It's not everyday a man meets his hero, but Saturday was such a fateful day. Accompanying Gabriel Campanario — The Seattle Sketcher — a news artist for the Seattle Times who explores the Emerald City there and back again in a decade-long weekend column capturing the pulse of city life with a keen eye and bold splashes of watercolor...one sketch at a time.
Last Minute Model
I modeled in an open studio portrait drawing and painting three hour session Wednesday night at Gage Academy of Art, North Capitol Hill, Seattle. I’ve been attending the workshop for two months developing observational drawing skills attempting to capture a realistic likeness while infusing a sense of self-expression into the sitter’s gaze. The class is free but you’re eventually called to model clothed among the dozen or more artists. I was asked and I took the seat on the raised platform enjoying the experience as my body remained still with deep breathing while my mind was free to wander. After a twenty minute timer, I would get up and rest five minutes repeating the process nine times. The five artists who drew and painted my likeness were each impressively unique bringing their own interpretive skill to the easel.
Childhood Dream Fueling Commission
Lacee Hughes, gym owner in Williston, North Dakota, commissioned me to sketch two cartoon characters as a Christmas gift for her brother. Lacee and he developed Darius and and his squat mom, Slugger, as kids fleshing out the characters throughout childhood. When Lacee asked me to do this drawing, she gave a two paragraph detailed description of how they should look and act. I appreciate the character outline to deliver the most accurate representation of their vision as possible. What a cool gig.
Kenmore Goose
Barnyard painting with Derwent “inktense” water-soluble pencils and Posca markers: 4” x 4” gessoed panel; submitted to Artist and Craftsman Supply’s “Posca on Panel” in store art show with supplies raffle.
All Day I Dream About Sketch
I felt good drawing this 18" x 24" charcoal and oil pastel portrait at the Gage Academy of Art, not having illustrated a live model in long pose under dramatic light since 2017. Mitchell — from the “center of the mitt of Michigan” — did a stoic job holding his expression without falter. I’ll be back to the Tuesday night drawing and painting live model session at the northern cusp of Capitol Hill, Seattle.
Dante Luca
Puppy sketch based off a photo sent from a man I met on the train out of Seattle of a Lagotto Romagnolo — a relatively new breed to the US from Italy originally bred as a wetland retriever — he picked up in Pennsylvania on his way back to Hyde Park in the Hudson Valley, New York.
Three Angels Express — Trucker Logo
Logo design for a 2’ x 2’ vinyl sticker for the door of a 2019 Volvo semi. This design took me a few days from start to finish after shelving the approved sketch by the client for a month. I struggled with getting the right look, but perserverance paid off trusting the digital tracing and manipulation process in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq.
Pop Cars — Sidney, Montana
If you're in Sidney, Montana before Labor Day, please enjoy the illustrated art show "Pop Cars" as the North Dakota tour wraps. This is the closest the show will come to Williston, with Sidney being less than an hour from where the idea for "Pop Cars" originated while driving an eighteen-speed Kenworth T800 through the Bakken oil-patch.
The forty plus cartoon biographies of cultural icons defined by their vehicle of choice drawn on trucker logs will likely be picked up for a two year tour in a dozen galleries, museums and universities through the "liquid-hot" MAGDA — Montana Art Gallery Director's Association starting early 2022. The dozen commissioned works for the show and those sold throughout the tour will be mailed to patrons and replaced with new art with a working title "Pop Cars II — Big Sky Tour."
Saving Sensei Ryan
Birthday well wish for Sensei Ryan Engberg who I studied Shito Ryu karate under for eight months in Williston, North Dakota obtaining an orange belt.
Yokai — Strange Apparition
Sketches and notes from Santa Fe’s International Folk Art Exhibit on Yokai — Japanese catchall for ghosts, tricksters, monsters, supernatural beings and mysterious phenomenon.
I enjoyed the show realizing how imbedded Yokai are in Japan’s culture. First appearing in medival scroll paintings — Emakimono — based on religious material represented as “Oni” — demons or goblins; Yokai now permeate popular culture from stage to screen in theatre, film, comics and animation. Highly successful Yokai-based stories include Shigeru Mizuke’s “GeGeGe no Kitarō” manga (1960 - 1969); Hayeo Miyazaki’s 1997 animation “Princess Mononoke”"; and Hideo Nakata’s 1997 horror film “Ringu.”
SKETCHIFIED
On set portraits and landscapes in the Badlands of the forty cast 'n' crew of the indie film "Sanctified," drawn in a Dollar General sketchbook purchased when sent on a blood-run to Belfield to get red dish soap, red food coloring and corn syrup.
The three, torn-paged female drawings are from a prop built on set by Production Designer, Dean Bellin — Technical Theatre professor at Bismarck State College — with scissors, worn paper and string when director, Nickolaus Swedlund, suggested I be "doing something" leading up to the big gun fight; asking to sketch a nude reminiscent of "Titanic." With no cell service for reference, luckily I had a field journal from last summer on a father-son road trip through the Dakotas with a watercolor study of the Muse "Vision" from the interior dome of Pierre's Capitol we spent an afternoon touring.
I imagine Cutthroat Clint clutching the paper scrap evoking Vision in his final scene saying, “Muse, sing in me and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer...harried for years on end.”
Cartoon in Cando — Life Drawing Workshop with Art Show
Thank you Cando Arts Council, Kathy Benson and Joan Youngerman for coorinating an amazing afternoon of cartoon life drawing. I am grateful for the opportunity where the hearts of young artists were touched...mine certainly was.
Travis Blaise — Disney animator and story artist — interview notes
ToonBoom — 2D animation software — webinar notes of hour interview with animator and story artist Travis Blaise.
Notes from Floyd Norman’s 2013 book “Animated Life: A Lifetime of Tips, Tricks and Stories from a Disney Legend.” Floyd Norman, the first African American to animate for Disney Studios, offers insight in drawing characters “alive” with Disney’s inimitable illusion of life. A how-to memoir of a fifty year corporate ladder climb from magic factory apprentice on Sleeping Beauty in 1956; to in-betweener for tour de forces Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl; to animator assistant; to coveted animator; to story lead; to art director and finally to Disney Legend in 2006. Working in person with the maestro himself shortly before Walt’s death in 1966 while producing Jungle Book, to educating a new generation of animators on Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. — Norman has seen and done it all. He writes about it with grace, wit and wisdom.
Mulner's Valentine
Homemade card barter with a Canadian heavy-equipment operator to borrow his RV for a Medora Western film-shoot in May.
It's Your World
n 1986, Stephanie Wilson, a kindergartner in Puyallup, Washington drew a trash can atop earth saying “This is Your World.” She and her family were awarded seven tickets to Northwest Trek — a zoo in Washington with native animals. For thirty-five years the image stayed in her father, Dave Wilson’s, head. He and I met in downtown Williston encouraging me to recreate his daughter’s vision via metal signs to raise awareness of keeping pollution down through accountability.
Justin's Bible: Chasing Juliette Aristides' Muse
Commissioned by Pastor Justin Jenkins, Velocity Church, Lawrence Art Center, Kansas
Jesus weeps
Joseph gives
Paul preaches
David dances
Jonah runs...
The illustrated portrait of Christ lamenting for humanity’s inescapable destiny with death personified by his hearing of Lazarus’ is inspired by D. Jeffrey Mims’ 1999 charcoal Self-Portrait found in Juliette Aristides’ book Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice. Aristides founded the Gage Academy on Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington, upon training under Richard Lack as a place for serious students to study traditional art.
The hieratic scale — size associated with importance utilized by the ancient Egyptians — of a giant Joseph exposing himself to his brothers showering them with gifts of sustenance in a barren land in the spirit of his father who gifted his favored son the coat of many colors is inspired by Maria Kreyn’s 2015 oil painting Rising. “She channels heavy forms and simplicity” says The Figurative Artist’s Handbook author Robert Zeller, “of the Severe Classical Greek sculpture style from 490 - 450 BC.” Kreyn’s images fuse perceptions of spiritual dimensions with reality using symbolic light coming not from a physical light source, but a seemingly spiritual one. The layout of the brothers at the bottom references French sculptor, Antoine Bourdelle’s, Meditation of Apollo and the Nine Muses, 1910-12 Art Deco 12’ x 4.5’ bas-relief.
The portrait of Paul the Apostle references Matthew Grabelsky’s 2004 cast drawing of Orfeo Boselli’s San Benedetto, Angel Academy of Art, Florence, Italy. “By imitating accomplishments of artists who came before” says Aristides, “you surpass your current skill level and gain particular insight into the master artist’s working method.” Careful and detailed study of a brilliant drawing inspires camaraderie pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Through analyzing, deconstructing and rebuilding a masterwork, experiential knowledge of the master’s working method is found by no other means possible. The Israeli crowd Paul preaches to in Jerusalem is inspired by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes’ mid nineteenth-century, Group of Four Figures — a black and sanguine crayon drawing heightened with white crayon on 29” x 17” beige paper, Louvre, France.
The Jewish king bowing before the Ark in celebration of its return references Juliette Aristides’ 2004 charcoal and white pencil drawing, Sutherland 1: Bowing. The divine spirit rising from the Ark of the Covenant is inspired by Alice Aycock’s 20’ x 15’ x 8’ painted steel, fiberglass and wood sculpture, Tree of Life Fantasy: A Synopsis of the Book of Questions Concerning the World of Order and/or the Order of Worlds, 1990-92. Aycock’s inspiration includes the “double-helix DNA structure” says Mary Stewart, author of Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design, “and medieval illustration of people entering Paradise through a spinning hole in the sky.” Aycock combines linear structure with a series of circular planes in open space resulting in playful, roller-coaster-like sculpture.
Originally the “great fish” as scripture translates from Hebrew was color penciled over the Jonah chapter as a horrific dragon copied from Kevin Walker’s Drawing and Painting Fantasy Beasts: Bring to Life the Creatures and Monsters of Other Realms. I was inspired by the enormous, ghoulish fanged Xipactinus — “Sword Ray” fossil from the Late Cretaceous period seen at the Bismarck, North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in November, 2019. Also known as the “X-Fish,” like a marlin and tuna today, it’s aerodynamic body and teeth are adapted for catching and eating other fish. Justin requested a more whale-like creature. Upon erasing the dragon, I Googled ‘large sea fish’ and ‘men swimming’ to juxtapose references in Photoshop for final composition. I refrained from black acrylic gouache; instead vying for an aquatic-feel through ultramarine blue, viridian green and violet to achieve the deep-sea darks. “Even in the deepest depths of Sheol” Jonah says in chapter 2:2, “You hear my prayer” is my favorite passage in the Bible.
Aeneas
Unapproved bronze sculpture concept; August 13, 2009; for the first million dollar high school west of the Mississippi, built in 1931.
Although Troy fell with Aeneas being a near-lone survivor to the spoils of the Greeks and Achilles’ unquenchable wrath, his descendants, the twins Remus and Romulus suckled by the she-wolf, founded Rome — one of history’s greatest and most influential civilizations spanning a thousand years.
“Fate raises up, and Fate casts down the happy and unhappy alike: no man foretells his Fate.”
— Sophocles (450 BC)
(translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)
POP CARS ART SHOW MAILER
POP CARS are touring North Dakota and it’s high time I got this mailer out to friends, family and fans. If you’d like me to jot your address next to Jeff Bridges and Sigourney Weaver, holler at me at mack@macklinart.com. Design created using scanned in hand-drawn illustration rotoscoped digitally in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq tablet.
