something to tide YOU over...

wow. it's been nuts lately. unfortunately, because of all the time i've been spending on art, i haven't been writing/ posting about art as much. so!! here's what i've been up to...

a] i finished the sealife series, a while back and gave it to elliot adams [rob & nicole's kiddo] as a gift for his first birthday. and the appreciation was well worth it all + i'll be offering the prints to boot! waiting to post final shots of those- hung up in the house and all.

b] had a couple of the floating beastie pieces accepted @ [the shiny online squirrel]! and turned those into exclusives- look for 'em any day now! the submerged series is just about done, but not yet ready to post. just finished the ink pass on 95% of 'em all, but plan on a few more tweaks before all is said and done.

c] meanwhile, being the pack rat that i am- not wanting anything to go to waste [especially art], i "salvaged" a few random pieces pieces that were sentenced to the "LEFT OUT" series that i'm not so fond of, dusted them off, and repainted them all on their own. AND HERE THEY ARE!! the SALVAGED series...

"whatchoo been eatin'?"

"coochi coo"

"baby's daddies"

... might throw a few more tweaks on there, before offering prints of them on the etsy shop [5X7" what a convenient size!]

d] aside from various other bits, including convincing more galleries to open their eyes, next up is a trio of halloween pieces- very exciting. and i figured i'd better start now in order to hang them nice and early for one of my favorite holidays of the year.

e] wow... listening to the beatles "love" soundtrack from the cirque du soleil show in vagas... _BY_FAR_ one fo the best shows i've seen _EVER!_ worth a trip to vegas just for that.

i hope you enjoy! and as always, i look forward to your comments!


... patenaude

illustration friday: HOARD

well... here ya go- this week's topic: HOARD! it went a lot more quickly than i'd thought- originally i was going to polish one of my old concepts [HOARD is coincidentally the name of one of my pet project game designs, that's been collecting dust the last 5 years or so], but... during one of the little drawing breaks i take during the day at work to rest my weary eyes, i sketched up these little guys.

and because i was digging each of them equally, i figured i'd do a horizontal piece to incorporate both to 'em fighting over that pile of... ? so! i traced them straight onto the canvas, painted 'em up with a some gouache, threw the outlines back over it, and WHAM!

... enjoy!

... patenaude

series SUBMERGED progress...

these will probably be the last "progress" shots you see of series SUBMERGED.

aside from a bit more cleanup, once i get them scanned [especially on a few of the background washes ended up having a bit more "character;)" than i'd like], for the most part, the majority of the work will just involve inking them up, which will combat a lot of the unclarity that is going on in a few of them.

i'm planning on having these puppies wrapped up within the week, despite nibbling on a few other misc. projects simultaneously.

ps. yes- HARSH palettes, but... they were a lotta fun! ... enjoy!

... patenaude

PROMO WALL!

in an effort to really get a feel of what the final products will look like [art + frames], and to fill a little empty wall space in our guest bedroom, i've started printing out a few pieces, just for jen & me...

i'm calling it the "promo wall", with the intention that i'll use shots of it to "promote" the final products & show how the different pieces can work together. i think before i'm done, i'll add at least a few more pieces to the composition.

enjoy!

... patenaude

various PROGRESS!

a shot of series SEALIFE [very near done- might thicken the exterior lines a bit + misc. tweaks based on what they look like in the frames + trim it down a bit to 7X7"] + another pieces, "unihorn", that i just extracted from a sketch, and painted up this weekend [75% done].

that's about it for now. next up is series SUBMERGED + i'm sure i'll go a.d.d. and stray off with a few random pieces along the way.

... patenaude

J.K. Rowling's commencement address to Harvard...

wow! although i'm on board with what rowling's potter books, i have yet to read a one. regardless- she gave quite an inspirational commencement speech at at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association: http://harvardmagazine.com/go/jkrowling.html

pass it on!


... patenaude

pikaland promo!

wee hoo! in an effort to wrangle up a few fans, i sent some prints down to [pikaland], for inclusion in their "pikapackage": a monthly collection of goodies from illustrators and artists who sell their wares online, resulting in ONE or TWO free monthly pikapackage giveaway to readers and the rest to be sold as a lucky dip package to spread the word about their fantastic art.

check out the rest of the images and write-up over at [pikaland]!

... patenaude

getting closer...

i'm not far off from nailing down final designs for the SEALIFE series- i'm actually going make the few last tweaks tonight, as i trace them onto the canvas. my biggest issue is with the turtle's belly at this point- hopefully i'll find the right shell design tonight...

loosing the tie + hat, adding hair, but he's pretty set.

... i dare you to find another image of a fat elvis turtle. might switch the shell belly back to the original.

mmm... lollipops. just need to tweak out their swirls & stretch his head.

... patenaude

SEALIFE series...

so... interesting challenge... i'm doing a set of sealife pieces [in the same direction as the floating beasties pieces i did a month or so ago] for a my buddy rob adam's son elliot's room [did that sound right?].

after countless reference googling & sketches, to get the anatomy/ parts down i still wasn't there... there not looking "patenaude" enough... heh... kinda funny to be challenged to make your drawings look more like your drawings. but it's tough... usually what i draw, comes straight outta my head, and there it is- spontaneous and all. taking a given and crafting your own version, is proving to be a little tougher than i'd thought, but... I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE! here's what they're looking like presently- i figure ~65-75% of the way "there"...

you might recognize the octopus- he's the closest i got on the first round, but i still need to tweak him out a bit + add some silly props to them all + work on their eyes. will post more progress as i go.



... patenaude

promo, promo, PROMO!

so... now that i've got a respectable [?] amount of art on my hands, it's time to GET IT OUT THERE into the world. as far as i can tell, this is the hard part- initially getting people to at least _look_ at your work, maybe even respond to an email, developing relationships with galleries, etc.

up until now, i've sent a bit of work to pikaland.com & fecalface.com for online promotion, but i'm just sending them to my etsy shop, which seems to be a bust for the most part- it kinda forces you to set uncomfortably low prices for your work & it's just not as NEAT as a brick & mortar gallery- that's the dream, right- actual honest-to-god ART SHOWS!

so! because the majority of galleries take some sort of a significant cut of the sales [30-50% or so], that means, yep- you guessed it- prices are going up! i'm not going to get nutty with the prices, as i feel i still have to pay my dues, but the prices will be rising slightly less severely than the price of gas.

inspired by ol' junkyard sam's idea, first off, i'll be sending a package to [eric nakamura]- publisher and co-editor of giant robot & as far as i can tell, owner of the GIANT ROBOT stores.

edit: + i put [this] together, and sent it off to the suite 100 gallery in seattle & blueflipart.com. so... we'll see- keep your finger crossed for me!

SO much to do, so little time!

oh! and a [crappy] progress shot of the submerged series [trust me- they don't look like much now, but i have high hopes for thise series]...

a few composition tweaks left, before i lay some ink down and start painting. because the next couple weekend are quite filled the series probably won't be ready until the end of the month, but be on the look out for progress shots!


ps. in non-art news, i got into the new york marathon lottery! i may end up putting it on hold though, because i'm planning on running it with jen [who didn't make it in, but might go the charity route, which allows you entrance if you're able to raise 2500$ for one of their specified charities].- we'll see.


... patenaude

new series: SUBMERGED!

after a couple of commission sorta pieces, ive decided to start another one without rules. making use of a few random pieces i'd drawn up for a sealife series that i won't be using + some random characters & ideas that i didn't want to see go to waste, hopefully they'll all get along together in this series: submerged.

they're a bit rough at this point- need quite a bit of finishing, but for the most part, i'll stick with 'em for the basic composition- need to add a bit more substance to a few of 'em though. i'm also going to work a bit larger for this series @ 15X75 [was shooting for 10X20, but it seemed a tad big].

... will be sure to post more, as it progresses. it may be slow going, as i'm also planning on working on another series of 3 @ 5X7", in an attempt to salvage a few composition that seemed lost in the business of the LEFT OUT series. it might seem i'm reusing more than i should [i.e. the SMURF COLOR REMIX series], but i really want to see a few of these pieces relize the potential that i think they have.

... patenaude