New Cover + New Techniques

It's time for another album cover!! It's been now quite a while since the last one. And this is the second album cover for my very talented sister, Ashia Grzesik.  Here is the work-in-progress of the first cover that we collaborated on.

For this new album, named "Diesel vs. Lungs", I decided to try two "new" techniques. The first was watercolor painting. I'd always been an acrylic girl, but wasn't getting the results that I needed with certain techniques. I wanted to do washes, and washes on washes on washes, and using acrylics for this was borderline dumb. I'd like to say that the adjustment to using watercolors was totally easy, but there was a bit of a learning curve, as you have to approach the layering in a different way, and get accustomed to the translucency and the malleability (or lack of it) once it's on paper. 

Here is a snippet of the background, pre-processing:

The inspiration for the background, as given to me by Ashia, was the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. It has earned the nickname “steel heart of the republic”, due to heavy industry there, and it remains one of the most polluted cities in the EU.

I also couldn't help but realize that after I had finished it, it reminded me - albeit loosely - of the hand-painted backgrounds of my all-time favorite children's cartoon, Krtek*, which hails from the Czech Republic (!)  Specifically, my all-time favorite episode of dear little Krteček, "Little Mole on the Town", which shows the transformation of a beautiful forest filled with adorable wildlife into a dirty, polluted city (!!!) 

Here is the entire 28-minute episode, which is totally worth your time to watch to the end.  But if you're ADD like me, just watch the first 5-6 minutes, which shows the adorable woodland creatures helplessly watch their forest home being torn down...so intense! {Please note: It may take a few minutes to load and currently, it won't upload with sound. Standby and pretend it's a silent movie for now and thanks for your patience!}
 
This isn't the first time that Czech cintematic talent has been featured by me...hmmm.


On to another element of the cover, a snippet of a spray of poppies:

The final watercolor painting was outlined by a dark brown pen, roughly à la Alfons Mucha (see a pattern here? ha!)  I felt like I was still reverting to old acrylic techniques while painting this, though, so looks like I have to keep working on my watercolor technique. Apparently, using watercolor pencils for years and years wasn't as big of a help as I thought it would be! And oh yeah, should have anticipated the paper buckling as much as it did with so much water on it ;)

More on the second "new" technique in a later post...

 * Have I talked yet of the genius of Krtek?? I smell a doozy of a great post idea.

Daily Drawing Agreement

A few months back, I was asked by a friend to take part in something called the Daily Drawing Agreement, along with a small handful of other artists.  The point was to give up something that wastes our time (social media, TV watching, etc) and instead draw - or paint or just be creative on paper - for 30 days.  I wanted to share some favorites from my 30 days:

Day 1

Day 2

  

Day 8

Day 13

Day 17

Day 18

Day 26

As you can see, some of the drawings I liked enough to incorporate into the design of this blog.  

It felt good to close my laptop and grab a sketchpad and pen instead.  I have to try to remember how that felt, to motivate me to keep drawing every day.  It was challenging to find time to draw everyday, especially when I was working 14-hour days, of which I had a few during the 30.  I found myself scribbling away in the near-dark, under the light of my headlamp while I was A2 backstage at a theatre (Day 8).  I felt like a kid again.  I used to never go anywhere without my sketchbook, adding intricate shading and crosshatching to a tree trunk while riding the bus to school...stepping off with the side of my hand completely silver from dragging it across the pencil-filled pages. 

"Sing For Your Lives" Out Now

Alas, the completed cover for Vagabond Opera's new album "Sing For Your Lives"!  

It's out now and available here on CD (remember those things?) and download, but you're going to want to have the hard copy for this one, so order your CD today.  

Vagabond Opera's "Sing For Your Lives!"

I've been slaving away at a really fun and challenging project.  I've been commissioned by the "European Cabaret! Vintage Americana! Balkan Belly Dance! Neo-Classical Opera! Old World Yiddish Theater!" band Vagabond Opera to create the cover for their newest album.  Not only do I love their music, my sister Ashia Grzesik sings and plays cello for them.  (You might remember her from this.)  Ashia and I have been collaborating on the album art together over the last couple of weeks.  I'm executing the album cover based on her basic ideas, while she's creating the rest of the artwork for the packaging using my album cover elements.  She will likely be sending me a bill for all of the picture texts I've been sending her!  


First up was the post-apocalyptic background...


Starting to rearrange the burnt-up, bombed-out urban landscape and mounting it to a large canvas.  It reminded me of looking at pictures of Dresden after WWII.

Painting in the bleak gray backdrop sky with clouds that invoke stage curtains...

Just kidding!  That was version one.  It was decided that the background needed to be darker, meaner...

Take 2: I repainted the sky, adding more texture and smoke.  The curtains, rather than being drawn in with charcoal, were painted with varying shades of gray and have the appearance of being tattered. 


With the background pretty much done, work moved on to the foreground.  I promise it won't be as depressing ;) ...

                                            


The plan was to have a vintage hot-air ballon, spreading its propaganda over the doomed city.

Gold paint!  

The balloon itself was probably about ten layers of paint and charcoal to create dimension.

A couple reincarnations of the mouth and album title.  We settled on a vintage travel advertisement meets pulp comic font (bottom).  All done by hand...

...Placing the mustache and title-mouth (titlouth? moutle?).

The fully-assembled balloon!  All painted and cut out by hand.  The most fun (read: almost frustrating) part was glueing the tiny strips of gold paper that are the ropes.  Whew!  I'm really thrilled with the way it turned out. 

Next up: The final assemblage of the full album cover.  Stay tuned...

From Polish Paper Cutting to Album Covers

Charcoal, pencils and colored pencils have always felt more comfortable for me to use over a paintbrush.  Over time I've been able to refine my painting skills, but I always preferred the detail and versatility (and portability) of the pencil.  But at times I found myself limited by the pencils and wanting bold swaths of colors, without having to pick up a paintbrush.  So about seven years ago I started to experiment with cutting out some of my artwork in pencil/charcoal and mounting it. 

In this case, I used origami paper squares.  [Yes, I was an origami-folding nerd.  Still am on occasion!]...  

When I started painting more often in recent years, I found myself again combining different media, wanting the best of all worlds.  This time incorporating my photographs and mounting on canvases or panels.  I wanted the ultra-realism of the photos, the bold colors and textures of the paint and canvas, the detail of the pencils and charcoal, and exact paper-cutting to get the shapes, depth, and positive and negative spaces that I was after. 

"Lisboa 2": photo paper, acrylic, colored pencil on canvas

So where am I going with all this?  It took me a while to figure out where my preoccupation with intricate paper cutting was likely coming from: wycinanki [vee-chee-NAAN-key].  The curves, the colors, the symmetry, the detail...all mesmerizing, almost psychedelic.  Although I could never compete with these Artisans of the Colored Paper, I have since childhood admired them and it has slipped out of my subconscious into my artwork, albeit quite distortedly.

Some great examples of the Polish folk art of paper cutting:

          

      

                    

I bring this up now because I recently finished working on the album cover for my super-talented sister, Ashia Grzesik's, upcoming EP release...

We both decided separately and subconsciously that it should have a subtle Polish/Eastern European feel, so it includes some more obvious imagery along with what I will call "modern wycinanki".  It combines all of my favorite mediums: paper, colored pencil, charcoal, acrylic paint, photography.

A step-by-step of the process:

Working out the basic "bison" design on pen and paper... 

 

It wasn't until I was researching pictures of wycinanki for this post that I realized that maybe it wasn't such a random choice to do a semi-symmetrical design, as I had originally thought :)



Completed bison design with watercolor pencils and charcoal...

               

Most of the cutting done...

Framing the photo (The Dead Sea, taken June 2009)...

Photo and bison design mounted on the painted canvas...

It's funny how certain things from your childhood and cultural heritage creep in and infiltrate your creative labors without you realizing it, at least at first.  

Idiots and Angels

Last night at the Music Box, I saw Bill Plympton's latest animated feature film Idiots and Angels.  A dark and surreal comedy devoid of any dialogue with an Eastern European feel.  I've always believed that less-is-more when it comes to dialogue, and with none at all, I found myself even more deeply immersed in the movie.  I felt like I was reading a Chris Ware graphic novel...the writer leaving more of the story up to your own interpretation.  The amazing soundtrack includes music from Tom Waits, Pink Martini, and what might be my new favorite voice, Nicole Renaud. The noir illustration reminds me of Danijel Zezelj's.  Especially his collaboration with one of my favorite authors, Kevin Baker, on Luna Park.

(pictures courtesy of idiotsandangels.com)

Geometricity: New Embroidery Project

Ok, so I've always been a bit of a math nerd.  I had a knack for the numbers, but I think it all came down to the alluring elegant solutions.  When the puzzle pieces fit just right, when there can only be one possibility for x... Tessellations, the golden mean, fractals, and just simply geometric patterns...  Where math becomes beautiful.  In the end, all art is made up of molecules and atoms and is constantly vibrating and falling into patterns that might not be immediately apparent.  It can be soothing and pleasing to the eye even if it appears to have no tangible structure.  It's no wonder that I ended up becoming a sound engineer (my "day" job): it combines the technical with the creative.

I recently picked up The Geometry of Art and Life by Matila Ghyka, and can't wait to crack it open.  I won't let myself until I finish this current read.






I have rough sketches inspired by this train of thought: nautiluses, schematics...still waiting to get polished.  A recent one that I've finished is this geometric pattern:

I have a deep fuscia/purple skirt that is currently being rehabbed that I've been planning to embroider and its day has now come.  Here's the design being imprinted on the skirt with carbon paper.

I decided it would look most striking in my new favorite color combo: turquoise, silver/gray, and yellow.   So on the hoop the skirt goes...

And finally, Random Photo of the Day:

Went to the Leu Gardens yesterday.  Was surprised to find that yams grow on trees.  Someone please tell me what the f@¢k I'm looking at, please.  Thanks.

"Lisboa 2"

Acrylic, colored pencil and paper on canvas

On display at the Square Foot Exhibit at The Galaxie in Chicago, May 29th - June 11th.

On canvas...

“Red Hook 2”

Acrylic, colored pencil, and paper on canvas

“Most Grunwaldzki”

Acrylic, spray paint, and charcoal on canvas

Available for purchase here.

“Bogota”

Acrylic, pencil, charcoal, and butterfly wings on canvas

Available for purchase here.

"Lisboa 1"

Acrylic, charcoal, colored pencil on canvas

“Red Hook 1” 

Acrylic on canvas

Available for purchase here.