'Bride of Boopenstein' - original tonal drawing

New drawing for sale on my online store. The final original drawing and tonal study for the painting cartoon monster painting, 'Bride of Boopenstein' is available here.

Other works available here: http://jonodoironstudio.storenvy.com/
 

"Special delivery. Directly from me to you - no middleman! I AM the king!" - Yakko, Animaniacs

Alphonse Mucha book

Saddened I must return this Alphonse Mucha book that I've been selfishly renewing from the library. Admittedly, I was only previously familiar with his posters (which I also love), but his murals are now my favorite. His work is an unparalleled achievement of deep emotional narrative. His staging is also beyond impressive.

If you are unfamiliar with him, you can watch a 6-part documentary on him here via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5gCPQaW3g&list=PL43A0144BA35CEA62

NERDCORE III - only one week left!

NERDCORE III, a pop culture themed show at Slushbox Gallery is only up for one more week! You can see the other works from the show and see photos from the opening here.

'Bride of Boopenstein'

acrylic on masonite

10"x12" (image) 18"x20" (including frame)

available here

Steal like an Artist - buy this book!

This book has been making it's rounds for a while and is deserving of more praise. (I picked it up 3 weeks ago and read it in one sitting.) A wonderful, accessible, digestible read with so many great takeaways. Among my favorites: 'Validation is for parking'.

 For more info about the book: http://austinkleon.com/steal/

Painting with acrylics: the stay-wet palette method

Here's what you want to invest in if you're having difficulty with the speedy drying time of acrylic paints:

Pick up some stay-wet palette paper and companion sponge, then a stay-wet container (I like using a 13"x17" butcher tray with an impromptu lid. Locally, the art store HACHEM sells them). The wet sponge overlayed by the palette paper keeps everything moist. I just uncovered the tray from paints I put out about 3 weeks ago - still wet!

 
This is the palette (all the colors) I used to make my latest painting 'Gift of Folly'. All my painting have been created this way since one year ago. It's made a big difference!

 

Palette paper and sponge.

List of paintings

It feels good to check things off! This list is taped to my drawing table: at the beginning of the year, I wrote down the prominent paintings I want to complete this year.

Things are never absolute - paintings will keep getting added or painted at a later date as new opportunities come up. For now, my focus has changed a bit and I'm going to do a series of some smaller more affordable works for you all over the next few months.

In the meantime, I do have smaller, available works and drawings on my online store here.

Gift of Folly - complete!

THANK YOU to all who attended ART Happening Artistique's event Saturday, May 30th. Here is the final complete new painting in the show called 'Gift of Folly'.

The painting was inspired by the mystery and mythology of the use of anvils in cartoons. If not for cartoons, I greatly suspect I would have no idea what an anvil was. (Or, I would have discovered it far, far, later.) The idea for the painting sprang when I tried to place the reason why anvils became the go-to device of villainous foil. 

Turns out, nobody seems to know the answer for certain. However, I did come across this article 'Watch Out For Falling Anvils' written by Cal Meacham, who did some animation history research of his own and suggests the the use of anvils in cartoons could be inspired by 'anvil launching', which I previously never heard of. I recommend reading the article for more info. (Cal, if you are reading this, THANK YOU for writing this article - I tried searching for your contact online to thank you personally, but was unsuccessful.)

The painting above is currently still available. Please E-mail me if you're interested.