Hiredmeat @ San Diego Comic-Con!

Hello Meaties!

The beast of Comic-Con International in San Diego is upon us! I'll be set up in Artists Alley at table EE-04, alongside my boys Food One and Mike Huddleston. I'm coming thru with plenty of merchandise lovage:

- "Everybody's DEAD" 1 - 4, my latest miniseries with IDW Publishing

- Limited Edition Prints of recent fine art works

- NEW Hiredmeat Stickers

- Limited Edition t-shirts

- Commissioned & Original Artwork

- And more, more, MORE!!!

For all the convention dates, times, and details, check out www.comic-con.org.

Take care and I hope to see you in the trenches!

-Dave Crosland

Hiredmeat Road Warrior

Comic-Con International: San Diego 2008

PREVIEW NIGHT
WED, JULY 23
6PM - 9PM
Open only to pre-registered 4-day attendees and professionals

THU, JULY 24 -
SAT, JULY 26
9:30AM - 7PM
With additional late-night hours for programming, anime, games, film showings, etc.

SUN, JULY 27
9:30AM - 5PM

Chain Link Fence Art Sale, TOMORROW in SF!

This Saturday, July 19th, I'll be setting up shop at the Chain Link Fence art sale. It's going down tomorrow in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, from 10am until 3pm (depending on how the weather holds out). Hiredmeat will have oodles of original artwork for sale... fine art paintings, prints, posters, and maybe even apparel. If you're free and looking for something fun to do outdoors, come check it out. I'll be kicking it alongside other striving Bay Area artists. There are tons of shops, restaurants, and coffee/tea spots right in that area. How could you possibly resist?!

CHAIN LINK FENCE ART SALE
@ Hayes Blvd and Octavia St
(along the chain link fence on Octavia, by Hayes Valley Green)
San Francisco, CA

*** Fees for selling space donated to the John Muir Arts Program ***

Hope to see you there!
-Bunker, out.

New works in the works!

Good gorsh! It feels so good to be painting again. I have to admit, the comic hound has been nipping at my heels. But for now I'm all about my new body of fine art works. Check out some of what's been developing in the lab....

The sketch up top is the start of a piece called "Reborn In The Kill." I did it at a listening party for the new Beck album (random, I know). The title is pulled from a Subtle song I enjoy. The piece itself is one of the first in a series that's been haunting my sketchbooks and imagination for months. I've been obsessed with warfare since about 1998. It isn't any sort of fetish or war-monger business. I just find the entire concept of war and the military fascinating. Recently, I've been mulling over the reality that, despite any technological advancements, combat and killing remains as brutal as ever. Bullets and munitions don't make clean cuts. This stuff shreds human beings like so much soft cheese, just like their distant relatives, from the musket to the mace. With that in mind, I've been sketching images of brooding, modern soldiers using primitive, almost Neolithic weapons... spears, arrows, jagged metal bent into blades. In the sketch for this painting, a wild-eyed soldier is bringing his blade down into the mouth of an enemy combatant, who is helplessly trying to push him away. And an incarnation of Death is helping the protagonist strike the killing blow. Creepy!


As you can see, "Reborn In The Kill" grew from its sketch form. I redrew the central soldier character on a larger scale. Then I pasted him down to a 20 x 42" canvas. I'll be collaging and painting on the rest of the elements over the next week or so.


The next four paintings are about 9 x 12" each. They're collage and paint on plywood blocks. I'll start with the one above, "Urban Flight." I like to draw people flying with cities (or the suggestion of cities) strapped to their back. Since moving away for college, I've become increasingly aware of the constant press of city life. It's like you can't live in a city without acknowledging the grip it has on you, for better or for ill. Also, every urban area I've ever visited or dwelled in has had its own personality. Part of how I like to interpret that in my work, is by creating these people hauling an urban sprawl on their back. That's where this one springs from.


Next up is "Business As Usual." This one depicts an otherworldly soldier/exterminator wading through smoke and fog. Small fires are smoldering on a distant hillside. But our solitary figure goes along with the same determined mundanity of a plumber leaving a drain he just unclogged. Obviously, this guy is moving on from some sort of violent confrontation. And, most likely, is headed for even more of the same.


I call this one "Alleluia," which is another spelling of "hallelujah," a transliteration of the Hebrew word for "Let us praise." Another concept that's dominated my sketches of late, are these Iron Gods. They're massive, benevolent creatures that seem to just exist in the world surrounding them. Sometimes they're the embodiment of cities. Sometimes they're simply large, observant creatures. I guess I'm attracted to the idea of a tangible god... something massive and made of metal and wood and stone, that's alive. And with this Iron God, I'm depicting the hands of worshipers reaching up from their homes to praise him. Actually, it might be a female. Or even asexual! I mean, why would a god succumb to the rules of gender?


Last but not least is "The Brute." I did the sketch for this guy while watching The President give his speech on the economy, yesterday morning. Go figure. Anyway, this is another of my wild soldier pics. His modern body armor and uniform are sharply contrasted by his dreadlocks, and the beastly wolfs-head cloak he's wearing. You might not notice at first, but instead of a human hand, his right arm ends with the gnarled talon of a bird of prey. And, like his brethren, he's armed with a crude, sharp weapon for dealing death to the opposing forces. Yikes!

And that's all for now. I'll post more pics as things move forward on all of these paintings. Hope you enjoy the budding flowers of my latest visual endeavors.

From SF with flava,
-Bunker, out.

Deadbeatsister gorilla collabo and more!

Check out these Gorilla Mitts I finished, today! They're part of an apparel design that I'm collaborating on with my girlfriend. She'll be printing the final piece for the next line of goods from her company, Deadbeatsister. Whoop! I'm handing the drawing off to her, today. Once she's added her photo-collage magic to it, I'll have the finished image up here tout de suite!

Also, I drew this Steam Man image last week. It was gonna be a sticker design (and may still be, further down the road). But I ended up using it as the back image for my new promo cards. Jiggy!

Hope ya'll enjoy.
-Bunker, out.

Hiredmeat Stickers for Comic-Con!

Yes, kiddies, I've finally got some vinyl stickers printed! I'll have these 3x4" beauties available at the San Diego Comic-Con, later this month. I'll be set up in Artists Alley at booth EE-04, alongside Jim Mahfood and Mike Huddleston. I'll be posting more info on the convention haps as we get closer to that fateful week.

-Bunker, over and sooo out!

Step-by-step painting time!

That's right! I'm about to walk you thru not one, but TWO paintings I just did this week. You can all thank Scott Hume (www.humedex.blogspot.com) for dropping the idea into my noggin'.

You can actually see the sketches for these pieces, "Red Metal Rush" and "Metro Girl," in a previous post. I painted both of these 8x8" wonders simultaneously, so that's how I'll do the walk-through.
I started with a medium purple undertone, and built up the layers from there. I'm a big fan of texture, so my first step was adding some collage elements to both canvases. I took a more "live art" approach with the beginning of these. After figuring out my image, I was drawing shapes with paint, then drawing out the finer details in pencil on top of that. All the while, I was building up paint layers, deciding on undertones, and such.
The paint layering continued from there. I deepened the Metro Girl's skintone. I'd originally wanted her to be more of a Pacific Islander, with dark features and brilliant blonde hair. You can see how I added a lighter tone for her sweatshirt, and dropped in a base red for her skirt. And the Red Robot got a more aggressive paint job, with bright reds for his iron body. I also added a fiery tone to the sky/background. I just wanted to nail the basic shapes... the backbone, if you will.
By the next step, things have really started to take form. Finer details on "Metro Girl" were dropped in. I'd started to noodle on things like the print of her skirt and shoulder bag. I'd painted in the highlights of her skintone, including blush. She went Caucasian all of a sudden, but hell, that's just how it turned out. Also, note the detail on the earrings and the start of the skyline underpainting near the upper left corner. Oh, and I'd really figured out what tones I wanted to use in the background.

"Red Metal Rush," also grew in leaps and bounds from the last stage. I'd carved out even more of the red-metal detail, and accented it with bright white highlights. I also started playing with the steamy background, with some of the fluffy clouds bursting from the Robot's pipes.
At this point, I was very close to the end. In fact, "Red Metal Rush" was done! As you can see, I'd punched up the steam elements. White, puffiness exploded from his exhaust pipes. And I added dashes of white streaks, to illustrate the Robot's "rush" toward his mechanical goal. I'd also gone in with that most final of steps, the ink drawing. With pieces like this, I like to tighten things up with black lines, but still let the rough underpainting show. There's a lot of work and eye-candy in the early stages of a painting, and I enjoy letting each layer of that shine through to the top.

"Metro Girl" was also fairly finished at this level. I'd done up lots of little details... red and green highlights were painted in to help move color throughout the piece, and thus, the viewer's eye. I'd added all sorts of splatter texture to the green background. Her boots and belt were noodled in. And the cityscape became more definite, with two tones building up its basic shapes.
Last but not least, I gave "Metro Girl" the ink treatment. With this sort of piece, though, I like to preserve the softer, color line work. So you'll see that some of her facial features remain uninked. I'd added some flower shapes in the background. The cityscape was finished very loosely. A lot of the ink drawing on this one was added in a live art fashion. For me, that's all about marrying the black ink lines with the lines and shapes created by strong, bright colors. As someone who draws comics and paints illustrations, it's a lot more interesting for me to pull from all my skill reserves, rather than rely on one or the other. A big part of making art is keeping it fun for yourself, ya know? Nobody likes to be bored on the job!

And that's that. You can see both of these pieces at Fabric8 (at least, until they sell) down in San Francisco's Mission District. See the flyer below for all the info.
I'll be painting more in the days and weeks to come, so look for more of the freshness on here soon.

-Bunker, iggety-out!

Gimme That Silkcard Love!

Hey Kiddies!

The kind folks at Designline Graphics have offered me a discount in trade for me mentioning how badass their products are. I have to admit, this is some shameless promotion. But it is well deserved. I used to get all my business cards from Designline. They make Silkcards, which are these nearly indestructible, coated wonders of the printing world. Fer reals, you can barely rip the things. And they look great... people are always wowed when I hand them the silky-smooth jammies. They're truly a step above your average, card stock business and postcards.

I'm about to order a new set of 4x6 promo cards for my site(s) from Designline. I'll have the design posted on here soon. And, of course, if you'd like to hit up Designline for any of your future printing needs, you can find them here: 4colorprint.com. They do it all, and they do it well.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program!
-Bunker, out.

Sketchin'... it's FANtastic!

Hey chil'rins! I was out of commission last week, fighting off the flu with concoctions, a paperback copy of "The Godfather," and heaps of blankets. But I made a miraculous recovery on July 4th, just in time to do some grilling! Then, on Saturday, we hit up the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Yes! And that night, we traveled with some friends down to Mountainview, to see Stevie Wonder in concert. AMAZING! His voice and energy seem as young as ever. And, whoa Lordy, the way Stevie can strip a note, lay it on sheets of linen, and love it down -- it's simply breathtaking.

But anyway, getting over the illness and seeing great live music has stoked the hell out of my creative fires. I've got some new paintings on the boil, and have also been writing and outlining new stories. While those things simmer and stew, I thought I'd share some of my recent sketches with you. Some of the stuff is groundwork for full paintings. Some of it is simply exercise. All of it is me doing my thing. So peep and enjoy.

- Bunker, out!