New Corpsepaint Face

Today I’ll be putting the finishing touches on this corpsepaint face painting. It’s going to be the sixth in the series. I plan to stop at seven. It’s time to move on to some other projects.

 

© Eric Battaglia 2012

Adventure Time Tribute Group Show

If anyone is local to Chicago, you may want to stop by the OhNo!Doom gallery Saturday August 11 through August 30. There just so happens to be a terrific Adventure Time! tribute show, featuring over 40 artists, including myself. The show opens Saturday (oh, that’s almost here) August 11 from 6 PM through 10 PM.

This piece incorporates pyrography, gouache, acrylic, modelling paste, and graphite.

Pyrography and scratchboard

I’ve been working on a little experiment combining pyrography with scratchboard for a stronger effect. The contrast between the black and white and the comparatively lighter wood coloring intrigued me.  I kind of like the way this worked out, so I might be doing a few more experiments.

© Eric Battaglia 2012

I just glued the scratchboard drawing onto the wood panel with craft glue.  Next I’ll seal it with an acrylic or polyurethane varnish. That should keep the edges from pulling up. I’ve debated using color, and decided against it, even along the border, which was my original intent for this piece.

My attempts at abstract

I don’t know if you can call these properly abstract. I’ve been experimenting a little bit beyond the figurative, that’s weird for me. These are woodburn paintings. I burned in the design and then painted around it with watercolor and acrylic.

I’ve not been blogging lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on anything. I’ve got this Egypt themed box and a few other things up my sleeve that I’ll be posting about soon.

This stuff’s going to be posted to my Etsy store soon.

All images © Eric Battaglia 2011

2011 Plans

I believe in starting each year with a set of plans and goals, not resolutions. Resolutions always make me think of someone resolving to do something radically different from what they’ve done before. It may be a matter of semantics, but focusing on plans and goals, especially if they are a continuation of previous tests seems more logical. It’s easier to use the momentum you have from last year’s accomplishments to make changes and improve your game. Which doesn’t mean you can’t try new things.

This year I plan to:

1. Participate in Illustration Friday more often. I started out last year doing this, and found it a terrific creativity boost.

2. Add some dynamic content to my website at http://oldscratchart.com. There was a little illustrated book I did eight years ago, and I thought it might be nice to have online as a slide show.

3. Begin a new body of artwork, in the direction I’ve been wanting to move for some time now.

4. Narrow my focus for projects.

That last one is the closest to a resolution, in that I am most likely to break it. I can focus for the short term, but let’s see just where I’m at in December.

On selling things

I’m a bad salesman.  Quite possibly, I’m the only person who could come back from a sales trip with a negative balance.  Which is why I don’t do it.  I have no confidence in my product, even when I have faith in what I produce.  When I managed to produce artwork in the past, it was often something I’d squirrel away against some future hope that it could be part of a portfolio.  I once harbored the dream of getting a few illustration jobs here and there.  But, the professional attitude, the know-how, and the networking simply weren’t there.

Anyway, now I’m pushing ahead my own way, and to hell with the way things are done.

In Other News . . . I’m working on another block print.  It’s a project I started in April, and had to drop for a while when I moved this summer.  Now that I’m getting everything sorted out again, it’s time to pick up this project.  It’ll be a giant centipede, printed in separate segments, probably on a nice Japanese paper, or something that appeals to me.

And, returning to my love of pen and ink, I’ve got a series of drawings cooking that should be wicked enough to live up to my moniker.