bones

ink and gouache on stonehenge paper

desktop background version

capitalists (watercolor)

I’m getting started on some new projects, so I’m going to try to scan and blog the rest of my Crowds series a bit more quickly now. Here’s the “final” version of the “Capitalists” illustration.

Desktop background version

soldiers (avec watercolor)

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, though I might paint a tiny bit more or tweak it a little digitally.

I had some lyrics from Nick Drake’s Cello Song stuck in my head as I was working on this one and a couple others. The cover collaboration of the song that Jose Gonzalez and The Books did for the Dark Was the Night compilation was pretty good, too. I had these lyrics in my head specifically:

“When the armies of emotion… Go out to fight… But while the earth sinks to its grave… You sail to the sky… On the crest of a wave.”

A bunch of pieces in this series seem like illustrations of the first two lines, but I actually like the next three more. Maybe they’ll find their way into another project.

Comment/contact me if you want a desktop background version. These things can be arranged.

crowd #?: monuments

After I drew this one, I realized that it really wanted to be colored. So I painted it with some watercolor. Then, of course, I looked at all of the other drawings in this series and saw that I should paint them, too. It had been unclear to me before whether or not they should just stay line drawings. So I spent some pretty hectic days before my deadline turning drawings into paintings. I’m pretty happy with some of them, and not quite as happy with others. But overall, it was a good experience for me. I laughed (frequently). I cried (while cutting an onion earlier). I lost what’s left of my mind. I learned a lot.

This drawing, aside from the color, is pretty different from the others in the series. I can definitely visualize other montage-esque works in this vein. The desktop background version is downloadable here.

Expect a bunch more painted versions to be uploaded in the coming days.

crowd #2: soldiers

Click the image for a larger version.

Click here for the even larger 1680 x 1050 version and download it so you can stare at it on your desktop all day long.

And keep checking back because I have a bunch more of these coming.