Working in the 'Media'

When I was still in art school, a buddy of mine and I got a tiny dealer's table at a convention in the Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago.  At the time, it was a bit of a run down old Michigan Avenue hotel, in a seeder part of downtown.

We split one tiny table.  And thus, that's how my adult life of selling artwork began.  At a really really small Star Trek Convention!

I had a knack for not only painting portraits... but likenesses as well.  As it turns out, only a few people can achieve them, even though many artists paint very nice portraits.

So, for quite a number of years, I would paint images such as this Babylon Five character.

These are all watercolors.  The idea was to put them in a "movie poster" format, as we were taught in our illustration classes.

Eventually I tried to get more and more humor in the images... like this Trouble With Tribbles painting.  Eventually I would have to give up on them in favor of the Wildlife, Astronomy and Celtic Mythology series, since I saw lots of other "media painters" getting cease and desist orders.

That was a bummer, but I suppose it was all for the best.  I knew that the other genres of painting had far more longevity to them.  Media paintings had a tendency to run hot and cold, depending on what show was popular at the time.

Also, with more and more shows coming out, the fans became more fractured in their interests, making it almost impossible to judge where to go and what to take to a show.

However, I do have half a dozen pieces of artwork that have signatures of the Actors/Actresses who played the characters!!!

From "When the World Was Flat"

OK, I think this will be close to the Grande Finale on the 2D art.  This is a whole range of stuff, starting with a pastel that I did about 20 years ago.  Or maybe more :-)

You can see a lot of similarities with the way I paint my flesh tones, how the value patterns are arranged, the reflected light, and even some NMM to boot!

This is a design that I painted on a few Celtic drums...

And this was supposed to be an piece for some illustrated novels that I had been working on.  This character has actually been shown in a few other sketches...

I did this wild picture for Nordic Fest.  Yes, I know that Vikings didn't have horns, but you must give the people what they expect.

Painting on stained glass with Pebeo paints...

And close it out with Celestial Phoenix, which was also made into a puzzle like Spirit of the North.

It was a wild life

Along with all the astronomy images, Celtic mythology, fantasy scenes and such, I used to love painting wildlife.  It was a fun change of pace from the usual portrait work.

I also combined the Celtic knotwork with the wildlife paintings, such as this piece, called Nightsong.

Look at the birdie!  This is Lord of the Skies.  Painting these was great practice for all the eagle faces I have had to paint on miniatures!

The Lone Wolf and the North Star.  A painting that I made for my wife for Valentine's day, I believe.

Another rare pastel piece, called Just Hangin' Out.  This might have been the largest pastel painting that I ever did.

Some of you might recall the Pebeo paints which I used to paint on glass and ceramic tile.  It was really neat stuff, since you could fire it in a regular oven at low temperatures.  You had to approach it differently, since many of the colors were very translucent.

Once it was fired, it had great luster, and you could use it as a centerpiece to place hot serving plates.

One more ceramic tile piece.  The neat thing about these is that they will last forever... or at least as long as the ceramic tiles!  So, thousands of years from now once the 'cloud' has dissipated, this old fashioned method will still be around!

From Inner Space to Outer Space.

I didn't think that I could find more spacescapes in the archive, but I did!

This one was called "Above the Clouds".

Into the Vortex.

Ice Fountains.  I had so much fun with the magentas!

Cave of the Winds.  This one had a very different color palette for me.  I was trying to play out the various gasses and how they are illuminated, forming these unusual, but specific, sets of colors.

A Distant Shore.  Combining my old love of landscapes with galaxies!

Best Seat in the House.  A rogue planet, and a cosmic perspective.

They get into everything...

Just like the Arthurian series, I had been trying to find all the images from the homage to John William Godward, one of the last of the Pre Raphaelite artists.

At long last, they are discovered!  And I forgot at least 2 of them entirely!

This was actually one of the last of the series, called Caught in the Act.  Yes, lots of marble, and pesky baby dragons!

Then we have Pool Side Fun, where I had a blast with the reflections in the water.  You will notice that the same dragons keep popping up over and over...

Next up is The Favorite, which was the first in the series.  It is where I first got hooked on painting marble!

The New Toy.  I really enjoyed playing the various colors of marble off the different fabrics.

This was the final painting in the series, called Fairy Symphony.

And Little Rascals.

All of these were watercolors on hot press watercolor board.

The missing files at last!

After I posted a few of the Arthurian series in the "Why I paint NMM" article, I had been searching far and wide for the other paintings in the series.

Cathy managed to locate the old backup disks for me, so here they are!

Beginning with Nimue's Gift.  As with all Pre Raphaelite style, imagery is everything.  So, spring vegetation to show the beginnings of Camelot.  Light colors, and a young Arthur.  Merlin is also younger.

Morgan Le Fey.

An older Arthur, more heavily featured (and older) Merlin, and the oak leaf/acorn motif.  The seeds planted.  Yes, lots of people say he looks like me. :-)

The Once and Future King.

Summer vegetation, high chroma colors, the peak of Camelot.

Guniverre.

The vines, showing the entanglements of love and betrayal.  Very dark, muted colors.  Deep reds and blues.

Lancelot.

The Fall of Camelot.  Dying leaves falling from the trees, heavy accents of reds.  The armor has lost its shine, and Camelot is under gray skies.

Not long after I did those five paintings, I had the sixth in the drawing phase... Mordred.  I never did get to that one.  I think I have the original drawing somewhere... or at least I hope that I do!

Anyway, this is my version of the Lady of Shalot, a very popular subject among the Pre Raphaelites.

At the time, I had done a lot of experimentation with the image actually being part of the 'foreground', or the 'reality' of the viewer.  Hence the cracked mirror morphing into the foreground...

One more dose of the 'flat'

Here's a few more 'old timey' art pieces for you.  There are a few of my favorite spacescapes here, including "Arc of the Heavens".  I had a ton of fun with this piece.

"In the Shadow of Olympus".  This was the first of what was going to be a series of images of a long since terraformed Mars.  I love my architecture and astronomy, and this was a fun way to combine them!  I could not resist doing a coastal skyline scene, given how much time I spent gazing at my own Chicago skyline.

"Chaos and Creation".  I have actually painted this scene a few times.  I enjoy painting crater scenes such as this, with the way the lights and shadows play on the surface.

I originally painted this as a watercolor.  Years later, I scanned it, and went into photoshop.  The background was reworked entirely in photoshop, while the dragon was manipulated extensively as well.

This is another sketch of a Reaper Miniature.  I have only gotten an opportunity to do a few drawings in this manner, starting from a neutral grey piece of paper.  Typically, I am working with a white piece of paper, and adding only dark shading.

Since I am already provided with a 'middle tone', I can bring out the white colored pencil and do the highlights!!

A look back in time to see what life was like before minis!

OK folks, this is one of the best ways to describe what life was like before I ever painted miniatures.

Back in the day, I used to have my art in about 50-60 different shows a year.  Most of them were sci-fi conventions, similar to the one we are at right now, which is Convergence in Minnesota. 

I also had art in a Ren Faire, and at big art shows like Celtic Fest in Chicago.

The convention art shows work much differently.  I used to mail out my art to almost all the shows, especially since a number of them would be held on the same weekend!  Art show staffs are nice enough to hang mail in art, as it is called.

Wage is hard at work creating blog posts for you to look at as I gather the art for the art show...

Art sack.

And here we go.  The Artists control sheet.  Every art show does it, but each one does it differently!  That meant learning several dozen of this kind of form.

The process of hanging begins.  Since I was just bringing in anything that was at hand, the process was much simpler than it used to be.

Years ago, at the height of the art show business, I made color maps to show how to squeeze as much stuff as possible onto the panels.  However, you needed to know what kind of hanging system was used.

These types of panels can be less forgiving than the older style pegboards.

The clang of 'S' hooks bouncing down the panel, followed by choice words, are commonplace during set up time ;-)

My next door neighbor, good 'ole Sandra Santara!  She's been at it for at least as long as me.

Other artists were also hard at work getting their displays set up.

There has been such an explosion of 3D art in the last few years, they have resorted to hanging it on the panels.  The last time I was here in 2007, it was the opposite.  We were using the tables for 2D art!

Look!  Wage is at it again!  He works really hard.

Such is the demand for 3D space, Teresa came up with the idea of getting these nice plexiglass cases that are made to be hung from this style of panels.

They work nicely for miniatures!

The finished set up.  The Present and the Past side by side.

I mentioned mail in art previously.  I had the job of hanging and taking down mail in art at dozens of shows as a volunteer.  There were many times where I hung the art of Mark Roland.  

In fact, it was from him that I got the idea to create "panel maps", showing where to hang each piece so that they all fit.  Right down to the bid sheets (the little pieces of paper that you see hanging from the art).

Here's another portion of the art show.

I mentioned bid sheets?  Those are another art show curiosity.

Each piece in the art show gets a small sheet that has certain info, such as artist, title, medium, price, and so on.  A little like ebay in paper form.

The art buying public (hopefully) will write their names on these sheets and place bids.  A certain number of bids on a piece means that it will go to a voice auction on Saturday night.

It falls on art show managers like Charlie to get all that paperwork straightened out, and make sure that bid sheets match control sheets, etc.  All that is data entered, and thus the auction can be set up!

This takes a lot of hard work by volunteers, who get in the art show early in the morning, and don't leave until very late at night.  Nothing happens without them.  It is very similar to being a tournament organizer.  Looking at you, Marty and Alex. :-)

Kristine Mitzuk and Ruth Thomson ran a fun art show review late Thursday night.  Each artist in attendance got to stand in front of their panels and give some explanations on their art.

The two groups meandered around the room, running into each other now and then.

So, a big shout out to all the volunteers at Convergence, and to art show volunteers everywhere.  It is appreciated!