LokiLoki

I'm still experimenting with lighting when shooting my art with the digital camera. I used floods this time. I thought they were tungsten light, but I realized after a few test shots I was using lights made to be used with photo umbrellas. I loved how bright the 300 watt bulbs were but the shadows didn't have much detail or color. The reds don't glow in the photo like they do "in person". I think I need to experiment with some other settings for these lights or pick up some umbrellas for them.

I picked up a cover to do for the Village Voice yesterday. It's a lot of work. I know I only got it because most of the other guys the Voice has been using wouldn't do 6 faces for what their budget is. I'm going to use is as sort of a statement to say "I exist dammit!" to the other magazines in the New York City area. Last time I did a Voice cover I got a number of calls from various magazines to see my portfolio. Unfortunately I did the image they asked for, but it looked nothing like the stuff I had in my book. The New Yorker people looked so disappointed when I showed them a bunch of caricatures after they saw a much less exaggerated face on the Voice cover. Of course not as dejected as I felt leaving their offices with no work!

Labels: the week, Village Voice

I've been working on some portraits for the Topps Celebrity Zombies set coming out in the end of May. They asked for a self portrait to go with the artist profiles on their website. Once I began, I started to get into it more than usual. I added the paintbrush through the head thing as I went. I was almost done and realized I needed a coffee reference. So I added the cup of fresh brain, (light 'n' sweet of course) and then after looking at the thing almost finished, I thought I looked a lot like "Eddie" the Iron Maiden mascot. So I looked up some reference of Iron Maiden and used the pose from "Killers", the 3rd vinyl album I ever bought back in '82, I think.

Last week I was smoozing with Jonathan Levine at dinner after the Lori Early opening at Opera gallery. He seemed like a pretty cool guy. If he never hangs any of my art in his gallery, I'd still hang out with him. He seems pretty smart and very business savvy. Things I like in people. This weekend I went to SOI and hung out with a new(ish) friend, Al. I've known him for a while, but never really hung out with him for any length of time. He does international copyright. I introduced him to Brad Holland and they seemed to have a good conversation. Sat., I hung out at Donato Giancola's unveiling for a triptych he'd been working on for a year. Michael Dees, Steve Ellis, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Dorian, Dan Dos Santoes and a bunch of other folks were there! Very inspirational this past week!

Labels: galleries, sci-fi, zombies

I just stamped and labeled 1800 postcards over the weekend congruent with doing 8 finished black and white drawings and one detailed under drawing
to get approved for Monday.

I'm still doing a few things fro Topps. When I dropped off the art to be shot on Monday, they showed me a little You tube type of animation that was really sick and funny as hell. The set I've been doing the art for is suppose to come out in May. I might actually have something to sell at MOCCA!

Speaking of MOCCA, they have their convention on the same day as the last Mermaid Day festival in Coney Island. Personally I think the Mermaid Day thing hasn't been interesting for about 5 or 6 years. But it is a shame to see most of the boardwalk get sold to real estate developers. Now Coney Island will become myth and will seem much more interesting once it's gone. We never seem to appreciate these things when they're still here. After they're paved over and the memory is hazy, fantastic movies come out glorifying them. Was the Titanic REALLY that cool? I'm going to make cool Coney art in another year or two and people will think I'm a "jenious."

Labels: postcard mailing