Instigatorzine: Marbles, Midnight Friend, Talking to the Dreamless Man, Self Abuse

My spots for this month's issue of the Instigatorzine. They were all supposed to be pretty bizarre.

Anyway, hope you like.

http://www.instigatorzine.com/

Instigatorzine August Issue 50/50 Variant Cover Art

My cover art for next months issue, shared with Madelynne Dela Rama:

http://madelynne.blogspot.com/

who did her own version of the cover. You should all check it out, it's quite awesome.

Why the 50/50 variant? 2 reasons (3 really...I should have just said so from the start).

1. This was initially meant to be my cover for the May issue which we skipped in order to reassess how to manage the 'zine more appropriately.

2. August was going to be Mad's month to do a cover, and although she did, she offered me the chance to share it with her. Isn't she just the nicest person?

3. Finally, the third and most important reason (though I initially only said 2 reasons), August marks the 6th month the "instigatorzine" has been out! Wow, whodda' thunk it, huh? Half a year, that's pretty damn awesome.

Anyway, if you haven't checked us out yet, you most definitely should: http://instigatorzine.com/

Til next time ladies and gents.

The Start Menu

Another set of spot illustrations for the Instigatorzine: literary & arts magazine.

This is for the opening story in the July issue titled "The Start Menu."

A Day Spent with Words

For another poem in the Instigatorzine Magazine.

I tore up some paper and threw it onto my scanner, but I didn't quite get the effect I was hoping for. That was mostly because it came out way too light.

So when I brought the image of the several sheets of torn paper (really it was just one sheet from a tiny notebook), I used the lasso tool to select certain pieces, and turn them into brushes.

After adjusting the settings several times, and seeing what I could come up with, I wound up with a pretty neat background. Afterwords, I added the hand and coffee stain (though it kind of looks like gum to me now).

In the poem, the poet is writing so ferociously, and pumping out so many thoughts onto paper (or so he says), that they even call upon a priest to help them control it all. It's all very amusing.

Anyway, I decided the best way to capture this was perhaps to have him writing so hard the paper is tearing all over the place, and his arm red as if it's possessed. Also, the red is easier to render than something with several colors.

As before, I remained pretty close to my reference for this except I did it all in red.

Wow, that was long. Hope you enjoy it :]

In Praise of Honey

Like the post before this one, this is also for the Instigator(zine) magazine. This one is for a poem of the same name.

Hope you guys like it!

There's A Where

The finish, followed by 3 screen caps of the piece at different stages.

On a funny side note, I just realized I left the reflection for my glasses on my cheek. Oh well, I kind of like it there hah.

Chazz. Squares. (Yet another WIP)

Another portrait of of a friend of mine. Originally this was to be a cartoony version of him, but I've decided to go a different route. Essentially, I'll be keeping the realistic look to him, but making his surroundings more playful.

Still in WIP status

A while ago I gave you all a sneak peek at this sucker, and now I figured, since I've kept you waiting so long, I may as well show you what I have.

EDIT:
Since then, I have converted this into a horizontal format as well as a traditional painting. Will be posting it and many others in a few weeks.

Mon. 4:10 AM and I just studied the wrong chapter

So I said to hell with it and went to paint. I don't know what sort of study one would call this, but I just felt like painting someone I knew. I was already on my good friend, Kelly's page on Facebook, so I grabbed her main pic, and decided to have at it.

It's not traced, but it is heavily referenced. I didn't even change the pose or anything. And outside of her wildly colored hair (I took liberties with the colors all over), and some proportional issues on my end, this here is just a copy of the picture I was looking at. I really wanted to step right into the painting instead of starting with a typical outline and all that, so that's what I did.

Hope you don't mind Kell.

U

The "U" in "Thank You!" for a special thank you letter project

Lines or no lines?

I can't decide.

Stretchy Self-Portrait WIP

Sneak Peek

I've only shown one or two people what I'm working on, but even then, I've totally changed the way I was going about painting this. Hope you find this to be a big improvement, I sure do. I am immensely satisfied with how this is turning out. Good reference makes all the difference. I'll make sure never to forget that, and neither should you.