Yay me!

'sup everyone? Already posting something new today! I haven't done a self portrait in years, so it was about time.

Self portrait 2010
digital painting, 489 x 647 px, PS

Took me about three hours, with no reference (I looked in the mirror like once). As you can see, the photo isn't quite accurate anymore, there's more and more hair growing out of my face. I don't know why, but I feel like keeping it :) Also, I realize that I enjoy acquiring more wrinkles as time goes by. I think growing older is cool.

My favourite villain

Well, I don't know if it's my favourite villain ever, of all times (Cthulhu is one, too), but Bowser is a pretty good bad guy, or isn't he? I love the weird combination of animal features. It's not easy to throw something together like that and come up with an identifiable "person".

"Your Princess is in this guy's castle"
Digital Painting, 1200 x 800 px
Photoshop

So yeah, I finally started to practice some digital painting. We'll have more of that in the future. Take care!

Yo everyone!

2010 already, seems like I didn't post in quite a while. So let's make up for that with two new pieces:

"R'lyeh"
60 x 50 cm, Acrylics on Canvas

The sunken city of R'lyeh, finally rising again now that the stars are right. Comissioned Piece for a Lovecraft fan, sold.

"Nudes with Tentacles, green"
70 x 100 cm, Acrylics on Canvas

Yes, two of them ladies this time :D
I love the colours, which are of coure much more vibrant in reality. That blueish green is pretty much the exact opposite of the warm skin tones, and the overall appeal of that colour situation is very relaxing when you sit in front of it.

And now for some old stuff! I changed some details in this one and got a photographer friend to take some proper pictures. Unfortunately, getting the colors right doesn't seem to be a matter of a good or bad camera, as there are some parts in here that look absolutely not the same IRL. Strange.

And here's a preview of what a print of one of these looks like. This is the first one that was sold. Each print (Poster size/A1, numbered and signed) costs 50,- Euros, drop me a line if you want one!


Alrighty, that's it for now. Take care!

Well well kids, here it is!

"Cthulhu III/Cthulhu for President"
50x60 cm, mixed media on canvas

vote for him, he'll make it all end soon. This painting is getting mad props wherever I show it, so maybe people would even buy prints or so? I don't know, but let's see what we can do!

I've been pretty productive in the last few days, experimenting with different techniques and formats. Here are two other new pieces, both done in a very quick fashion. Another Cthulhu:

"Cthulhu IV", 40x50 cm,
acrylics on painting board

I never get sick of that guy :D Painting this took about two evenings, that would be a quick painting (it's 40x50 cm, not large)

And this one is a depiction of a horror story local parents used to tell their kids to keep them away from the river, so they wouldn't drown: If you're alone by the water, the witch (she's got a strange german name I forgot, need to ask someone from there) will come out of the river and pull you down! Two friends of mine who grew up by that river only recently discovered that they had both heard this story when they were little. They also both agreed that it was very terrifying.

"The witch" (in lack of the real name),
40x30 cm, acrylics on painting board

Hey you people!

There's been a lot going on in the past few weeks, though I haven't taken a photo of the now finished Republican Cthulhu yet. It turned out pretty well, you'll see it in a couple of days, I hope.
For now, here's something different. I've returned to a weird topic that seems to be haunting me: Large, flying objects that aren't supposed to fly.

"Seascape I", 60x50 cm, acrylics on canvas

The idea for this one popped into my head a few nights ago, and it simply wouldn't leave me. Around the Same time (during the freakquenzy records Roundup, which is an excellent occasion for weird ideas), the title "Laser Moses parting the Red Sea" also came up, but I'm not entirely sure yet how to realize that.
I've also done some smaller pieces, one of which falls into the same category as this one, might post them next time.

Besides these weird images, I'm also workingon another tentacle chicks-painting, again a large piece that takes forever to be finished. I'll take my time. Though a rough, quick style is fun for works as the above one, some paintings need a lot of care and a very fine brush.

On the above mentioned Roundup (and you'll probably never find out what that is, because it's so beautifully obscure), I had the opportunity to show some of my paintings to a bigger audience, and the reactions were great: Although nobody had the money to afford an original, many people asked for prints, especially of the nudes and Republican Cthulhu, so I might look into that.

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention toward my official site again, where all my work is being featured, and where you'll find contact information and all that official blah-di-blah.

Have a good time, dear internet, we'll meet again!

Cthulhu III, first steps

Hey there,

Somehow, this guy doesn't leave me alone. After the dramatic depictions in the first two paintings, I'm going for a slightly different look this time: the uniform of evil, a well-taylored suit.
This here is a preparatory drawing I made in charcoal, already on the canvas. I fixed it with some fixative spray and am currently applying color. nice unhealthy green for the skin, a bright, cool light from above and a gloomy red one from below.



Later that evening I found this myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/cthulhu2008
I'll definitely send them a jpg of the finished piece, and now I think of giving him a star spangled banner-pin :) He'll also get a signet ring, and I'm thinking about a monocle. But that might be too much.
Cthulhu is a republican, or isn't he?

Digital stuff!

yo world! today i've got something digital for you. these are parts of the artwork to my awesome band's first full length album, which will be be released on may 22nd all across europe. check out our music: myspace.com/parityboot
you can also find the video to the title track in one of the first posts in this blog (and on the myspace profile). all the visuals for the band are supposed to stick to the topic of decayed, abandoned places, so textures of rust and mold make up most of these images. i took many of the billions of photos worked in here by myself, in hamburg, the rest come from this site, a great place for every digital artist.


the front cover. the band logo and name were made in cinema 4d, with textures later applied in photoshop. the background is composed from pictures of some kind of tar container that stood in front of my house for a while, some broken concrete and loads of dirt photos.




these two were made almost entirely from photos i took on a sunny day in hamburg. locals might recognize some places :)


that lamp thing in the foreground is from one of dozens of german tanks that stand and rot on a field near the band's hometown as a reminder of war time. it's a famous place for local metal bands' photo sessions.


this last one is the tray card, the inside of the cd case. it's supposed to look like one surface with a hole in it, although it consists of countless seperate images.

when working in this manner, you find out what photoshop is actually capable of: everything. big thanks to my teacher anthony who taught me this stuff, and to travis smith, whose artwork for devin townsend's terria album is a gorgeous example of what can be done this way (and was probably my biggest inspiration).

there's another painting in the making right now. after the flying elephants, it features a rificulously large flying whale. might be finished toward the weekend.