~ from one of my alien menagerie sketchbooks.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Happy Year of the Rabbit!
acrylic on Rives BFK paper 8" x 10"
(In Vietnam it is the year of the Cat, not Rabbit, so maybe this is a cat from another planet?)
I really should have started a series of aliens inspired by the Chinese Zodiac last year. Last year was "my" year. I'm a Tiger.
新年快樂
새해 복 많이 받으세요
chúc mừng năm mới
(multilingualism courtesy of Wikipedia)
Happy Lunar New Year!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Inspirations
These are "The Outer Space Men" from 1968. They are bendable figures similar to the then popular Major Matt Mason.
They were designed by toy inventor Mel Birnkrant who maintains an archive site here, and it's the source for several of the images in my post. The Outer Space Men are the citizens of the other planets of our Solar System.
My brothers and I had three of these. "Men" from Venus, Mars and Neptune. Always interested in space travel, and science fiction, these guys made an indelible impression on me. I clearly remember playing with them, but at some point they were lost to me, never to be found again...
... until the advent of ebay. I suppose it was about 1998 when I reacquired the lost aliens, as well as those I never had the first time around. It was a bit of magic recaptured to hold an Astro-Nautilus again.
Looking through Mel's archive site, I was a bit surprised, and really impressed that he shared the various inspirations and reference images for his designs. This was the clipping from the back of Famous Monsters Magazine that inspired the Man From Neptune. I have no idea what film it was from, but it's wonderful to see source material like this.
Eventually, I'll take my own alien menagerie on a tour of our Solar System. I can hardly wait to get started on it, but I've some other pieces to finish first.
footnote:
The Outer Space Men are back today, and being released by the Four Horsemen. The first figures are here. They are releasing the original figures and a second set that were designed, prototyped but never mass produced. Best yet, Mel Birnkrant remains involved in the series.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
1 hour
Saturday evening I went to a soundscape performance by Robert Fripp at the World Financial Center. It was about an hour and I spent the time sketching during the performance. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to make a painting in one hour based on some of those sketches. Oil on panel~ 5" x 7"
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