Biao in Action

This was a quick little cover piece I did for a magazine highlighting the 1990s work of Hong Kong action star Yuen Biao. The main image is from 1987's EASTERN CONDORS per my client's request, but the inset images are all from his later work, made during the decline of the film industry. 

To differentiate the films profiled inside, I rendered the smaller images of Biao in a graphic flat style, with a limited blue/orange color palette and popped them out of a strip of 35mm film.

Next time, we return to the IN THE LINE OF DUTY series with impressive new-comer Cynthia Khan.

Drawing on Inspiration

I'm still revisiting and archiving some old stuff I did when I was a teenager. Back in the 80s. If this stuff doesn't get transferred into the digital world now, it probably never will. And it'll be lost. Of course no one will care but me. But that's okay. 

This piece below was a view from a window. As it shattered. My thought process was that not only would each shard reflect a different view of the world outside the window... but also a different time. As if the view itself was constantly recorded in the glass, and as it shattered it played back random moments of time. Winter 1952 on one shard, Summer 1967 in another.  The life of the view flashing before my eyes as the glass dies. Anyway that's what I was thinking when I drew it. Though I still wanted it to be abstract. I think I added the circling black birds and blood for drama. Crows in the sky. Maybe a human broke the window, hence the blood. And although there's depth in each shard, the composition taken as a whole seems flat. 

From the Outside - 1988 (colored pencil, marker)

This next one is obviously an homage to Edvard Munch's "The Scream". I was just goofing around.

The Squeal - 1987 (colored pencil, marker)

I can't remember the exact story behind this one. Obviously I didn't feel "at home". Not welcome. No where to go. Mostly I just liked working with oil pastels, smudging them, and going over and over the color with white to get a blurry effect. I never liked drawing straight lines. All my buildings are curving and leaning over. Sort of melting. I did a thirty-second animated station ID for MTV many years ago and it had that same "melting city" look. 

No Vacancy - 1988 (colored pencil, oil pastel, marker)

My mom had this little clay cottage sitting on a shelf that you could put a tea light candle inside to make the windows glow. As a kid I liked the rustic look of it for some reason. And it inspired me to do this watercolor. I recall I made a circle of rubber cement, then washed over it with watercolor to make the sky, then just rubbed off the dried rubber cement and wahlah... Moon.

Cliff Cottage - 1986 (watercolor, ink)

Had a dream when I was sixteen and painted this. You can't see it in this small jpeg, but that's a hand ax stuck in a vertical log next to the tree. I can still vaguely remember the dream.

Sunset Silhouette - 1985 (watercolor, marker)

God only knows what the heck this is. Stream-of-consciousness doodling I think. The strawberry lemonade waterfall (or whatever it is) goes down the side of the mountain-like "thing" and then goes back up around the other side. I was probably having a conversation when I drew this while lying on the floor. There's a hollowed-out room at the top. Some ancient hieroglyphics carved into the rock face at the bottom. Strange roach-like plants or something. Yeah... I was distracted. I do remember that I've always liked it when magic markers start to run out of ink. Then you can get lots of nice shading effects with them. All the gold color below is just a magic marker that is running out.

Untitled Mountain - 1987 (watercolor, marker)

And since I'm right-handed... this is a study of only my left. You would not want to see me try to draw my right hand. It would not be pretty.

With These Hands - 1987 (pencil)

Anyway, that's all for now.

Table of Contents: May 2012

Quick Access Links

	Willa: An American Snow White Storyboards for a family film
	The Icebook Miniature Traveling Theatre
	Mount Mitchell Western NC Mountains
	The Power of Your Name Amnesty International
	The Power of Words  My Brightest Diamond
	Alyndoria  Lord of the Rings for Kids
	Brimstone! A Weird Poem
	Trick of the Light Vintage Laser FX
	A Tribute For Mother's Day
	World Travel Photo Essay (Part 3)
	HealthRock "Edutainment"
	iMad Cool Curvy Architecture
	"Deep Space" An image for Rickie Lee Jones
	Mix Tape Cover Archives 1 With SOUND!

Goodbye Norma Jeane

In 1987 I became fascinated with the life and tragic death of Norma Jeane Baker (better known as actress and iconic sex symbol Marilyn Monroe). I'm not sure what triggered it. Perhaps it was because of the recent wonderful live recording of Elton John's Candle in the Wind playing incessantly on college radio. 

But I devoured several library books about her. I still remember how affected I was, upon seeing her post-mortem photos for the first time in one of those books. She always looked so "put together" and then seeing her like that... *sigh*. It was a strange feeling.

Anyway at the time, as a hobbie I would make "mix tapes". Probably most people who grew up in the eighties remember mix tapes. I would record my favorite tracks (off of vinyl records usually) and mix in little bits of dialogue from movies. So that each song and sample worked together to create a theme, or even told a story, for 90 minutes. Then I created my own tape covers from imaginary music groups to go with it. 

And, I guess because she was of interest to me, I did a series of tapes featuring Marilyn on the cover. I came across them the other day... and thought I'd explore them again. These were all created before computers, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. Utilizing copy machines (a nickel a copy), magic markers, colored pencil, x-acto knives and rubber cement. The rubber cement has now bled through staining the paper, giving Marilyn a somewhat tarnished look. Perhaps appropriate, given how I felt after seeing those photos. I still prefer to remember her as she lived, not as she died.  

To quote the song:
 And I would have liked to have known you, 

but I was just a kid. 

Your candle burned out long before 
your legend ever did.

My Sad Sketchpad (circa 1987)

"Good Book"

ஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜஜ

I recently went through some old artwork from 25 years ago and was somewhat surprised by how "emotionally distressed" some of my sketches were from my freshman year in college. I do remember it as an awkward time, full of more endings than beginnings. At least it felt that way to me at the time... which is obvious from these pieces. But these came as a shocking reminder of all that anguish I was apparently going through. Since I did not keep a written journal at least I have this visual record of that time in my life. (I guess this blog can somewhat serve that purpose now.) Not all of it was dark. But even the more colorful pieces (which I may post another time) illustrated a certain lonely emptiness. An uncomfortable isolation away from family and loved ones in a strange environment. i.e. Solitary figures in landscapes full of foreboding buildings tilting at odd angles (as if closing in) and rendered in garish color schemes. Shivering men in trench coats navigating dark rain-soaked city streets under "No Vacancy" signs. Even going so far as to visually represent the school as the proverbial "haunted castle on the hill". That sort of thing. Immature, certainly. Depressing, yep. Perhaps it was my not-so thinly veiled statement on how I felt about living in a high rise in dreary downtown Richmond, Virginia. (I guess dwelling a stone's throw from the Edgar Allen Poe Museum can have an effect on one's psyche.) The work I produced just a year before was entirely different.


Funny how emotions (happy or otherwise) flow out during open artistic expression, even when you don't try. You can't hide how you feel inside. You can't fool anyone, least of all yourself.

"He Follows Me Everywhere"

"Do We Have To Fall So Far"

"The Old Man in Me"

 "My Own Personal Prison"

 "I Don't Want To Hear It"

 "I've Had Better Days"

"Washed Ashore" (based on a 1953 Bill Brandt photo)

"He Was There, But Wasn't"

"What Was The Question Again"

"Don't Know Her"

"Wash Away The Day"

"Cracks Are Showing"

"The Dwindling Hours"