Fall Update

So it's taken me way longer to update than I'd hoped for...
Shortly after my last post I dislocated my left wrist riding the Whistler Bike Park... I was ripping down In Deep on my way into Captain Safety, clipped a root or something with my bike, went flying and WHAM!

After surgery and about a week of doing nothing I got back to work and being able to do personal art and since then I've managed alright, fortunately it's my left wrist so I can still hit the hotkeys with it while it's casted. Without the bike riding to distract me for the last 7 weeks I've actually gotten a fair bit of work done...mostly for a really cool short project at work, but I've done some personal work too.

I also just finished reading a really cool book about J.W. Waterhouse. I wasn't too familiar with his stuff before, but I found his myth inspired paintings very interesting in both subject and technique, so I thought I'd pick up the book. I ended up reading it pretty much cover to cover and really enjoyed learning about the historical and social context for his work and his symbolist, mythic, occult and pre-raphaelite influences. He based alot of his mythical work on writings by Ovid, Shelly, Keats and Tennyson. Definitely a very inspirational artist for me, and it's cool to learn more about the history and inspiration for his work... paricularly the symbolist and mythic influences as I think they are a good traditional foundation for where I'd like to see the direction of my personal work go.

I'm still juggling a bunch of personal projects that need more attention if they're gonna go anywhere, but while I was recovering I wanted to work on something fun and straightforward so I worked this new piece up. The original inspiration came from Sabbath's Supernaut,(I've been on a bit of a kick lately) and somehow turned into this...



Anyway, the cast comes off in two days and I'm super stoked. I've got a design for my right shoulder sleeve to finish before November and a few unfinished things and experiments to get to, so hopefully now that it's fall I will be cranking some stuff out and posting work more often.

Boy Soldier

It's been a busy summer... despite just having 2 weeks vacation, I haven't found much art time for actually finishing any major pieces.

I have been working with my wife on a picture book though. It's about a Boy Soldier in Africa and here's a current sketch of the main character.

Thumbnails

I always start out with a thumbnail. Here's a comp of some of my favorites from the last 3 months or so.

Spring Update

It's been a really busy Spring... literally the day after my last post I got involved in what turned out to be a fairly lengthy freelance gig. I was quite a long process and after that project was finished there was a bit of burnout downtime and some rest. I've also been thinking alot about where my personal work is heading as I'm gearing up for a couple of personal projects I'm going to start this summer. As a bit of a break I did this quick piece over a few nights this week. It's no real departure for me as far as style goes, but I think some of the thinking I've been doing about my work is starting to show in a more cohesive, inspired look. I'm figuring out how to represent my themes and inspirations more, where my influences fit in to that and starting to develop more of my own personal visual language.

Colour Thumb...

I'm going to try and update more frequently, even if it's just little things like this...



...a small colour thumb I did up the other night. These are such good practice for composition and colour... I love 'em. Started with a blue green sky colour for the jungle night sky and worked towards the foreground laying in bold silhouettes in solid colours first, then pushing some back with atmosphere, then hitting some spots with a brigh, warmer moonlight. Really tried to keep the strokes purposeful on this...

I am reading Moby Dick right now, thanks to my current interest in classic, dark fiction and Tony's emphatic recommendations... Melville's thoughts on the inherent terror inducing qualities of white, especially when found in nature, were why the snake ended up white...more interesting than the green I was thinking of for sure.

Spectrum 16 and Mixed Bag Mythography

Well, it looks like I will have some work in Spectrum 16!

I was super surprised to make it in to say the least. I sent submissions in this year as a due dilligence kinda thing, with no expectations whatsoever of having anything accepted and I think I'm still in a bit of disbelief!
When I find out what piece or pieces got in and get an official correspondence from them it will probably sink in a bit more.

I am really, really flattered to be in a volume with so many incredible artists and I know that seeing my work amongst the many truly great pieces will be humbling but it will inspire me to work harder too. It's great to feel like the hard work and focus is paying of somehow, and I'm more inspired than ever to keep pushing myself, be more focused and work even harder. I've been looking up to the artists published in Spectrum since Volume 3, and this is a huge milestone for me.

So not to post news without art...

When I wanted to come up with a title for this blog, I wanted it to somehow relate to my personal work that is eclectically inspired and varies in subject a fair bit, but is still unified by my own influences and Personal Mythologies. I came up with Mixed Bag Mythography.

I wanted to make an illustration to serve as a visual interpretation of this title that would represent some of the inspirations and subjects of my personal artwork. I chose to personify the theme with a female character to represent creativity. She’s kind of a vagabond – wandering through the world much like how my inspiration will wander with no set purpose. She’s collected all kinds of trappings and artifacts, some of which represent my cultural background and inspirations, and others that I just think are cool and add interest.

All the pseudo-intellectual artistic descriptions aside: this is a character I thought would make a cool illustration for my Blog, with lots of interesting things to paint and opportunities to play with expression, colour, texture and lighting.

I hope you like it…



- Nigel

Big Ol' Grizzly Bear...

I haven't had much to post for the last month or so... did a couple submissions for Udon Darkstalkers book, we'll see how that goes...

Anyway, as fun as the fan art was, it's good to get back to my personal work. I made a bunch more PS brushes last week. Some rough textured ones, bristly ones and some different chisels. Here's a sketch I painted up a bit using some... the bristles worked out great on the fur.



...updated this march 23rd... fixed a part of the tree on the right that was bugging me.