illustration

Commissions coming out of the woodwork!

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Hey there, sports fans, Al here with the latest:

It's been a while since I've had to post anything about commissions, but I recently had a couple of them come in very short succession, so I decided to post those right now. Because I’ve been bitten by the commission bug!

I switched over to a different size of scratchboard to accommodate these particular commissions. I moved up from making 9" x 12" s to 12" x 16"s.

The reason for the size is purely a sizing issue. Getting more bang for your buck, as they say. The second reason is it's easier for me to see.

I've had to resize some of my images because I'm having a more challenging time seeing smaller and smaller details in my work.

It's just getting older, and my eyes are getting weaker.

Don't worry. I'm not going blind or anything like that; just the age of the creator coming up these days.

But the work looks really cool, and it happens really fast when I get started, so I can't knock that. Firstly, I’ve got three new pieces that I wanted to show; two are already completed, and one is in the works. The first one is “Sady Warrior.” This is my first for using the 12” x 16” piece of scratchboard. The results actually turned out really well on this one, and I wanted to add bigger pieces to any other show that I was going to have the 9” x 12”, but I need to have something more significant to catch people’s eye. 

The second one is called “Outer Worlds.” It’s a commission piece for my friend Steve Coppin’s wife, Darcy. She wanted an old-school robot, and I just modified an existing picture from a calendar that she had seen. And there you have it, including a little bit of color to its eye. 

Lastly, it’s a piece that I have yet to entitle for my friend Felix Sanchez. He wanted the “Radioactive Hornets” piece, but I wouldn’t let him have it, so I said I would make him one that was uniquely suited for him. This is the outline in Transfer.

And before I forget, I'm meeting up with a framer to see how much a setup is going to cost me for future work. Hopefully, by then, I'll have a show a little bit later this year.

All in all, I think that this is gonna be a good year to get things done and printed. And the Kid is outta here!

Life is Pesky

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Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest,

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything recently. And well, as I've said it once, and I'll repeat it. 

Real life gets in the way of the creative side of things. And emotions like there do happen to flare up from time to time. Because of that, they can hugely influence how the creative side of a person's personality comes out. Or not in my case. I was letting others' conflicts invade my personal space, and I just had to stop and deal with that. What a draining experience.

BUT I just wanted to let you know that things are moving forward with the Pasquinade Project; as far as artwork is concerned, I have five out of seven pieces almost wholly done. It’s just a matter of Hi-Rez scans and then matting and framing, and then there will be a new show.

If you look at the new Pasquinade Project pieces, there will be at least seven pieces, possibly eight depending on what is needed to fill the space with all the work being done. It looks like it’s coming together, and from the reactions, I’ve seen from people when I’ve shown him the group together seems to be a very positive reaction.

Another topic of conversation. "The Watery Adventure of Richard Parker," and I have yet to get this book formatted. For one reason or another, I’ve been putting it off because I’ve been having a hard time focusing on the idea of just doing the physical part of the book. It’s not a creative process; therefore, like so many other artists, I’m just not into it, but I have to force myself to get this book done.

Here is a list for the Pasquinade Project: (as it stands so far) The Pasquinade Project should include the classic Star Trek letter font for this work, except for the title of the art show poster.

Number One: Juicebox. A need for something refreshing turns deeply into something quite unnatural. Colloquial Title: Ask, and ye shall receive.

Number Two: Target Earth. Otherworldly intervention of alien influence on our primal ancestors leaving the distinct racial memory of being probed. Colloquial Title: Tag and release.

Number Three: Duality of the Singularity. The isolated A.I. clad in boilerplate hitting it's thermal limits of its positronic overload of data input under the collapse of known physical laws. Colloquial Title: The gravity of new situations on the horizons.

Number Four: Bacon and Eggs. The Supreme Intelligence contemplating its control over minions of a simian nature with the most base desire for sustenance. Colloquial Title: A good way to start off your day.

Number Five: “The Martian that fell to Earth. “No one would have believed in the early years and a 21st century that an intelligence greater than our own would surely draw his plans against us.” Colloquial Title: “Ack Ack Ack” translation - “I’m sooo angry!”

Number Six: “The Unknown Co-monk”. Set adrift from his humble beginnings in mass media, now fights against boredom with martial mastery of the paper bag technique. Colloquial Title: Bang a gong, get yerself gone!

Number Seven: “Blast Off!” Sady Starkiss rockets out into the infinite comic space way carried away upon Heavy Metal’s thrumming motors only to catch passers-by notice while on his way to earthly invasion and ultimately world domination. Colloquial Title: More thrust!

A Week of Material

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A Week of Material

Hey, there sports fans, Al here with the latest:

The Watery Adventure of Richard Parker - as it stands has gone through another set of edits and additions to complete the wordless graphic novel.
While working on this project that has spanned years makes me wonder if Lynd Ward thought the same kind of thing when plotting out his wordless graphic novels back in the 30’ and ’40s? I can’t believe that he would have knocked it out of the park the very first time out.
This project is no different than a writer having numerous rewrites and edits on work before publishing.
Doing art is like that too. Lots of refinements and so on.


Well what I thought

Was the manna from heaven turned out to be a red herring - of a sort.
In between moving, art projects things got separated from each other so I had to go and dig in storage to find what I was looking for. But it came up short on a few topics.
Luckily for me, I left enough threads either written or visual to be able to make a brand new list of panels that are needed for Richard Parker and it's wordless graphic novel format. However, the biggest bonus on this was uncovering many images that were ready to be transferred were already set up for scratchboard. For me, this makes a huge improvement over what I already have. Once I have spent time working on the new list and have everything set up for what new images need to be completed, then Richard Parker can move into the final phases of being done.

Both illustrated, varnished, and framed.
Framing is going to be (I think) the most costly on my end.
Also, prints being made.

WHICH BRINGS me to another point, prints.

Now mind you, this is strictly my opinion for the following but humor me and follow the logic of it.
Since the worldwide pandemic spread like wildfire across the globe, having an art show seemed like, I dunno, a waste of time. I think that most people out there would think that because the buying public does not have the disposable income that they once had. At least as far as buying artwork goes anyway.
Artwork unlike food is a commodity, not a necessity. And with a lot of people out of work, there is no money coming in from showing and selling off art. Currently that I know of from galleries. But there is time for artists to work on their portfolios and build up work for some of those places that have opened up. Showing artwork at these establishments might require a physical place to show the work for longer periods of time since the foot traffic isn’t as heavy as it once was. Thank social distancing for this. This would be something that I think presenters need to be aware of any type of gallery situation.

ANYWAY
At least that is was I am thinking. But I do know this. With the cost being high showcasing originals showing prints might hook art buyers into buying framed pieces rather than the original. I know a lot of contemporaries might not agree with this stance but I'm being realistic (including how hard it is to sell artwork in the first place). Portland has been notorious for being a place where buyers like the artwork but can’t afford to buy the originals. But I think for the most part this is being realistic.
But this all the speculation on my part is based upon what I am seeing coming around. I do know that there have been more online sales of late than there has been in the past. So this is a hopeful sign that people are still buying art. There is a little more research that needs to go into this. And I am not the final say in anything outside of my scope of influence.

But as I said this was my opinion.

But today (23rd) was another break in the amount of preparation that has been done for Richard Parker. Seriously, that is no lie.

In one day after getting all the panels printed on edit sheets, I could see where I was lacking story bits that needed to be inserted into the visual story to make sense sequentially.

Now this is the second go-round on this and I am sure that this won’t be the last time either but I am sure that I can get the rest of the images needed to be jotted down to round out the story as it is.

In this process, other items will be needed to bring things into focus on the project. The remaining scratchboards need to be bought, the tools needed, matting for framing, and the printing of prints.

That takes money and time when you are doing it by your self and coordinating it all.

But in the end, all of it is yours. And that is what makes it worthwhile.

And I am outta here.

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Last Sailor Last Betrayer Day 1.jpg

Blog Post for 7-18-20

Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest:

Last Monster on EARTH! Enters its editing phase while coloring is being added. The grand task is being handled by Paula Akin.
Bit of background on Paula. She and I met about 6 years ago while being brought together on a small now-defunct film production for Velvet Coffin. I was brought on to help initially with storyboards for the film crew. Paula was a story editor and proofreader.
We began striking up a number of conversations after most of the readings that eventually lead to me asking her to edit one of my Comic book projects - Corpse Cop #2Arctic Wolf and #3 Inhuman Torch.
She doesn’t know it yet but there is another Corpse Cop #4 Death Walks the Stars that is being written and drawn up right now.
So with two books and a third literally a monster volume to edit she may be done with me!
I hope not!

THE REKINDLING OF RICHARD PARKER:
Now, this makes a huge turning point in the development of The Watery Adventure of Richard Parker. Namely finishing the story.
Truth be told that the beginnings of Richard Parker were a little like a shakedown cruise. Seriously, The story both written and spoken to others told me volumes that I needed to rewrite and rewrite the story and origin of Parker. Like any character when first envisioned always go through a change or changes to suit the character and eventually the story and plot. Verisimilitude as a couple you tubers I listen to use to describe TV series in their reviews.
Once I figured out the story and separating the “real” from the “imagined” it became clear and that I was going to have really focus on this wordless graphic novel.
But then came along Comic story called Last Monster on EARTH! And that put everything that Parker was on freakin’ hold. Damn bad sci-fi for having a hold on me!
But that project is completed for all intense purposes. And Parker has been trusted into the limelight again. It was always my intention to get back to this work because there also over the year that I have been inking and lettering LMoE for editing I had been approached by several other people that “Hey, what happened to that deep-sea diver character you were working on? I really liked that.”

Well, that has been re-ignited.

After looking through some of the packed up material during my furloughed status I realized that I didn’t have all of Richard Parker in one place.

Exhaustively, I found an old digital file on one of my old hard drives and downloaded it.

I was very excited about this discovery because the list could help me figure out how many more pieces I still had left to render. But after looking over the list it was a preliminary list of what I had already produced and not yet modified to reflect what I still left to do. Damn.

So I will have to rebuild the list but that is par for this course for me.

But there is one thing that I do know about my personality that with an unfinished project there is always that nagging feeling that will not go away until it is completed. So I am tracking all the pieces that I need to get this project completed.


And on that note, I am outta here.

Got some more investigative work ahead of me.

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A July Statement

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A July Statement

Hey there sports fans, Al here with the latest:
Now as you have noticed that blogging has been excidedantly sporadic over the last year. 
Several factors have added to this least of all as far a blog and a website tied together. Atop that like I have talked about at the other Tales for the Scratchpad at Blogger.com real life gets in the way. No more true of that than changing jobs, moving out and in. All of it. 
But there has been definite image being produced for Black Box Visual Arts. 
There has been some push back from people who want a real cheep illustration. 
With an emphatic "NOPE!" That wasn't going to happen. 
As much as doing commissions for cash helps get things done and out of the way for debt, debasing myself from the years of doing illustration and getting screwed in the process of the work does not set well for me. 
Nor the the experience or this word which come up recently that is becoming one of the words I HATE.

The word is "EXPOSURE".


I think that a lot of people who use that word use it like bait. Now NOT all people use that word for ill but mean it for well intention young artists whom are starting out. BUT for the those practiced individuals who have been around the block a few times selling artwork the term exposure becomes a slap in the face so you can take advantage of a artist's talent that they have honing for years and in some cases decades to be where they are at - to save a buck.
If you want OK art work you pay mediocre, if you want kick ass, you pay high. 
Of course these are not always the norm but generally they are.
So, thank you. I got that off my chest!
There are a couple of images that I wanted to post about The Corpse Cop scratchboard comic book project. It of course like every other art project that I do takes a long time to work on. Just look at the time that "The Watery Adventure of Richard Parker" has been being worked on.
Anyway there you have it and I hope you enjoy it.
And.

I am outta here.

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