Illustration Friday: Campy

I believe "Midsummer Night" is my favorite theme so far which Illustration Friday has thrown at me.   I really had fun digging around looking through old work and musing summertime memories just now.  Today's featured illustration is from my Topsy Turvy series.  One of the things about summer which turns me nostalgic is campfires- I've had some of the best times of my life around them here in the south with guitars and stories and dancing (til dawn often times.)  That's where this work and theme brought me today so I'll be on my way- it's a beautiful summer day and I gotta find my next fire...

"Topsy Turvy: Campy" inks on paper / 2007

All works from this series can be hung either side up- today's for example, will look more like the sun in space than a campfire when you flip it over!

{ Click HERE for more on my Topsy Turvy series}

{ Click HERE for a stream of my Illustration Friday entries }

Illustration Friday: Oceanic

"Oceanic" inks on bristol / 2008

"Swept" is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday, which immediately brought an illustration to mind from 2008.  I guess it gives me the feeling of being swept away.  The water is my favorite part of this one with it's calming deco greens.  I've never displayed this gal, since the proper context to show the work in has yet to surface.  I composed a few surreal portraits that year of women with the power animals perched on their shoulders.  I did four or five and lost interest in the idea (which tends to happen to my scattered brain.)

What is your POWER Animal?

[Click HERE for a stream of ALL of my Illustration Friday posts from this year!]

 

Wishing you PEACE on Memorial Day from DREGstudios!

With all the hatred we experience in the world on a daily basis, I want to wish everyone PEACE in their lives today.  As it is Memorial Day, we remember those lost as a token in the cost of WAR- wars both just and unjust- those for pride and those for profit.  The most fitting and thoughtful memory you can have for those memorialized today is one of purpose and progress.  As life is a wild of a ride, we get too caught up in the ups and downs of our everyday struggle to think about tomorrow nevertheless the state of the world for future generations to come. Never forget, we're in this together whether we like it or not (and I don't mean both sides of the isle, I mean the entire human race.)

"Sacred Texts:  We the People" inks on pages from The Holy Bible (2007)

    Wars have been waged and raged throughout the entire history of man (over love, over territory, over food and fire... none of which can be held in context today for cause of war as far as much of the free world is concerned.)  Today, the stakes are raised much higher as WAR is now BIG Business with natural resources and profiteering on the table.  As a people, we can continue to allow this to escalate or stand and lend our voices. The money spent on war (nevertheless that made from it) could be used to create renewable energy to power the entire world.  Trying to gain a military stranglehold on what's left of our petroleum and ignoring the fact that it's gone in less than half a century is insane.  The cost of war is not only composed of our abstract idea of money, but the cost of LIFE (hundred of thousands and over time- millions.)

Memorialize your entire world today- rich and poor, left and right, all class, all creed, all shade.  There is room for all of us, enough sun for all of us, and enough fun for all of us.  Give and get.

ASK EM

by Gikuyu Wamuiru

Go to south America and ask the indigenous tribes

You'll find when you get there, that only a few have survived.

Ask them if they have gotten that promised paradise
Ask them is it too late to fall for those religious lies

Go to Australia and ask the aborigines

How it feel for people to come and take their land 

and do as they pleze.

While you're on the subject of invading nations

and putting folks on reservations

ask the native Americans, who's truly the Indians?

or go to Gaza strip and ask the Palestinians.

Go to Europe to Belarus, where their populace is socialist

and ask them about that myth of a future that don't exist

Go to the Darfur region of Sudan

and ask the one point two million refugees

dying of starvation in the sand

Go across the globe, or go next door

Ask any body should there be war

War no more  No more war

War no more  No more war

7/28/06

Illustration Friday: Nod Off

"Topsy-Turvy: Nod Off" inks on paper / 2006

"Asleep" is what Illustration Friday gave us artists loyal to their themed gauntlet today as a topic of artist endeavor.  Here is another illustration from my Topsy-Turvy series, in which all the works can be hung either side up.  This dude is from waaaaay back in 2006 when I was still experimenting with the series around the time of my first exhibit of such work.  This illustration never made the cut for either show so I thought I would share it with you today seeing as it struck me as fitting the theme since the figure looks as if he's falling asleep through the progression of faces.

I have bouts of insomnia myself so sleep is very precious.  Just looking at this guy makes me want to nod off since I was up painting a skate deck last night.

Click HERE for more from my Topsy-Turvy series!

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Rock Star Martyr: Bradley Nowell

inks on bristol / 2011

Tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of the passing of a unique and talented musician in Bradley Nowell.   Like too many other musicians over the past 40 years, the frontman of Sublime succumbed to his own addictions with a heroin overdose at the age of 28.  Sublime's self-titled debut from any major label was released posthumously after Nowell's death and has become a staple of alternative music with it's unique blending of genres.

For my portrait, I included Brad's trusty companion, Lou Dog.  His dalmatian was a mascot of sorts for Sublime and would roam the stage as the band played.  Louie even got a few lines about himself written in a couple of the band's songs.  Of course, the poppies in the foreground with Lou are included as the element leading to the musician's fall.

Tomorrow, Joebot will commemorate Nowell with a new article on his site at Rock Star Martyr.  Be certain to swing by and lend your ear.  

[Click HERE for more of my portraits for Rock Star Martyr!]

Illustration Friday: Floundering

It's Illustration Friday again this week and we have the theme of "Soaked."  This stone age painting is from waaaaay back in 2005.  At the time, I was doing some very low brow painting aside from my illustration.  The panel was exhibited at The Alter Gallery here in Clarksville.  It was always fun painting on found wood, and just laying down some colors to see what happened.  The process took an entire 30 minutes I believe...  After making the first broad brown strokes on my white background, I decided I had an angel underwater.

"Floundering" acrylic and metallic marker on found wood panel

[Click here for a stream of ALL of this year's Illustration Friday entries!]

Illustration Friday: Break an Egg

"Break an Egg" inks on bristol / 2008

 Each week, Illustration Friday draws a theme out of the hat as a prompt for artists.  This year, I'm trying to meet their theme with an existing work of art from my catalog.  Today's prompt is "Beginner."

Every thing we tackle in our lives begins somewhere.  Whenever we start something new, we're bound to break a few eggs trying to accomplish it, which brought me to this illustration from 2008..... enjoy!

[Click HERE for a stream of ALL my Illustration Friday Entries!]

Illustration Friday: The Dunce

"The Dunce" inks on bristol / 2009

A simple but powerful word- "Lesson" is the theme for this week's Illustration Friday. 

Man we all learn them... the hard way, the easy way, a more complicated way than it should have been.  Our retention for learning from both failure and success is what makes us human.  Ironically, last night I tweeted,

still learning and visualizing every day #thesecret 

The Secret to The Universe is visualization.  If you can dream it, it is a reality.  This is how art works.  This is how we achieve and evolve- how we built the wheel, then monuments, then houses, skyscrapers and vehicles.  A man stood at the bank of a river and saw the first bridge ever constructed and after many failed attempts, brought about a way to pass.  

So don't be The Dunce, don't sit in the corner.  Think about WHAT you want each and every day and a unsuspecting little cocktail of coincidence, laws of attraction, and fate will deliver on it.  It may be days, months, or years but if you write down your goals (from the immediate little ones to the seemingly unattainable,) they will come to fruition! Thoughts become things... pick the good ones!

Illustration Friday: Comic and Tragic

Illustration Friday has posted the theme for this week as "Duet."  It takes two to tango (...or sing a duet) and sometimes they are complimentary and sometimes they are contradicting voices.  Opposing forces often factor into my work.  Here is my entry for this week, which was displayed in my solo exhibit in 2008, entitled "Felt and Found."

Comic and Tragic (inks on bristol / 2008)

 [Click here for all my previous weekly posts for Illustration Friday!]

This Weekend's Rock Star Martyrs...

Joebot has a wild weekend of dead celebrity commentaries in store for you with the anniversaries of the deaths of Marvin Gaye, Rozz Williams, and Rob Pilatus (of Milli Vanilli fame.)  You'll have to check out Rock Star Martyr this Friday to see how I handled drawing Mr. Marvin Gaye but here's the process from linework to finished product of my other two portraits which will be featured with Joe's articles this weekend...

Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli (Who won a Grammy for Best New Artist... and had to give it back)

  (06/08/65 – 04/02/98)

Rozz Williams, the shock-rocking front man of Christian Death (15 years before Marilyn Manson)

 (11/06/63 - 04/01/98)

[Click here for more of my portraits for Rock Star Martyr!]

Illustration Friday: The Banned Birthday Clown

"The Birthday Clown" inks on bristol / 2010

"Toy" is the theme for Illustration Friday today.  I couldn't resist sharing this illustration from 2010.  I was drawing a series of clowns about this time last year and honestly, they all turned out disturbing and creepy.  Clowns have petrified me since childhood- I can't think of anything scarier.  This clown was the "birthday clown," which would probably make any kid dribble in their shorts.  I chose it in reference to this week's theme because of the hand puppets and the concept of the work.

On social networking sites such as Facebook, I've been in the habit of posting art on my friends' profiles on their birthdays.  The past several months I had been using this particular piece for such a purpose.  Last week, I was suddenly unable to upload this work for posting anymore since it had been flagged as vulgar or obscene.  Apparently somebody got offended by the birthday clown.  Why do ya think?

[Click here for all my previous weekly posts for Illustration Friday!]

Illustration Friday: Grinner Repitition

"Grinner Repetition" inks on paper / 2006

Illustration Friday wants some creations under the theme of "Stir" this week.  Here's another work from my Topsy-Turvy series where you can stir, turn, twist, and rearrange the works on the wall to get a fresh look at the art...

Remember to stop by each Friday for my weekly entry for Illustration Friday, keeping us slacker creative types on our toes to share our work with the world!

[Click here for more on the Topsy-Turvy series]

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy V-day!  Check out the DREGstudios! Fan Page on Facebook today to post a pic of yourself "Showing Your Love" (this is open to your own interpretation.)  Winners will get a free print in the mail this week!  Today, I'm going to post a few nudes from several years back in commemoration of the sweetest and sexiest holiday of the year.

Our first piece today is an illustration from 2005 when I was first getting started with the medium of markers.  Lots of my work from that year was random.  This gal made it into my Dip and Trip .45 book (as did a lot of the more random works from 2005-2007.)

"The Dance" (Inks on Paper / 2006)

"The Dance" is from my Scenes of Faith and Devotion exhibit from 2007.  It depicts two nude figures dancing and was a little too racy for the show, so it wasn't included.  I later had an uncensored version of the show at a second venue with all of the intended works on display.  There were a few nice works from this series of figures playing and praying and dancing and such around large flowers.  Most of these works were also highlighted with gel and glitter pens (which is hard to tell from the scan.)

"Love in an Elevator" (2007 / inks on scrap brstol)

Illustration Friday: Swelter

Illustration Friday threw the theme of "sweater" at us this week.  Well, this guy's sweatin' up a storm so I guess he qualifies.  This illustration from 2006 was from my Scenes of Faith and Devotion exhibit, which displayed at The Phoenix Theater in Bowling Green, KY and then at The Icehouse Cafe in Clarksville, TN.  Pardon the pun on this week's theme and keep your fingers crossed for no more snow (I've been snowed out of the office at my marketing job twice this week!)

(Click here to see all my Illustration Friday weekly entries)  

Illustration Friday: Tribal Idol

The theme for this week's Illustration Friday is "Reverse." Such a theme immediately brings to mind my Topsy-Turvy series. This is an ongoing project in my life. I have displayed two solo exhibits (one in 2006 and one in 2010) of these works. Each work of art from this method may be hung either side up to create a new image and refresh the work so to speak. These works deal with comedy and tragedy, opposite forces, cause and effect, etc.

"Tribal Idol" inks on paper / 2006

(Click here for more samples of Topsy-Turvy)

(Topsy-Turvy books are available in my bookstore right here!)

(Click here to see all my Illustration Friday weekly entries)

Illustration Friday: Arresting Apple

"Arresting Apple" Inks on Paper / 2005

Illustration Friday has chosen this week's theme as "Surrender."  

My immediate train of thought when reading this was surrendering to temptation- which brought me to an older work about original sin.   This was one of the first works I ever displayed in a gallery setting at Alter Gallery in 2005 in Clarksville, TN.  I traded it to the curator, Miranda for some free framing!

Is the snake eating the apple, or infecting it?

(Click here to see all my Illustration Friday weekly entries)

The Space Between Us

6in x 4in / inks on paper

The Art House Co-Op is sponsoring an arts competition for a $1000 grant. The theme for the competition is "The Space Between Us". Many different images came to mind... my wife Aurora gave me the best one though and the results you see here! Enjoy with fresh eyes... it's headed to Brooklyn.