Look what I did!

If you want to view my work without the verbal vomit then its your lucky day!

I now have a flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/people/charrow/

This blog will continue to feature all new work in a stream of consciousness kind of way.

Hungy hungy hippos

I have been working not so feverishly on some new work. I created something a couple of days ago that I was not pleased with so I am reworking it and will try to post it later. In the mean time here is a hippo.


Additionally, my good friend Kevin Scarbrough gave a very generous shout out on his blog so please check him out.
I have added some new links to the art section so if you have a moment to spare check them out. I would especially suggest bibliodyssey if you are looking for some inspiration. This site was mentioned in the latest Print and it is worthy of your time.
Ok off to the races.

Oldies but gooies.

I have not been posting the past couple of days for various reasons and I am sad about it. So here are a couple of old things that are kinda funny.

some characters I made on a plane of puking blobs for no good reason.

I became obsessed with drawing women with fat....not so marketable but who cares.

I have been sending out feelers to magazines I would like to do some work for, to artists I admire, and to some firms I want to work for in my ideal world. That and I did the painting on my friends mirror frame yesterday which all means I am giving excuses for no new work....I am sorry. Will post some tonight.

its raining goats...

Still on break and its killing me. I just want it not to end so badly that I am spending most of my time worrying about it ending...thus I am wasting my break on worrying....typical.
SO the series of paintings continues. I am going to try and knock out a couple more while I can. I have other projects that are going to keep being pushed back but at the very least I want to make a logo for J squared and work on some more of these paintings. Also, a friend is having me paint the border of her mirror for her. She had painted it a long time ago and wants something fresh...maybe some whales? I will post that when it is done...maybe tomorrow. She also gave me all these cool old copies of maps so really the possibilities are endless. For now here is Marilyn and some falling farm animals.

October fester

I turned that little sketch I did the other week into a poster and I think I might do a series so there would be something for every month. I was thinking they could be funny but all along the lines of having no money or maybe things 20something have to deal with without being too overt. Anyway, here it is. There will be new stuff tomorrow to go along with the whole pin up series. I started another one and I am really excited to finish it.

Hello Dali

Here is some new doodle stuff. I have not posted every day because I have been working too much. There is a biggie I will post tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy. I was thinking of Salvador Dali when I made the horse. I need to get a sailor shirt like the one he wears in photographs...and a curly mustache.

Like magic eye only less satisfying

Not in any particular order but here are some images I created over the weekend. Some are better than others but I wanted to show mostly everything. My gouache was acting a little funny b/c it got so dry so there are some weird lines where the pigment acted like a colored pencil or crayon, but I kinda like it.
Also, as much as I want to explain every single one I am just going to leave it up to the views. All I am going to say is that there is a moldy tank, some exploding birds, a man with a bird bath for a brain, a fuzzy turtle, and some blobs that are supposes to be boats. Happy squinting.












Potential political cartoon for god knows what, but I like the way it turned out.

Sketches first from the beach

Its that magical time again where I post lots and lots of everything from sketches to full color paintings of nothing but animals and crazy looking people. These are all from the beach and tomorrow I will resume work on the naked women with birds series. I will dedicate this post to sketches and the next to the product of these sketches. Typically I spend the first half of the day walking around sketching people, animals, and just anything that pops into my head and then the second half of the day is dedicated to water, color, and tarps made from garbage bags.

Morehead beach

I am currently in Atlantic beach on the beautiful eastern shore. My crits are done, I am sleeping in, I am broke, and life is just beachy. We went boating yesturday and I saw jumping fish and crabs. I have been doing a lot of painting/drawing since I have been here and have much to post when I get back. I am going to post more process work too. Just to show how I work. It usually involves just following the strange derailed train of thought. Sketching things I see and then working with the best stuff and turning it into small paintings. Very excited to show what I have done. In the mean time check out James McMullan. http://www.jamesmcmullan.com/frameset_theater.htm

He is/was a purest watercolorist meaning he never used white. The areas of white are defined by the paper itself no pigments. I have been looking at his work at the advice of Gary and its really interesting...nothing I would have found on my own.
Question of the moment: how to send the first unsolicited email to a publication I would like to do spot illustrations for...not the new yorker! Will answer this question in the coming weeks.

colander head!

And end to another quarter. I have been feeling so down about the end of this quarter and a weird sense of dread for the next one. Maybe its because I am half way through and feel slumpy, but I just feel like I have made so many leaps this quarter that there is no way next quarter could possibly compete.
So...here is something completely different:

arg!

So I was unsatisfied with what I had for barista magazine. I do what I usually do when I work on a painting....I paint it over at least 5 times...
I always like to see artist's process work leading up to the final illustration so here are two more.
This one I liked better than the other painting, but there still was not enough of a light source.

This painting has a lot more drama, light source, and just works better. I sent it off to the magazine and we shall see if they like it better. So far I have sent them two paintings over the weekend and so by tomorrow they might have three versions. I am having a dialog with myself in all the emails so they might think I am crazy. They haven't even rejected the first one I sent....crazy artist. The only problem I could foresee is that the shadow of the sharks tail is not quite right it should be leaning to the right. This is the problem, of course, with light sources you need to understand shadows and lighting in order for it to look right. I may have to go to the store and buy the pirate leggo set....or maybe just dress up some potatoes as pirates. That could be a whole different interpretation of this project. Just think how much time I would be spending on this if I were getting paid (and did not have finals)!

Barista Magazine

I am doing an illustration for Barista Magazine on an article called "Death of the Blend" on the trend toward the single origin coffee beans for espresso. They wanted me to do something fun and going along the idea of halloween a little. So I came up with a couple of ideas for more narrative illustrations: beans running out of town being chased by people with pitch forks and torches, two or three beans on trial for witch craft and then beans walking the plank. I ended up developing the walking the plank idea and this was my third painting attempt and I think it works. I might have to redo it with more of a "dramatic lighting." I think that is something I need to do in the future so that its easier to see where one should focus and it just makes the image more cohesive. We shall see what they think.


Then I was thinking that maybe I should also do something that was more conceptual. I just do not want to do work that is purely comic and I think spot drawings lend themselves to be used more in posters, publications, and they work with type better. So even though they did not ask for it I sent them this one as well. It is pretty self explanatory and I think it works just as well and in some ways better than the narrative.

WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS FROM COLLEGE

Thats right COLLEGE!!! I found all my old bit map drawings i did in corelle draw or whatever I used while on the phone. I did all of them with my mouse pad....so even now I am impressed...but please excuse the super anxty content. Humble beginnings....very very humble. There are 22 of them so I have just put up a few now and I may post more later.

its a bird its a...paper airplane?

Hello all
No i am not dead....but I am in the hell of finals. But here is a quick look at JJ's massage poster. It is a nice distraction and it is very different from anything I have done so far not hand rendered anything and all I did was make the paper airplane in Illustrator so hurrah to vector. Anyway, there will be changes I am sure but I thought I should post it b/c i am impatient.

for the birds...and fish

Have not been in the best of spirits lately. It could be finals or maybe just the feeling that I will never be employable. I get really excited about the work I am doing and I can see how it could work really well in design projects, but it takes forever for people to respond. I am just feeling ignored poop. But enough about me here are some new techniques and some art. ok.

Sample: colored pencil on black board.




And here are two new ladies from a series I am going to put together. The woman and cat I am going to redo and make a better composition b/c I am not as fond of it as the other. It would have been better if the cat and woman had switched positions...or maybe she needs a bird on her head.....

I lied. A couple of more quick images

Here are a couple of small paintings. Just so you get an idea the details in these paintings, the birds or animals, are the size of half of a thumb nail or an eraser.





These images below are ideas i have for bigger paintings. Gary told me to think about making more of a narrative and playing with areas of detail and areas of little detail or negative space. I have been looking at a lot of work by Bary Moser and Leonard Baskin.