Gig Poster for House of Ghosts and the Hoot Hoots

The Hoot Hoots and House of Ghosts at Jones Radiator

I had the opportunity to design a gig poster, much thanks to Eric, funktastic base player, and the House of Ghosts. Here be the final design! I used charcoal on 80lb, with a reductive technique to carve out most of the detail. I found a variety of reference for the owls online, which allowed me to give each of the stack a bit of character.

If you navigate down to my previous post you'll see two potential ideas, one of which is the final gig poster in concept, the other a rainbow emitting owl attacking the third castle in Kurosawa's Ran on some desolate many mooned planet.....yep.....

And check out the House of Ghosts and Hoot Hoots website, or better yet, COME TO THE SHOW Friday, November 16th! No cover - eet ees freeeeeee! Jones Radiator is at 120 East Sprague Avenue, Spokane. And feel free to download this picture, print it, and post it everywhere around you; telephone poles, eating establishments, your mailman, maybe a sandwich board for your dog. Sky's the limit :)

Thank You for looking!

House of Ghosts/Hoot Hoots - concepts

Still trying to figure out what the hell is going on in this picture...anyway, here is the first idea. Maybe the owl should be in a rainbow costume, like the Hoot Hoots...

And for a back-up idea, a sun over the sea with a totem of owls in the foreground, either comic or realistic-like. Or please give me any and all ideas, even starting from scratch ideas.

Two hours worth! Good to get my fingers all charcoaly-like...

Untitled, Life and Sun, Charcoal on 80 lb., 54"X35"

Update before I close up shop! Still lots to change and arrange...the parts I'm sure of you'll see have been locked-in with the darker charcoal. Thank you for looking :) More updates to come!!!

Finally getting back to work! New series in the works...

Untitled, Life and Sun, Charcoal on 80 lb., 54"X36"

I'm beginning a new series today - the subject is going to revolve around the sun, our relationship to it, and our relationship to each other. It brings together two features that have long captivated my attention; the primary body in which our solar system revolves and depends upon, and the human figure. So here we goooo!!!!!!

Right now vine charcoal is being used to trace whatever needs to be expressed and how it relates to everything else. Once I reach a point where the rough idea is in place, I'll start laying down the nice, dark, chunky charcoal and begin the process of laying it down and taking it away.

Stay tuned!

George D Cat

Tonight's model - George!

Time to start getting on the going - decided to break out the sketch book and at least practice some.

Here are a couple more figure studies from a 2006 weekend long studio session at the Spokane Art Institute. These two were done with watercolor, which was a big departure from charcoal. With charcoal I am usually all over the place, charcoal dust flying everywhere. With watercolors, I had to take my time, look, and lay down my lines and shaded areas slowly. These were the only two decent ones out of six.

Figure Study 2006-03, 8X11, Watercolor on 80 lb

Figure Study 2006-02, 11X8, Watercolor on 80 lb

Thought I'd include a landscape piece I did in college, from 2003. Part of a series of drawings using oil pastel crayons; this is the better looking of the three or four I did. I ended up sitting on the deck of Clink's (Thank You Jerry!) and looking out across the lake. And no, that is not a forest fire...the cliff has an orange hue :)

The lower picture is a detail of some of the texture. Oil based crayons can go on nice and thick and leave good chunks. I'll have to dig them out this spring and work with them some more!

Williams Lake Cliffs, 12 X 7, Oil Pastel Crayon on 80 lb., 2003