NFTs

Frankensteining angels, NFT updates, collaborations

Hey y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! Pardon the interruption between this post and the last — I’ve been traveling and life has gotten a little hectic in the interim. In today’s post, I’ve got some updates on the NFT hustle and some recent/upcoming collaborations, as well as more work on the Milton project.

In the land of NFTs, I’ve got good news and bad. The bad news is that my first NFT didn’t sell within the auction timeframe. Alas. Gas (the cost of conducting transactions on the blockchain) was very high for Ethereum, the cryptocurrency I was using to sell my NFT, so I’m hoping that’s at least partly to blame.

Satan’s head, Procreate… slightly modified. Perhaps a new NFT?

Satan’s head, Procreate… slightly modified. Perhaps a new NFT?

The good news is that I haven’t let that get me down! Huzzah! Gas has dropped substantially, so I’ve re-listed the Satan head study and listed a new one: the angel torso study. I’m selling the angel torso as a bundle, meaning that it’s two NFTs grouped together. The bundle includes the time lapse process video and the finished piece. You can find the bundle here and the re-listed Satan head here (sans frown and text, sadly).

Part of a lovely NFT package available now on OpenSea

Part of a lovely NFT package now available on OpenSea

And just a reminder that you can get prints of the angel torso on my Etsy! You can also sign up to receive monthly prints on Patreon (plus some other goodies and access to behind the scenes visuals). As always, you can find the full range of products and services I’m offering on the Shop & Learn page.

I’ve also been hacking away at more studies for the Milton project. I’m (slowly) working up an oil version of the Satan head study. With this one, I want capture Satan’s descent into depravity, so I started with an underpainting using the Zorn palette (a very limited palette invented by the great Anders Zorn). On top it, I’ve been getting wilder and weirder with the colors and textures.

Satan’s head, front view, oil on canvas (WIP)

Satan’s head, front view, oil on canvas (WIP)

The goal is for the distortions to get more severe as you go down the figure in terms of anatomy, color, brushwork, perspective, etc. It’s still pretty rough, and it’s definitely been a learning curve for me to figure out how to balance these two types of painting, but I like where it’s going so far. At the very least, I’m sure this study will teach me a great deal.

I’ve also gotten through my first full body pen and ink study of the angels that includes a head:

Full body angel study, front view, pen and ink

Full body angel study, front view, pen and ink

Like the back view study, I stitched this together using the various anatomy studies I’ve completed thus far. Here’s the back view for comparison:

Angel body study, back view, pen and ink.JPG

The front view study is certainly weird enough for me, and there’s parts that I think came out well. Still, it looks a little too obviously Frankenstein’d for me. To fix that, I’m going to try working from figure studies I’ve drawn from life previously (or make new ones), and distort from there. To start, I think I’m going to try working from one of the last line/tone/value experiments I completed at The Art Students League of New York:

Line/Tone/Value, No. 7; mixed media on paper

Line/Tone/Value, No. 7; mixed media on paper

More on that next time! In other news, I had a great time contributing poetry to Mei Yamanaka’s “Naked Tree” dance/video project. For the project, Mei worked with 15 different sound artists to create different versions of the same video. It was really cool to see how they all turned out! Everyone contributed amazing work, and the energy really shifted depending on the collaborators. The video I worked on with Mei is below; you can find the others on her YouTube channel.

Lastly, I’ve got another exciting collaboration coming up tomorrow night with musician and producer Kevin Shoemaker, a.k.a. Dandelot. Kevin is a seriously talented guy — if you haven’t checked out the tracks he’s released from his upcoming album, don’t sleep. You can find them on his YouTube, SoundCloud, and Spotify pages. Check out his website, too, for videos, VR, and other cool content. One of my favorite tracks from the album is below:

Kevin and I will be meeting tomorrow, June 2, around 8:30PM EST in virtual reality to livestream a joint session of live playing/producing and live painting. You can tune into it on his YouTube channel. Stop by and say hi!

That’s it for now. Have a great week and keep creating!

Satan's head, Patreon, NFTs, and more!

Hi everyone, welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve got some exciting announcements and some more work on the Milton project. First, I’m happy to announce that I’m now on Patreon! You can support at a variety of levels to get access to exclusive process photos and time-lapse videos, sneak peaks of upcoming performances, lessons and critiques, and all kinds of visual art products. Check it out, and thanks in advance to any and all supporters!

Patreoon 1.jpg
Patreon 2.jpg

As usual, you can also find the full range of products and services I’m offering on the Shop & Learn section of the website. As of now, I’m selling originals and prints and offering private lessons, in addition to the goodies available on Patreon. I’ll be selling NFTs soon, too — more on that at the end of this post.

I’m also excited to share that I’m taking part in dancer Mei Yamanaka’s upcoming video project, “Naked Tree.” Mei’s collaborating with 15 different sound artists for the project, and I’m so happy to be one of them! I’ll be doing a short intro to our collaboration on May 9, so stay tuned for updates there! You can also get a sneak peak of the video on Patreon.

From Mei Yamanaka’s upcoming video project, “Naked Tree”

From Mei Yamanaka’s upcoming video project, “Naked Tree”

I’ve also got some exciting updates on the Milton project. I’ve been thinking more about illustrating angels, fallen and unfallen alike, from the front, as I’ve mostly been focusing on the back view til now. First up: wings.

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

As with the back view, I started off by doing a study of blue heron wings, then distorted them and added the torso for the angelic version. I’ve included the back view below for comparison:

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

Blue heron wings (above), angel wings with torso (below), front view, pen and ink

I also worked up a Procreate study of Satan’s head. As I shared in my last post, I think the distorted anatomy study I drew is a little too alien to be anything but a very fallen Satan. Here’s a refresher of what that looked like:

Distorted anatomy study, muscles of the head and neck, pen and ink

Distorted anatomy study, muscles of the head and neck, pen and ink

Since I’m thinking of this as Satan at his most fallen, I got pretty wild with the colors and textures on Procreate. I also played around a lot more with layers this time, so be warned: the process video is kind of a light show.

Satan’s head, front view, Procreate

Satan’s head, front view, Procreate

I’m happy to share that I’m turning this study into my first NFT! For anyone who isn’t familiar with NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, they’re essentially a way to create a one-of-a-kind digital copy of a piece of artwork that can be bought and sold with cryptocurrency. It’s a rapidly developing market, and I’m excited to dive into it! You can find the Satan head NFT by clicking here. Bidding starts Thursday at 5PM EST — hope you stop by and check it out!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in! Have a great week and keep creating.