Edward Gorey

I have officially fallen down on my New Year's resolution. I have not posted a drawing every week. I would feel guilty but I was working WAY too hard last week to even give it a thought. My regular job sometimes has to come first so I was just exhausted and couldn't get to it. Oh well. Snow week had a couple of extra drawings in it and this week probably will as well. On to today's post!

A few years ago a friend told me about the Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book by the artist Edward Gorey. The book is an A-Z book about all the different ways these children meet their terrible ends.



It is...well, it's actually very funny and amazingly cute (No, really. It is.) Little Neville is my favorite.



A couple of years ago a friend gave me this Christmas card designed by Gorey...



Sorry for the small size of these. I couldn't find any bigger versions. At least in the three minutes I looked.

The reason for this post on Gorey is I found this article on NPR that interviews a friend of Gorey's and I just found it interesting. He was a fascinating man and I wish I had a chance to meet him.

Four Wheeler Poker!

So I decided to do an ad for my parents fire department's upcoming fundraiser. I can't actually donate money to the volunteer fire department but I try to help out in other ways. Lady Paintmonkey has made cupcakes and the like for bake sale type things and I do this:



I participated in the first poker run last year and it was a lot of fun. You ride to different check points and pick up a sealed envelope with a card inside. After five checkpoints you head back to the fire station and they open up your envelopes and see what hand you've got. Best hand wins a percentage of the pot and the rest goes to the fire department. I don't even think I had a pair last year but it was a load of fun! If you would like to participate check the Paintmonkey facebook page and there will be more information about this little shin-dig.

I also cannot find the term "Shuffle Up and Ride!©" anywhere online so I am copyrighting it in the name of my parents fire department!

Open Season

I am growing older and as such, celebrities are starting to all blend together for me. Red carpets are just a mish mash of bobble headed "celebrities" who I couldn't tell you who are to save my life.

Which brings me to today's offering.



A few weeks ago, the Foreign Press Association held the Golden Globes and for the second year Ricky Gervais hosted the affair. And he ripped the celebrities apart. And it was glorious. Honestly, how many awards shows for your profession do you need? When they start making such a large fuss out of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, maybe I'll change my mind about this silliness.

More process...

Sorry, but I didn't have any new drawings to put up this week. I've DONE some, they just aren't anything special. Layouts for projects and random cartoon doodling but nothing I want seen.

So I figured I'd put up the work this week that I AM happy with. I am churning along on my latest commission and I took a couple of shots along the way to show progress.

This one's after the first day of painting when I put in the light tones and areas...



And this next one is after a couple more days of work, putting in some mid range tones and a few darker ones...



Terribly exciting, yes?

It is for me, anyways. I like where the little guy is going. I promise to try and have some cartoons or other drawings for next week. (Keyword: "try".)

Inside the Process...

I didn't have any ideas for anything to finish this weekend so I thought I would give a glimpse inside my process of creating. (I told you I would have ways of cheating this "one a week" thing!)

First up is the beginnings of a commission I took on. The client wants a portrait of her nephew but the only photo she could get was one of the little guy riding a rocking horse and not even looking at the camera. At first I thought "Well, THAT'S gonna be difficult" but the more I looked at the picture, the more I thought it was perfect for the way I paint. I'm not a portrait painter per se, so this little "slice of life" photo absolutely fits my strengths.

I begin the painting by gessoing over a piece of sanded down masonite. Then I pencil in the composition that I like the best.



(I kind of liked the way the scanner makes it look like a chalk sketch but it's actually just pencil.)

But I thought that wasn't enough for a post so I figured I would give a little more. As a general rule I dislike people looking through my sketchbooks. I know some artists love it but to me it's a very personal intrusion. I have a LOT of crap in these things that I never intend to see the light of day. But every now and then there is a tidbit that I like enough to share.

Now I can't give any details about this sketchbook page as it is a super secret project I am working on with a friend. But if all goes well (and it seems to be falling into place the more I work on it) you should all be able to see it VERY publicly at some point in the future.



Neither of these images goes together exactly but that's the way it looks in sketchbook form. I'll be working on one thing, then just slip over to another part of the page and start doodling away at some other idea I had. Sometimes I end up with a page of completely indecipherable lines that all blend into one another and sometimes I have sense enough to stop while I'm ahead.

I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into the sketch life of the Paintmonkey and I'll try to have something completed for you to look at next time.

Cabin Fever (or the consequences thereby...)

So this is what happens when the Paintmonkey gets snowed in for two days...



I'm getting some other Paintmonkey related things accomplished too (thinking of YOU, Mark!), but all this indoors starts getting to you and your mind starts to wander. Making me seem VERY productive blogistically(?) though.

Politically Speaking...Duh!

For my first political cartoon of the year I decided to focus on what I find a ridiculous campaign promise. My mother always told me the only two sure things in life are death and taxes. So WHY do politicians (mostly Republicans) always promise to rid us of the shackles of taxation? And that whole "tax and spend" label they throw around is just a stupid thing to call your opponent. Government by its very nature is "tax and spend". If they didn't, there would be no government! There would just be a bunch of goofy folks sitting around making proclamations with no money to make any of it happen.



Although the idea of a bunch of windbags sitting around harrumphing their displeasure with no way to back it up IS a funny thought to me.