Tuesday 20 August 2013

More on Super/Natural

I have decided a blog isn't the best medium for a picture album, so the rest of the spreads from the library book will be uploaded to flickr instead.

Here is the link to the set. I've added a few more pics.

Thursday 8 August 2013

I hate it when sites disappear

So I signed up for the library's art book challenge back in September, which is due in September of this year. I chose the provided theme of super/natural so that I could basically go to town illustrating mythology, which I have done since childhood. Because the book was so big I decided to add scans of old work also. I created specific illustrations and then flanked them with what I termed "echo pages"--pages which set the aesthetic of the culture from which the story arose and precede or follow the main illustration. I have favourite motifs and thus have carved stamps and images at the ready, so it made it a little easier to fill a book with so many pages. I also started doing all tip ins because the paper isn't the best and is lined.

I took pics of the finished spreads today and went to upload to 1001 journals but it appears it no longer exists. This sucks. I already did the work of saving them so I want to post somewhere. These aren't all the pics, just the ones that are completed two page spreads. Some turned out better than others.

The Opening page of the book. I'll add the final date when I have to return it, even though I know what it's going to be. There's no way I'm getting all these pages decorated--the book is simply too big for that. 

This is a thunderbird illustration. This one is the latest illustration, and it turned out not bad. I used frisket, watercolours and ink, and felt pen.  I still have to make the echo pages for it. 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. this was done in felt pen and watercolour.  This is the main illustration with its echoing pages in insular style following: 



The next pages are some of the ATCs I received in a project called Denizens of Mythos. Two of the ATCs are missing because they're on the last page, which isn't a completed spread. 



Kitsune--Fox woman of Japanese folklore. This is the main illustration, followed by a drawing of two foxes taken from a Japanese print (not pictured). The backgrounds are traditional shibori patterns. 


The following pages are the K'awiil spreads. K'awiil is the Maya god of lightning and dynastic lineage (taking this from some of the creepier illustrations). For some reason he had a big old snake for a leg and I think he looks like a deranged Simpson's character. This illustration was done in crowquill and ink, and is a gatefold which opens. It is followed by a map covered in block prints I appropriated from steles of Lady Xoc. Unfortunately the blue ink was quite slow drying and stained the other piece. 






The next illustrations are of the Ulster Cycle and include the red hand of Ulster and my family coat of arms and motto. The main illustration is Conall the Victorious, our legendary ancestor and source of the motto (and according to some, the heads also are a reference to him)--thus my favourite character to draw.



This is a scan of a watercolour Chinese phoenix I did long ago--the original piece was ruined, alas. I drew the tail in markers on the second page.


Gilgamesh and Enkidu--based on the pic I drew of Enkidu when I was mocking people on theo about ANE crap. But it turned out to be a pretty sweet illustration in the end. Enkidu especially is one of my favourites. It is done in pitt pens. 


I do have other illustrations that are singles. I also want to add explanations of the illustrations so that people know what they in fact are. I only have just under two months to complete it, so I guess I have to get on this stuff.

Monday 5 August 2013

Rey is a Wanker

Rey is being all obnoxious about how much I don't post on the blog. So here is a Truly Awesome Painting by Rembrandt mem and I went to see after we ditched Rey:


It's one of those things. There's nothing to really say, there is only accepting your lamitude in the face of the Truly Awesome.