a job you will love

Erika tweeted this one to me the other day. Most awesome.
Thank you Gavin Aung Than for nailing it so well.
(click on the image for a larger view)

Art Nerd book review: Weirdo Noir

(now posted to the Functional Nerds)

A few years ago, Matt Dukes Jordan compiled Wierdo Deluxe to showcase today's leading lowbrow and pop surrealist artists. With Weirdo Noir, he crawls into the cracks of the lowbrow genre to harvest some of the darker Gothic* works contained therein.

Jordan's introductory essay is a glimpse into the human obsession with what goes bump in the night, and earlier art movements that precursor today's noir creatives. His timeline of dark imagery through the ages is a real treat and he takes pains to place lowbrow art into the context of today's culture, contrasting it with the kitschy and commercial imagery it appropriates.... (read more)

creativity.

I got this one from Wendy, who is the source of serious amazing.

(a teaser for Jonah Lehrer's new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works,)

IMAGINE: How Creativity Works from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

Lovecraft eZine.

I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but I've been doing a bit of work for an awesome little online publication: the Lovecraft eZine. Dedicated to news, art and fiction of the R'lyeh variety. Here's the piece I illustrated to accompany That Old Problem, by T. E. Grau, which just went live.

A teaser:

' The man seemed on the verge of tears that didn’t come. That never would. Not anymore. “Why did you even make me? Why would you bring me into this kind of world?”

"There was a void, just like before I arrived. They left it empty, you know. Wasted, hollow… And when I came here, when I found it, I wanted to fill it back up. It’s the way of things."

“It’s YOUR way of things.”

The bald man shrugged.

“You do so abhor a vacuum,” the long haired man said with grim bemusement.

“I was lonely.” ' (read more)

It's been a pleasure to work with the mastermind behind it all, Mike Davis and all the other individuals involved in keeping the zine oozing with new stuffs. Go sniff around a bit, see if you don't find somethings to make you happy.

Meanwhile, here's some of the other illustrations I've done for the lovecraft eZine. (Looking forward to many more)

Beauty, by David Barr Kirtley.

David Barr Kirtly's story, Beauty just went up over at Lightspeed. It's an amazing story, here's a taste:

'“....No!” he raged, pacing back and forth in front of the mirror. “No! This can’t be happening.”
Nicole watched from the bed. She said softly, “How?”
“I don’t know. The spell was gone, broken, it—” He turned on her suddenly. “You! You did this to me.”
“What? But I . . .”
He sat down beside her and took her by the hand. “Do you still love me?”
“Of course I do.”
“With all your heart? Like you used to?...”'

Go read the rest of it, now!

I had the pleasure of doing the illustration for it. Many thanks to Lightspeed for that opportunity.

Also, for kicks, I assembled a few more thoughts on monsters.

some exceptional advice on honing artistic skill

A quote from an essay on Honing your Vision, by David Palumbo:

"Among the most frequently asked questions of the aspiring visual artist, I would expect to find “how do I develop my style” near the top of the list. The answer I typically give is to not worry about finding your style because once you’ve mastered the fundamentals of drawing, light and shadow, perspective, color, anatomy, and/or any number of other technical skills required, your style has more than likely found you. Style is nothing more than the sum of your intentions and you limitations. You have a vision and execute it to the best of your ability. Once your skill is at a high enough level to yield consistently satisfying results, you will be producing work with a consistent and recognizable style to it. This is because you are always pitting what you want to create against what you are able to create and style is where the two meet. Over time you reinforce your habits and learn to control your weaknesses so that they all cooperate and result in something uniquely “you”. "

Especially this part: "...you are always pitting what you want to create against what you are able to create..." Yep. I am constantly hitting up against that, the wall of my own limitations.

I just happened to read this right after Erika Holt posted her wonderful Inkpunk article; To Follow The "Rules", or Not. It's like a message from the universe to get my act together, figure out the rules, hone my skillz, and make good art.

(Many thanks to the amazing Lisa Grabenstetter, for sharing David's article on twitter.)