I’m a big fan of the Glass Cannon Network, a group of friends in the NYC area who started a podcast of their Pathfinder Giant Slayer game and 7 years later they now have a myriad of shows, their own network, live performances, and collaborations with other role players. I find their storytelling and improvisational skills massively impressive and informative. During the pandemic they started experimenting with other games, one of which was Delta Green. Kind of a Cthulhu game set in modern times (think X-Files meets Fringe meets True Detective). The characters are memorable and at times very fragile, it’s only a matter of when and how they lose their sanity and their lives holding back the unnatural alien entities that threaten our world. Unlike traditional gritty supernatural thrillers, you will laugh until you cry. I thought I’d try my hand at some character art, they usually commission stuff for their shows, so I thought, why not. So, FYI, these are not official or anything, just my artistic interpretation of the characters. The response has been amazing. I can’t wait to see the actual art they have made for the show. It felt so good to pick up a pencil again.
Project Complete
New Logo Branding Projects
My cousin has branched out into woodworking and reached out to me for his branding. He’s former Navy and his last name is Croteau, hence the crow and the anchor. Went for a hand drawn illustration inspired by old tattoos with a no nonsense approach.
A local property management group in Peoria needed a refresh and approached me for some options we went through a few rounds of design and narrowed in on this classy clean letter mark and word treatment. I really enjoyed exploring the interplay of letters that harkens back to the turn of the century printer marks.
Painting Process: Vantage
Time has little meaning or disappears completely when you’re working in the studio. I looked back at photos and realized this oil painting has been on my easel, untouched, for nearly a year. Yeah. That’s how I work on things. There was just a single session left to finish it, but I let it sit there, until today. And it didn’t feel like a year. So I finally patched the last holes and called it a day. It started as a canvas I revamped from a painting I had started probably a decade prior. This artwork takes me back to a Friday at the Art Institute, when a friend of mine and I played hooky from work and drove to Chicago to take in the culture and see Death Cab for Cutie in concert. It was amazing, exhausting, and unseasonably warm, so oddly enough the Institute smelled of linseed oil. My guess is they had something wrong with the climate control system. (YIKES!) That aside, I like catching people having an intimate moment with art. Painting it becomes my moment. The angles were tricky but you know I like a challenge. What artist do you gravitate toward in a museum? I’d love to hear.
Session 1: Marker, just straight up drawing the composition onto the canvas.
Session 2: Blocking out mid ground. Finding the mid range colors that I can add shadows and highlights to.
Session 3: Adding tone. Enriching the colors to get them closer to realism.
Session 4: Details, details, details. Tightening loose screws.
Session 5: Adding those last flecks of life and adjustments to make it pop.
Project Complete: Colored Pencil Commission
I don’t take on commissions very often and it had been a while, but this one came up and it proved a good challenge nonetheless. I got a new set of colored pencils last summer and over the past few weeks, I wore off the sharp at last. Perspective is not my strong suit, so it took extra concentration to ensure my angles didn’t go all wonky. Layers and layers and layers. That is the key. Also you don’t need a zillion colors, a simple set will do. I use Prismacolor brand pencils and XL Bristol Paper. You really get to know an object, place, or face when you sit and and study it for hours. Every shadow, tuft of grass, flower pot, and glint on glass.
