a first go at it

"Better Than Her Bite"

7"x 5" colored pencil, gel pens and gouache on board.

Terrible Photograph. Blurring and a little Flat.

good enough for some blog-age.

So. I've been drawing mouth hats for... well over a year now, and I love them, however I love them very stylized and graphic in my sketch books, and that esthetic has been the rock to my realistic renderings hard place. Did that make sense? I have been sitting on my hands trying to figure out how to marry the two, and been a totally chicken about it. Until now. This is the first study, I just went for it, and I'm fairly happy. I didn't allow myself to think about it much at all for fear of once again over thinking, and just dove in the with a model I liked from the 40's (thank you flickr commons) and some ink. It's very bright and carnival. I want to play with harmonizing the mediums a bit more, and get a little darker and bring the hats a bit more into the third dimension. So, now that I've taken the weight of doing it once off my shoulders, doing it again and again seems... no longer daunting, but exciting.

ray gun girl

"still working on the right title for this piece..."

24" x 18" colored pencil, graphite and paper collage on board.

This is my friend Alex, I took the source photo at a gathering that after the fact came to be known as the white face blue nose party ... baby powder/pool chalk. We all talked in Russian accents all night. I got several great shots that night, I'll be using another one soon. The collar, gun and goggles were all created by my friend Daniel. Lovely metal work, they're radical. During this particular shot and the ones surrounding it Alex was interacting with a poster of Edvard Munch's "The Scream". It was great. in fact, here's one from the set, so you can see for yourselves.