HERE, WHERE ITS AT

With black & white prints & originals up in the shop, I'm onto digital coloring/painting. Why "coloring/painting"? Why not just 'painting'? When I'm filling in inked work, its a totally different thought process. As similar as it is to painting, it has far more in common with coloring.

Here's a recent result, a color version of my piece "OFF":



I'm building up technique by "coloring" a few before I move into full on digital painting.

I'm a person that thrives on variety. I've spent my life reading, listening to & watching everything I can; all the while, figuring out why & how all of it came to be. I've also been drawing since I was a wee thing & moved from the typical 'wtf is that' stuff of small children to comic art to graphic design to blah blah blah... now I'm "HERE".

HERE may only be one point on a long road, but its a HERE I'm glad to have finally stumbled on. All those influences I've absorbed can take a hell of a time to process, filter & distill. Until HERE, my work lacked focus. I could tell I hadn't really found MY voice. Obviously one's voice is the answer to a never ending story (I'm still waiting for my own Falkor), but I'm no longer looking at it with a furrowed brow muttering, 'what the hell IS this even?' I may never look upon my work with total satisfaction, nor do I think I should. However, I'm at a point where I'm starting to find the work interesting, both in process & outcome.

Years ago, I'd decided that I wouldn't show my work until I'd reached HERE. Since everything I'd created leading up to HERE wasn't terribly inspiring to me in any way (other than the hopes that it was another step forward, even if I couldn't tell), it certainly wouldn't be to anyone else. So... here's to HERE. Now I'm off to THERE.

I'm not one to stay in one place for long.

A lot of the digital painting I'll be doing will be conceptual work primarily focused on pre-visualizing two novels I've been toiling with for a minute now. They're both set in very complex worlds that I'd like to spend some time designing, engineering & exploring. It can only help, surely. I've already started a few rough sketches & I'm excited to bring them to a more actualized state.

Of course, I'll throw them up here as soon as they're worth looking at...