I've got a calender of the Japanese print master Utagawa Hiroshige on my bedroom wall this year, and this is the image for August: Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake (1857). I can't stop looking at it. To evoke so much atmosphere, and to so evocatively define the posture of the huddled figures with such relatively simple line and shapes...damn good. If there's ever been a better artistic representation of people sheltering from a rain shower, I'd like to see it. Awesome.
These are some little thinky-scribbles from when I was planning out the Jackie Chan painting. I like this board of post-it-type labels- it gives a ready-made selection of different picture formats and orientations to think on.
This is the first in a series of portraits I've started, featuring people I admire. 'Heroes' it could be called. I conceived this Jackie Chan image in context of an article about him in a magazine. I wanted the text & image to work together more effectively than the usual rectangle spot or 1/2 page illustration, although I could've pushed this a lot further.
There's a lot of dichotomy within JC and his films: 'East' and 'West', violence verses pacifism, the fact that his US-made films are beloved of audiences yet strongly disliked by Chan himself. I tried to express the contrast between, on one hand, the fighting and shooting in Chan's films and on the other his distaste for violence and love of comedy, hence the pistol becoming a water pistol. The talisman is from the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon, in which Chan is tasked with preventing these 12 magical chinese zodiac charms falling into evil hands. The tiger talisman has the power of dividing the user into two people: a good side and a bad one, ying & yang. That seemed very appropriate.
The cartoon is awesome, check it out if you haven't seen it. At the bottom I've posted up the ending theme, which is possibly the greatest song EVER. Even if it is a Wheatus song with the lyrics changed...
I painted a pic of my new running shoes to use along with the older painting I'd done as illustrations for a running magazine article. Wanted some new contextualised illustrations for my portfolio. The article is in The Ultimate Guide to Marathon Running. I made sure this painting was cleaner and slicker than the older one, befitting the old shoes/new shoes theme.
I've uploaded my new websitefinally. It's a lot more sensibly designed, and a lot easier to update now, so I'll be able to keep it topped up with my latest work a lot more. Hopefully it's a lot nicer on the eye too. Also given this ol' blog a facelift to fit in. Pleased.
