Posting late, I know (but, it's still Monday!) It's been a rather busy day on Planet Kit. My great aunt celebrated her 101st birthday today, and as such, there was much food, much music, much crazy Cuban chatter and arm-waving... it was all good. :)
But, it's time now for the State of the Artist update, so let's get to it!
Weekly Words
Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, or a new country.
- Anaïs Nin, 1903 - 1977
Current Project
Yay! Today, I'm posting the WIP series of images for the book covers completed for author MCA Hogarth's Jokka trilogy completed during the month of August! This was another abstract acrylic project, and very exciting for me! Maggie and I have known each other a long time, and I was thrilled to be asked to produce new covers for her expansive Jokka universe trilogy.
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*TOP LEFT: Stage 1 - freshly-primed canvases with heavy gel medium for texture. The concept behind the covers was to have a textured "keyhole" design on each cover (for a medallion to be placed in each cover's center) with a textured streak to indicate where in the series the book falls: book one has one streak, book two has two, etc.
TOP RIGHT: Stage 2- Adding depth and tone by applying a thick layer of flat black acrylic paint over the top 1/3rd of the canvas and the (now dry) texture medium and thinning with a light application of water from the very top of the canvas, letting it run down the length. This method thins the black paint unevenly, which is what I'm going for here.
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*TOP LEFT: This is known as the "Royal Mess" stage... when the paintings are looking their most dubious. The first applications of color. Book One: yellows, oranges, reds. Book Two: blues, greens, yellow. Book Three: greens, yellows. I'm keeping my brush strokes broad and messy to preserve texture as I continue to apply thin layers of paint, both to build up color coverage and intensity.
TOP RIGHT: Building up the color. Most of the tonal variations under the bright colors are getting lost as I keep building the acrylic layers, except for where I've placed my textures. I'm building up layers to deepen out from the keyhole design elements.
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*TOP LEFT: Adding brighter, deeper, more intense yellows to the center of each keyhole.
TOP RIGHT: I realized what I'd originally planned for these covers wasn't going to work unless the textured areas were the same bright yellows as the center of the keyholes. So, I obliterated my tonal tinting and covered the texture with the same bright, flat yellow... which I fine-tuned in the next stage. (This project actually went through a few "Royal Mess" stages... but, that's kind of the joy/frustration of traditional media!
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*TOP LEFT: Yay! Tonal tinting restored to the textured areas, to provide depth, pulled the deeper colors from the lower corners of the paintings in closer to help set off the yellow poured element on each textured streak, elongating them through the body of the painting.
TOP RIGHT: To give the paintings a bit more expansion, I edged each canvas in the darkest shade used all the way around. There are least 6 different, independent, colors of paint in each painting, plus adding Dioxazine Purple or Payne's Grey (depending on the canvas) to deepen the darkest edges. (This picture was taken before increasing the yellows to the textured areas on the canvases.)
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*TOP LEFT: The Jokka medallions for the keyhole element on the paintings. I did these independently of the paintings to allow Maggie to align the paintings whichever way she felt worked best for her covers, instead of restricting her to any specific layout in case the initial idea (keyhole on the front, streaks wrapping around to the back) didn't end up feeling right. Good thing, too, since that's not what ended up happening!
TOP RIGHT: (Photo courtesy of MCA Hogarth) the completed, printed, ready for purchase covers! Cover layout is 100% MCA Hogarth and she ended up flipping the paintings "upside down" (if abstracts ever really have a right side up,) which put the keyholes at the bottom! Given her text arrangement, this ended up working beautifully!
There is something viscerally satisfying about seeing your work on the cover of a book.... This project was a wonderful collaboration, and working with Maggie is never like work, it's always a fun exchange of ideas that feed off each other. I got terrific and enthusiastic feedback from Maggie as I set her the progress photos from my kitchen table at all hours of the night over the course of the project. I was very happy I managed to complete the paintings in time to deliver them in person when I saw her for a short visit after AFO.
Near Future
The Near Future sees me continuing work on the Comics Nouveau series I posted the line work for in last week's State of the Artist update. I've started scribbling out the lines for the second set of Marvel's Storm, Wolverine, and Gambit, but I hope to have the first four (Batman, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, and Superman) done in time for PalmCon on Sept. 21.
After PalmCon, I'll be sharing a table with MCA Hogarth at Necronomicon in Tampa, FL October 18-20.
Necro should be my last convention appearance for 2013... and while I'm already set for MegaCon (March 21-23) in Orlando, FL, I'm hoping to add Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, WA (March 28-30) to my convention roster... and possibly Chicago Comicon and Entertainment Expo in Chicago, IL (April 25-27,) but I'm not 100% sold on C2E2 just yet.
Well, I think that's all for this week's State of the Artist update here on Planet Kit.
I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!
Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!
