Sun 24 Apr 2011
Smurfalopod by Meg Lyman
8×10″ gouache and ink on Canson paper
$55 – e-mail to inquire
I’m not sure where this came from. Don’t ask. All I know is that his little smurfalopod butt is naked because I can’t figure out how to paint pants on an octopus.
Fri 15 Apr 2011
Comrade Derptopus by Meg Lyman
~5×10″ mixed media
SOLD
Another odd-size paper experiment. I doodled this derpy guy at work one day, and couldn’t get him out of my brain until I painted him up properly. This doesn’t happen all that often – inspiration strikes all the time, but rarely is it so insistent. Once I finished the painting, I decided he needed borders, and played with acrylic gel medium and Claybord and La Carte and foam core. Interesting lesson: La Carte can be completely denuded with gel medium. I knew it didn’t like moisture, but I didn’t realize I’d end up covered in a cement-like mix of glue and sand. It was fun.
Bonus points if you can decipher my uneducated attempt at Russian half-hidden in the borders.
Tue 12 Apr 2011
Marvin the Octopus by Meg Lyman
8×10″ gouache and ink on cold press
SOLD
Fantastically fun commission for a great pair of Kevins!
I still can’t figure out how to get that famous gouache “smooth, flat area of color,” but I admit I haven’t tried all that hard. I did this with washes instead. Turned out OK.
Sometimes I find it easy to experiment when doing commissions, because of the lack of emotional attachment to the subject. But sometimes it’s tough to experiment, because you don’t want to mess up art that people have already paid you to do… dilemmas.
Thu 24 Mar 2011
Haunted Lantern by Meg Lyman
Around 4×9″gouache and ink.
$60 – e-mail to inquire
I don’t know. Another long cephalopod experiment. This time with gold gouache. Until recently, I didn’t know they made gold gouache. It is awesome. But it does not scan well.
Fri 11 Mar 2011
~6×12″ gouache, ink, and pastel
SOLD
I have this fairly expensive watercolor paper that is an odd size – 10.5×24.5 cm or something inexplicably weird like that. It’s been sitting around for a while, and one day I got a wild hair and sketched out a bunch of elongated cephalopods on them. After I finished the drawings (feeling very pleased with myself for letting my muse vent), I stared at them with the vacancy usually expressed by my dog when I try to teach him a trick. I hadn’t thought these out. I had no idea what colors to use.
So I turned to my friend the Gimp and did some color tests. I’d been meaning to try out this orange/blue/green combo on something, and it looked like it’d work well on this guy. So I tried it out, and it was fun, but didn’t look finished, so I cut a piece of Sennelier La Carte pastel card and made a border for it. Then I glued the paper to it with acrylic gel medium. The piece now feels finished, and I feel like a slightly bewildered collage artist.
Sat 19 Feb 2011
The Gardener by Meg Lyman
5×7″ gouache and ink on Canson paper
SOLD
More commission fun! I’m trying to take fewer commissions so I can focus on my Master Art Plan, but people keep asking me for awesome cephalopod commissions like this! Fun to do and hard to turn down. :)
Fri 11 Feb 2011
Con sketch. Topic: derpy unicorn.
Sat 5 Feb 2011
Toddler Octopus by Meg Lyman
8×10″ gouache and ink on Canson board
SOLD
Sun 30 Jan 2011
Dr. Who Squid by Meg Lyman
8×10″ gouache and ink on Canson
SOLD
A commission of a Dr. Who ceph and a TARDIS! Something got lost in translation between the sketch and the final art – straight lines and perspective are tricky like that.
Sun 12 Dec 2010
Bundle of Joy by Meg Lyman
Gouache on notecard
SOLD
A gift for my good friends’ first baby. Congratulations!!