Hands-On Exhibit!

From the Tapei Huashan 1914 Creative Art Center's official brochure: 

Welcome to the Tapei Huashan 1914 Creative Art Center, the world's first hands-on fine art museum! 

Why be corralled behind a velvet rope like a dull-eyed cow and stare at stuffy old paintings from a distance, when you can experience, firsthand, the texture of every brush stroke?

Go ahead, run your fingers over our delicate, fragile canvases. Don't be shy! Get your fingertips in there and really caress that crumbling, centuries-old impasto. Feel that? That's genuine antiquity you're fondling!

Yes, at the Tapei Huashan 1914 Creative Center, you'll feel art history come alive!

What's that you say? What happens if you accidentally take a tumble and shove your fist through a four hundred year old painting, such as Flowers by renowned 17th century Italian Baroque artist Paolo Porpora?

No worries! Our crack staff of experts can restore even the most severely and clumsily damaged canvas in no time flat. Why just look at that painting! It's better than brand new!

Don't forget, Saturdays are Kids Daze here at the Tapei Huashan 1914 Creative Center. Children twelve and under are encouraged to paint directly onto our canvases, and "improve" them! 

Flea Market Finds

I went to a flea market this past weekend and scored a couple of new (to me!) items. First up is this attractive print from the "Sad-Eyed Kid" style so popular in the 1960s and 1970s. It's about three feet tall and it'll look great on the Wall Of Tackiness. Best of all, it was only $15. It was originally $20, which I was more than willing to pay, but the lady selling it talked herself down to $15 for some reason, with nary a word from me. Someone needs to tell her that's not how you negotiate....

This was most likely part of a matched set of paintings. These things tended to come in pairs, so at one time there was probably a painting of a Harlequin boy in a matching outfit.

The only bad part: now I'm gonna have to rearrange the entire ferkakte wall to make room for it.

Then I found this little guy. It's apparently a hip flask with a rubbery drunk guy's head as a cap. I think the head looks a lot like something I would draw; it's definitely similar to my style. Maybe that's why I couldn't resist it. I like the drawing of the body as well; it's got a definite 1960s look about it.

The only thing I don't like? The flask is made from plastic, much like a bottle of Bactine. Every hip flask I've ever seen (which admittedly is not a large number) has been made of metal. You carry it in your back pocket, right? A metal flask is more likely to hold its shape when you sit on it, unlike a plastic one which will explode in your pants the minute you take your seat. A plastic hip flask is about as useful as a cardboard step ladder. Oh well. I still like his head.

Maybe one of these days I can find a nice metal hip flask and paint a body on it and then transfer his head to it. For purely decorative purposes only, of course. I don't normally carry around a hip flask full of booze.

Now that I think of it, where do you even buy a hip flask? At a liquor store, maybe? I don't drink booze, so I honestly have no idea where you'd find one.

RIP Ralph McQuarrie

I was saddened to hear of the recent death of artist and illustrator Ralph McQuarrie. He wasn't a household name to the public at large, but to Star Wars fans he was nothing less than a legend.

Back in the 1970s when George Lucas was trying to sell a little space opera script he'd written, studio after studio turned him down. His story was full of robots and aliens and people with weird names and was simply beyond the comprehension of studio executives. Then as now, Lucas had all the charisma and personality of a damp sponge and just wasn't able to convey the adventure, granduer and sense of wonder of Star Wars to the suits.

In desperation Lucas turned to illustrator Ralph McQuarrie, who had worked as a technical illustrator for Boeing. Lucas commissioned McQuarrie to produce a series of pre-production paintings to illustrate key scenes from the film. McQuarrie easily grasped what Lucas was trying to do and produced a beautiful series of paintings.

Finally the studio honchos had something tangible to go on and immediately green lit the script. There is no absolutely no doubt that without Ralph McQuarrie, there would be no Star Wars.

As you can see from his paintings, McQuarrie had a HUGE influence on the look of the film. He designed the look of the droids, the ships, the landscapes, and even Darth Vader himself. His contribution and importance to the Star Wars universe cannot be overstated.

In 1977 Ballantine Books published The Star Wars Portfolio, a series of prints of twenty of McQuarriie's pre-production paintings from the film. It cost all of $7.95, which was quite a princely sum back then. I bought a copy and hung all the prints on the walls of my room. Other kids had posters of Kiss and AC/DC adorning their walls; I had Ralph McQuarrie prints.

I spent countless hours staring at his paintings,studying them in minute detail and trying to figure out how he'd done them. His designs, his colors and above all his sense of composition spoke to me the way no artist's work had ever done before, or since. I stared at them so much that each and every brush stroke is permanently seared into my brain. Long after dementia causes me to forget my own name I will still remember these paintings.

McQuarrie also dida series of production paintings for The Empire Strikes Back, which were just as impressive, if not more.

His image of the Cloud City of Bespin is my all time favorite painting- not just of his, but of any artist. In fact, more often then not when I'm illustrating something in Photoshop, my first instinct is to give it a reddish-yellow background just like this one. Could this painting be subconsciously influencing my choice of color?

Scoff if you like, but I truly believe his work belongs in an art gallery or museum.

McQuarrie also produced production paintings for the original Battlestar Galactica, Cocoon, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

His art has had a huge and lasting influence on me and no doubt inspired me to become an artist. I probably wouldn't be a graphic designer and illustrator today if not for Ralph McQuarrie. His talent and sense of design will be missed.

I Am So Going To Hell

When I was in college, my friend's mom had this print hanging on the wall of her house. I remember I'd just stare at it every time I went there, fascinated by both the technical craftsmanship of the painting, and the all-out bat$#!+ insanity of the subject matter.

Seriously, I love this painting. How could you not? The sentiment it portrays is a nice one, but it goes about it in such a frakin' bizarre way that I can't believe it's real. It appears that Jesus is finally fed up with the petty bickering of the nations of the world, so he's grown to Megazord size and is knocking on the window of the U.N. building to let the representatives inside know that they'd better shape up... or else there's gonna be some urban renewal, pronto. It's not every day that you can find a piece of art that celebrates both religion and Godzilla movies-- all at the same time.

I christened the painting, Attack Of The 50 Foot Jesus, after the similarly titled B-movie. My friend's mom, she didn't think that was funny. At all. Boy, did she not think that was funny.

I wish I could find a print of this painting. I would snap it up in a heartbeat. I keep an eye out every time I go to a flea market, but so far, no luck. Maybe one of these days I'll score one.

The Rare And Elusive Red Unicorn Demon

I hadn't done a "painting" in Photoshop for a while, so I figure it was about time to try one again. Now I remember why it's been so long since I did one. Line drawings are much easier!

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch of the demon. The final drawing didn't change much at all.

Rooster

I usually draw in a hard-edged cartoony style. I was experimenting here with a more "painterly" look. I leave it to the viewer to decide if I was successful.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.