12/03/2009

Still Alive!

The post A.P.E silence around here hasn't been because I've been idle thankfully.

Recently I was contacted by the Folio Society to potentiality work on a book project with them, after much toil on my part I got the job! I will be creating ten illustrations and the cover for J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet, a tale of smugglers and adventure set in the mid 1800s.

This really is a dream project for me and I can't really express how excited I am for this opportunity! Unfortunately I won't be able to show the work I'm doing until much closer to publishing time so you all will have to wait and see.

In other news I will also be contributing to the Six word tales project created by Stiles White so look forward to that soon!

10/22/2009

A.P.E Aftermath

So its done! Thank you all so much for making this a really amazing experience! This was my first time putting myself out there like that and I really didn't know what to expect. Thank you to those who made purchases, I really really appreciate it. If you were looking for a print that I ran out of I'm working on getting an online store of some kind set up, until then you can always email me and we can work something out.

So whats next? I'm not sure yet but I definitely need to take a break from divers and draw some faces!

Again thanks to all who dropped by for your kind words and support, more to come!

-Mike M

10/10/2009

Thats it! The whole shebang

Hey guys,

It's all done! This time next week (thats the 17th and 18th) the Alternative Press Expo will be happening, hundreds from the independent and small press community will be exhibiting their wares and yours truly is amongst them.

Its been a long road but I'm glad to say its been worth it. Here is the final spread of the items I will be selling at APE.


The book's cover is vellum and watercolor paper.


The printing of the interiors came out really nice, couldn't ask for better.


Art prints are printed on 8.5 by 11 Fabiano water color paper, I gotta say these really came out nice! They look just like the originals.


Hand printed T shirt available in small, medium, large and extra large.


Hope you guys liked it!
Me, my friends Tim Wilkins and Jose Moreno will be at table 237A (thats on the left side of the convention hall)
So please if your in San Francisco October 17th and 18th drop by and support your local artists.

Alternative Press Expo (APE)
Concourse Exhibition Center (620 7th st)
Oct 17-18

For more info on APE head over to http://comic-con.org/

9/27/2009

Last piece for real!

I lied last time. NEW last piece!

While I was putting together the book I realized that I didn't have enough pieces to format the pages the way I wanted.
I have to admit I'm a very lazy person and I was ready to settle and just deal with the book not being quite how I wanted it. But I kicked my butt into gear and I'm happy for it, I think this is one of my favorites.

9/20/2009

Last one

Thats it! Last piece is done. I have learned so much making these pictures, its pretty hard looking back at the first few.


These pieces have been really important to me just on a personal level. I had been feeling extremely frustrated and depressed with myself during the year and a half after college but I think now I have a much better idea of who I am as an artist.

So now I have to produce the book, get everything printed and just hope I get a decent turn out at APE, will keep you guys posted on how things are coming together.

9/07/2009

Flem

Hey all,

Penultimate piece! I think the last one will nicely wrap up this strange little adventure.



I really enjoy using close cropped figures to make compositions, someone once urged me to do 50 of them, might have to follow up on that.

9/01/2009

Pulled

New Piece!
This image is going to be the first piece in the book, I really wanted something striking and a little unconventional.



Here you can see some process, I was lucky with this one in that I felt like I really had a very solid idea of how this looked in my head, from the beginning I have the composition set but the divers gesture was a lot harder to get down.

The idea was to get a sense of vertigo and claustrophobia. The sky is pushing down, the diver is crammed up into the corner suspended over a void, skewed horizon to further add to the vertigo.

8/20/2009

Bubbles


Hey guys, here is the next piece.



Trying to push the graphic quantity of the work. I wanted to really emphasize the light quality of the bubbles, they are breaking up the dark silhouette of the diver, vaporizing him and then almost vanishing into the background, barely visible.

At least that's how I hope it reads.

8/16/2009

The Cover

Hey guys, so this is to be the cover for my little book.



I really wanted the intimacy of a portrait, each event and situation indelibly leaves its mark and tells a story.

8/04/2009

School


Next piece.

7/19/2009

Jelly

Hey all, here's the next piece in my as yet unnamed series for the alternative press expo.



This was alot of fun and I learned alot about depicting transparency and working the medium. Let me know what you think!

7/05/2009

Notches



This and the other the diver pieces will be compiled into a little book I'm making for the up coming Alternative Press Expo (aka APE).

6/24/2009

Some Prelims


Some composition thumbs and value study for the next piece.

6/09/2009

Art by committee

This work was done for James Gurney's monthly art by committee assignment. This month's Abc was to illustrate the owner of a business card, which went something like this.

Harvard Depository

Trudy. L.

Operations Manager

A depository for books and records


As you can see I took a pretty playful approach. I hope it reads ok.



Above is a quick look at the steps I'm taking to make a finished picture. First one on the left I'm just reinforcing the drawing, setting up the darkest lines and some of the texture. Next using washes I establish the major value shapes, no details so when you squint or see it in a thumbnail it looks alot like it will when done. In the third image using white ink the lighting is fine tuned, adding in small value shapes but not altering the previous step's value hierarchy. Finally the details are added with a few tweaks and fine tuning.

Hope this wasn't too long winded, brain numbing or strait up dumb but I hope you enjoyed it anyways.

5/29/2009

Ama portrait

Quick portrait of Ama I did tonight (or this morning I guess)

5/18/2009

Transparent

This piece was based off the much quicker version seen earlier in the Various verticals post. Really trying to play with textures here, the helmet is pitted and worn, there is a bit of a grain texture in the bones. Thinking the next piece won't be about a diver.

5/09/2009

Down The Hall (wip)

A work in progress update, here's a working drawing for a new piece I'm making for an art exchange with a friend of mine. This is the final working drawing, with basic value shapes and very general value scale in place. I tend to work out the final nuances of value as i work on teh final pushing and pulling as needed.


4/28/2009

Fish, clouds and various verticals....

Here is the complete set of book mark experiments so far. Gotta say the fish are my favorite so far, as purely technical exercises they are a lot of fun there is something about the shiny segmented heads and the shapes found there that is really beautiful. These are all bait fish by the way, top we have Mackerel, Anchovy, Sardine, Minnow and Ballyhoo.



These clouds were referenced from pictures I took while in Hawaii for the first time, truly the land of epic clouds!


And lastly we have the "various verticals" mostly just playing with materials and effects here.