BROKEN DREAMS

So check this out…

So there it is. I finally decided that the publishing world was simply not ready for my genius. Y’know, since they rejected my attempts at the traditional method of publication. So I did what any struggling artist with a misplaced sense of entitlement would do, I self-published. Is it a cop-out? Sure. Am I any less excited? Maybe a little. But my pride in completing a book and actually having it sold online is still very much in check.

So now I implore you fine people, the readers of my blog, the fans of my work… go… buy my book. Buy enough that I can afford this:

It’s not much really. I need a new record player. Mine skips if I even walk near it. And if my math is correct, I’ll only have to sell 200 books to get it. Sigh. Maybe some new shoes would be a more attainable goal. I really want some new oxfords with cheery colored soles. Like these:

If you don’t think those are dope, you may still like the book… point is, don’t let my sense of fashion reflect to broadly. But really, who wouldn’t look better in lime green soles? You gotta see the blue ones. I might be getting off track.

So you can get the book HERE! 

It’s about a boy who has the perfect dream. It’s so perfect, he decides to share it with his classmates during show-n-tell the next day. Unfortunately, before he has a chance to show it off, he breaks it. And wouldn’t you know it, a broken dream is nothing more than a nightmare.

That was my synopsis. Who wouldn’t want to buy that?

And here’s a couple shots of what’s inside:

Those last 2 shots are actually one spread.

The book was written with a 5 to 10 year old audience in mind. Preschool to 5th grade or thereabouts. But honestly, and without a hint of modesty, the illustrations were designed to cater to the ageless; those that like graphic novels, cheap red wine, and instrumental hip-hop (at the same time), and all those in between (particularly those who would wear blue soled oxfords).

yours,

- jbn

IN THE MIST OF AEROSOL

Soooooo… new painting I want to share. Tis big. 36 X 48 inches. It all started when i was told i needed to come up with something new for an upcoming show. See, i had a painting already for this particular show, but i had shown it a couple times and the venue in question was beginning to feel like they were getting used goods. Or something. Understandably. So they asked for something new – and i’m glad they did, otherwise i just let laziness consume me and go with whatever is easiest.

So I had this idea. Not really able to explain it so much, alas, I can break down the process of execution for you lovely readers. Here goes… step 1: CONCEPT.

I know. It’s like what? But that’s how I work. I create a composite in photoshop first. Which just basically serves as a storyboard for my ideas, allowing me to move things around and change colors, etc. The text in the foreground will be done in a varnish. You’ll see a picture at the end of this post of the final piece, but it’s difficult to make out the text from the photo. And now it reads, “OBSERVE REACT REPEAT.”

Next I take the composite into illustrator where i design the stencil parts. That would be step 2:

I like the propaganda look. Shepard Fairey – style. Playing with that a bit here. I’m also obsessed with making my images look as if they’ve been aged and weathered as if on the streets. Hence the reason I like to use old posters within my paintings – gives it a sense of permanence I think. That’s probably not the right word. Moving on. Step 3: execution, background.

I think the pink area came out well. Probably my favorite part of the whole thing actually… or at least the one thing that matched what i had in my head. I aged the posters at the bottom with graffiti, wood stain, scratches and tears (either pronunciation is accurate).

Those planes were just annoying. I mean, they were simple enough. But cutting the same shape 4 times for 4 different sizes grew old quickly. Not that i’m complaining… so far so good. Oh, and you’re probably saying, “I only see 3 different sizes,” True. I add the 4th later. By the way, if the spacing looks off – it’s because it totally is – I just eyeball this stuff.

Alright. Step 4: foreground, the gorilla. The gorilla, including his hat/goggles is made up of 6 stencils – and 9 colors I think (including the variations i put within the goggles and the blue outline). I cut all the stencils by hand on poster board that i just taped together. Here’s the grey foundation and about half of the black.

I could tell at this point that i would need another plane near the right over his shoulder. I’m sure there’s a king kong subtext here somewhere.

Okay, big jump now. I didn’t document the process of making the hat and goggles apparently. When I did the blue outline, I went too far into the goggle on the right. I fixed that later (thankfully the stencils survived so i didn’t have to recut anything). I used a KRINK pen to add some detail to the black.

The only part of the painting i’m unsatisfied with is the strap hanging down. I never should have outlined it. Oh well. Also, on the final piece, i’ve put a couple dots of “light” in the absent pupils of the gorilla. Just to give him some life. I’m probably going to make those bigger before this thing is ever hung in a gallery. Also, I may go back and add a little more distress to the entire piece. Some graffiti elements here and there. I don’t know. Might have to do something to that strap too. Let it go. Let it go.

And here’s an angled shot of the final piece. Showing the final step, the varnished letters, which are more subtle than i originally intended but that’s cool… this isn’t science.

That’s it. Price available on request. Happy new years and thanks for reading.

 

Tug O’War Tattoo

Happy holidays, kids. I wanted to share this image that I was sent. Many of you out there have Flowers in the Attic tattoos. You send them to me. I love them. You can see a collection on my old site, here. And although I love to see them  (it really never gets old to me that someone would put my work on their skin), I have to admit that the initial surprise of seeing my work etched into someone’s body has passed. I think it’s because that particular design has gotten bigger than i will ever be. I’m removed from it now. Hell, most people think Banksy did it anyway… moving on. But occasionally a fan of my work will send me a photo of a tattoo featuring a lesser known image of mine. Exhibit A:

Cool right? See, I had these books printed up – you can find them here - that feature images of mine that never really saw the light of day. Some have made it into paintings but most are stepping stones on the way to commissioned pieces.  I sell these books but I also include them for free when someone buys a print or painting of mine. Which was the case when Mr. Duncan purchased the above-mentioned Flowers In The Attic print. In this book, on the centerfold actually, is the tank-tug-o-war illustration. Originally, I drew it up as part of this image:

You can see it very faintly at the very bottom. If you follow my work at all, you know I do a lot of stencil-style stuff. The tank illustration was done in this manner with the intention of putting it on the streets… never did. So until i got the idea of printing up the book (a bad idea i should add… i don’t have the money for these flights of fancy), the design was just sitting on my hard drive, dying a slow, obscure death. Actually, i think the hopscotch/bomb illustration was published in defish magazine a few years back, but since the tank if relatively hidden, I decided to feature it in the book. ANYWAY, i’m totally off track, all that to say that a few weeks after Mr. Duncan purchased a print, he sent me the tank tattoo photo. Thanks for that. Here’s a shot of the children:

Later this week, I’ll be posting a shot of my new painting as well as an explanation (complete with photos) of the process. Just in time for new years (i don’t know what that means). I also self-published my children’s book through amazon; more on that next week. THEN i must get started on this big show I’m involved in at Masur Museum. I’ll document that as well. Point is – this blog is alive and well, dust off the cobwebs, start your engines, all that. Until next time.

The Discarded Instruments Concept

The title for this post doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue does it? Alas, that was my idea for concept #2 for Liz Murray’s album cover. For the first attempt, I tried to convey my ideas over the phone to get approval before starting. For this one, the concept wasn’t much of a concept. All the strength of the image was in the execution and not so much the idea itself. I knew this and decided to work it up before ever mentioning the idea to Liz or her team. Luckily it paid off. She likes it. They like it. All is good with the world.

If you read the previous post, you know why I needed to do a second version. Basically the first one just didn’t compliment Liz’s sound the way it needed to. I think this one does.

I do a lot of photo-manipulation in my advertising gig but normally stick to illustration for most of my freelance work. The reason being is that advertising runs at the speed of money and rarely do I have time to do a proper illustration for a client without that time running head to head with another assignment. Understandably, clients would rather get a good piece on time than a great piece late. Anyway, it was fun doing a photo-illustration without my usual confines. I rarely take on freelance gigs that involve compromise. I figure if the client chose to seek me out, they want my personal spin on the project. Agency work is a bit different since the clients don’t usually know my work personally. Totally getting off topic. Here’s a shot of the cover design, isolated without the text elements:

I know, crows always find their way into my work. I’ve accepted it.

I think the image is peaceful. Might put it on canvas or something. I don’t know. I say that more often that I actually do it. Did you know the T is silent in “often?” Oh, you did? Yea, me too.

Bout to start working on a big piece. Has a gorilla in it. And airplanes. I’ll try to document it as I go. Until then…

The Girl with the Chair

Been a long time since I posted anything. I hit a nice creative stride a few months back; gotta few pieces out of it… but I got winded it would seem. Haven’t been in a fine-art making mood as of late. However, i have had a couple freelance, commercial gigs that have kept the juices flowing. One of which I shall share with you fine people now.

I have been commissioned to do an album cover for local singer, Liz Murray, whose album drops early next year. I’m currently in the middle of  version 2 of said album cover. The first version, while liked, didn’t really convey the vibe of the music. But I like the piece. And I plan on making a small print out of it. So I thought i would show it off here first.

Since it was designed to work as the front and back of a digipack single fold, it’s a long narrow design – and for my own purposes (since it won’t be used for the album anymore), I’ve made it even longer. Panoramic style. See…

The idea of a person, specifically a young girl, alone in this vastness with nothing but a chair was an interesting concept to me. Not sure I can explain why. Initially, that wasn’t supposed to be blood she was walking in – it was supposed to be ladybugs – but while that idea rocked in my head, i couldn’t get it to rock on the screen. So now it’s blood. Whatever. And the chair… I knew from the start i wanted the chair to be very different from everything else – tone, style, execution, etc. – all very different from the color palette and surroundings. Again, this idea was intriguing to me although I cant honestly say what it means.

Here’s a shot of the girl and the chair (which rests dead center) at 100%…

Took a while to draw that darn chair. Thanks go out to my friend, Jenifer Parker, for posing for me. She’s posed for me before. She’s willing, does what i ask, and doesn’t question how she looks or the end result… a perfect subject. Thanks again; sorry they’re not using it but if i get it printed, I’ll definitely show it at the gallery and I’ll get you a copy.

I’ll post version 2 later this week. It’s very different from this one. I like it a lot.

Thanks for reading.

Virus Girl

Newish painting, based on an old painting and an even older illustration. I did the Virus Girl design for a band back in the day – that version was a little different. Then I painted it on an old door that I found; you can find that one on my gutterpark site. That version sold a few years ago and now I’ve resurrected the stencil at the request of a potential buyer for this new version. And it goes a little something like this…

The version on the door has some varnished water drops laid over the top – i like that – might do something similar on this one – better hurry though, the show is tomorrow night. Downtown Gallery Crawl tomorrow night ya’ll. Hope to see all those within driving distance there. I’ll have 8 new pieces on display, including this one. Here’s a another angle:

You can probably tell from the photos that this version is on metal, adhered to wood. 12 X 18 inches. Been signing (stenciling) my work on the back lately – my signature is distracting i think. So… pricing this one for the budget -conscious. Contact me if you’re interested. Thanks for looking.

Butterflies and Wolves

Here’s another illustration without a home. This was initially sketched out for a client. But about half way in, i realized it wasn’t going to work for it’s original purpose – but i finished it anyway. It’s very indicative of my older, stencil-style work – with the black/red color scheme and the use of negative space (not to mention the butterflies).

If anyone has a use for it, let me know.

I’m involved in a group show come November so I started going through some of my digital illustrations to see if anything was worthy of getting reprinted. I came across a design I did about 4 years ago called STRAY – sort of a red riding hood thing. I had to resize it and move some things around for reasons I won’t bore you with, but I ended up using the pose from the illustration above as my new “Red.”

Worked out pretty good. I’m having it giclee printed on gallery-wrapped canvas – painting the sides gold. I think the final piece will be 15 X 30 inches. Here’s some detail shots.

Next week, I’ll post a small painting that I just completed as well as shots from the upcoming “Gallery Crawl.” Thanks for looking.

Specimens

Alrighty. I did the following illustration for a client. They aren’t going with it. It wasn’t on target, admittedly. Alas, thought i would show it off. I call it “specimens.”

I put it up on threadless just in case anyone gets the urge to vote,  - I’m honestly not sure it makes that good of a shirt but hey, I didn’t have anything else to do with it. Plus, threadless gets a lot of traffic. Exposure is good.

Here’s a couple detail shots:

That’s me breaking the jar with my head – see:

Photo credit goes to the wife. Look how long my jeans are. That’s not right.

I’m going to post another vector illustration tomorrow  - another failed attempt for a client. Maybe I should consider another line of work. So, thanks for all those that read this and double thanks for all those that bother to vote at threadless. Highly unlikely this will make it as a shirt but it makes me feel better when my submissions get some attention. Abandonment issues.

 

Served Fresh

So… new painting. I don’t really have all that much to say about it; I’m not sure if it’s my mood or if maybe I feel that the painting should just speak for itself. The latter seems like a cop out. I will say that it was inspired by lyrics of the song, “By Your Side” by Cocorosie. They’re an odd twosome. Not a bad thing. Oddness, I mean. My son sometimes asks me if he’s normal. Not sure how to answer him just yet. If he’s anything like his dad…  I’m getting off point. Here’s the painting:

It’s 24 X 24 inches – on wood. Several different applications/mediums here. Spraypaint, water-color, ink, wood-stain, even paint-thinner. I designed this in the computer first – I do that a lot – and the cleanliness of the pink area looked great on the monitor. In person, cleanliness just looks boring and unfinished. So I “aged” it. Muddied it up is what I did.

There was still something missing though. Earlier in the week I convinced my mother-in-law to let me have this old school workbook (that i think belonged to my wife at some point). Took some coercing – especially after i told her my plan was to cut it all up. But I knew I had to have Jack & Jill. They were too great. Looking at them for the first time, I knew they could be used in virtually any setting but that their meaning could be altered significantly depending on that setting. Little did I know I would find the perfect place for them just a couple days later.

And as for that “meaning,” could be anyone’s guess. But I think they add a bit of levity to the painting and a needed splash of color. Did I just type “splash of color?”

After drawing the bottom, i just wasn’t feeling it. Originally, I wanted it to be more detailed but most of my pens fail me when i try to use them on these weird surfaces I create thought layer after layer of paints and chemicals. Luckily that steel-tipped KRINK pen will write on anything. Unfortunately, one can get the thinnest of lines from it (or at least I can’t). So there went my detail. But the water-colors saved it I think/hope. I like working with water-colors. Need to do more of that.

So… This is the last in my current series. Or it could be the first of my next since I’m thinking about doing something with song lyrics. I don’t know. I don’t think out this art-thing too far in advance. As usual, this monkey will be on the back of UPSTAIRS at the October Gallery Crawl which is October 6th. Speaking of this upcoming crawl, we’ll have a large presence of street-inspired work up there so if you’re in the area and a fan of that particular scene, come out.

Thanks for looking. Contact me for purchasing information.

Rockin’ Catering Co.

I designed a logo recently for local legend, Toby Traylor; he of guitar-pickin’ fame and pie-pusher at Lea’s. This is not the first time we’ve worked together. I designed this for his band a while back. He’s also been generous with his talents in the past and provided UPSTAIRS with a bit of class via his magic fingers. Now the man is delving further into the realms of food service with his own catering company. And if Lea’s is any indication – should be yum-worthy.

His request was that the logo mix a bit of House of Blues with more than a hint of Indian style… dots not feathers ya’ll. So I did a small handful. One catered more to the House of Blues thing, one leaned on the Indian thing and I did one that was far removed from anything he asked for. A wild card if you will. Not entirely sure why I’m mentioning all these logos since I’m only showing the one he chose. The best one I think. We went Indian. Check it:

Now that i’m looking at it again, I remember his other request. He wanted a dobro in it. For all those not in the know, a dobro is a type of acoustic guitar with a metal disk on it (at least that’s what my widget dictionary says).

So the elephant – that’s Ganesha – and Indian deity that i think has something to do with success. I don’t know. I only do enough research to help me with the visual, this ain’t school. So I figured Ganesha was born to rock and I threw a little dobro love his way. Used an indian style font for “catering” to finish ‘er up. Here are a couple variations:

Alright, that’s that. I’ll post a new painting later this week that I’m sure will cause some to question my sensibilities. Until then…