Cobwebs and Exploding Pies

Well folks it’s been an eventful January with the great remodeling of CRG Studios! Every piece of furniture has been unmoored and rearranged, spiders and centipedes evicted, and flat files given a delightfully thorough spring cleaning in winter.

This means I have unburied some gems from the archives, and this Friday, February 1st at 12 noon (pacific time) I will be releasing a few select prints from the vaults. in the CRG Store I will have a few available of:

“Who’s Afraid of the Peppermint Man?” 

“Becoming Animal” 

and “The Suffocating Corset”

Come early, to the CRG Store,  as I only have a few of each one!!

Watch Me Paint Exploding Pies

I am currently  working on a delicious illustrated cover for some my pals over at McSweeneys Publishing. Here are some sneak peeks of my process.

For this project I'm using watercolors on handmade watercolor paper. I have a few different watercolor sets, The bottom one is Japanese and the top one is German made.  I've had the lil' one on top since high school! I can't bear to part with it, plus the quality is unparralelled. Vintage rules.

Dr. Ph Martin's inks can be very intense, so I water them down a bit. Yes, I love Philippes. I'm very sad this mustard jar is empty.

I do some rough sketches first on vellum paper, then finalize and transfer my sketch to the watercolor paper. I think this guy looks pretty good, real rubbery.

When I have my drawing transferred, I do the black areas in a waterproof ink first. 

Then I lay in some watercolors in many thin layers, letting it dry in between. What's he baking?

I'm still working on this one, but when it's all done I'll post a little film of me working on it.

This year is shaping up to be an exciting one, many fun and varied projects taking me to San Francisco,   New York, Los Angeles and beyond! Come back and visit me soon, kay?

Where Does Inspiration Come From?

This is the question I seem to get asked the most from young artists, and it is the hardest one to answer. Inspiration comes from everywhere, but it usually starts with things I have read, things I have seen, music that I listen to, and dreams. Those go into the brain filter and come out the other side in the form of sketches, little writings, and finally a painting or drawing.

For the painting I am currently working on, these clowns that I bought on ebay a while back insisted on being featured. Although I usually don’t paint clowns, for reasons I won’t go into, I wanted to do something circusy.

I also recently saw the Mexican women surrealist show, “In Wonderland” at the LA Count Museum, and it was unbelievable. Remedios Varo was one of my favorites, and I became a little obsessed with drawing her. 

I start jotting down ideas about what I am going to do, concepts and symbolism, all the heady stuff.

I also do little rough drawings of characters and little scenes. Some don’t make the cut, but once in a while I find something I can use!

Finally they make the long journey from idea to thing, and end up in a painting or drawing! The strangest combinations are possible...

Enjoy your imagineering, and remember, inspiration comes from everywhere!

For more peeks into my sketchbook process, check out this little feature on the Hi-Fructose Magazine site!