Sunday, January 17, 2016

New Year, New Show.

Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest news:

As of this posting the "SCRATCHING the SURFACE" art show will be underway. I'm kinda a little scared really because I feel that I'm not hitting this show with everything I could to make it successful (tee shirts, books, prints) because there is no easy way to control and sell that work. 
But over the last year which was only a couple of days ago btw, things have continued to surprise me about how well my work is received. I have so many great friends supporting me I'm always amazed.
I guess really I shouldn't be surprised by this but a lot of my shows have been in non kid friendly spots. Of course I would love to have my friends with children be able to attend but its adult that I'm glad to see not necessarily their child. 
Sorry guys just being honest about that and being a bit selfish because the show is really about me and my art.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1198445836849369/
One of the drawbacks for the show were out fitting a framed mat with a new great image of Sasquatch. "Down by the Creek" is a great piece and resonates with people here in the Northwest.  
 And I had a pre cut mat and frame that I had. I was thinking that I could pull the older image out AND replace it with Bigfoot.
But in the process in pulling the mat out of the frame I broke the pane of glass doing it. I was a little bummed by the this but the biggest thing is Richard Parker will be in attendance to represent. So I think that there is a potential BIG FOOT series in the works.

"Major Tom" is still holding out for someone to love. 
After looking at some other scratchboard illustrators on Etsy I found that a lot of them are copying directly from photos and then doing the transfer to scratchboard. The issue that I have with this is they all are seemly to "cutesey" for their own good. 

It 's almost like they are saying to the general public "Look at me, aren't I cute."  And these illustrators get into big shows whereas Major Tom says "Look at me, I'm on fuckin' fire!"
 
Forgive me, I digress.
https://www.facebook.com/help/396404120401278/list
This guy is gone! "Walking with Richard Parker" is now going to a new home with Eric Iverson. 

This will be the second piece that he and his wife have purchased from me over the last couple of years.  There were pretty cool about about this and I am so glad that they bought it. Not because of the monetary value of the work but because they have another Richard Parker piece from my One Man Show from late 2013. 

The work has improved a lot since I started down this path back then. They have watched the progression from watching me sit bar at the Slingshot working on the small 8"x8" images for the BIG 100 and onward over a beer or 2.

They had told me that they appreciated the diligence and hard work I was putting into my work.  


There will be also non Richard Parker pieces as well but work has changed a lot and I think it might be time to look at doing larger detailed pieces to make a visual impact on people. 

OTHER NEWS:
As I have been working on ways to figure out how and especially where to show my work I was told that I should look for artists with a sim a similar style and follow their trends.
I hadn't really thought about that because I was so focused on getting my artwork out there for people to see. 
I realized that I had done something like this before years ago when I was living in Eugene.

At the time I was working with my friend Chad trying to secure a art grant from the City of Eugene to help cover the printing cost of our meager comic book.
After spending some time going through applicants you were successful in their pitch I pulled the best ideas from each of them and wrote out my submission. And sure enough we got the grant.
Flash forward to today of actually finding a website that deals specifically scratchboard and specificly a similar . Now I'm looking at these other scratchboarders and where they have shown so I might make my own template for submitting work.

So begins the looking of other scratchboard illustrators and their websites.






With as many things going on there are s also commissions going on. I have been contracted to work on a triptych for Eric Iverson and his company Rose City Sound. On the 23rd of this month I will be meeting up with him and looking at the space where these framed pieces with be at. The theme however will be much different than Richard Parker, Deep Sea Diver.
The theme this time - Astronauts.

So with that I am looking forward to a different kind of adventurer to render. These are images are from inktober of last year. A lot of the images that I had posted from that time frame had been really well received on instagram. Now mind you these were quick down and dirty image that were completed in a days time.
So these give you an idea of what might go up for the commission that I had been asked about so we'll see what's up.

COLOR STUFF:
As you know I had stepped away from a lot of color work from the comics I had worked on but every once in a while I will sit down when there hasn't been any creative illustration going on to colorize one of the scratchboard pieces.



I had resisted the need for color in my work as I felt (and still do to this day) that if the black and white is solid it doesn't need any color. But there is that strange population that really won't look at any black and white because it is in black and white.
 But the response has been very positive to the work which surprises me. But now there are people asking about prints in color and I really was only messing around with HI res jeps to see I could do it.
It might be time to look into cranking out color prints.

MORE RICHARD PARKER:
As this year had begun I had really wanted to focus on getting a Richard Parker book put together but it has been a long way going because I had explored different avenues in which to write the story but every time I tried to write the story just got very convoluted by the end of it and the story got bogged down in it's own self deception.  So I held onto those ideas and kept them for later and just focused on the adventure at hand for Richard Parker.

His story keeps growing with two major points of interest with a undersea battle with a octopus a other battle with the mermaid. Of Course these have always been part of the over all story of Richard Parker. I can't wait to see how this all comes together. And it is coming together











OTHER THINGS: 
I am hoping to see how well I did at the BIG 500 from last year. This would really help me figure out how well I did with my work. It will be a gauge for me because with the way I am thinking, its a very good possibility that I might be able to start cutting back on my hours at my regular 9-5 job in order to make more art work and show.

CURRENTLY I am looking at others and their web sites to see where they are selling and for how much. This has been a very useful for me. But part of this you already know.

AND OTHER OTHER THINGS:
So after last year with we'll see how things come out.


And as always there are places for you to check out as well.
Etsy





And of course I still have my comics that I have worked on here at Indyplanet.  I am still currently working on getting this link fix.
HOWEVER there are these books that I still need to add to the archive for Black Box Comix. And mind you there is website
and the facebook page 

The Website also has some new stuff added for the comic books featuring Corpse Cop.




 

 
 And that's it for the kid for now and I am outta of here.


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