point, was just kind of hippy and fun. And I -might- do this shit and post it under a different name, not tell anyone and just make it because it's fun. I hope it gets a lot weirder than this, and more pointless.

Finished this tonight. I think it works if it's a little impersonal. If painted, would be as credible as work by Alex Katz and has more of a likeness. Dunno. I like it.

Tonight's sketches. Sometimes, I just want to draw to draw. Tonight was one of those nights. Wasn't time to work on the painting but I still wanted to do something artistic. So out comes the sketchpad and pencil. I started with goofy little doodles of nothing, really, went back to an old character and ended with a portrait sketch of another artist I still framed. Might paint him, too.

Still working on this portrait with yet another version. I ordered a set of four paints through the mail and they came today. Worried that I might just like the idea of painting more than actually doing it, I used the sketch I did yesterday, married it with the original sketch, printed that out and transferred the drawing to a canvas board I happened to have. Most of the night was spent just getting the outlines done, then getting the whole thing covered in paint. After that, I started doing some observation and dabbing colors here and there. The Zorn palette (just black, white, yellow ochre and cadmium red light) is really tricky to work with. The black is the only remotely cool color. Greens, such as the grass behind him are impossible. What was interesting was that, just as I put the brush down for the night, I realized that I was able to get a very bluish grey on his jacket. Lots of work to be done still, not least of which is learning to use this palette. Also might be one of my best starts ever with real paint. Which means I have plenty of room to screw it up tomorrow.

Another attempt later today. I think this version is a lot more successful with this style though I haven't nailed the expression yet. Still think this would work even better in paint.

Two updates

Continuing on with this portrait. I did one on the iPad in a more painterly style, which I liked. Then I decided to experiment with lineless version in Designer. I like the designer style; it something I often find by accident when working on a piece that has inked lines and I turn the line layer off. In the case of a print I did a few years back, I decided I like the version without the character or inks better and so posted it today:

I think, in this case, I need to adjust the drawing as it looks a little too cartoony for me right now. That being said, I think I want to paint a version like this.

No more comics.

A post with no image! I've been thinking a lot about what art I want to pursue lately. I find I've been pulled towards doing comics less and less, to the point that, while I have a lot of free time right now, I haven't wanted to touch Ghiroy at all. And "City Silent?" Haven't done a new page of that one since last August. Can't help but notice that the song I stopped on was, "White Canvas," a song about writer's block, or artist's block. I came to the decision that I simply don't have whatever spark there is to keep doing comics. They are long term projects and require a certain dedication as well as a consistency I'm having more trouble with, not less. If I'm going to be honest, they feel more like work these days and less like fun. I'm really enjoying doing more with portraiture and even occasional illustrations. The single image allows me to problem solve and then move on, either to another image, another style or both. The portrait work I've done in the last year dwarfs output on both comics, but in quality and quantity.

Does this mean I'll never do another comic, ever? Don't know. But for now, comics are not going to be on my docket. I love the ones I did, glad I finished the ones I finished, feel badly about the ones I didn't. Now, it's time to move on.

Today's redraw. More in my style? We'll see what I can do with it...

First pass with the current sketch. I think it's too much illustration, not enough portrait. I lost a little of the worry of the subject and even though I took a screen grab, liking the pose of the artist in the middle of working, it feels posed. We'll see.

Sketch from tonight. It's referenced from a still frame from an episode of, "Landscape Artist of the Year." I liked the moment so caught it and will try to paint it. Question is, how to approach it? It's all good practice.

Been watching a lot of "Landscape Artist of the Year," and I realize I could probably use some practice in observation and strict paining, meaning no sketch or anything. So, this afternoon and this evening, I did just that, using a cheap little kids mask I had hanging around. iPad and Procreate and looking.

This is also an experiment with palettes. I've been reading about the "Zorn Palette," based on the artist of the same name. It consists of only four colors: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light (originally Vermillion), Ivory Black and Titanium White. Great for portraits, apparently, terrible for everything else that might have actual blue or green in it. Since the mask was red, black and yellow, seemed appropriate. Tried mixing colors on the page using the blending tool but it ended up being too awkward, so I tried to only 'add black,' or 'add white' or some such while painting. Wish there was a different way to mix colors but that's me trying to make one tool act like another.