Personal Work and a Plan

As promised yesterday, I'm here with some art-related stuff.

I'll give you the big picture. I've committed to a spot at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2 in May, and about a month ago I started to think very generally about what I'd be showing there. While it may seem kind of early to begin planning all that, I assure you that for me it is not as the quantity of stuff I plan to bring — and indeed specific pieces being excluded or included — will have an impact on how I decide to make my way to Kansas City. One scenario may require a car ride, another might allow for a plane ride and a few boxes being shipped.

Unfortunately, my planning didn't get so far as determining a means of transportation. Very shortly after beginning to ponder what might hang on my wall at the show, I realized that I'd sold much of the new work that I would like to have included. Admittedly, this is a really good problem to have. In fact, it seems like there would be nothing to complain about. And, indeed, I am not complaining. However, the fact remains that aside from one or two pieces, my wall would end up looking pretty much exactly like it did last year at the first Spectrum Fantastic Art Live.

In the past, I've not always been quite so good at keeping my walls fresh at shows like Spectrum or IlluxCon or even GenCon from year to year. But, I've grown increasingly aware of the issue, and over the last couple of years have tried to make an effort to turn that around a bit. Ideally, at shows I do annually, I would like to have at least half of the wall be fresh, and I would have been really close to reaching that minimum this far out were it not for my terrible, terrible, good fortune.

So, that explains the problem. The solution? Well, there's 30"x40" of unfinished business on my easel right now, and I'm committed to getting that done for Spectrum. Here's what she looks like at the moment:

Once again, I'm sure you'll notice that there's little in the way of new ground covered. This is due to having assignments to paint and being away several weekends for Magic tournaments over the last couple months. It's also due to the fact that the canvas has grown really loose and has become irritating to work on. The cause of this looseness, I am certain, is the dryness of the air in my house. Whether or not it's worth getting a humidifier for this lone piece is not something I've decided on yet, but I'm starting to wonder whether it might not be a good idea. Either way, I've spent a bit of time over the last week attempting to tighten the thing up a bit without going too crazy so as to keep the whole thing from tearing once the humidity ratchets up again. Fortunately, it's noticeably tighter and I'm ready to get back into it again.

What I have managed to do is to start finishing the figure. I've made a couple passes at the hand in the lap, gone over the back leg, and repainted some of the face yet again. At this point, however, I'm going to need to collect some additional reference before really breaking tons of new ground. This should be remedied next weekend, during what will amount to a reference trade between me and Matt Stewart. Do I smell a blog crossover?

In the meantime, I've begun another assignment which I'll be able to include on my wall at Spectrum, as well. It's a painting for an album cover that I'll detail at a later date. I'll probably do a few process posts as I did for the Valentine painting last year, so you all can once again witness the complete lack of planning and logic that goes into every one of my paintings.

Next week, I'll be posting some interior black and white pieces I did for the latest Badass book, Badass: Ultimate Deathmatch, in celebration of its release on March 12th (in bookstores everywhere, as well as Amazon). Hopefully you'll all dig that.

This is what Badass looks like. Well, this Badass.

Further up the line, I'm planning to do a few small, 4"x6" paintings without any plan, reference, or idea. My current plan is also to restrict the brush sizes and the time allowed for each, and just react to the marks I make until something magically appears. No idea how they'll turn out, but I'll post any that are worth posting (and probably at least one that's not). They may not end up on my Spectrum wall, but they should at least be fun.

Lastly, intermingled with the above, I'll continue to post other bits here and there. I have a couple new Frequently Asked Questions in the pipe, as well as some other posts that at present defy any clear description as they're still all over the map. Hopefully I can hammer those into something worthy of reading, but that will remain to be seen.

Today's agenda is all about thumbnail drawings for the album cover, but first I shall deftly shovel some snow. Cheers!