Toys in the Attic show

Here's some pics of my custom Mighty Mugg for the show....

Eyewriter

Pretty amazing.

Like pees and carrots again

So over the years I've found myself becoming more and more reliant on computers while at the same time having less and less fun with the actual process of doing art. When I first started out doing art as my career, I used Photoshop minimally and for the most part did everything by hand. Then as I got more and more work and especially as I got into working on rock posters I found myself doing less and less by hand because I was trying to be more efficient and think ahead...the last couple years I had really started to notice my enjoyment slowly dwindling. The work was technically getting better but it just lost that spark that would keep me working till 3 in the morning whether I needed to or not and would send me rushing to my art desk first thing in the morning. For awhile there I was really fearing that I was losing my art mojo, but couldnt seem to connect it with the fact that I was doing most of my work staring at a computer screen. I hadn't stopped doing hand done stuff completely - a few paintings here and there and some pencil stuff but as far as my commercial illustration work it was line art by hand and then everything else in computerville with maybe a transparent watercolor splatter layer to make it look hand done. So while working on pieces for a Halloween show I decided to dust off my Dr. Martin inks and try them just for the hell of it. One of the benefits/pitfalls of working on the computer is the ability to go back in history and change things that didnt work out so good. I started to become reliant on that and the idea of doing stuff by hand where I wouldn't be allowed that luxury really started to scare me. It's kind of embarassing to admit but it's true. So I started using my inks and it was like that old spark was back. I've been churning work out and with each piece I wonder why I stopped and also look back at old pieces I did on the computer and they just look so lifeless and flat in comparison. I'm not completely swearing computers off because I never know when I'll have to do another silkscreened piece or work for Hot Wheels/Mattel but whenever possible I'm going to do it by hand. It's good to be back.