Creatures for Obama

I drew these creatures while waiting in line to vote at my polling place. My area of the country, famous Northern Virginia, is a hugely diverse area. The crowd waiting patiently at the polls was literally a "one of each" cross-section of American voters: male, female, old, young, moms with kids, hipster youths, black, white, Latino, military folk, immigrants from India, Philippines, and Trader Joe's crew. 

Some of the creatures I drew were for Romney, and others were for Obama. I am very glad that more of them voted for Obama than Romney. It is a good night for creatures all over America.

Pitt drawing pen on sketchbook page, 6" x 6", November 6, 2012.

Purple Moon Wine Sign

Here's another Trader Joe's endcap sign. This time I added some of the standard Trader Joe's shaded-color letters schtick. You see this on TJ signs from California to New York, but I have mostly resisted it because it is, uh, very often used. But I like purple, complementary color to my usual orange, and I don't get to use it on signs that much. And that's right, 4 bucks for a bottle of California wine. It's not the famous "Two-Buck Chuck," which actually costs $3.29 in Virginia, but it's close. 

Acrylic markers on black-painted Masonite board, 30" x 20", November 2012.

Nude Model at Trader Joe's

There are nude life drawing models at Trader Joe's! Who knew I was working in such an artsy place? Well, the model is a photo printed on paper and I am in the art room taking my work break on the iPad, but hey, you can't always do stuff the Authentic Artist Way. A bemused co-worker viewed the final product, but it wasn't the final product 'cause I did stuff to it in Photoshop once I got it home. I'll do as many of these as I can, or perhaps close-ups of hands and faces, as long as I have my half hour to do it. 

"Art Studio" and Photoshop, November 4-5, 2010.

Angry Dragon

It's Dragon Saving time now, and I need to do fantasy art. I've spent a portion of 2012 learning to draw dragons, so I might as well do another. This one is angry, and he's pointing his claws at you. He's adapted from a "front face" dragon build in "Drawing Dragons" by Sandra Staple. This book has been very helpful in my dragonification activity. I would have made the wings bigger on this one but I ran out of room on the page.

I want to do more fantasy art, but the more I look at the dazzling work done by gaming artists, illustrators, and comic artists, (see "Shadowcore" and "Muddy Colors" on the sidebar here) the more discouraged I get. Their action-packed, realistic, brilliant work seems an age...years of training and practice... away from even the best stuff I do. I am so sick of doing pictures of trees and clouds on my iPad. But I seem to have run out of fantasy illustration ideas. This happens to me every so often. I'd better have something by DarkoverCon though. 

"Angry Dragon" is pencil on sketchbook paper, 8" x 8 1/2", November 4, 2012.

More Mexican Hot Chocolate

It's so cold out now...wouldn't you like some hot chocolate with cinnamon? I had some ultra-rich "sipping chocolate" at "Pitango Gelato" in Reston, VA. They'll be serving it all winter though without the cinnamon. This is the thick melted chocolate treat that Starbucks once marketed as the "Chantico" but discontinued. Trader Joe's sells a sipping chocolate mix that you assemble yourself, adding whatever you want. I went over the top and added whipped cream to my cup.

Hot Chocolate sign is markers on posterboard, about 13" x 10", winter 1980.

Utopian Conservatory

This illustration comes from the multiple series of black and white images I produced for a fantasy writer and engineer who wanted concept sketches and depictions of his imaginary utopian society. The people in this utopia were all young, sexy, and beautiful and got naked a lot (see bathers in the lower left corner). They lived in these great glassed-in conservatories where the weather was always warm and perfect (so you could dress in skimpy clothes all the time). Inside the conservatories were the facades of their communal houses and places of education and entertainment. You could leave the conservatory and enjoy the real outdoors by going out the back doors of the buildings. Nowadays, buildings like this really exist but they aren't utopian pleasure-domes, but commercial megastructures, and no one can go naked there.

P.S. I wonder whether I will ever do a fantasy picture again.

Ink on Bristol board, 9" x 11", September 1996.

From hurricane to workplace

I am finally home in Virginia after three very stressful days. On Sunday just before the storm I drove from Mass. to my stopoff point in southern New Jersey. I decided to stay there and weather the storm in the hotel even though Jersey was the worst affected by the hurricane. I stayed in my room Monday while the storm raged. The power went out in the hotel, though there was a generator for essential things like hall lights. But there were no room lights, heat, or hot water. I bundled up and stayed in the room. On Tuesday afternoon the power went back on after 17 hours. I stayed Tuesday night and then drove home from New Jersey on Wednesday. I visited my workplace Trader Joe's which had luckily never lost power. My apartment never lost power either. The manager asked me to work some hours so I did that even though I was real tired from the trip. I came home at around 9 PM and will have some nice Trader Joe's beef pot pie. 

Trick or treat indeed! I have had the week (or rather, 9 days) from hell. 

The parents are in bad shape and I don't know how long it will be before an accident or illness forces them to change their lifestyle. 

I did this sign for TJ's on Wednesday. The current requirements for end-cap (large) sign graphics are that the name of the product and the price be as large as possible, with a minimum of text and no pictures whatsoever.

Acrylic markers on black painted masonite, 30" x 20", October 31, 2012.