CrashOctopus Blog

Goth Shark by Meg Lyman

7×10″ gouache on matboard

I’ll be out of the country for the next 2-3 weeks. I’ll bring back lots of photos, sketches, and a nice tan. Until next time… Keep arting!

Sometimes you just feel like putting the pencil to the paper to see what comes out. And sometimes you feel like doing it digitally, because you’re already sitting at your computer and your sketchbook is out of reach and your pencil is waaaay over in the other room… and why make all that effort when your tablet is right in front of you? Even if you don’t know how to use it very well. It’s a learning experience!

Racquetball Squid, a.k.a. Davy Jones’ Gym Locker

12×16″ gouache on Pastelbord

For Sale

Last month I finished one of my more involved paintings. You know, the kind that actually has a background and tells a story… one that I planned out very carefully. I get one of these done every once in a while, between commissions and fun, quick little paintings. I try to focus on improving one specific aspect of my painting skills during each one, while hopefully maintaining (and improving) the skill I learned on the last one.

(Click the thumbnails for bigger versions.)

This is the beginning of the Racquetball Squid. The first thing I did was try to block in the background with a wash, to help establish darks and lights. And the first thing I learned is that watery paint bleeds on Pastelbord. BAD. Almost as bad as a paper towel. But that’s OK - it’s just a block-in, and I could still see my pencil lines. I used wax paper and foil to help create the textures.

After the wash dried, I completed the locker background. Texture is fun! But the best part about it was adding compositional lines. I used lines hidden in the background elements to draw the eye toward the focal points. The main focal point is the eye of the squid on the left, and the secondary focal point is the eye of the squid to the right. Can you see all the lines I pointed at that first squid’s eye?

Next I filled in the racquet. One good suggestion I got was to push the darks darker for more contrast. There’s enough to know it’s a shadow, but it isn’t as convincing as it could be. At least I was able to push the top of the racquet into the background. By the way, it’s really hard to paint sports equipment without real-life reference.

Here’s a supreme example of the wash bleeding on the Pastelbord. Yeesh.

Anyway, the next and final step was to color the squids. I believe I succeeded at my goal; the left squid’s eye is definitely the biggest focal point. Do y’all have any other suggestions?

WOW, it’s been a long time since I posted about beer. I’m due!

Duck-Rabbit Brewery is a specialist in dark beers. Little else is needed to win over my heart. I’ve tried a few of their brews and liked them all.

Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout is only the second milk stout I’ve tried… and it makes me think that milk stout is my favorite kind of beer, ever. It’s sweet, but not as sweet as Left Hand’s milk stout. There is a bit of a sour aftertaste that is reminiscent of chocolate. It’s very drinkable for a heavy stout and I like it so much, I think I’ll go have another right now.

Con on the Cob was a blast again this year. I had a booth inside the art show, with my art show (silent auction) panels behind me. This was the first time I had a setup like that, and was wary of people not wanting to come behind the table to look at the art and hopefully bid. People were more inclined to look closely when I wasn’t at the table… but that meant I wasn’t working my sales pitch on them. So… not sure how I felt about that. I think I’d rather have my panels up with the rest of the art show.

Also, the lighting was not so good, as you can see. The Racquetball Squid (lower right) is not even visible because it’s a dark piece, and the light that does reach it is reflected off the plastic cover. I should have brought some clip-on lights with me.

Aside from those minor issues, the convention was great. I didn’t sell too much, but the traffic through the show was light and the economy isn’t so healthy right now. Seeing my old friends and meeting new ones made it all worthwhile, 11-hour drive and all. I would love to give props to everyone, but there are so many hard-working, awesome people at this convention that it would take about a zillion pages. So, thanks to Andy for putting on a fabulous con (4 years running!), to Gunnar for running the Art Show like a charm, and to Tony and Kay for being my awesome roomies.

My favorite parts of the convention programming were the Iron Artist contest and the Crayola-and-Sharpie Fundraiser. The first was a spoof on Iron Chef, with the Artist Guest of Honor Ed Beard Jr. as the defending champion. We all had an hour to create something from a bunch of craft stuff and the secret ingredients… which we didn’t know about until the last minute, and turned out to be gourds. It was fun. They let us play with glue guns. They make great cobwebs.

Octopus Gourd MONSTER eating a submarine

The Crayola thingy was the best part. About a dozen awesome artists sat down for three hours, creating whatever art suited their fancy, but using only construction paper, Sharpies, and Crayolas. The audience members bought raffle tickets, and whenever an artist was finished, the creation was raffled off. The proceeds all went to the Special Olympics. It was amazingly fun to see what people could come up with in such a short time (each of us did about three pieces) and with such… unique… materials. Seeing some of the finished works… I honestly didn’t know crayons could do that. Here are two of my humble creations.

Also, there was Play-Doh. Guess what I made.

Hey everyone… sorry to be silent for so long! I’ve had a realllly rough few weeks and have neglected y’all horribly. Here’s some art to tide you over. I’m going to Con on the Cob this weekend, so I will bring back lots of new art! Also, I hope to blog from the con about what’s going on and show everyone the progress steps of my latest big painting.