#173 The Pachycephalosaurus

Animalia: Day 122 

The Pachycephalosaurus

Finished the one of the left, then experimented with 

ink textures and patterns, didn't turn out great.

So just kept the one on the left.

I need to work on backgrounds, I suppose...

Tomorrow (probably not, it's Bastille day!): the Panda.

#172 The Oviraptor

Animalia: Day 121 

The Oviraptor

Here is the black and white unedited:

I did the big one in brush pen, and after it was finished,

I realized I had neglected the ovi- in oviraptor.

So, I drew the little sketch at the bottom right in homage of Birdo.

Also, there is a HORSE The Band song about Birdo, which at the
beginning samples a bit of Gollum from the animated Hobbit movie.

Color update will be added later, perhaps tomorrow.

EDIT:
Colors!

I wanted to add some yellows and lime greens,
but wasn't able to make it look good. Wompadoooo.

Tomorrow (maybe? might fall behind): the Pachycephalosaurus.

#171 The Otter

Animalia: Day 120

The Otter

Silverpoint on terraskin, again. 

(I tried to capture some Tracy Morgan-ness in the otter at top left.)

And then traced and colored digitally.

Tomorrow (probably actually!): the Oviraptor.

#170 The Ostrich

Animalia: Day 119

The Ostrich

Preliminary doodle.

I did the sketches on the left first, then wanted to exaggerate the

small head, so I did the thumbnail sketch at the bottom.

Then I tried to blow that up, which was not entirely successful.

So then I photoshopped it to be roughly the proportions I wanted.

I tried coloring too, but it was a mess, so you get the grayscale (er, silver).

I am in Paris right now in residency at the Cité Internationale Des Arts,

making drawings and what not, but more on that in another post.

I did these animal drawings a few months ago, but they are silverpoints,

which are apparently difficult to document. 

My scanner blew out the images, and photographing them yielded 

mixed results, but that is what I ended up using.

Anyways, silverpoint on Terraskin, which is paper made from stone.

Tomorrow (maybe actually?!): the Otter.

#169 First Engraving

Hey all! I made my first engraving!

 

I have wanted to do engraving for a while. It is one of the 

most basic intaglio processes and was ubiquitous in the early modern 

world, but is now one of the least practiced of those print processes.

It is also purty freakin hard, thus the lack of contemporary practice.

I chose to use zinc for my first engraving because it is softer 

and more forgiving than copper, and because it's my party etc.

The engraving is of a wild man by a pollard willow, and I took inspiration 

from sources such as Burgkmair's Fight in the Forest, Schongauer's 

engravings of wild men (note my borrowed monogram form), Dürer's

drypoint St. Jerome with a Pollard Willow, Rembrandt's of the same 

subject, and Dürer and Schongauer's engravings of the Flight into Egypt.

I am overall very happy with the print, 

but the experience was not without problems.

Here is the plate. I ended up using the back of the zinc plate because I

messed up the front. The back has this industrial varnish on it, which I

planned to remove later, but it turns out it is pretty insoluble. Removing

the varnish might damage the plate, so I plan on editioning with said varnish

still on. You can also see  where the burin slipped on one of the clouds,

and I tried to burnish it and the varnish lifted a bit.

I was able to print it at Georgetown, with the help of Prof. Scip 

Barnhart, who was super nice, super knowledgeable (especially re: stone 

lithography), super generous, and an all around super guy.

Scip suggested we print the plate relief as well, which I would not 

have thought to do had he not suggested it. It prints surprisingly clear.

I am surprised I have not seen any early modern examples of 

printing intaglio plates in relief. Surely it must have been attempted?

#168 The Truth is Out There

I did a drawing for an X-Files themed Zine.

Here is the original drawing:

The end product can be seen (and purchased) at

Caroline Tompkins's page; she organized this rad thing.

#167 From Me to You

I forgot to post this when it was completed.

Did a lil linocut for a project on first memories,

printed by the folks at MITCH collective.

Did it in 2012, and it was printed in 2013.

Anyways, the project is online here:

metoyouproject.com

#166 Silverpoint / Copperpoint

For a while now, I have been meaning to 

undertake some metalpoint drawings.

To this end I procured some copper wire from 

Home Depot, and some silver soldering wire from William Binnie.

Today, I visited the paper conservator at the National Gallery of Art

to talk about silverpoint, and she showed me a number of supports.

She then offered a few sheets of different prepared grounds to try out.

With these in hand, I then fashioned some electrical-taped tools

of which any prison-shank-aficionado would be proud.

The result:

Godzilla VS King Ghidorah (after Frans Post)

Here is Frans Post's original painting.

Vertical and Horizontal lines delineate different ground preparation.

The ground is bone ash and rabbit skin glue.

The right side of the page was dampened and rubbed with cheese cloth.

The middle horizontal third was burnished, and the

bottom third was sanded with pumice stone.

The dampening didn't seem to affect the surface too much,

but I found the burnished was easiest to work with.

The sky, background, and Godzilla are silverpoint.

The foreground and King Ghidorah are copperpoint.

When I was working, there was no visible difference in color

between the two, so I am interested to see how they age.

And here are the tools:

#165 The Orangutan

Animalia: Day 118

The Orangutan

Sketches. 

More sketches.

Traced on the Wacom tablet, so this one is entirely digital.

Throwin' barrels and stuff.

I love their neck flab that moves around when they walk.

Bonus color variation: Yeti Orangutan

Bonus color variation: Gorilla Orangutan

Tomorrow: the Ostrich.

#164 The Opossom

Animalia: Day 117

The Opossum

It's an Animalia post!

Hot dang!

The possum. O is for optional.

Possums are surprisingly hard to draw.

The face on this one ain't quite right,

a little too badger-y.

O WELLZ.

Tomorrow: the Orangutan.