The Sketchbook Project

I managed to finish (or at least fill...) my book for The Sketchbook Project 2011 in time to meet the deadline, but just barely. I signed up for the project rather late but still had a few months to work on it. Unfortunately, I procrastinated pretty badly with it for a while. Only managing a few half-hearted sketches until well into December. Finally, while doing some Christmas shopping I found this fascinating book on the sale rack outside of Borders.


I had my inspiration for the rest of the sketchbook. But even then I didn't carve out the time to work on it. Thankfully the deadline got extended to Jan. 18th. I went into full-on marathon drawing mode over the MLK weekend (I think I did all or most of 14 drawings and all of the lettering in that time!). I had to pull out four blank pages and I doubled the pages (the paper was so thin that I decided to tape every other page together) so I ended up with only 16 spreads versus the 40 that were originally in the book. I cut a couple other corners by including one of my Jon Stewart stickers on one page and a selection of the ‘Faces of Flickr’ series on another.

Needless to say it was a pretty stressful finish. I really wish I could have ended with a drawing of Martin Luther King's powerfully defiant mug shot (which would have been drawn on the holiday dedicated to him) but I had run out the clock by that point.

I am however proud of most of the work I did manage for the book. And I think I surprised myself with the sheer volume of drawings I was able to crank out in that last frenetic weekend.

Check out the whole set at the ArtHouse Co-Op Site and all of my other work at my flickrstream.

Moly X Portraits

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the Moly X Portrait Group that I participate in, but with the exhibit at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts opening soon I thought it was time to mention it again.

Also, I've done quite a few entries in the past year and I just finished one that I’m particularly proud of. It is in Brazilian artist, Claudio Ramires’s book. Claudio is one of my favorite artists that I’ve discovered through the Moly X project. He did an amazing entry in my book that even included a Pop-up portion. Check out his awesome Youtube video to see it in action. After seeing that I knew I had to try and knock it out of the park once his book came around to me. I was inspired by elements found in his artwork, especially his blimp-whales. Check it out:

Also, check out our group's blog and/or my moly_x flickr set for more images.

Jon Stewart - SANITY

When HOPE is lost, the lost hope for SANITY!

So, I sent Shepard Fairey a link to my original Jon Stewart, SANITY portrait (which, of course, is a riff on the iconic Obama HOPE portrait that he created) and he dug it! I got a call from one of his representatives a couple weeks ago, it was incredible! He even asked for some stickers if I get them printed. So, after cleaning up the image a bit (with advice passed on straight from the man himself). I placed an order with Stickrobot for a run of 4"x6" stickers which will soon be are now available for sale directly from me. These came out better than I could have conceivably hoped for, they look awesome!

I've decided to lower the prices as well, I think these are now a real bargain considering the size and quality of these stickers (The backing paper is so thick you could think of them as very small Giclée Prints!)

1 - $3.00 $2.50
5-pack - $12.50 ($2.50 apiece) $10.00 (2 bucks a pop!)
10-pack - $20.00 ($2.00 apiece) $15.00 (only $1.50 apiece! Crazy cheap!)

All now available at my new storefront, EscapeHatchDesign. Check it, peeps!


Special offer to blog followers: I'll personalize the back with a quote pulled from THE DAILY SHOW and a fake Jon Stewart autograph (or mine if you'd rather). Send me an email (clarytp at gmail dot com) if you're interested.

Also, prints are now available in two sizes at Society6. (T-shirts too!) Check 'em out!

NCAC Fine Art Show

I entered a few pieces into the North Country Arts Council Fine Art Show which opened at the State office Building in Watertown, NY last night. I'm proud to say that 2 of my pieces were awarded 2nd and 3rd place in the Mixed Media category.

Menagerie

Organica

“Menagerie” placed 3rd and “Organica” placed 2nd. Not only that, “Organica” sold on opening night as well! These two artworks as well as my “Men of Historical Significance” collage will be on display through Nov. 17th. If you're in the area stop in and check them out as well as all the other wonderful work. You can also check out this set on my flickrstream for more detailed views of these pieces.

Men of Historical Significance

Ragnar Relay DC

On Friday, September 24 a team of six guys (most teams had 12) set off from western Maryland to run 201.5 miles to Washington, D.C. I was their driver/videographer/emergency relief runner. Enjoy the highlight reel (View on Youtube).

Bookmark Contest

So, I made a little doodle on a scrap of treated watercolor paper and it turned into a bookmark! I think it's kind of cool and if you do too, here's a way to win your own. Comment on this post and become a blog follower using Google Friend Connect (just click the Follow button in the menu on the right) and I'll enter you into a contest. Current followers are welcome to join in too, just post a comment below.

At the end of the month, I'll pick 2 winners who will each receive their very own doodlebird bookmark. But not this one...winners will get a brand-new custom made bookmark with the bird of their choice on top! I'll probably throw a few other goodies in the winner's package too. Sound cool? Great, now just post a comment below and don't forget to include which bird you would like!

Winners will be drawn on Tuesday, August 31st. All comments posted before 12PM on that day will be considered entries. One entry per person. No purchase necessary. ;-)

Three Drawings in Progress

Very often I can't seem to complete one thing without moving on to something else. Eventually I'll come back around and finish it, but it's rare that I work on one drawing straight through. To illustrate this I present 3 drawings in various stages. The one on the left was begun ages ago (probably late June, early July) and I'm trying a mix of pencils with the usual ink and brush. The other two were both started in the last few days (the one on the right first actually). Hopefully I'll have all three finished by the end of the week.


UPDATE: I finished the one on the left last night (8/18/10) but I'm going to hold off posting it until it reaches it's new home. In the meantime, you can see all my portraits in this flickr set.

White Horse (Work in Progress)

I started work on my very first commissioned painting today! I'm pretty happy with the results so far but am open to any critiques or advice you may have.


UPDATE: Spent some time over the last 2 days working on this and I think it's done!

Acey & Maggie (for JKPP)

Thought I try using colored pencils for this latest portrait...and I realized why they never come out of the box. Here's the progression:


I should have left her face alone at this point, but I ended up overworking it a bit:


The dog came out great though!


Too lazy to put much effort into the background:


See Acey & Maggie bigger over on my flickrstream. And check out all the other wonderful portraits done for Julia Kay's Portrait Party here.

Julia Kay’s Portrait Party

At some point while I was doing the four portraits that appear in the 6x6x2010 show (still up at RoCo until July 11th and online here forever!) I became aware of the flickr group Julia Kay’s Portrait Party. Julia’s simple idea (artists making portraits of other artists) has exploded into an absolute phenomenon of creativity. After seeing the incredible variety of work on display I had to get involved. Since I started my first portrait of the extraordinarily prolific, N.C. Mallory, just two weeks ago I've already drawn seven new portraits. Similar to the Moly_X project I’m involved in I’ve found that joining this community of artists has broadened my horizons and helped rekindle my passion for art-making.

Here's a handful of the amazing portraits to be found in this great group:

Sue Hodnett by Wally Torta

Kara Jansson Kovacev by goat transforming into a cathedral

Herman Schildert by I.J. Bowden

Me by N.C. Mallory

And a couple by me:

Emily O’Marra

Giorgio Bordin

Artist Sue Hodnett said of the party,

“In an age where we sit and twitter, surf and blog, Julia Kay’s portrait party has connected an otherwise disparate group of artists and challenged us to look deeper than the screen of the computer and into the eyes of people we have never met or spoken to.”

Please check out this amazing group of artists all challenging each other to look deeper.

Parka Reviews Quickie

Parka Blogs is a great review sites that specializes in art books. Recently he reviewed David Palumbo's new book, Quickie, a collection of Palumbo's small postcard nude paintings. I was not familiar with Palumbo's work before this but he's certainly a very talented artist and this book looks beautiful. Be sure to check out his Postcard Nudes blog.

6x6x2010

The 6x6x2010 show opens this weekend at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center. This year the show recieved 5,000 artworks by 2,000 artists from 22 countries and 43 US states! The online gallery is up now and online purchasing begins Monday, June 7th at 10 AM.


I contributed 5 pieces, the 4 portraits above (see them larger here) and an abstract comic which I talked about in a previous post. The portrait series I'm calling "Faces of Flickr" since all my reference photos were found on flickr.com, a great photo sharing site that I use to post all my artwork.

I liked this format and I've got a few blank squares left over, so I'll probably continue this series. Let me know if you have a portrait that you’d like to see rendered like these.

Moly_X

It's been a while since I've mentioned the amazing Moly_X otherwise known as the International Moleskine Exchange. Moly_X is an awesome project started by Marty Harris, wherein groups of artists exchange small Japanese folding sketchbooks adding entries into each one and passing it on to the next artist in line.


Recently, I recruited a few new artists to re-boot the Moly_X Portrait Group I'm in and we've been having a great time doing portraits of each other. I'm particularly pleased with the latest one I just completed:


This is the start of my own book for the exchange. It marks the first time I've tried to paint in one of these books and I'm really happy with the way it came out. I can't wait to see how the other artists continue this image. One of the most interesting things about these exchanges is how artists interact with each other on the page.

Comic Convention Sketches

In honor of this weekend's Toronto Comics Art Festival I thought I would post my convention sketches from the various shows I've attended in the past, including last year's TCAF show.

In the sketchbook that I bring to the shows I try to draw an opening spread to set a theme for the sketches. The first one, from the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival (MoCCA) in 2002 was, obviously, Rock and Roll. The second from the Small Press Expo (SPX) 2003 was a bit more open...robots, outer space, or cowboys...or any combination of the three! This resulted in lots of fun, creative drawings. Check them all out here.

A sweaty-toothed Madman!

Remember that line from the film, Dead Poet's Society? Well, I found an amazing photo from flickr-ite ipelisa that just begged to be sketched so I threw this together.


Speaking of flickr, please check out my page over there. I've been adding a bunch of new drawings including my latest entries in the moly_x project.

One Million Giraffes!

I painted this portrait of a giraffe for my niece's birthday card and also because I saw this cool project yesterday. He's up over 337,ooo giraffes so far as of this posting! Why not add one yourself?

Abstract Comics

A fascinating new book was released recently called Abstract Comics. After absorbing the book and the contributors blog I did this small experiment.

Hopefully this is the start of something.

Standard American Encyclopedia (Vol. 2)

I've done another set of ACEOs from my Standard American Encyclopedia source material. This set I'm calling “Men of Historical Significance.”

Collect them all at my flickr page.

This new set has also been assembled into a full collage that will be exhibited as part of the “Small” show at the High Falls Gallery, opening May 24th.

Artists Trading Cards (ATCs)

So, for a change of pace I've decided to try making a few Artist Trading Cards.

I made two series, the Standard American Encyclopedia (circa 1937) series, (“Goat”, at left is a part of this series) and Strange and Stranger. See them all at my flickr page.

UPDATE: I'm working on assembling these into a collage for the “Small” show at the High Falls Gallery in Rochester. Anybody local to Rochester should check out the gallery and the show, it's an open call with only a $15 entry fee.

Bookmooch

Bookmooch.com is my new favorite website. BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books. It lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want at no cost (other than postage to mail your books)! Check it out.