Making and Faking

Due to the lack of commissions or big ideas lately, I've been doing a lot of 'technique work,' or in a more pragmatic phrasing, PRACTICE. I'm a firm believer in the idea that learned skills atrophy over time, just as muscles do, if left unchecked. Here are some of the pieces that have come from my continuing efforts to improve my techniques in acrylic and gouache painting.

For a few days in January, all of Chicago was dumped on by a history-making, school-cancelling blizzard, and thusly, Martha and I were going through a little cabin-fever. We set out on day one, after the monumental snow fall, and walked the streets of what seemed to be mostly a ghost town. Nary a business was open, except Starbucks, and we ended up there with the rest of the adventurous idiots that morning. After dipping my stagnant brains in hot caffeine, I came home and painted the snowy picture seen here. I'd been wanting to do a Hoth scene for years, so it was good to get it out and onto paper.

A while later, I went to see True Grit. Due to a general love of the Coen movies, and a penchant for western lore, I went into a complete whirlwind of cowboy culture. I returned to my GOTY pick , Red Dead Redemption (treating it like a full time job, and roping Cary and Joe back into the old west for some online play), listened to a couple of great western books by Cormack McCarthy (The Crossing was my favorite, and is part of his Border Trilogy, which can be read individually, as they are part of a thematic trilogy, not a single story), and filled my ipod with the best contemporary and classic country I could dig up on my hard drive. And there was also a cowboy frog playing the harmonica, which I honestly think might be the best thing my two hands have ever crafted. It's intended to be a concept for a larger painting, in which there would be a whole team of rowdy anthropomorphized animals playing various camp-fire friendly instruments, but that is yet to come.

The next step was a backward one, back into my Nintendo fanboy-art that got its start in 2007. No matter how many times I draw him, there's always room for another Link picture. This one is distinctly more Wind-Waker than my others, but not too close to still be considered original.

And now for something COMPLETELY UNORIGINAL! Back in school, when we wanted to emulate the techniques of a certain artist, we were encouraged to do a copy, and to do it right, really spending the time needed to NAIL it. One of my favorite illustrators of the current age is Amanda Visell. She did this painting, and I've always loved it. I was laid up with a CRAZY fever a month or so ago, and I spent a day of medicated tom-foolery making this copy. It's close, but not a perfect copy. I do feel like I learned what I set out to learn; that being, how she achieves those great dry-brush and solid line textures with acrylic paint. I was lucky enough to meet her last summer at Rotofugi, here in Chicago, but was too nervous to seem cool. She's a pretty amazing illustrator. Click her name and fall in love.

Commission: noun

Definition: Getting some money for making something wacky that you never EVER would have thought to make, if not for the money.

That's my latest understanding of the word, anyhow. Here are some wacky things that I never would have thought to make.

First up, Captain Alaska! I took the job via email from a group of friends in New England. Their friend (who the Captain is modeled after) just got his professorship, and they thought he could use a puppet.

Apparently he is something of an environmentally-minded person, who jokingly goes by the alter-ego, Captain Alaska! Or was it Alaska Man? I can't quite remember. He makes a great puppet, though!

I tried something new with this guy. I had done a half-beard (or five-o-clock-shadow) before, and just stippled it on with Sharpie. I wanted to do something nicer, something tactile for this guy. The bits of felt took all afternoon to glue on, but the end result was totally worth it.

With the hair, I also wanted to try something new. I've been trying to move away from using faux fur for hair. It seems a little too common, and I like to think that my puppets have a signature style. I don't know what that signature might be, but I always try to give them that little something more, that extra inch of 'hand-made-ness.' I loved the hair on this guy.

Next, we turn to my most returning client, Heather of Green Genes. She came back to me for another gift for her well-loved wife, business partner, and Wonderland obsessor, Tina. You may remember the Alice painting, the Looking Glass nesting dolls, or the cute-cute-cute family of peg people. Heather is a great business partner, a better friend, and my most frequent client. Always a pleasure!

On a similarly different note, Heather and Tina employ one worker-bee at Green Genes, the magnificent Rachael! We became acquainted through my dealings in the store, and then she became great friends with both myself and Martha, my loving wife. Long story short, Rachael's sister got married, and she wanted to get them a weird something to commemorate their nuptials.

That, my friends, is the ULTIMATE wedding gift. The bride and groom floating over the reflecting pool in Washington DC, dressed as Wonder Woman and Hellboy. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING says congrats like a superhero wedding portrait.

This shot shares the moment I completely RUINED the painting! In all the excitement of finishing the picture, I grabbed a wax medium instead of a heavy gel gloss. They have nearly identical labels (unless you can READ), and almost the same 'wet' look. One dries clear, though... the other, opaque, like bee's wax. Not ideal. I let it dry and, sweating, sanded off the wax with a rotary sander. And somehow managed not to ruin it! Hooray!

In The Navy... sing along!

My dad, that is, is in the Navy. He's a part of the cleverly labeled Seabee's (Construction Brigade, C.B.). They've been around since WWII and have the particularly cool slogan, 'We Fight, We Build, Can Do!' I think it's cool, anyhow. My dad asked me to step in and design a logo for the annual gala event, the Seabee Ball. I did a tee-shirt design a few years ago, and was happy to help out again.

I recently learned that Walt 'The Man' Disney himself had designed a number of mascot and logos for the armed forces during WWII, and had a hand in the original Seabee design. I decided to go retro disney with the design, with a shout-out to Steamboat Willy in mind.

After the ball logo made the rounds and got approved, dad asked me to redesign the logo for his personal partition of the navy, NMCB 15. They call themselves the Bat Out Of Hell unit, and that too is a particularly cool title... so I agreed to draw something up.

Like I mentioned, the Seabees are centered on construction and combat. The bee is famous for always having in hand a hammer, a wrench and a gun. I decided to stick to the same type of mood for the Bat piece, crossing a hammer and an M1 Garand (a shout out to the WWII origins) behind the bat. Then I added lots of rope. Every navy logo I could find has lots of rope behind it, I guess as a shout out to the days of sails and boat tethering... or whatever it's called when you tie down a boat.

I scanned the ink drawing into photoshop, and BOOM! Colored the bat. And the other stuff. Looks sharp, no? But! This is supposed to be a bat... OUT OF HELL! This bat seems to be coming... out of a photography studio, or the matrix, or something very, very white. This bat, may even be, dare I say it, a bat out of HEAVEN! Scroll down for hellishness.

Yeah! Now THAT is a bat out of hell! Mwa-ha-ha! Thanks to Spoon Graphics for the free spray-paint photoshop brushes! Those guys do good work.

That's it for me and my government work. To be clear, I'm still a pacifist and don't support war... I just draw stuff for my dad. And I do it for free. Don't judge me!

-Ben

Oh, my gouache!

False! The above headline is bred of lies! This painting is in watercolor. It's true. But all of the rest of this post will be about gouache. The rest of this post will also be spooky, because I'm on a spooky streak. Let's go!

I drew this little girl about two years ago. I was listening to a scary book, but I don't remember the title. I liked the idea of a kid witnessing something distinctly wrong and just walking away, not going the encourage-able route and finding an adult, and just being spooked. Does she look adequately spooked?

Speaking of spooks: Boo! I think it's a ghost. This is one of my latest gouache painting exercises. I bought a set about a week ago and have been training up. I love the texture - you just can't get that with any other medium (well, I can't, anyway).

These two are my current favorites, for opposite but equal reasons. The above is the simplest of my gouache outings, and below is my most elaborate. Both are deliciously cute and spooky. Macabre as a button, they are. I hope you like them, as well.

Bananaman is the very first gouache painting I tied. Upon buying the set, I wanted to dive in full-tilt and see what happened. I liked the outcome so much I gave it to my friend Lucas for his third birthday! He thought it was funny, but later told me, in a bout of hurt feelings and as the result of a time-out, "I don't like bananas anymore."

this post was presented in a distinctly chronologically backward fashion, and if it was confusing, I apologize profusely.

The Reason for the Season

Well, okay, commissioned artwork isn't the REASON for the season, as my rate of income has no correlation to the onset of winter. But, me getting steady work this time of year is the ONLY way my loved ones manage to get nice Christmas gifts. Here are some of the cool things I made for OTHER people's loved ones, this season.

Way back in May of oh-ten, my friend Kati started asking me about a set of nesting dolls for her grand-mother, Big Sue. She had it in mind early in the talks to make a set of all of the ladies in the family. They turned out pretty great, and reports from the front-lines indicate that they were a big hit. I wanted to take this chance to make a really quality set to serve as my sample set on ETSY, and I wasn't under a very harsh deadline. As a result, they are head and shoulders (round, bowling-pin shaped shoulders) above previous sets in detail, likeness and style.

There's Kati, down front, on the left. Doesn't she look excited?! She usually does.

These were a commission for Mary's cousin-in-law, Derrick. He's a bit of a Trekkie, and when he and his wife were visiting Mary here in Chicago, he took a liking to my little peg people. I have since been informed that I painted the wrong type of phaser in Captain Picard's hand, but I think I got away with it. Thanks a lot to Josh for ruining my confidence by being a better nerd than me.

Next on the queue was Heather's awesome (ahem) gift for her wife Tina, who is an Alice obsessor. These took some time, and turned out REALLY cute (pat me on the back, quick)! Speaking of backs...

Boo-yah! White Rabbit!

The Caterpillar turned out really cool. I took a lot of cues from the Disney design, but still tried to bring my own aesthetic to each character. It was a unique opportunity to do my first set of these doll's not designed to look like any real life persons. As a result, these look more like 'my art,' than any of the likeness-styled dolls, in my opinion.

Sneeeeaky kitty. Tina loved them - Heather was thrilled. Mission accomplished!

These last two aren't gifts or holiday related in any way. I was tapped by The Infamous Commonwealth Theater of Chicago to design their season of posters. Above is the poster for A Doll's House, and below is what I came up with for The Fifth of July.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If there is an arts and crafts Super Bowl, I guess it would have to be Hallowe'en, assuming that you are a good person and you make your own costumes and decorations. If that's the truth we are working from, then I guess Christmas time must be the Stanley Cup of craftiness. At least the ice fits with the theme, which helps. I'm yet to knit a sweater, and I haven't outfitted our chimney with hand sewn stockings (maybe someday), but I DO get into the spirit, and I fully support the use of lethal amounts glitter. Here are the things I made at both home and preschool to get the Holiday vibe kicked into high gear.

As the cold started to creep in at playgroup, we busted out the space heaters and gathered around them to read books. I looked around upon the lack of Dickensian holiday cheer, and found it to be more something akin to Anderson's Little Match Girl, what with all the blue-lipped and shivering preschoolers surrounding me. So the kids and I got to work and built a fireplace to house our space heater! Don't worry - we never leave the heat source unattended in it's very flammable housing. Henry seems to like it!

In an attempt to get revved up for the impending slue of holidays (all while remaining as secular as I could manage), i strung these construction paper lights all around the school, and hand drew and cut each one. I was going for a distinctly Seussian style, as the story of the Grinch is one of my favorite winter treats.

Next we took a cue from an episode of Martha Stewart that I had watched years ago, in which she cut and decorated these adorable little towns and trees from cardboard. Here's were arranged in rows and with depth on the table top, as well as being outfitted with battery-powered lights. Ours were a notch or two further down the crafting totem pole... but they look great in the windows, and the kids LOVED dumping on the glitter.

All Hallow's Eve ( the there-abouts)

It's gotten to the best time of year for me. I ride my bike whenever I can, and anyone who has ever set foot in Chicago knows the joys and pains of the CTA, which is why, although if just for general mood, springtime rules, it's wet enough to be considered generally unreliable. Summer is grand, but I've always argued cold over hot weather, as you can always put on another sweater, but once your naked, that's as cool as it gets. I am so much more a fan of autumnal attire (read: layers).

Also, as if I almost forgot, HALLOWE'EN! It truly is the MOST wonderful time of the year. Dark beer, the start of pie season, two to three shirts on any given day. All that and this bag of chips: it's the only holiday that TRULY hinges on arts and crafts, and how good you are with a glue gun or sewing machine. Which, if you are like me, is a lot more gratifying than throwing down in basketball or a push-up competition, or, you know, ANYTHING MASCULINE. Here are the things I had the pleasure of making this year!

First up: The Canadians!

I got an email via my ETSY shop, and took the commission because, one: flattery and an inflated sense of self-importance (INTERNATIONAL FAME). Two: The order itself... I love Futurama. It never gets old.

I made Leela's eye and armband, and Zap's whole costume. I sent some boot covers that they ended up not using, because even laced up tight, they were too loose.

I just hope this guy had a voice to go along with the costume. I can only dream of the fun of dropping Brannigan quotes all evening.

"Kiff! Have the boy lay out my pants."

"In a game of chess you can never let your opponent see your pieces."

"Men, you're lucky men. Soon you will all be fighting for your planet. Many of you will be dying for your planet. A few of you will be forced through a fine mesh screen for your planet. They will be the luckiest of all."

So many great lines!

I spent a little time tarting up their package, to make it more exciting.

Martha had some words with me over the excess of red velour fluff floating around the innards of her sewing machine after this one, but she had no IDEA what I was going to put that thing through once I started on my costume!

Which brings us to Sesame Street! Or, more accurately, the Muppets in general.

I went with Oscar after thinking on which much-loved Sesame Street resident was both aweomely cool, and wearable. My first thoughts were on Grover, then SUPER Grover, but I moved away from it on the realization that most of Grover's charm lay in his round head and thin, flailing arms. Same deal with Kermit. I knew it's have to be a muppet with 'fat hands,' and I always was a little afraid/intrigued by Oscar, the only homeless on sesame Street. So I went for it, and it was great. So many people thought I was Kermit, though. Maybe Kermit fallen on hard times? I htink it was just because I was rolling with Martha.

Martha, here in Piggy guise, whose original plan was (awesomely) to be the always distinguished Ms Piggy, as Tippy Hedron from the Birds (one of Martha's favorite movies). The concept was eventually scrapped due to time and investment. She made a great pig! Don't tell her I said that... wah-wah.

From left to right you have Me as Oscar, Mary as Big Bird (brilliant), Martha as the ham, and the always fantastic Rachael as Dr. Teeth, magistrate and leader of The Electric Mayhem!

Before Hallowe'en, heck, before Renegade, my oft-mentioned pal Heather put in an order for some adorable little peg people of her and her wife, Tina, her parents, and her sister and the sister's husband.

They turned out totally cute, and she reported family wide swooning over my tiny brushwork. They stand two inches high, and each has a personal accessory on display to add a little personality.

Beyond that, I shipped both Bender and Calculon off to the state of Washington after letting them both out about six inches, took the job to make some theater posters for a troop here, and started talks with a puppet show in it's infancy. I like making puppets, so we'll see where that goes.

here are some bonus photos from our Hallowe'en party and outing. Our friends rule at costumes!

The talented and hilarious Stephen stole the show as a chair. To really experience it, you had to see him transform from 'guy hanging out', to 'chair'. It was, like Stephen himself, a beautiful thing to behold.

The ladies of the partay. Jenna (with the umbrella) was a wonderful jelly-fish, and like her counterpart Stephen, so much better in motion. She really made that thing swim, Also, LED's, and greatness.

Muppet love!

There was almost an epic battle of history-bending proportions, but they chilled out and high-fived instead. Thank the jeez - I don't think our renter's insurance covers epic battles. Great costumes.

Oh! And I updated my ETSY shop with abunch of new and semi-new things for sale, so check it out if you're short on gifting ideas. Only forty-three shopping days left!

To close - a little something for the ladies!