Art and Stuff

Viking

2011-08-02T22:04:00.001-07:00

Been a while since I've posted anything! I've been going through a productive period in my sketchbook, and decided to flesh this one out a bit. The upsurge in sketching seems to have coincided with me starting George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones - not sure if it's directly related, but the descriptions in that book set off all kinds of visual fireworks in my head.

Ham Halen

2010-07-02T06:48:00.001-07:00

Everybody's drawing pigs for Dueling Banjo Pigs! I was inspired by my buds Mike and Renee to do one of my own.

Rocky Road Cremation

2010-01-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

I did this last month for the latest Dogs of Winter release... it's a cover of Rock n' Roll Creation for this Spinal Tap tribute album, and it's epic!

Beneath the Fold (Acoustic) Process

2009-10-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back to break down another illustration, this time the album art for the acoustic version of Beneath the Fold, in step with the release of the track over at the Dogs of Winter site. It's phenomenal in my humble opinion - as well as free - so do your ears a solid and go grab it!

I wanted this image to be more airy and illustrative, a bit of a departure from the rest of the artwork since the song has quite a different tone than the rest of the album. Here goes:

Step 1:

This is the first thumbnail I came up with. I tried some other things (it's always good to explore your options) but, as often happens, the first thing that comes to mind has the most potential.

Step 2:

I decided to tilt the viewpoint and changed the man to a bird, in order to work in the bird from the artwork from the original version, but making the tone of the illustration match the spare, atmospheric feel of the acoustic version.

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Step 3:

The final tonal sketch.

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Step 4:

I've cleaned up the drawing and started to work on the texture of the background, overlaying different values with a splatter brush I made in Photoshop.

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Step 5:

Next I fill in the solid shapes of the trees and shadows, keeping in mind the values in my tonal sketch.

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Step 6:

I give the trees some texture with the splatter brush, then mask off areas and add lighter values for the highlights.

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Step 7:

Finally, I add a little more atmospheric light to push the background back, and give it the same yellow cast as the rest of the images.

So that's that... now move it along to Dogs of Winter dot com for your free song!

From Soil to Shale process

2009-10-11T09:44:00.001-07:00

Dogs of Winter are releasing an acoustic version of Beneath the Fold from their latest album From Soil to Shale next week... it's beautiful and haunting, and you can download it free from their website! Ryan asked me to do a process post to go with the release, so here's how I came up with the cover.

Step 1:

At the beginning of the project, Ryan gave me the 9 tracks to use as a guideline, plus the title From Soil to Shale. I used the title and the imagery it suggests as a base, keeping it in mind as I listened to the songs over and over, jotting down ideas as they came into my head. I came up with a few dozen thumbnails, which I edited down and sent the ones I was happiest with to Ryan. This one was the most iconic, and seemed to work best as the cover:

I imagined the top and bottom as 2 separate images that the viewer's mind would connect. The top image is straightforward, a gnarled tree, but where the ground would be is a separate image of shattered shale, in which the crack doubles as a visual representation of the roots.

Step 2:

Loose tonal structure to see how the composition would work.

Step 3:

Here's a preliminary version of the final image. Tonally it's working, but the linework isn't there yet.

Step 4:

More detail added to the crack, the bottom is finished. For the top half I did the final tree drawing in pencil, scanned and overlayed it on a neutral background.

Step 5:

Shading added to the tree in Photoshop

Step 6:

Different values are layered in the background of the top image using a large spatter brush in Photoshop. I used this brush throughout the series as a unifying element.

Step 7:

In the final step, I added a slight yellowish cast to the image.

Odosketch

2009-09-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

I was looking at Drawn! today and found this fun little flash-based web app, Odosketch. It has a limited pallette and brush sizes, but sometimes I need limits imposed on me to spark my creativity. It's also limited in a lot of the same ways traditional painting is... no undo, no zoom, and if you paint too much in one area with certain colors, you can't go in and paint over it anymore. That was frustrating, but worth noting for next time.

Here are two sketches I did, and to my surprise they both ended up in the 'Featured' section!

Here's the fun part... click the images to watch them drawn from scratch!

I'm on the silver screen

2009-08-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Larry Bruce: Memoirs of a Bicycle is at the Coolidge this month! It's the animated short I made with the illustrious Mike Annear and the legendary Dan Flynn a few months back... It's on the BIG SCREEN before the main feature, so if you go to see a movie get there early!

Now that I'm famous I should really start researching helicopter payment plans.

It's here! It's finally here!

2009-05-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

The new album from Dogs of Winter, From Soil to Shale, hit the streets today, and it can be yours for the low low price of... FREE! The guys are offering it on their website available as a free download, with 9 killer tracks and a digital booklet with 9 of my paintings. It's been a long time coming, and I'm proud that I can be a part of this fantastic record.

Here's one more image from it, click it to get the album!

For the Love of LARP

2009-05-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I should be finishing storyboards right now. Instead I painted a LARPer. It's gonna be a long night. DAMN YOU MIDNIGHT CREATIVE BURST!

Design Paradoxes

2009-04-16T12:09:00.001-07:00

I found this on kottke today... it's some fantastic advice and reflection on design paradoxes, and working with clients: 11 Design paradoxes. From #8:

"Truth is, nearly all jobs start off the same, and our responses as designers determine the success or failure of each job. There are no good or bad projects in design, only good or bad responses. Good projects are made not found."

Having just finished Art and Fear, which focused more on the fine arts - i.e. producing work for yourself/galleries - it's great to read some thoughts on the commercial art world that I live in.

Side note: I love the page width of that blog, I wish more online reading material would follow it's (and the New Yorker's) example, it makes for much easier readability.

Oh, and here's some new art... another piece from the Dogs of Winter album:

Art and Fear

2009-04-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

I bought Art and Fear last night after work, and I couldn't put it down until I went to bed. Well, there WAS that one hour when Lost was on... but come on, it's Lost. This book is fantastic, I would recommend it to anyone who is making any kind of art. From the Amazon description: "The authors explore the way art gets made, the reasons it doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way." It focuses on making a LOT of work, and in the process learning from your mistakes along the way. I love this quote:

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.

On a related note, here's a list of good rules to remember.

Dogs of Winter

2009-04-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Working on some more images for the upcoming Dogs of Winter album. Here's one!

Eric

2009-02-05T07:18:00.001-08:00

I've been up late painting the past few nights... don't know what's been inspiring me but whatever it is I like it!

Young Santa

2008-12-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

A quick sketch, a few days late!

Rape of the Sabine Women

2008-12-10T08:17:00.001-08:00

Another sketch from Florence, at the Loggia della Signoria... it's an amazing statue from all angles, a tornado of figures.

Larry Bruce: Memoirs of a Bicycle

2008-11-17T10:19:00.001-08:00

This Saturday I did a 24 Hour Toon with Mike Annear and Dan Flynn. Started around noon, didn't really get started until 3PM, and got the final version uploaded at 6AM Sunday. Fun times!

Dogs of Winter

2008-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Ryan Dowd asked me to do some artwork for his band, Dogs of Winter. They're putting together a CD with artwork for each song by a different artist... there was a little mix up and I ended up doing 2 songs... this one is for "Beneath the Fold:"

Sketch:

Final:

And this is for "Hand Over Fist:"

Sketch:

Final:

I've heard from particular sources that the CD sounds fierce.

Uffizi sketches

2008-10-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

I wish I could still walk to the Uffizi... sigh. Here are some pretty intense sketches done from sculptures.

Italy Sketches

2008-09-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

I realized I still have a bunch of sketches from Italy that I never posted! Here's one:

Did this one during a day trip up to Settigniano, a town in the hills outside Florence, about 20 minutes by bus. It was a beautiful day, and I walked around the town before finding a winding path that overlooked these hills.

Sloppy Burrito

2008-09-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

Soup Blog week 2: Sloppy Burrito.

Peevish Pygmy

2008-08-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

We started a weekly blog theme at the Soup2Nuts blog, where we put a bunch of nouns and adjectives into jars, pick one of each and draw the result... first week: Peevish Pygmy!

Posed Pictures Produce Peevish Pygmies.

Also too, it's not visual art but I came up with a theme song for Kaufee and Eggs, John Meigs' podcast.

Click here if you can't play it there.

Pompadour

2008-07-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

A sketch from my Italian class...

Bubbles II

2008-06-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

(needs Flash to play)

Bubbles

2008-06-26T08:44:00.001-07:00

from a napkin sketch:

It's kind of hypnotic...

Silly Breakfast Food Transaction

2008-06-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

I did this the other day (ok, it took me a few days) for John Meigs' podcast, Kaufee and Eggs, 'America's #1 drive time morning show that you can download anytime!' I'm trying to self motivate and build an animation reel in these last few weeks that I'm here in Florence.

Illustration Friday - Punchline

2008-06-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday - Worry

2008-05-29T17:06:00.000-07:00

My first Illustration Friday post... "worry"

Conor was talking about worry stones when he was out here, made me think of this... don't know if that many people know what a worry stone is, it's a smooth rock that you keep in your pocket and rub if you're worried. It's supposed to calm you.

Sea Baldo

2008-05-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

I decided he's some sort of sea creature, something between a merman and a pirate... yarrrr *gurgle

Baldo

2008-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Some sort of big bald piratey (?) guy...

Statue

2008-05-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

This here is a statue from the museum at Santa Croce... I had some friends in town the past few weeks, I showed them my favorite spots in Florence, and we did a bit of sketching. Went to the beach too!

The Art is in the Streets

2008-05-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

I did a flash minisite for the student art exhibition at my school.

Guitar Wings

2008-05-02T09:44:00.001-07:00

A doodle I did in the Jazz Club on blues night. It's funny hearing Italian guys doing old blues songs.

SMN

2008-04-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

The central train station in Florence, Santa Maria Novella

La Loggia

2008-04-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

A sketch from La Loggia, just outside Palazzo Vecchio, near the Uffizi... the same place as Perseus and Medusa.

Sketchbooks

2008-04-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

I've done a lot of drawing over the last two months here... Florence is an incredibly inspiring city, there's an unreal amount of artwork here, and just walking around here I want to draw everything. Anyway, I finally got in to use the scanner in the design lab, and got all my stuff on my hard drive. Let's start with this one!

It's from probably my favorite painting in Florence, found at probably my favorite church in Florence, Santa Croce... I feel dumb because I wrote down neither the name of the painting nor the name of the artist (duh)... guess I'll have to go back!

I flipped the subjects... the Virgin Mary should be above the angel, who is hoisting her up.

EDIT: It's L'Assunzione della Vergine by Bezzuoli.

demoWAR

2008-04-03T04:31:00.000-07:00

Here's one for the "stuff" part of Art and Stuff.

I've been working on a new music blog with Ryan Dowd, a battle of the bands of sorts...

Crank your speakers. it's...

Winter Star

2008-03-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

You need to have flash installed to see it... otherwise, it's on YouTube. Also, the preloader isn't working right, so you have to wait until the page loads completely to see it, otherwise you'll get a white screen... :/

I wrote this song a few months ago, and decided to make a video for it. Voila. The quality isn't great, so if you want to see it clearer, click here! (It'll take a minute to load)

Finally an update!

2008-02-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

One of the classes I'm taking is a Flash class... it's got me really excited, we were supposed to come up with banners for a website but I did this in the meantime. I have an idea for a longer animation, but who knows...

He's a little gangly, but it's not bad for a first animation if I do say so myself.

Busy busy busy

2008-02-24T04:31:00.001-08:00

I swear I've been drawing since I've been out here in Firenze... the big problem is that I don't have very easy access to a scanner, so I have to wait for a point in the graphics lab when it's not busy. Someday soon I'll scan all my stuff at once and start putting it all up. My Florence Sketchbook class is great, last week we went to the Accademia and I did a drawing of the David that my teacher referred to as "the size of a candy bar." Coming soon!

In the meantime, I've been updating my Flickr account like crazy... so check out some photos and see what I've been up to!

Bostonist

2007-12-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

A photo I took was chosen for Bostonist.com's Photo of the Day!

More figures

2007-12-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

Painted this a bit in Photoshop... click for the whole figure.

Figure drawing

2007-12-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

Finally posting some work from a figure drawing session, something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

Click the thumbnail for the whole collection... just so you're aware, nudity behind the jump.

Church

2007-12-23T20:52:00.001-08:00

Hingham Square

2007-12-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

Head.

2007-11-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Hooray!

2007-10-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

I submitted my Montreal cafe drawing to moleskineproject.com and it made it into the favorites section!

Publicity

2007-10-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm on AMC's blog!

New web site!

2007-10-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

Spent the past few nights overhauling the ol' website.

Joe Boyle Art, hot off the presses!

Also, I found this while digging around in my old files:

Nonna!

Ventura

2007-10-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm redesigning my website... I'll update when it's going live.

Teeth

2007-10-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Big Iron

2007-09-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

He was there to do some business with a Big Iron on his hip...

Twelfth Night of the Living Dead

2007-08-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

A poster for Brian Smallwood's play in New York, with Impetuous Theater...

Hancock

2007-07-08T21:13:00.001-07:00

Sitting in the Public Gardens a few weeks ago

Perseus v. Medusa

2007-06-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Drawn from the statue in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

Frog lady II

2007-05-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Another frog lady.

The Cape

2007-05-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Went down to the cape this weekend... i remembered I had this drawing from last season.

Something new next...

Pizzeria Regina, color

2007-04-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Greek Woman

2007-04-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

I drew this woman, and then the next day saw her on the T.

Regina

2007-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Pizzaaaa... click it for full size.

I was standing in the shade while I was doing this one, and shivering for the whole right half of the drawing.

Roma

2007-04-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

When in Rome...

Frog Lady

2007-04-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Ponte Vecchio

2007-04-17T21:13:00.000-07:00

This was the best day in Florence of our trip last summer.

Rock Death

2007-04-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Montreal

2007-04-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

[a cafe in Montreal, the Latin Quarter]

Twin Peaks

2007-04-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Twin Peaks season 2 DVD came out the other day.

[special agent Dale Cooper.]