Jascha Cover - Update

Here it comes along.... first rough draft of the album cover (front and back)

Album Cover Work...

I've been commissioned by the local indie/folk band Jascha to illustrate their upcoming album cover... Here's phase one of the "Typeograph/Phonowriter." More to come as the cover progresses....

New Work and Ramblings...

A new piece.
I'm finally getting back to drawing. I was inspired last night, so I penciled out a new piece I plan on doing in grayscale charcoal. Progress updates to come.



On the subject of Muses, and new directions.
For the past few months, I've had my "inspiration eye" on an illustrator named Edward Kwong... the linear shape building in his compositions are just phenomenal. I'm still a little unsure of his approach to coloring his work. I can't tell if it's partially or completely digital. Following blogs of other practicing artists makes me ache to work on canvas, or at least fancier paper. I think I'll be getting back to that. I'm busy enough with tattoo work, I can afford to give myself a weekly "Art Day" off from the shop. Discipline is a much more frustrating obstacle to overcome.

Thoughts on tattoo, and creativity.
Something has become clear in my work at Voluta. Tattooing has taken over my main source of creative outlet. I guess from the job perspective, that's a blessing, considering I'm paid very well to be creative. The conflict lies in my own guilty feelings about what gets set aside in the meantime. My novel. My personal art. When I started tattooing, I promised myself that my job would never take priority over my art/illustration. I believe now that it was not a skillful promise to make to myself. What more could I ask for in a job, than for it to be creative and inspiring? I guess my only answer would be to still feel creative and inspired when I get home at night, or on my days off. I've always believed that one's creative energy was in endless supply, especially with a healthy diet and plenty of good sleep, which I get. I guess where I'm going with all this is to recognize a growing feeling that I'm not spending enough time on my own work. I'm sure you will all respond with a resounding "DUH!" haha

An Evening Battle with Pastels

Started a pastel piece of some lonely Spanish Conquistador that turned out looking like absolute rubbish. I smeared black chalk over the whole thing, and busted out the Lightning Bug in retaliation. I was victorious.

Monkey on my Mind

I've been making little marker drawings of Monkey King before I go to sleep the last couple nights. It's making me have dreams about Monkey King and some wild adventures which is pretty friggin awesome. So in honor of my early morning post, and the Bull-demon hordes that I conquered in my sleep last night, here are 2 more drawings of Sun Wu Kong...

Long Time No Post

It's been over a month since my last post, sorry for that. If you're thinking "Gosh, Amory hasn't done any art in a while!" Think again! Feel free to visit Voluta Tattoo and check out my portfolio of all the tattoos I've been working on. Every single design is an Amory original, custom hand-drawn for the client. To hold you over, here's a fun little marker/charcoal drawing I drew up the other night of Monkey King. Enjoy, and I'll be back much more frequent with new art posts!

T-Shirt, anyone?

SO FRESH.
My art on a t-shirt. Go to TEN BILLS to get yours.

The Raven

Here's a marker & charcoal drawing I worked out the other night. Fun fact: I watched a pretty horrible/awesome kung fu movie right after i drew this- "The Magic Blade" it had nothing to do with magic, or blades, but it was pretty amazing. Shaw Brothers, 1976.

The Evolution of a Novel Page

Thought I would share the steps I take to create a novel page... First is the small paginated sketch; that lives in my binder which has the whole basic sketch of each page and usually any dialogue. This helps me work out the flow of the story before I spend too much time drawing.


Next, I draw the whole thing up in pencil on a page of bristol plate. This is the committed composition.


Finally, once all the kinks are ironed out with the pencil sketch, I go to town with charcoals.

When the chapter is finished, I'll scan each page into my mac, drop them into layout pages in InDesign, add borders, dialogue, etc. Done!

Back at it.

A few shots of new frames from The Message:

A Long Hard Look in the Mirror

Chinese Opera Mask - Monkey King.

Getting back to charcoal, and facing fears

I don't usually pour out my thoughts into a blog entry, but I feel like I've reached a comfortable place, or found peace with the novel's true needs, so this merits it...

I've been avoiding, resenting, and mostly just ignoring my novel, and what I need to do to get it done on time. Struggling with feeling that I've moved on artistically, stylistically, and conceptually from the intended outcome of this project. After the success of a couple marker/brush drawings, I felt a renewed energy to work on the novel, and my creativity was sparking again. I then turned my attention to the new quest of finding a cheaper, faster way to complete the novel, in a style that I was excited about. Through this exploration, I found myself feeling guilty about flying economy class with my skill, regardless of the excitement I felt toward the brush and marker effect (as well as my wish to get this whole thing done much faster). I've been struggling with the response I've gotten from my peers, friends and family- a resounding "We like the charcoal better!" My struggle has not been with thinking they're wrong for not liking the marker better, but that I want them to like the marker better, as an excuse to do so, and because it's easier and less demanding. In my gut I know that the charcoal is better, and I guess I've been afraid to face that.

So with enough sleep, several cups of tea, and a tasty breakfast, I sat down and faced this issue today and feel I was rewarded for my efforts. A (very slightly) more gritty style, charcoal drawn on bristol plate, as opposed to watercolor paper. Faster sketching, less blending. Continuing on with my year-old style, but with new eyes and deeper insight. It feels like the old look, takes me half the time, and is actually still cheaper (watercolor paper= $7 for 3 pages, bristol plate= $7 for 12 pages).

The second fear I have to face is the fact that I haven't drawn a single novel page since the middle of June... I have a LOT of ground to cover before the first 5 chapters are due at the end of May (the grant proposal/agreement). So now it's time to forgive myself, put my feel on the ground, and make some art. Here's the first of a few drawings in the new treatment, it's also a new study for an upcoming character that has yet to be introduced... "Abi."

More Revamp Tests...

More revamp tests. Trying to get a real enough feel, but with stylistic application.

Original street scene:

Brush revamp...

Original of Eliza marching along:

Brush revamp...

Graphic Novel Revamp Tests

With the graphic novel being underway for over a year now, I thought it would be a great time to think about re-doing all of drawings so far in a new style. Haha! Most of the work that's been going on has been story-writing, dialogue, and chapter planning. So with all that in mind, I'm interested in seeing what other stylistic options I've got right now before I really hit the boards and produce. So here are a couple different approaches. I'm leaning heavily towards the brush image. it's efficient, inexpensive, dynamic, and takes about a tenth of the time as charcoal. Any feedback from you guys would really help...I'll be posting more tests over the next couple days. So on with it:

This is the original finished charcoal image I worked off of:


This is just a re-drawn sketch from the charcoal:


Here is the marker study, using grey-wash markers, and micron pens:


This is the brush study. No preliminary sketch, marker study used as visual reference:


And last, a fun treatment to the brush study using halftone for background/shading:

First Art of the Year... a digital portrait

My boss Conan, en route with Ginger.

It's out! The Roller Girls Poster

A few changes by the art director, mainly the titles and an unfortunate desaturation of color, but it still looks great! Word up, go to the bout!

Happy Black and Blue Year

Ok! Here it is! The completed bout poster for the Tornado Sirens, our Naptown Roller Girls. (Accompanied are some process pics)

The Finished Piece:


The Life of a Painting:


Work in progress:


The approved sketch:


The initial thumbnail sketch:

Tornado Sirens call me back to the Watercolors

Some of you know, some don't: I'm working on an official poster for the Tornado Sirens. Commissioned piece for the Naptown Roller Girls' January bout, the first of the 3rd season. The style of the piece is Art Nouvea meets Pin-up girl. No joke. Rocking it out in watercolors on frankensteined Rives BFK... Josh and I are experimenting with turning printmaking paper into watercolor paper... wetting down the raggy printmaking BFK taped down to board, drying, then coating it with a PVA sizing agent. It then dries stiff, almost like rough plastic. Sanded down, it makes a wicked watercolor board. No bleeding, good saturation, hardly any warp when really wet, takes pencil, takes eraser... Altogether a pleasure to work on. Now I've got a cream color base without a messy wash. I know you wanna see the piece, but I'm keeping any images secret till it's done, which should be late tomorrow. Here's a pic of me working on it:

A Marker Self Portrait

Haven't drawn a realistic self portrait in a long time. Here it is, in Micron brush pen, a warm gray Copic chisel marker, and white charcoal pencil. Got a little dark with the eye on the left, so i reduced it out with some workable fix and white charcoal. It's still a little dark. Meh. Ain't nothin' but a thang.

Winter Open House

Well, the Wheeler was PACKED on Friday night. More people than I've seen here ever before. Saw a lot of friends, met a lot of awesome people, and my new work was a great success. Everyone really liked it, which was a big thing for me, because this is a whole new direction for my work. Below are some snaps of my set-up. Also, for you blog followers and Xmas gifters- check out my Online Art Store for new works for sale, at elegant holiday prices!

Open Ocean in Mixed Media

Firing out some new work in time for the Open House this weekend. I'm having fun with these reproductions from the Moleskine series. I'm going to try to get 2 more done in time. Here's the latest:

"Open Ocean"
Mixed media: Acrylic, India Ink, Soft Pastel. On board, 16" x 24"

Another Painting...

"First Rain"
Mixed media: Acrylic, Marker, Soft Pastel. Another reproduction of a Moleskine cover. 8" x 12"

Wheeler Arts Community: Winter Open House

Here we go again with the Open House! This one is set to be a BIG opening, running 2 nights this weekend. There's a dozen or so resident studios open (including mine and Josh), live music, the Herron School of Art and Design's Senior Photography Show, a student Architecture Exhibit, an exhibition of work from the Indianapolis Art Center's Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, guest artists, and much more. The highlight of the evenings will be a table in my apartment with extraordinary special wooden writing pens, hand-crafted by none other than the internationally acclaimed woodworker sculptor Greg Abbott (my dad). These uniquely carved writing utensils will make you or your spouse very attractive. They will be for sale as well, for a very attractive price. Need more convincing? Check it:

Still need more convincing? No you don't! Get you and your family's asses to this show! :)

A Few More Moleskines...

Still having fun with these! Here are a few with toothbrush spatter:

"First Rain"

"First Snow"

"Mammoth"

An Acrylic Painting...

I broke out my old acrylics tonight and recreated one of my Moleskine covers on a plywood board. It's 8" x 12" Acrylic and marker. Fun to get back into painting. More posts soon!