In Memoriam: Gerry Rafferty

"Stuck in the Middle" inks on bristol (01/05/11)

Scottish rock legend and co-founder of sixties pop sensation Stealers Wheel, Gerry Rafferty passed away this morning from complications of liver disease.   Gerry's music has been with me since I was a teenager... and will always continue to make my playlists. He released his final album last year.

When I read of his passing this morning, I was immediately compelled to pay tribute through my craft.  The background of the cityscape in the reflection of Gerry's glasses is Scottish flags on either side.  Stealers Wheel got together in Renfrewshire, Scotland around 1972 and were considered the British version of super-group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at the time.  The group disbanded in the 70's and Rafferty went on to score a #1 hit in 1979 with the love song, "Right Down the Line."

The clowns and jokers bordering the portrait are inspired by lyrics from Stealers Wheel's biggest hit, Stuck in the Middle with You.

"Clowns to the left of me; Jokers to the right

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

Portrait Process: Leonard Cohen

I was running errands Sunday when I got a song stuck in my head.  Actually- just one line in particular from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem."

"There is a crack in everything-
That's how the light gets in"

This is one of my favorite songs from the author and musician next to Hallelujah and Everybody Knows.   I hadn't considered drawing a portrait of Cohen in the past but when the lyrics got stuck in my head, the gears turned just right to give me the perfect image of him in profile with a beam of light radiating out a crack in the darkness.  I couldn't get the image out of my head so I started working on him Sunday night...

I began sketching Cohen's profile from a picture off the net.  If I'm doing a larger piece with multiple reference photos, I'll usually print them but tonight was just a small 5 x 7 portrait.  I start out loose, just trying to get the general layout and spacial settings, them start hashing out the details..

After the sketch is done, I throw down my outlines in ink and call it a night after I get a scan (I had already been working on a much larger piece all day for an upcoming group exhibit.)

This morning I got back to the portrait as I erased away the sketch and got a clean outline for coloring.  This is the process I go through on each and every illustration.  When you erase the lead however, it dulls the outlines, so I go back over them when I'm done coloring.  So essentially all my drawings get an initial sketch and the outline done twice, the second outline usually adding much more detail. Now to get to coloring...

In many mediums, you go dark to light.  With markers, I've found it depends on the situation and I often go back and forth.  Most of the time I'll get my background done and then start adding my highlights to see where my light source will be.  You can't really add a light area over top of a dark one with my medium.  I lay some grays down first to get some depth on the "crack" and let the light in with three different hues of yellow.

 Next, I begin work on the clothes and skin-tones.  I generally use anywhere from 2-5 colors for a skin tone.  The hat and suit took four different blues and then a few grays to shade...

I work the drop shadow from the hat and then darken the background with another wash of black before adding some stars to match the suit (with a blue metallic pen.)  Last, I add some more depth to the shadow from the hat...

I went back over my outline to get things a big crisper (as I mentioned above.) Now I get my final scan...

Click HERE to Order an Artist's PRINT of this Leonard Cohen Portrait!

CyberCasualty: January 1: The Death of Hank Williams

The Death of Hank Williams (inks on bristol / 7in x 5in / 2010)

Last week I had the pleasure of illustrating a portrait of Hank Williams for JoeBot's article about this musical pioneer and wild man on his site, CyberCasualty. Williams died of a morphine overdose on New Year's Day 1953 in the back of a baby blue drop-top Cadillac.


I'll leave the words to JoeBot today [Click HERE for the article] but I have to say this- (and I think he'd agree) some men become gods in death and most of them go young. 

I met JoeBot when he walked through a couple of my art exhibits in Nashville.  Based on the content of my artwork, we had plenty of fertile ground for conversation. The man is good with words and has a way all his own of putting his commentaries down.  Being an illustrator himself, he also has his own line of greeting cards which will make you absolutely piss yourself.  Embrace the same joy I get of reading it all and visit him today. 

Also check out JoeBot's articles at...   Disinformation / Taki's Magazine 

Greeting Cards will be back soon at The Smiling Machine

I'll leave you today with Hank Williams' last #1 Hit... 

SACRED TEXTS at The Tennessee Art League

My newest art exhibit, SACRED TEXTS opens January 8th at The Tennessee Art League's Premier Gallery in Downtown Nashville during the First Saturday Art Crawl. This show is nearly five years in the making, consisting of works created in 2006-2007.  I'm thrilled and excited to finally get this body of work into a public setting thanks to TAL curator Terri Jordan, who was very receptive to the concept of these pieces and was eager as myself to get them an audience.  

Illustration Friday: Lova (Happy New Year from DREGstudios!)

This week's theme at Illustration Friday is "Resolutions."  My entry for this week is from my Random Acts of Vibrance series (which will be in progress until next year.)  All the works under this theme have central figures with either lightbulb heads or lampshade heads who "turn themselves on" and "get an idea" so to speak.  Each creates and captures a moment of inspiration.

New Year's resolutions are our ultimate acts of inspiration.  Whether they are forced spontaneously or planned for months, they are your deal with the universal spirit to accomplish something.  Seize the inspiration and live it and believe it.  Live your dream and the dream is real... just realize it may be here and you not see it.  You have to be it before you consciously realize it.  We don't become masters of our crafts, purposes, and dreams overnight. The Secret to the Universe is positive visualization.  Write your goals down and see what you want.  We have to see it with our mind's eye in order to achieve it and take that next step in the evolutionary chain... get that next link locked in your journey.  See something for yourself today and believe in it... for real.

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

Here are my top two personal resolutions for next year...

1.  Launch iLLAMENTARY as an online publication to create interest in and allow access to Pop Surrealist and Low Brow arts in the South...  Tha dirty needs a rag, we're gonna get it!

2.  Turn a profit.  This will be just the third year I've filed taxes as a professional artist and haven't achieved this.  I'm not saying I didn't make money, I just spent a lot more than I made!  It's a good thing I promise, I look at it like pulling back the sling-shot... it can only go back so far before we go sailing much much further and much faster the other direction.  This is an ongoing goal since I made the same one last year.  My earnings did increase around 500% this year so I'm optimistic.

See you in 2011!  Much love and adoration from DREGstudios!

What are your resolutions for 2011?

Illustration Friday: The Downsized Skeleton

inks on paper / 2007

Here is my first entry for a neat site I just got turned on to called Illustration Friday.  Every week they present a different theme for artists to post work around.  My entry for this week's theme, "Winter," is from a series which I've toyed around with the past couple of years called Ballad of the Skeletons.  These are based on the poem of the same name by Allen Ginsberg.  I can't give him enough love this week after watching Howl (see my review from earlier this week.) Every skeleton in the poem has a line of dialog...

Said the downsized skeleton,

Robot's got my job.  

For the meantime I've put this series on the back-burner since I got tangled up in some other projects.  I want to make much more intricate works with the remaining skeletons I have to illustrate. The themes of this poem stand the test of time and are all still relevant today.  I drew this is 2007 but pulling it back up for this online exhibit, it struck me how much more the image hits home after the financial problems we've all had this year.  Folks are falling on hard times not only because of technology but now from outsourcing work to foreign countries.  The guy at the top makes more as the poor schmucks at the bottom lose their jobs to employees who don't require as much pay or benefits.  The American worker is left out in the cold with little notice and/or severance.

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

Top 10 Movie Picks of 2010

Making your pick is tough work sometimes...

Anyone who is acquainted with me knows I'm a movie hound.  Movies move me and often inspire themes in my work.  I hate television... been completely unplugged from it for six years now and I don't miss a thing but I couldn't live without the joy of cinema.  I feel it is one of our highest art forms now, having developed from the exploits and exploration of 70's film to the visual feasts constructed today.  A good movie can change your perception of life and the world through various means, whether it be the story, the acting, or even just the cinematography. I love the idea of list-making, which probably stems from me reading High Fidelity as a teenager and I was compelled to compile my Top 10 list after seeing what I feel is the best movie of the year just last night.  However, we have to countdown to it so here we go...
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