Heroes and Villains SKETCHBOOK PROJECT

Green Lantern / graphite on paper / 2012

It's the last day of January and I succeeded by the skin of my teeth in completing two Superhero Projects to kick off 2012.  My Hero | My Villain was a very successful exhibit this past Saturday night at No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville.  After the riotous bedlam of this one night event, it was right back to the drawing table Sunday and Monday to finish up my Sketchbook Project for Brooklyn Art Library in New York.  The theme assigned to me was Heroes and Villains and the book had to be postmarked today for its inclusion.  I'm happy to say it is on its way in care of the good folks at the USPS.

With this new book of graphite illustrations, I now have three different volumes of my work included in Brooklyn Art Library's permanent collection.  Patrons can sit down and flip through literally thousands of sketchbooks from artists living at all corners of the globe.  My previous submissions were much more lowbrow where I went through and covered the books in a plethora of wild imagery with my trusty markers.  This year, I decided to take a more tradition route and do actual sketches with only pencil.  In my everyday illustration, I generally do preliminary sketches but don't build them up much, only using it as a guide for my inked linework.  Each of the 14 comic characters took about 2-3 hours each to get them where I wanted them using only the medium of a mechanical pencil. 

Thanos / graphite on paper / 2012

Daredevil / graphite on paper / 2012

The Heroes and Villains sketchbook will go on a World Tour before finding a permanent home on the shelves of the Brooklyn Art Library.  Cities hosting the tour include Chicago, Portland (Oregon AND Maine,) Philadelphia, Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The book will travel internationally also to Vancouver and Toronto in Canada, Melbourne in Austalia and London, England.  Click HERE for the official calendar to see where you can catch the tour LIVE and in person!  Can't make it in person?  Check out this video of the entire book!

MY HERO | MY VILLAIN

Photo by Joe Melanson

Joe Melanson harnessed every molecular bit of his superhero art powers this month to build up, hype and create the explosion which was a ONE NIGHT ONLY event last night at No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville.  A steady stream of folk perused the plethora of heroic and villainous scenes created by a dozen or so regional artists and experienced my interactive installation courtesy of four Superhero Theme Music Tracks composed my buddy Dustin TEADS Wright!  I'll be high off the buzz of this show for weeks... what a night!

For the past month, I've been living and breathing comic lore by creating new illustrations as well as four new paintings to go along with the tracks TEADS concocted by fusing clips from the heroes' movies and shows with his own dubstep and metal versions of the TV theme songs for Batman, Spiderman, and The Incredible Hulk while borrowing from Black Sabbath for Iron Man.  The final result was an interactive experience which gave the viewers another dimension in this surreal experience!

All the previews were finally over and the end product was here as last night it all went down.  My Hero | My Villain was a thrilling experience for me to see so many eyes and ears on my new work and collaboration with TEADS.  Thanks to everyone who bared the cold to be our audience!  My Super-Art Wife Aurora took most of these wonderful pics capturing the night...

Read more »

ART (and PEACE) for your EARS

THIS Saturday night, I'll be involved with My Hero | My Villain, a ONE NIGHT ONLY Group Art exhibit at No Egrets Tattoo Studio here in Clarksville featuring a plethora of regional artists who are creating a lowbrowpalooza of the south with Joe Melanson and the shop's help.  If you've been missing out on these exhibits, I'm upping the ante this time around with a MULTIMEDIA exhibit that you can ONLY experience LIVE this Saturday.  My boy TEADS has been mixing up some dubstep theme tracks to go with four portraits I've painted in Superhero Surrealism for the show.  His tracks will be featured on headphone sets which will be hung with the art so the viewer can listen and look to experience this multimedia experience!

Last night, I got a little crafty when I was playing with the headphone sets I purchased to use in the installation this Saturday.  Using some of my foil peace sign stickers, I made the headsets a little more DREGish...

The stickers themselves were just a hair too big for the stickers so I cut our the center bones of the peace signs!

The silver borders on the headphones set them off- it was like it was meant to be!

You can try one on THIS Saturday night!

I wanted to challenge myself with this installation by creating four NEW paintings.  I've only really been painting the past few years live and in group situations so the work for My Hero | My Villain is new territory for me in more ways than one!  RSVP at the Facebook Event Page to come this Saturday and see what IRON MAN is drinking, how the HULK transforms, what bit SPIDERMAN, and BATMAN in a straight jacket!  All four paintings will feature original theme music composed by TEADS!

Click HERE for a sneak peek at IRON MAN

Click HERE for a sneak peek at BATMAN

Click HERE for a sneak peek at my special New Year's Day HULK SMASH post!

The Wolfman Cometh

I was sharing around the flier for MY HERO | MY VILLAIN tonight through the social networks and realized my cohort in villainy, Charles V Bennett's name wasn't featured so I worked up a special version of the poster for him!  Here's the before and after... er- after and before if you will...

Poster Art by Gin Edwards

Click HERE to RSVP for this ONE NIGHT EXHIBIT next Saturday!

Click HERE for a preview of my HULK painting for the show!

Click HERE for a preview of my IRON MAN painting for the show!

Click HERE for a preview of my Topsy-Turvy: Fantastic Four for the show!

Click HERE for a preview of my Topsy-Turvy: Spy vs. Spy for the show!

The Dark Knight (in a Straight Jacket)

I'm in superfanboy mode here at DREGstudios! this week with two comic-themed projects this month.  I'm knee deep in my comics and graphic novels scouring for ideas to fill up a sketchbook for Art House Co-op, who do some wonderful group projects collaborating artists from across the globe.  I've previously participated in two of their Sketchbook Projects, from the which my entries are housed in The Brooklyn Art Library with thousands of others artists' work open to public viewing.  Past Sketchbook Projects have gone on tour across the United States, Canada, and Europe before resting on the shelves of this one-of-a-kind library.

Click HERE for a post on my last Sketchbook Project!

For their 2012 World Tour Project, themes were given and I was assigned "Heroes and Villains."  Irony and laws of attraction always seem to align with the compulsion to create taking me by the seat of my pants.  I'm also slated to do an interactive installation at My Hero / My Villain at No Egrets Tattoo here in Clarksville (a one-night extravaganza on January 28th.)  Check out my New Year's Day HULK SMASH post for more!

As the next couple of weeks pass, I'll be giving you some previews of the work for these shows.  Today's sneak peek is special though because it will really be the only work which bridges both the My Hero / My Villain exhibit AND my Sketchbook Project.  Bats is always my favorite because he doesn't have any powers, he's just insane; this insanity being the inspiration behind my first sketch for my Heroes and Villains theme.  I'll also be doing a painting from this sketch for my interactive display at the end of the month!

Batman as the patient at Arkham? 

Illustration Friday: I am Batman

Inks on Bristol / 2009

Today, Illustration Friday wants us to "Stay."  This week's theme makes me think of staying still, which brought me to this incarnation of The Caped Crusader from my 2009 Cult of Personality exhibit.  Batman has always been my favorite comic book hero- mainly because he walks that fine line of genius and insanity.  He's more of an anti-hero in some regards, defying and evading the law himself under his guise.

Click HERE for more of my Cult of Personality Series!

Click HERE for a stream of my Illustration Friday entries! 

TOPSY-TURVY II

Photo by Marsha Rusk (curator)












 A collection of 30 recent illustrations from my Topsy-Turvy series can be currently seen at Wired Coffee Company in Hendersonville, TN through March 30.

Wired Coffe Co. is a gem of a spot for the Nashville area. The atmosphere is very chill and if you're in the area, I urge you to stop by and check them out!