A beautiful, incredible 8-month headache

After months of work, I finally put a gigantic project to bed and sent it off to the Netherlands. It was a blast to draw, even more fun to paint in photoshop, and a horrible Defcon-1 all-nighter-inducing race against time to get the goddamn thing sent off... But it turned out okay, I think.

I definitely want another pair of shoes for this one.

Twang

New giclee released earlier today, check it out! It's a smaller edition, available through our good friends at Phone Booth Gallery. Click here to take a look and grab one while they're still available!

I'm going to bed.

Almost done with a MAMMOTH bit of freelance work. It's getting close to finished but my hand might wear down to the metal endoskeleton before this is over....

El Caballero Oscuro

After a TON of different poses and figure studies, I got ready to bang out the final "El Batman" drawing. I'd measured out a composition with some other elements in it, and was kinda half-heartedly working on it but kept gravitating back to another sketch, which slowly became the final piece here. So much for a measured, linear process...

Those other elements are still crawling around in my head though; one way or another they'll have to come out.

I just watched "The Dark Knight" for the 47th time, and one of Batman's final lines just popped into my head; fits really well with my last blog about why people love Batman: "I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be." Which is rad both in and out of context. Cause that's his appeal too; you can pick your own flavor of Batman, from all his crazy incarnations. You can mix a suicide shake of three or four different versions, and play around with what would and wouldn't work in each one. He really is whatever you need him to be.

Now go see the new movie. It's pretty good.

El Guanisimo/How I learned to stop worrying if it's been done before and Love the Bat

Early warm-up sketch for another show at Art du Vin. So glad these things are so well supported and attended!

I was talking to Garry about the show as he was writing up a press release-style blurb to put in the paper, and he'd decided to keep it short and sweet, but I think what we talked about deserves to be said. And since this is my blog, I will now subject you to why I think a Batman-themed art show fits so well with who and what Batman is.

Batman's been around the block in almost every form of media known to Modern Science, and no matter how serious or how garishly impractical he is portrayed, we love him for it.
From his first appearance in 1939 with a cast of one-gag throwaway villains (who somehow managed to stick around through an avalanche of different adaptations, spinoffs and retellings), to Christopher Nolan's jaw-droppingly gritty action trilogy, this dude has appeal in any and all contexts.

Batman is fun. Batman is a badass. Batman is amusingly and hopelessly principled. Batman is James Bond mixed with Inspector Gadget mixed with Dick Tracey mixed with James T. Kirk. There is something in this character for everyone, be it a leather fetish or a love of cool gadgets or a desire to watch an uncompromising pillar of will beat the crap out of a guy in a purple blazer, you get it all.


BATMAN.



Though there are countless different portrayals of Batman, and everyone has their favorite (some of mine being The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns), this is the one I will always consider my introduction.
Right here.

A great day in PBG history

So last night three of the most prolific (and reclusive) print artists in The Business had one hellava blowout opening at Phone Booth Gallery. I had the good fortune to hang out with all of them over the course of the last few days, and help out directing traffic for the MASSIVE print-signing effort that went on before the show.

Got to see all those beautiful screen prints up close, and talk with the people who love these guys' work. Pretty often it was the artists' first time seeing the prints in person too! Yes, that's Rich Kelly's mom. I had a blast. Tons of people all there to celebrate a group of really talented artists, and geek out together. I talked to at least 30 complete strangers over the course of the night, all happy to be where we were, all really great to chat with about prints, movies, art in general...



Some trivia fodder for you:

Ken Taylor (and possibly all Aussies) produces a unique pheromone that attracts cats. Also like all Aussies, drinks like a fish and is one of the most chilled-out guys I've met in a long time. Signed my Moby Dick print right before taking off for six flags today.

Martin Ansen and I completely disagree about whether Wipeout is better than Episode I Racer (although I only have the N64 version and he told me I gotta get Wipeout 1 for the PlayStation to do it justice). Last night was his first time signing a print in about 5 years, and he signed over 65 in an hour!

Rich Kelly's mom is one of the nicest people I talked to all night, even after I almost shooed her out of the gallery at the start of the show. Also Rich draws pretty good I guess. We geeked out for a minute about how much fun it is to draw hands.

All three of em are really nice, down-to-earth guys, so if you see them at a show sometime, stop by and say hi. Just don't ask them to sign postcards. And don't ask Ken if they have roads in Australia.

Screwin' around.

Man I'm rusty.

Creatures of The Deep Show

Another group show coming up in Laguna TOMORROW NIGHT!!! There's an event on Facebook with all the info, but for those of you without that particular Social Networking Disorder, the address is 225 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

Come check out a piece of mine and several more by a TON of incredibly talented artists and friends I've been lucky enough to encounter.

Studio shots

PBG just put up a blog post about my piece for the recent Blue show, with a couple shots of my workspace thrown in, showcasing the piece and my love of blue cheese and B-list science fiction toys.

Also if you missed it, here's a link to an interview I did a while back with the Examiner, possibly one of the most coherent to date! Although for some reason the interviewer decided to rename all my pieces without telling me...

Almost Blue

Another crazy-busy opening at the prestigious Phone Booth Gallery; great art, good people, and a lot of positive feedback from everyone there! The Phonebooth site will have their full inventory up sometime today, so keep checking back. Enjoy!