Hit and Run.

Just got time for a quickie post before I head off to bed. Things have been busy as well the past week or so. After spending half the day doing photo retouching, working on this one was my idea of relaxing:

This one's got a long way to go yet.

Six Hundred, or: Power Trio.

So here we are at another milestone in the epic journey towards my one-thousand-day goal. Six hundred days. Puttered around with three small pieces to get up to speed today. A little drybrushing, a coat of clear...

After that the goal was to finish one of the big metalflake paintings. This particular one is titled "Power Trio" - think Rush, Cream, or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. First I did a couple hours of masking (my back and shoulders are still thanking me for that):

Once that was nailed down, it was time to slap on a bit of titanium white:

Eventually all the white areas were done, and the tape came off. Then I took the painting out on the balcony to take advantage of the early-evening light:

And that one's a wrap. I'm exhausted - done painting for the night.

600.

Bretutog.

And now for something completely different - I painted this when I was four years old. My grandparents held onto it for decades, and it eventually made its way back to me:

The title was my four-year-old's idea of what a native-Canadian version of my name would sound like. Even at four I was into mixed media and juxtaposing hot and cool colours.

Latest.

Well, things are proceeding nicely. Out of the twelve 8x8-inch paintings, eleven are now done. Just finished this one late last night (or was that early this morning?):

And I designed the lineart for another of the 8x24 pieces this afternoon:

The biggest hurdle to get past now is building up the layers of clearcoat on the remaining paintings. Love to get these finished by the end of August, so I can book the space for the show in September.

Oh, and I'll be spinning another painting off from this series - a friend has commissioned a big, expensive abstract piece. So essentially I'll be eliminating the white lineart that graces all the others and just going with a similar colour/texture combo. I may do a keyline in gold leaf, though. Just to show the depth of the clearcoat.

Good times.

Shirts, Shirts, Shirts.

Uploaded two more t-shirt designs to my store yesterday:

Already sold two of the bee shirts. More designs to be added over the next few days. I will, of course, keep you posted.

Skull Fragments.

Hey, I'm in the process of setting up my new fall line of t-shirts (because being a fashion maven has always been my secret dream).

You can see the first of the new ones, entitled Skull Fragments, right here.

Or preview the actual image right here, of course:

All Things Metalflake.

So, things are progressing nicely. All the glazing for the paintings is finished, and clearcoating is underway (the longest part of the process). Six of the eighteen paintings are finished.

Here's the latest:

Just designed these two in the past couple days:

 

And I'm looking at this for the next t-shirt tie-in:

Oh, and I've already had inquiries about two of those six finished pieces.

So far, so good.

Art, Dreams, the Recession, Google.

By now you've heard me talk a lot about inspiration. Painter and mentor Robert Genn has just posted a very interesting blog entry that touches on this subject:

Readers of this letter frequently ask if I think there’s some sort of malaise in art these days—particularly in Western Art. Some want to know if it’s all to do with the economy.

You can read more here.

... and More.

Finished these two today: