Napoleon in Hell - Gouache 6x8

I've been working on painting characters and scenarios in gouache on illustration board. This is my first result, developed from a truly random brush & ink sketch. Between Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series, Peter Padfield's books on Maritime supremacy, and HBO's "John Adams", I've had 18th Century on the brain for a while. Random sketching while meditating on the literal idea of personal demons produced a twisted little figure in a big hat which bore a remarkable resemblance to Napoleon. If he's anywhere, I figure it's someplace cold.

Life imitates Henri Rousseau

Not pictured: Nude women, French Post-Impressionism.

I was on the porch sketching with pen & ink and had gotten up to get another glass of iced tea when I turned around and saw Roland "hiding" in the houseplants. They had been taken down because of a storm, and became a convenient mini-jungle right out of Henri Rousseau's "The Dream". I can't believe he stayed still long enough for me to get the camera.

Sketching with a waterbrush and either sumi-e or a fountain pen/grayscale marker combination is my way to get around a mental block. When all else fails, grab the big sketchbook, put the ink in the left hand and the water in the right, and get through it. I start with random strokes and build from there. It doesn't result in beautiful, perfect composition, but it gets the basics on paper. Lately my quick & dirty ink sketches have been images of the jungle:

These are serving as preliminary work for illustrations in support of one of my long-term animation projects. I'll put more from this project up soon.

I see the doorway to a thousand churches

My goodness, it's been a long time since I posted. That's sad, but I have a (partial) excuse:

I got new eyes.

On February 29th I had IntraLASIK done. I went from "between 20/300 and 20/700 uncorrected" (!) to better than 20/20. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Every day I see something in a new way or notice things that I had been unaware of before - it's truly amazing. Just FYI, being able to see comes in damned handy for an artist - who knew?

Not long ago in human history I would have been uselessly near-blind, but in the 21st century I can get my corneas reshaped with a frickin' laser beam and see better than new. I figured a photo was in order. This is me, glasses-free, in the middle of a workday, in my painting shirt, unshaven, mussed up, overheated, and holding my cat.

(Any other time Kali follows me around, wanting attention or playtime with her feather toy, but of course when I need her to stay still and shut up for a second, she freaks out. I guess they wouldn't be called "cats" if they were sensible.)

I'm sufficiently recovered to pick up where I left off around the new year, so regular posting will begin again shortly.