El Rey: Eep Eep

Oh no.

2008-10-16T23:30:00.001-07:00

The last time I looked at 3D modeling was maybe 1999, on my Quadra AV. No one told me anything like sculpt mode existed.

I have things to do! This will not help one bit.

And oh, look

2008-10-10T01:07:00.002-07:00

Another Instructable!
The $1 Waterbrush!

Learn how to make a thing!

2008-10-10T00:08:00.002-07:00

I wrote up how to make a linoleum block-printing jig for Instructables.

SPOILER: Slapped a couple of these together the other night in order to make 8 x 10 prints. Maybe even bigger.

And I Learned Illustrator, Finally.

2008-10-09T02:34:00.002-07:00

At least, enough to do my thing. It's pretty useful, once you wrestle the pen tool to the ground.

On this absurdly high-res monitor (thanks, Dell Outlet!) the handles are specks, which is annoying. I poked at Inkscape, which I think I'll try some more. That program has nice usable handles.

I ponied up

2008-10-09T02:31:00.002-07:00

And got a proper Flickr account. I just dumped a whole bunch of stuff into it that hasn't been seen in a while, or ever by you nice people.

Rilly Big Shew in Upstate NY

2008-10-01T06:05:00.002-07:00

Others Like You
A Psychosocial Multimedia Exhibition
October 4- November 15
Spool Mfg.
Johnson City, NY
http://spoolmfg.org/

Funny, I don't feel psychosocial.
Come by! I'll be in Arizona, but they are good people.

One Nation Under Busey

2008-09-15T23:31:00.002-07:00

16" x 9", acrylic on watercolor paper, for the Spool show.

The Life of Mr. Clean Is Always Intense

2008-09-15T23:26:00.004-07:00

16" x 9", ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Andy asked me to be in a group show on October 4 at Spool Mfg. in Binghamton. "Happily," I said.

ER on Wired Today

2007-07-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Clive Thompson, bon vivant and scribe of the splendid Collision Detection blahg, mention me in an article about gaming and art on Wired today.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2007/07/games_frontiers_0730

These are the pictures he mentions.

Alyx, acrylic on paper, 22 x 30

Village Street, acrylic on paper, I forget how big.

There'll be more of these soon, and another possible massive project that's too iffy to talk about until it firms up a little more.

I am LOOKing-uh. For SARah. CONNOR!uh. Sarah CONNOR!uh!

2007-07-05T03:55:00.001-07:00

It's the Heat, AND the Humidity

2007-06-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

Now, it's a cool 85 here in HQ (seriously, at 7% humidity, 85 can be cool), so don't think I'm about to melt or anything, but look at this:

7% humidity. I was just pulling a print (huh huh huh) and man, the ink was drying in a few minutes. This is very different than San Francisco, where I used to live.

(Did I talk about this here already? If so, sorry.)

I work primarily in water-based media (printing ink and acrylic paints) because I am lazy and a slob, and this makes cleanup much easier. But you get so little working time here with water-based media here. I've started poking at oil paints, as fine-print readers of elreyart.com may have noticed; originally, the idea was that I could poke at paintings for more than one session.

But though I've always worked quickly (once I get started, that is), in this different atmosphere it feels more like speed-art, to paint or print before the ink/paint on the palette/ink-spreader surface congeals and becomes worthless. Which is good in its way.

Today has me thinking that maybe I wouldn't feel as rushed if I was all oil-based, everywhere. Maybe as I run out of ink and paint I'll restock with oil-based replacements.

Sylar: More Painterly

2007-05-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

I made this composite right after the show aired, but didn't want to post it immediately so as not to be spoilerific, and then, of course, forgot about it.

A couple of weeks ago, in the show Heroes, the evil Sylar got the power to paint the future. They showed his version of basically the same painting that "Mr. Esok" had done earlier.

Sylar's is the top one. So much more interesting!

Also, every show should have more Hiro and Ando and no Jessica/Niki at all.

Last Night's Objets

2007-04-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling the pull to do stuff that has a little more crazy to it:
http://jamesbarnett.net/past/alyx12005.html

I have a roll of wallpaper. Maybe I’ll get nuts on it and if something works, glue it to a board.

The Indignities of Modern Life

2007-04-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Well, www.myspace.com/elreyart exists now.

Also, there's Flickr and Phoenix Art Space.

By all means, add me whereever. I'm stocking up on my THANKS 4 THA ADD!! animated glittery gifs as we speak.

House in Order

2007-04-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

There. All tidied up. Put the official headshots of recent paintings up on elreyart.com for sale sale sale! And I got a simple portfolio going over at jamesbarnett.net to spam galleries with. I think I clean up pretty decently, if you don't mind me saying so.

Feeling pretty decent about things.

Hats Make the Man

2007-04-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yet another series begun! 12×16, acrylic on wood backed by 1 x 2s.

I'm listening to the audiobook version of Michael Connelly's Echo Park while I paint. I don't like the reader dude much, and it's sort of wrecking it. It is pulling me into the "studio" more, though, because I want to hear more of the story.

Last audiobook-while-painting was Max Brooks' World War Z, with an actual all-star (for audioboks) cast (John Turturro, Alan Alda, Carl and Rob Reiner, Mark Hamill, Henry Rollins). Now THAT was a good listen.

Apropos of nothing at all, really.

Suburban Heroes

2007-04-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

That's what I think this series will be called, unless I think of something good.

Behind the scenes a bit

2007-03-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Thought I’d go a little further behind the scenes, into quick and dirty Photoshopping territory.

This’ll be painted much less realistically and will be titled something like “Crimson Justice swings by his storage unit for a few things.”

Hero courtesy the the Korean City of Hero [sic] character creator!

http://www.rpglibrary.org/software/cohcc/index.php

There’s another 3 or 4 in this series at this stage, but I’m not sure what’ll make it to final painting.

The Sad

2007-03-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

The bottom one is before I put the colors on top.

The portfolio's coming along nicely!

An Evil Plot and A. Robot

2007-03-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Two Lizards and a Request

2007-03-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jack L of New York, NY for the request impetus!

New Pitchers

2007-02-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Up at http://elreyart.com. The color representation on See is particularly bad. I don't know what it is with the reds and blues.

Bubble Bubble

2007-02-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

I Haven't Mentioned ConcreteTV Yet

2007-01-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

I try not to just post links to things here, but ConcreteTV popped into my head just a second ago, and it's relevant, I think. Concrete Ron chops the hell out of crummy cable movies, porn, and god knows what else and turns out an exciting slurry that airs weekly on public access TV in NYC. I was a regular watcher but moved away years ago now, so I no longer get exposed to it as much.

But ConcreteTV was very important to my brain getting rewired enough to do El Reys, which might be hard to imagine once you go to that link and watch a few episodes. But trust me. There are also episodes on YouTube, maybe unsurprisingly. It's perfect television.

Masonite: A Pain in the Tuchus

2006-12-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

I got a bunch of panels of masonite on my last run for materials and a showerhead at Home Depot, and it's warping, even though I've put a couple of coats of gesso and/or acrylic medium on 'em. I don't want to sell warped pictures. I think I'm gonna have to box 'em like I did for Batmonkey:

Annoying.

Any suggestions?