When I discovered the Memorial Day sale aws going on I realized I had to get on these and make sure they’re ready to go 👏👏👏👏
So if you’re a fan of the Raven Cycle, or are close with someone who loves the books, all the prints of the cover art are now available 🌟💛🌟💛🌟
It’s funny how sometimes a clever solution to one problem creates a whole new challenge for the next problem…
For the sequel to The Guns of Ivrea, I knew The Witch of Torinia (2016) had to keep with the silhouetted composition. But the question was which themes and how to integrate them in a manner that felt aesthetically consistent?
I decided to combine the central witch, embodying the epic battles she would cause, framed by the lands she sought to control. Here’s a collection of sketches from my process. I got my girlfriend at the time to model in dozens of menacing poses. Ultimately it turned out pretty well. I was particularly happy with the color palette and the detailed depth in the sprawling battle scene ⚔️🌟
Can Robots Create Art?
What we call Art is meaningful to us because it revolves around the human experience. Everyone has tastes and everyone has opinions, but Art is a part of culture in way that is more significant than personal preferences. Which means that as we see a rise in AI and robots producing what looks like “art” we are going to be challenged with understanding the difference.
Individuals may like the images they see or read or the music they hear, but fundamentally what’s being produced isn’t operating in the dimension that matters to human beings. Art is soul to soul contact. When AI and robots are sentient enough to wrestle with their unique existence, the work they produce will have meaning because it will speak to them; in their language. The value and significance of Art comes from the meaningfulness of the shared experience.
Until that days comes, we may admire the novelty of AI mashing together component details stolen from art across the internet or robot arms spinning paint on a canvas. But it’s all just another game of tech bros trying to impress, bolstered by morally bankrupt capitalists swarming for money.
We benefit from knowing that the history and the future of Art on Earth comes through the heart of the disciplined and dedicated communicators of the human experience; made by human beings, for human beings.
My first class of spring semester teaching Digital Drawing & Painting starts tonight! 😃
Looking forward to meeting the students and introducing them to their first assignment 🌟🌟🌟
New painting 🌟
Corybantic Rabbit
Oil & digital
I’d been working this one for a little while. The rabbit didn’t take long, it was finding the quality that made it more than a rabbit painting that took more effort. I felt like the piece needed to land on a tip of the needle balance between a portrait of an animal and a sense of interior struggle for it to have something worth communicating.
I adapted my Fox and Octosmith shirt artwork into stickers, now available at Booksmith 😊
Here’s a new painting about animal companionship 🌟
The Beautiful Bond
Oil & digital
New Netrunner illustration 🌟
Engolo
With a sweeping kick embodied in the form of a zebra, this hacker program is inspired by the ritual combat of engolo from Southwestern Africa.
From Null Signal Games
AI & the Deception of Style
To use these AI programs like NightCafe, Dall-E2, and Midjourney, the user simply types in a string of descriptive pictorial keywords and usually steers it in their preferred direction with “Edward Hopper style,” or “style of Disney.”
When people ask about my work I tell them about my interests and what I’m trying to communicate through images. If I could conjure my artwork inside their mind’s eye, why paint? Art speaks in the ineffable language of meaning. What we call “style” in art is really a convenient shorthand that’s become the norm. Try not using the word in your next conversation and you’ll be surprised by how much texture and flavor enrich your description. What we typically ascribe to “style” grew out of cultural traditions, has been the result of paradigm shifting movements, and blossomed out of hearts nearly lost in the darkness.
All of my life’s experiences and influences inform my paintings. My work is made from my strengths as well as my weaknesses. Art is as much about vulnerability as it is about confidence. Every time I paint I learn in the process. That’s the point. The struggle and the flow are essential to bringing the work to life. Style forgets that struggle exists.
Art is the visual manifestation of exploration, intention, and understanding. Art is the language of meaning that shows us we’re not alone. Artists need people to know their work matters. People need art to be reminded that life is inspiring. Artists find their voice through the difficult and ultimately enlightening process of making their work, not by plucking a style off the shelf like a box of cereal.
So why talk about the shortcomings of one word when the larger argument is about the threat of AI? Because in order to grasp why this new industry of art theft is eroding the foundations of our society’s most sacred discipline, we have to trace the roots to our own language. The next time it comes up, try communicating art without “style,” and I think you’ll discover more humanity in the process. We’re in this together 🧡
New Painting 🌟
The Light We Share
Oil & digital
