I am a day late but I actually wanted to think about this. Ralph McQuarrie died this week. His paintings were amazing and as a kid, I loved looking at them in all of the Star Wars books I owned. I even have a poster of Luke and Vader in a lightsaber duel. My students ask why it looks so different that the real thing. Now that I have done the concept work for my own project, I appreciate even more what he did. I hope to meet him in heaven some day so I can thank him.
http://www.starwars.com/news/ralph_mcquarrie_remembered.html

I have been doing the digital color on these things now for a while. Felt good to go back and recolor this thing with watercolor. My scanner sucks though so it is hard to get colors exact. Or maybe, I suck at scanning! Ha.

I was in a meeting in our school library today and tried some crayons out on a terrible drawing and it looked better. Then I got to thinking, if they can make a bad picture look good, what would they do to a good one. And...voila!

Time and desire

So sad that we often never have the time to pursue what we are really passionate about. I love teaching but often spend my day daydreaming about making art. Maybe it makes me more productive...I don't know.

Lumberjacked Up

Had a lot of fun drawing this one. I still have to scan and color it and then watercolor the original but So far so good. Seems like a lot of my pictures come back to the theme of consequences. Hmmmm.

I was really surprised to see that views of the blog has had a spike in the last couple of days. I wanted to say thank you all for checking things out. I wanted to share a sneak preview of a picture that I am working on called 13 crazy cars. I am thinking about designing a number book for kids and this would be included. We'll see. Hope you enjoy. Please feel free to leave comments and ideas. BTW, If you live here in Springfield, I would love to talk about forming some kind of collective art project. Let's get it together and see if we can use art to make this a nicer place.

Back to writing

Ok, I know that nobody is reading this thing yet but hears to hoping. Perhaps you will do what I do. Find an artist's blog (mine) and read all the posts back to the beginning. If so, you will now be reading this. Greetings. Lately, I have gone back to my old way of working using just lines without the brush. I have had so much fun doing it and by combining digital with it, I can do all sorts of fun things to it. I Just finished a cool drawing of 3 totem people (you will see soon) on a skateboard. I drew them in my giant Moleskine watercolor book and will scan the original for digital color and archiving but I can also then do a watercolor painting in the book for display at a later date. Working this way suits me. I have a lot of flexibility with the output and no restrictions about how I make images. I wonder how many other artists struggle with this kind of stuff and what they do to overcome these mental blocks. My friend Rick Nickel has never struggled with it and I have always, truth be told, been a little jealous. I tahnk him greatly for his insight and friendship over the years. BTW, go check out his ceramic and digital work. It is awesome.

I have recently added a bunch of new work over on my Flickr account but my fancy new widget ain't working! Please come see me here.

I'm back!

Going to be writing on this blog only. Please check out my flicker page and friend me on facebook.

COMICS ARE COMING! THE COMICS ARE COMING!

Please come see my new comics blog (will be posting most there from now on)

http://mostyncomics.blogspot.com/

come join me

http://squatthrust.wordpress.com/

this is the new blog site. there will be more pics and content. if you linked me to your site, please change it. thanks

Into the fire

Well, the first of my clay work went into the kilns tonight. They should be done by Friday and I can see how well they turned out. If they survived. I plan on keeping a journal about the process and how things came out. I really love this. In only 2.5 days I made 8 pieces. 3 of them were made today alone. It is amazing to me that everything I have ever learned about art can be applied in clay. I would like to show these in galleries but I might also sell them at art festivals and craft fairs. I have heard that they have alternative craft festivals, which includes cool art and no duck-covered toilet paper dispensers. YAY! I hope to post some pics this weekend. Check back Sunday.

From the Earth

I hope to post some pics soon but lately I have been working in a class on clay. I am learning various ways to draw on clay. It is AMAZING and I have to give major thanks to Kevin Hughes my professor who is just a monster potter for letting me do this work and also to Rick Nickel for teaching me so much about clay before I could even take a class. I love it. I have been having more fun than I have in years. I can't even tell you. I hope to take some pics of work before and after firing in the kiln. Should be fun. Hope to have 30 or more pieces in the next couple of weeks. YAY 4 CLAY!

Work for sale.

Hey Everybody. Here is a link to a slideshow I made of the work at the Thinkspace and McCaig Wells Shows. The conflict piece is sold but contact the galleries if you would like to purchase them. Please, I got student loans doncha know.
http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x175/chrismostyn/?action=view¤t=1181876725.pbw

Dorks Interview

Zack and the fine folks at ourartsite.com are featuring yours truly along with the many fine artieests in the artdorks. They have images up right now and are asking viewers to go over there and post questions to be asked of the dorks in a future interview. Please take a little time and put on your inquisitors hat. Just dont ask for cash. Here's the link: http://ourartsite.com/ask.php

I also have some art still for sale at the Thinkspace show at http://www.thinkspacegallery.com/
Go to the link that says show online and scroll down. Get it now before I ship it off to Germany. I'm Big in Germany. Like David Hasselhoff.

Sweet and Sour

There is a real delicate balance to be juggled when making and image. It is easy to be all bitter or all sweet. Probably easier to be bitter considering the state of the world we live in. I have started to work in Holbein Acryla Gouache. (If you see this Holbein and would like to sponser me with free paint, email me.) I really love the vibrancy of colors and quickness that I can paint with them. I am saving my pennies to get a big boy set of them. You should buy some too, then send them to me. HEE.

Dork show went well in L.A. Many dorks sold work and there was a great crowd. Much Thanks to the guys at Thinkspace Gallery for hosting and promoting us. We love you.

PS. the colors are slightly off on my scanner so the background should be a dark bluish purple. Sorry.

A little love for my baby girl.

A little gouache done as an experiment with a new gouache at our local art shop and also for my baby girl Sarah.

Yummy Sweet

I just started a new sketchbook and I am exploring images absent of sarcasim. I have been thinking about how the whole ironic, anti-establishment art thing is getting a little old. I like it and all but just wish there was something else. Probably due to the fact that I am seeing a lot of things through the eyes of my daughter. I love all the shiny plastic colors in her toys at this age.

Happy Little Hole

Ok, so here is a picture of where I spend an awful lot of time perfecting my craft and my back pain, usually late at night. School is getting close to an end. I think we are the last district in the country to get out. Ugh. The last 3.5 days will be unbelievably hard to get through. Things haven't changed completely for kids. I hated waiting for summer break when I was in school.

Dork Invasion Coming Soon

Ok, so as you are no doubt aware, the Art Dorks are showing June 8th at the Thinkspace Gallery. Part of that show included an instalation of 12x12" panels where we all interpreted the Art Dorks 4 eyed logo by Brendan Danielson. So here is mine, ala Invasion of the Saucer Men, meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers.