Some poster designs for two upcoming shows

Have you seen kslatts.com lately?

I'm not saying you have to...


...but let's just say, you wanted to buy "something" Virginia Woolf

It's been a long time
Now I'm coming back home
I've been away now
Oh how....

This will debut in
the JUNE Show...



CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

the 139th day of 2009

"You gotta be kidding?" Is it time for THIS already?!?! "Yes. And no." June is still two weeks away. But the newspaper requires a two-week prior deadline. "Enjoy May while you may."

You say it's your Birthday!

Stevland Hardaway Morris ...was born today in 1950. This rendering of Stevie Wonder is not hanging in my May Show. No, it's hanging in Barb's house. She purchased it back in December when I was in the Four Artists show at Green Tree Gallery. It was a 20% sale and I had posted all the work for sale on this blog prior the gallery's 30% commission. Barb is a big fan of Stevie Wonder and I'm so pleased this piece is hers. This rendering is a very early example of what I call a "photo-montage." A process where drawings and photographs are roughly assembled in Photoshop then printed on drawing paper. In some cases, much of the drawing and coloring occurs on this printed stock, in others, coloring embellishments are the only thing added. This piece is one that lands somewhere in between. The ink portrait/caricature was rendered at least a year before this color piece was finished. I'm guessing around 2003 or 04. My website back then featured monthly birthdays and all the images were composed in ink. Each month had a "color theme" and the ink images took on that background color (similar to the rendering of Courtney Love shown below). The dates and process for this piece were not documented as well as most of my work now, as I didn't have this blog back then (or at least didn't use it so). But my guess is this piece lands somewhere "in and abouts" Little Richard and Marilyn Monroe as they all use a similar process of existing "birthday month" images. Marilyn was my first to use a line under drawing printed from an image in Photoshop. Prior to her, I traced all line art images on a light table. Little Richard has the piano graphic added and Stevie pushed it further with the photos of the apples and the blue sky with clouds. This was the beginning for what has become my signature approach for most of my portraits.

It was Saturday, April 11th

A Day in a Life Beatles For Sale On today's schedule was a trip to the Country Cottage Framery. But first, I needed to stop at the post office to mail out a print to Colorado and 10 note cards to Missouri. As I was finishing up preparations, I got a phone call. It was from Jess at the Country Cottage Framery. Someone was interested in purchasing my original portrait of the Beatles in a piece I call "Norwegian Woods." WOW! This was great news! And later that day when I had finally made it to the framery, I met the proud new owner of my portrait, in person. We had a great chat. He had many encouraging and supportive things to say. He also pointed out he had brought something to be framed as well... While My Guitar Gently Weeps Yes, I know, Jimi Hendrix did not write or play on this song but I have this Beatles theme going here with album and song titles, so please, bear with me. ...The piece, he had brought to be "re-framed" was my portrait of Jimi purchased back in December during the Country Cottage's 20% Holiday Sale! So, it appears John, Paul, George and Ringo will be sharing a wall with Jimi! Now, the reason I was at the framery was to get these two pieces framed for the FIGURATIVE ART SHOW, coming up in May. Polythene Pam I hadn't thought about any names for these pieces until this Beatles theme popped into my head this morning with the sale of "Norwegian Woods" (and the fact, this blog was being "composed in my head" all day long) -- it just seemed more and more appropriate to avoid the usual fine art name of "Untitled 1 and 2" and go with Mean Mister Mustard and Polythene Pam. And actually, Pam here was already being considered in another Beatles themed collage. She was going to be the "big teaser" in a piece I was going base on the Lennon and McCartney tune, Day Tripper. Mean Mister Mustard You may have seen both of these pieces in my Life Drawing posts. But something may have struck you as "something different" about them. I created this "torn-look" in Photoshop to illustrate the look I gave these two drawings. I tore them from their larger 18 x 24 inch pages. As I often draw many sketches on one sheet, I wanted these removed. Jess, my framer, is going to "float" them on matte board when she frames them. I'm looking forward to seeing how they COME TOGETHER!...

ART and TRIVIA For Saint Paddy's Day

Today is St.Patrick's Day and today according to the MARCH show... March 17, 1905: Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt are married. "What say we put a little touch of Irish whiskey in your tea, Ellie, eh?" FOUR YEARS AGO today I was finishing up something. Something "not GREEN at all." In fact, something "VERY RED." Curious? It was home stretch for a piece I knick-named "RED EMILY." I never photographed or scanned this piece in it's entirety when it was finished. What you're looking at is the "most finished" copy of the image I have. That is, outside of it's frame. I do have some pictures of those. One includes where it now hangs on a wall in a house somewhere in New York. A wonderful librarian bought it! Just something curious I found in my archives. ENJOY!

The process...

This image is featured on my website for the month of March. So, here's... THE STORY behind the picture of POE I wanted to do "another Poe" My original "Poe" --the one titled "Edgar Allan Crow," that combined the author's portrait and a raven-- was well received. But I always wanted to take another shot at the troubled and mysterious Edgar Allan Poe. First, I had worked up a rough sketch of his portrait. I scanned that in and combined it in Photoshop with a photo of myself leaning against a church wall in Ireland. (I had my file of photos from an Ireland trip opened as I had just used one of a river for my Virginia Woolf portrait). The photo was manipulated somewhat and re-proportioned to fit in the archway of the church to make it look more like a door. When my rough was finished, I printed it out and began drawing "on and into" it. I left a lot in the face to be drawn from scratch but allowed the transparancies created from the quick masking and layer effects used in Photoshop for this under drawing to stay "as is." When it came to open space of the door, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. At one point I thought a woman's face filling the opening might work and began lightly sketching it in. But as I hadn't really planned it out, I started second guessing myself. And finally, just "scribbled it out." That scribbling became the smoke-like effect that now fills that void. It originally was very black on that side of Poe's face and body. "Coming out of the shadows" did have an appropriate look to it, however, in "fixing this mistake," I do like how the light grey-blue helps define that side of the portrait and centers the focal point to Poe's face. A "happy accident" I guess you might call it. But I see as just a part of the process -- sometimes you don't know where something might take you.