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<title>JW Illustration Blog</title><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/index.html</link><description>New Stuff</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2008 John Walker</dc:rights><dc:date>2009-01-05T11:10:07-06:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:53:11 -0600</lastBuildDate><item><title>Cain and Abel</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-05T11:10:07-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/75d09457e34f73eb325e089290dc2bfb-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/75d09457e34f73eb325e089290dc2bfb-15.html#unique-entry-id-15</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[That is ever the way.   'Tis all jealousy to the bride and good wishes to the corpse.


James M.   Barrie


The painting posted here, loosely illustrating the story of Cain and Abel, represents the more painterly style I&rsquo;ve been working in lately.   I don&rsquo;t vouch for the Biblical accuracy of the story, that wasn&rsquo;t my concern with this particular piece.   Instead my aim was to show emotion, the moment when the slayer having committed murder while in the throes of a jealous frenzy comes to his senses and realizes what he has done. 


The art was created almost exclusively in Painter, (and after my recent ordeal with Adobe tech support, which may wind up as another post, I wish I could abandon Photoshop altogether), using a lot of the oil brush variants, starting from a blank page.   That is, I took this one directly from an idea rough, all the way to finish, on my computer as opposed to importing a drawing of some kind to use as a framework.   I used a very direct, gut level approach.   No constant mashing of pixels with the Blender brushes, no catalog of selections to contain the strokes.   Grab a brush, make a mark, move on. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Time Scavengers</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-12-26T09:59:35-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/fcec2765a8fb97d6fe409c1fddffc6cc-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/fcec2765a8fb97d6fe409c1fddffc6cc-14.html#unique-entry-id-14</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Committee- A group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.


Fred Allen


            


As mentioned in a previous post, here, I&rsquo;m working alongside close friend and author W.J.   Cardiff on a collaborative project producing illustrations for his story tentatively titled, &ldquo;Time Scavengers.&rdquo;    The paintings above are part of the group of pieces inspired by the story, the first two chapters of which I have posted here, (Chapters 1&2 here).   If you want to see what the paintings and sketches relate to you&rsquo;ll just have to read the story.


This being a side project means that work has a tendency to get interrupted often, the train of thought can get derailed, and paintings that were headed one way tilt off in another direction.   Not the most optimal situation to be sure.   On the other hand of course there&rsquo;s no deadline looming overhead or committees to hurdle over.   Some of the pieces I&rsquo;ll be posting are more finished than others, some, (all so far), are done with no preliminary work other than a rough sketch scratched out in Painter or a scribbled thought torn from a sketchbook.  
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ignorance and Want</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-12-12T10:11:37-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/1f19da08d80068a59fb3a4252ba255da-13.html#unique-entry-id-13</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/1f19da08d80068a59fb3a4252ba255da-13.html#unique-entry-id-13</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.&rdquo;


Charles Dickens, (The Ghost of Christmas Present from, &ldquo;A Christmnas Carol&rdquo;)


We&rsquo;ve all seen, heard or read Dicken&rsquo;s famous Christmas story, (you can read the original text on Google books here), probably many times.   It&rsquo;s omnipresent this time of year in almost any form you can imagine.   There have been several film versions, all playing in heavy rotation this time of year, (the best in my opinion being the 1951 version with Alistar Sim as Scrooge).   There are innumerable stage productions from grade school to pro, readings, radio plays, even a Mr. ...  In fact the story of Scrooge is such a staple that I believe there is a Screenwiter&rsquo;s Union rule stating that, &ldquo;Any tv sitcom running during the &ldquo;holiday season,&rdquo;must include, at minimum, one episode based on, &ldquo;A Christmas Carol.&rdquo;


Dickens was of course telling us a story of moral redemption, reminding the world that the true meaning of Christmas is one of love and forgiveness not the accumulation of material wealth.   But, as in so many of Dickens works, the story has much more depth to it than the obvious lesson, as Dickens includes elements of political and social commentary.   One part of the story that I&rsquo;ve always found interesting, is when the jovial party guy, The Ghost of Christmas Present, shows us the dark side of life, Ignorance and Want, by pulling back his fur trimmed cloak and revealing them to Scrooge. (if I remember correctly on a &ldquo;very special&rdquo; episode of Full House Ignorance and Want were played by the Olsen twins in an Emmy nominated performance).   It&rsquo;s a reality check, a counterpoint to all of the scenes of fun, frivolity and Fezziwigged halls, that Scrooge has been shown beforehand.   Dickens reminds us that need doesn&rsquo;t go away even if it does get covered over by the gloss of celebration, and that ignorance and stupidity are the ultimate dangers to humanity.   Amazing how a story written in 1843 still has such relevance today.


<div class=&ldquo;image-left&rdquo;></div>My painting grew out of a sketch done one evening and was completed entirely in Painter.   When I was working on the drawing I couldn&rsquo;t remember  if Ignorance and Want were girl and boy or boy and girl.   Proving Murphy&rsquo;s Law is still in effect during the Christmas season, I got it wrong, and had to reverse the sexes in the finished art.   The &ldquo;Want&rdquo; figure is painted as starving and gaunt, with deeply sunken cheeks and eyes.   To help show the character of &ldquo;Ignorance&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve shown him picking his nose and staring off in the wrong direction. 


Most of the painting was done using the Oils brushes on a toned ground, using the Bristle variants for lay-in and the Variable Round as I tightened things up.   For detail work, and to introduce some sharper edges, I used the Fine Round Gouache brush. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>But is it Art?</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-12-04T14:17:54-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/b903f0db6bd56828381181015d2391ed-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/b903f0db6bd56828381181015d2391ed-11.html#unique-entry-id-11</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.


Frank Zappa


I recently received the latest issue of the Corel Painter newsletter, (free to anyone who signs up on the Corel website), which contains an opinion piece by John Derry in which he discusses whether or not digitally created work should be considered real &ldquo;Art&rdquo;.   There is no doubt that a prejudice exists against digitally created artwork, the example he begins his article with, a local art show not allowing entry of a digitally created piece is pretty common.   Seeing as how Derry has worked with the Painter people since the get go, and even refers to himself as, &ldquo;one of the fathers of Painter,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s not exactly a shock to hear which side of the argument he comes down on. 


As for myself I can&rsquo;t believe that anyone is still holding on to the outdated opinion that digital work cannot qualify as &ldquo;real&rdquo; art simply because of the media choice used to create it.   As Derry points out the discussion is not one of defining what art is, but rather whether using digital media automatically disqualifies the work.   Certainly you could wrangle over the merits of a particular piece and its qualifications, but to discount the genre as a whole, simply because the media is new, or different from long established methods of expression, is ridiculous.   I know that part of the problem for some is that there are perceived shortcuts available to the digital artist that aren&rsquo;t available in say, traditional oil painting, at least as most people, (especially non-artists), picture it.   If this truly is cause for rejection however, then I would assume that we should change the status of all the paintings whose creation was aided by modern innovations like the camera lucida or acylic paint.   This doesn&rsquo;t mean of course that all digital work is necessarily &ldquo;Art&rdquo; any more than all traditionally crafted work is.   Trash is trash no matter the high brow lineage of the materials used in its creation.


I think, as Derry points out, the better way of approaching the discussion is to ask what qualifies any work to be considered &ldquo;Art.&rdquo;   What is the purpose of artistic expression?   While that discussion dances along the edge of the &ldquo;what is art,&rdquo; black hole, I think anyone who makes an honest attempt to understand why we are compelled to create and experience art could not possibly exclude a form of expression that can connect the creator with the viewer so successfully.


You can read John Derry&rsquo;s article here.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Story of Christmas Demo</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-12-09T08:42:25-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/d3189c8b6de7ed4854ddb07a8d80a85d-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/d3189c8b6de7ed4854ddb07a8d80a85d-10.html#unique-entry-id-10</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[To be an artist is to believe in life.


Henry Moore


The nativity scene above was painted for a pop up book titled, &ldquo;The Story of Christmas,&rdquo; which is in book stores now, (December 2008).   The artwork for the book was completed just about a year ago.   Interesting that the print schedule so often results in working on projects &ldquo;in season.&rdquo; 


I have posted a demo movie of the creation of the painting along with a small write up that can be viewed here.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Victorio Peak</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-15T10:08:51-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/52049222ba1d47727a1edd712eefb5fc-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/52049222ba1d47727a1edd712eefb5fc-9.html#unique-entry-id-9</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.


William Harvey 


The illustration above is the last of a twenty-five piece series I recently completed for the children&rsquo;s book, New Mexico: its History, Legends and Icons to be published by Impossible Dreams Publishing.


The painting depicts Doc Noss exploring the hidden treasure he claims to have discovered within Victorio Peak in southern New Mexico.   While on a deer hunting trip with his wife, Noss reportedly stumbled upon a passageway leading to an underground cache filled with all kinds of treasure ranging from gold bricks, jeweled daggers, a Wells Fargo money box and even a huge statue of the Virgin Mary.   In addition to all the booty, he described skeletonized bodies he came across, their hands tied behind their backs, or tethered from the neck.   Much of the treasure was said to be of Spanish origin and there were theories that Noss had found a repository used to hide booty stolen from Mexico or a place where Spanish missionaries hid their wealth.   The story became complicated with business partnerships, backstabbing, divorce, and even murder.   The entire thing reads like the script from some 1940s film noir.   Whether or not the mystery will ever be revealed completely remains to be seen but it&rsquo;s a compelling chapter of New Mexico history.


This was another great illustration to paint, wrapping up what has been a truly enjoyable, year long, project.   Steve Richardson at Impossible Dreams Publishing has been terrific.   He&rsquo;s one of those people who stands back and lets the artist have at it, feeling that creative freedom results in work that exceeds expectations.   I thank him for the assignment, for all of his kind words about my work and look forward to working with him again in the future.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Portrait of PoPay</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-07T09:21:07-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/ed60fc71fcddd58045707b60bb21ecc5-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/ed60fc71fcddd58045707b60bb21ecc5-8.html#unique-entry-id-8</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.


John Singer Sargent


The past year I&rsquo;ve been working on a series of illustrations for Impossible Dreams Publishing&rsquo;s forthcoming book about the history of New Mexico.   Titled, New Mexico: its History, Legends and Icons, it&rsquo;s been a great opportunity to paint a variety of subjects and scenes including this portrait of Pueblo leader PoPay. 


PoPay was a Peublo medicine man and leader who after being imprisoned by the Spanish for practicing sorcery, led the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.   The goal was to drive the Spanish out of Pueblo land and preserve the traditions and way of life the Spanish sought to eradicate.   In order to coordinate the timing of the revolt among several settlements, PoPay sent out runners, each bearing a rope with a series of five knots to give to that particular settlements leader.   A knot on the rope would be untied every day until the morning the 5th knot was reached signaling the time was right for the revolt to begin.   Fearing the plans for the revolt had been compromised, the action began sooner than expected, however, the revolt succeeded and the Spanish were driven out of Pueblo territory for a period of time The Spanish did reassert their dominance over the Pueblo in the coming years but this time they allowed the culture of the native Americans to remain intact.


No one knows what PoPay actually looked like of course, which means that a likeness of PoPay is not the goal with a portrait like this.   Instead I was attempting to capture the nature of the man, an attitude of proud defiance and a refusal to allow a way of life to be take away.


The art was created primarily with Painter IX with several texture overlays added in Photoshop.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Concept Painting Demo</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-28T11:02:59-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/4369c0d192d8f103018aa2e4d4ea4b26-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/4369c0d192d8f103018aa2e4d4ea4b26-7.html#unique-entry-id-7</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[They thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn&rsquo;t.   I never painted dreams.   I painted my own reality.


Frida Kahlo


I&rsquo;ve recently begun working with a close friend who is in the process of writing a book.   I&rsquo;m spring-boarding off the story line and doing some conceptual pieces,fleshing out parts of the story and its characters in a visual way, while the book&rsquo;s narrative continues to evolve.   It&rsquo;s a really interesting project and a different approach than most of the publishing work that I typically do.   My eventual hope is that I can post at minimum the book&rsquo;s first chapter, (most likely around Christmas), and show some accompanying illustration work ranging from sketches to finished pieces. 


The painting above is one result of the collaboration so far.   The boy being grabbed by the legendary and infamous Kraken and losing a key piece of hardware to boot.   The scene depicted is one that will not appear in the book, but the image it inspired in my mind got me sketching, which in turn led to my creating a color version of the sketch.   Painter IX was used almost exclusively because I wanted to show a &ldquo;painterly&rdquo; quality in the work,leave some things to the viewer&rsquo;s imagination and not render every last detail. 


You can see a quickie demo movie of the steps involved by clicking the image below. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>RSS Feed </title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-18T10:49:28-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/6b3eb08990706a67bbbe13fe676ec814-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/6b3eb08990706a67bbbe13fe676ec814-6.html#unique-entry-id-6</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I&rsquo;ve received several comments, (and have experienced the problem myself), with the RSS feed for my blog.   For some reason not all of the older blog articles are showing up in the RSS reader.   The earlier posts are in fact still available on my website&rsquo;s blog page which lists the links to older posts in the sidebar.   Hopefully the problem can be sorted out soon.   In the meantime I&rsquo;m changing the way the articles get archived and I&rsquo;ll see how that plays out.   I apologize for the inconvenience but thanks to everyone who emailed to let me know about the problem.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Hotter Than Hades</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-06T16:06:14-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/eea31908fa2f67a653b7af88c5ba92be-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/eea31908fa2f67a653b7af88c5ba92be-5.html#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It tastes like burning!


Ralph from an episode of &ldquo;The Simpsons&rdquo;


In this second in a series of exercises creating labels for craft beers, jalepe&ntilde;o pepper was the variety suggested by my brew master friend, (who by the way has never actually Frankensteined one of these to life, it&rsquo;s on his to-do list).   Although it sounds like the hideous offspring of two perfectly good ingredients maybe they would work together in the same sense &ldquo;fire&rdquo; and &ldquo;extinguisher&rdquo; do.   Anyway, whileI can only guess what the experience might be like, I imagine that this would be a creep up from behind and drop the anvil type of event.   Suds that lure the taste buds in with a smile- and then drop the torch. 

...Continuing the mythological characters theme, Hades, God of the underworld was suggested as the perfect spokesmodel so I did some sketching and came up with the drawing on the left.   I&rsquo;m keeping the compositional concept of having a defined space that the character breaks out of but changing things up a bit by tightening the focus to a portrait instead of a full figure.   This allows me to zero in on the facial features that define the duality I&rsquo;m creating with a theme of sneaky then hot and still keep the pepper front and center.


...  Here I&rsquo;ve tightened up the sketch and further developed the sneaky expression on the left side of the face.   He needs to be smiling that, &ldquo;Come&rsquo;re, I have something for you,&rdquo; kind of grin.   The right side on the other hand needs to be fiery.   Like he is literally ablaze but I still want to keep a humanoid look.   I don&rsquo;t want that side to be too ghost like, more solid that ephemeral.   I&rsquo;ve amplified the expression, twisting the smile and pulling the ear into a devil&rsquo;s point.


...And here is the end result.   The left side is rendered in cool colors, blues and greens.   His hair is all curls and waves in a kind of foreshadowing of flame.   The right side, all warm reds, has a yellow orange light reflected from below, a reference to The Underworld.   The hair has become flame and has even singed the flat graphic behind it, which certainly is not ancient Greek in design, but whose swirling movement reinforces the flame motif and works as a nice counterpoint to the three-dimensionality of the figure. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Beer Label Brainstorming pt2</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-09-30T10:12:33-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/7243cfe1938bbcb9adb2215fe120a2bb-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/7243cfe1938bbcb9adb2215fe120a2bb-4.html#unique-entry-id-4</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Life, the Universe and Everything... is forty-two.


... With the sketch of the Pan/fawn and bee characters from the previous post finalized, I&rsquo;ve scanned the drawing and opened it in Photoshop.   I&rsquo;ve rotated the pencil a few degrees to the right to exaggerate the characters motion. 


The drawing is bumped up to its own layer and the base layer is filled with the tan color because I like to work on a neutral ground.   I saved the file and opened it in Painter and began to add color on another layer between the two.   Painter&rsquo;s brushes are great for building texture on underlying layers.


...I now add a layer with a green fill and an oval cut out shape.   The oval area will contain the distant background elements which I begin to rough in.   The thatched roof cottage fits in to a fairy tale/medieval kind of setting, the flowers of course, spring.   My original intent was to create a cutout with more of an amorphous shape but I like the way the oval frames the two figures and emphasizes vertical movement.   With the lay in complete the rest of the painting process is one of refining, building form and value.   I then save the file and reopen it in Photoshop.   Most all of the work done from this point on is done with one brush, a Scatter Brush variant of my own making.   The brush is very simply a stock Scatter Brush with Shape Dynamics enabled in the Photoshop Brush Engine so that I can paint a relatively thin to thick line based on brush pressure.   While the brush doesn&rsquo;t have the same naturalistic qualities as the brushes in Painter I do find it easier to maintain fine control with.   (I often use another variation of the same brush but one with Texture enabled to break the stroke up and create more interest.)


...The painting is essentially finished in this shot, (the background scene layer is turned off here),but I decide that the horns on the fawn are not working as well as I had thought originally so I paint them out on a separate layer. ...  The solid green area looks too lifeless though so I decided to add a texture with a floral feel, something that would reinforce the flowers in the painting.   Textures were imported and then smeared with Photoshop&rsquo;s Smudge Tool using a rough edged brush.   I&rsquo;ve added a ring shape as well with a tortoise shell style finish to act as a border around the oval. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Beer Label Brainstorming</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-09-26T09:25:06-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/17d7f2bb5aaec93d7b984ad1c3b70813-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/17d7f2bb5aaec93d7b984ad1c3b70813-3.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.


...Recently while checking out the micro-brew choices at the local grocery store I was thinking how great some of the label art is.   It really runs the gamut in style from classy to humorous with a lot of the art having a nice hand crafted, painterly look.   I would assume that&rsquo;s to reinforce the hand crafted image of the beers themselves,  a marketing strategy to help distinguish the small guys from the Buds and Millers of the world with their nondescript, corporate looks.  ...  I especially like the pieces that describe what the bottle contains with their landscape paintings or characters.   So much cool art with an adult beverage thrown in - kind of like a wine and cheese gallery opening for Joe Six-Pack. 


Anyway that got me thinking about creating some label art for a micro-micro-brewer friend of mine.   I started with the name, &ldquo;Honey Bock&rdquo;.   Sounds good, no idea what it would taste like.   Wikipedia tells us that Bock beers were historically brewed by monks to celebrate special occasions such as Easter.   Today Bock beer is most often associated with spring and the labels often depict a goat, a reference to the German translation of &ldquo;bock&rdquo;.


...So with &ldquo;spring&rdquo; and &ldquo;goat&rdquo; in mind I started to draw and wound up with the sketch on the left.   I wanted to break away from drawing a regular goat and played with some animal caricatures but decided a Pan character would work even better as a reference to both spring and a goat.   The bee is obviously a connection to the &ldquo;Honey&rdquo; component. ...  Pan now sports a springtime flower necklace in place of the strap across the chest and I lost the traditional Pan flute, giving him a medieval horn instead.   Figuring the bee reference was strong enough, I ditched his honey drip from sketch #1 and gave him some instruments as well. 

...As far as the background goes, my plan was to work within a shape which at this point I&rsquo;m thinking may be something slightly amorphous.   Maybe a smoke shape or a flowing design along the lines of a Mucha poster.   The art would then be usable on a variety of further background colors and textures.


Next: It&rsquo;s time to play with a little color.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Investment Banker&#x27;s New Job</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-14T16:57:23-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/e7005139e44e458bdcd90b280a751287-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/e7005139e44e458bdcd90b280a751287-2.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.


Woody Allen


Ah the scarecrow, old suit of clothes stuffed with hay and tacked up on a post, Standing all alone in some farm field keeping the crows at bay and waiting for, I don&rsquo;t know, some girl dressed like a rural Paris Hilton in a gingham dress and ruby slippers like she&rsquo;s off to the hunt on a Saturday night.   But what if the scarecrow&rsquo;s clothes weren&rsquo;t stuffed with hay?   What if the scarecrow&rsquo;s clothes were filled with their original owner?   Someone who had met with foul play, and been hung up in  the middle of a large farm field, hard by the interstate.   The crime victim, exposed to the glare of a hundred passing windshields, undiscovered.   Hiding in plain sight.   And what if that lonely scarecrow was in fact- an investment banker? 


Then crop yields would probably drop 40%. 


This painting came from an oil wash exercise in which I applied loose washes to a board coated with gesso.   No preconceived ideas here, just throw some paint around and see what you come up with.   Kind of like a sideways, speed painted, Rorschach test except the artist creates both the inkblot and the interpretation.   The board was gessoed with enough texture that some shapes immediately began to suggest themselves when I began removing/adding and playing around.   Once I had determined that the scarecrow figure was where I was going to take this I continued shaping things until I had a  monochrome version of the painting above.   When the oil paint dried, these are thin washes so the paint dried quickly, I went over the top with acrylic glazes and built up color getting more opaque with the lights and glazing in the darks.   I finished up by scanning the painting into Photoshop and adding extra texture around the ground area and a glow to the moon and stars.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Website Redesign</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-09-25T10:24:14-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/791d6101d44c70af4e1d2730ef26f9e7-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/791d6101d44c70af4e1d2730ef26f9e7-1.html#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.


Andy Warhol


If you&rsquo;ve been here before then you know things look a little different.    I&rsquo;ve reworked the design of the site attempting to inject a bit more personality, a little bit of creative warmth and humor.   My intention is to devote this blog space to new work, maybe a demo or two, ideas, sketches, etc.   My intention is to update more often than in the past but to be honest time has a habit of getting in the way so we&rsquo;ll see how it goes.   I appreciate your input so if you do have any comments please feel free to send them along.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Berry Blast</title><dc:creator>jwillustration@mac.com</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-09-20T09:06:41-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/895160ef187c74eacac9f9c7e3bac805-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.johnwalkerillustration.com/page2/files/895160ef187c74eacac9f9c7e3bac805-0.html#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Time flies like an arrow.   Fruit flies like a banana.


Groucho Marx 


The above is a group shot featuring the central image from each of five paintings recently completed for General Nutrition Center stores.   GNC&rsquo;s ad agency proposed some in store pop/shelf talkers to draw attention to the health benefits of the different berries used in GNC products.   The resulting assignment was to create a series of paintings each containing a central, oversize image of the featured berry surrounded by smaller sized berries in a curved group.   This would lead to an open area for copy extolling the health promoting attributes of each fruit, (left to right- acai, goji, mangosteen, cranberry and noni), as in the noni berry piece here.   I have to admit though I&rsquo;m familiar enough with cranberries I&rsquo;d never heard of noni or goji berries.   The approach was to produce pieces that were realistic but still had a warmer, hand crafted feel as opposed to slick or too scientific style renderings.    Even with the client's tight deadline requirements these were a lot of fun to paint and a nice change up from the narrative work I've been busy with lately. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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