Friday, June 30, 2006

Bat Flash Jesus Ghosts

Well, I said summer blockbuster. Sometimes I think I promise too much, just for the sake of suspense. Do I think I’m Hitchcock? What a fool am I.


I went back to a big old painting.


The painting originally was going to have Janus and Paul Gascgoine (ex England football player famous for crying at the 1990 world cup) and a barn owl and Shirley Temple and Jesus and Andre the Giant. It was quite a scene. I thought I’d sort it out compositionally with my immense virtuosity. I was thinking wishfully.

I’ve done some fresh little studies in order to commit myself to this gazza janus temple project.

Here’s a little pink ink one. It’s alright but the subject is too weird for such lightness of touch, or that’s what I thought when I was looking at it. I want to experiment with layering stuff over the pink. When I planned these dense weird subjects, I always meant for some of the ‘resolution’ to come through the process of painting itself, as pretentious as that might sound.






Here’s the whole monstrous thing as it stands now. I think it’s salvageable. I’m getting good and impatient with it, like Delacroix.




The next one is a more involved study that will become something more like a painting in its own right. Quite drawing-heavy, and incorporating Randy biting Kurt’s arm but simultaneously possessed by an Orc.



Here’s a detail from the big one, a bad photo taken with flash. I put it in because I saw a little face in the bumps on the reflection then drew the little face on photoshop. It makes me remember how excited I can get about the potential of oil painting. I could illusion myself up some shine and have a whole alternative layer of shine universe on the surface, if I was committed to the idea.



Next here’s Randy and John with a friendly bat. This is unfinished of course. I’m trying to grow the fun of my wrestling drawings and not suppress these urges but make them beautiful.





Funnily enough I sent John Cena a myspace message today. He seems a good sort, but I hope he’s not upset by my depictions of him. They don’t tend to be especially pretty.

Next here’s a fragment of yet another version of the Janus monster painting, but bigger and rougher. One of the faces of the two faced god is Shirley Temple. Some of the scribbling and lumpyness felt meaningful at the time.




Lastly here’s some minor self portraiture, in which my eyebrows go on their own merry way. I was hoping to come up with something cute enough for a new avatar, but I’m not sure.




I want to get back into drawing with my isograph pens. But they are a real hassle. I realised today that I wasn’t the only one who experiences this because I read an interview with R Crumb in which he talked about his rapidograph pens (nearly the same thing) and how you have to endlessly coax them and shake them and take them apart and get ink all over yourself and wash them and stroke them and sing to them in lilting tones. But they do make a darned nice line, they handle in a way I like. As much as I love biros, bless their 27 pence socks.

I’m thinking a lot about Hogarth and Gillray and Cruikshank and the history of funny English draftsmanship.

13 comments:

Shawn Dickinson said...

You sure keep busy producing a large quantity of work! I like how thick you lay on the paint in some of your paintings, almost like they're sculptures as well as paintings. Haha.

I always love your self-portraits! Have you ever seen the claymation movie The Adventures of Mark Twain, by Will Vinton? There's a clay-animated story of Adam and Eve in that movie, and your self-portraits look a lot like Eve. I love it!

I used to use those pens R. Crumb was describing. I did more shaking and coaxing than drawing when I used them. Great lines, but a very messy, violent workout. I always felt like I had to buy the pen dinner after a good ink job. Ever try dip-pens and india ink?

Chloe Cumming said...

Hi Shawn,

It's funny you should say that about dip pens, I just got back into using them, and I just happened yesterday to receive a delivery that included some india ink!

Being like Eve has got to be a good thing. I don't really have a monobrow, it's just that my eyebrows are qute distinctive and expressive so I tend to make them big.

I'm worried I've been a bit intimidating one way or another in recent blogs and I've scared off my commenters. Come back! You won't feel my wrath! I promise!

Brian Brantley said...

I really like these. So cool, and great dimension. Funny thing about the wrestling drawings, that's how I first really began drawing. Trying to find a likeness, me and my friend would draw Kane, The Rock, etc. It was good fun though we went about drawing all wrong. I have no clue where any of them are today. lol.

Oh, and the Kurt Angle stuff below is awesome. Nailed the likeness and energy perfectly. Cool blog. :)

Marlo said...

i love your paintings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


i never know if i'm bothering you on AIM or not, so i always wait for you to message me.

Marc Deckter said...

Wow, that top "little pink one" painting is really ALIVE! I look forward to seeing this one develop.

Chloe Cumming said...

Hi Brian,

I like getting compliments on my wrestling drawings from people who know wrestling. You understand a bit why a person would feel moved to draw Kurt Angle. I like getting feedback on them from people who don't know or care about wrestling too, because it indicates I'm putting over something that transcends the subject matter, or moves beyond it, I hope. Not that wrestling isn't transcendent. I just have my own motives.

Marlo, maybe you should give me your email address because I find IMing slightly scary by default, unless I'm in a really buoyant mood. I have to get a grip and get spontaneous. I love your drawings and you're a potentially life-altering kind of a person so I want to be as friendly as I can within my natural repressed idiot English limitations.

Thanks for liking the pink one Marc, I'm feeling a bit 'meh' about it but it probably has potential. I writ about it on my grey blog.

Mattias Adolfsson said...

Very expressive work, Thanks for the comment on my blog, I'll link you up aswell

Danne8a said...

The pink ink drawings are out of this world!
Everything else is great too, but that Pink one just took my breath away!

Jenny Lerew said...

You...paint like....this..? *faints*

Gaaaah! SO BEAUTIFUL!

dex mission said...

wow...
i wish i can see it in real life.
cool paintings.

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