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Happy Christmas
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 23-12-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: SNOW DRIFT, NATE CREEKMORE, CHILD, MOM, MOTHER, SNOW, SKETCH
It's been my habit to post new work every Sunday, but, since I likely won't be anywhere near a computer with internet access this coming Sunday, I thought I'd go ahead and post an image today.
When I was much smaller than I am now, my mother and I were out walking one wintry day and I got stuck in a snow drift. I started panicking and screaming, "Mom, help me!" She had to pull me out because I was too little to do anything but cry. I think the main thing my mother appreciates about this story (and she often brings it up with a smile) is that it reminds her of that brief period of time when she was actually bigger than me, the humor of which is apparent when one notices how petite she is and how tall I ended up becoming.
Merry Christmas.
OctopusCrosswalk
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 18-12-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: CROSSWALK, ATLANTA, NATE CREEKMORE, OCTOPUS, PIRATE, MERMAID, GROCERIES, FISH WITH LEGS
It's often the case that after you've been sitting for a while in an(other) ATL traffic jam, the congestion suddenly (and inexplicably) begins to clear up without any sign at all of what caused the delay...
I'm not saying that something like this causes those random traffic jams, but I'm not saying something like this doesn't cause those random traffic jams either....
Here's one of the preparatory sketches for the piece:
The finished piece is roughly 20x30 inches and was done using pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache.
Equestrian Samurai and Figure Skaters
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 11-12-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: SHIMAZU YOSHIHIRO, NATE CREEKMORE, FIGURE SKATERS, SAMURAI, EQUESTRIAN, SKETCH
Here's a drawing from a photograph of an equestrian statue I came across in one of those cheap books about samurai that Barnes and Noble is always selling at a discount. Samurai and samurai imagery turn up a lot in my sketchbook...
According to the caption, the samurai is named Shimazu Yoshihiro.
And here's a quick kind of gesture sketch of a portly figure skater holding up his female partner...
More next week...
OstrichesAndSatyrs
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 04-12-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: SATYR, OSTRICH, ART, NATE CREEKMORE, SKETCH, DRAWING, INK, PENCIL
Two things regularly appear in my the background of my work:
Ostriches...
and Satyrs...
There's no deep psychological reason for this (not that I know of), I just think they're both fun to draw.
Ike
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 26-11-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: NATE CREEKMORE, HALLOWEEN, IKE'S HALLOWEEN, TRICK-OR-TREAT, CANDY, CAT, HAUNTED HOUSE
Each of the 8ight stories in my graphic novel is done in a different style. Because Ike's Halloween (a cautionary tale about the dangers of eating too much candy) is kind of a children's story, I'm approaching it the way I'd approach illustrations for a children's book.
I've yet to add the lettering to Ike's Halloween, but here are a few shots...
Ike responds badly if he receives anything other than candy (carrots, for example) whilst trick-or-treating...
Ike is the one in the zebra suit. During the course of Ike's Halloween, he changes costumes several times.
The whole project will be done sometime around summer 2012.
Sketchbook
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 19-11-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, ROOSTER, CHICKEN, SKETCH, NATE CREEKMORE
There's a scene in the movie There Will Be Blood where Daniel Day-Lewis' character has a seat and looks up at the flames spewing out of one of his oil wells. This page in my sketchbook is based on a screen shot from that scene... but I decided to replace the oil well with Moby Dick.
And here's a drawing I did of a rooster...
SaintSimeonStylitesTheElder
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 12-11-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: SAINT, SIMEON STYLITES THE ELDER, ASCETIC, NATE CREEKMORE
I started to do an ink drawing of him but I never got around to finishing it.
I'll definitely make another attempt at this in the future.
My Process
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 05-11-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 1Tags: YOLK, BASKETBALL, KADIR NELSON, DUNK, OLD SCHOOL, GOGGLES, NATE CREEKMORE
One of my favorite artists is a guy named Kadir Nelson. In his work, he often elongates and subtly distorts the human figure (kind of like El Greco). I like just about everything I've seen him do, but my favorite work of Nelson's is called The Rucker. It's an image of a basketball player rising above everyone else for a dunk.
Eventually I plan to purchase a quality print of The Rucker, but because I'm not in a position to make that happen at the moment, I put together an homage of my own. This piece was completed some months ago, but I thought I'd post some images here to illustrate my process.
It always starts out with a very basic sketch in which I lay out the basic composition and try to capture the overall feel. In the case of this piece, it's all about tension.
After I'm satisfied with the layout, I begin work on the actual piece. Here I've laid down rough pencil lines and have started fleshing out the actual figures.
Now I finish penciling in the piece, adding details and tightening things up....
Now I begin laying in the ink using a brush and various calligraphy nibs. I prefer Speedball super black india ink. It has a rich dark feel and dries relatively quickly.
For the men's hair, I used a dry brush technique.
Now I begin to lay in the watercolors. Usually I lay down my blues (shadows) and reds (areas of the body where blood is closest to the surface like the nose, the ears, and the palms) first. In this case, I've left large areas of the background open where I'll add black gouache (an opaque watercolor that looks something like acrylic paint).
I wish I'd taken a few more photos between the last image and the completed piece, but it can be difficult to stop when you get into the work. Here you can see where I've added the black and red gouache.
And there you have it, the final piece. I decided to call it Yolk (my favorite term for dunking and also a reference to musculature), an homage to Kadir Nelson and a celebration of old school basketball.
MoreSketchBookPages
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 29-10-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: WALRUS, TIGERS, TEA, TENTACLES, BAND, BASQUIAT, CHESTER ARTHUR, SERPENT, HARPOON, GUITAR, NATE CREEKMORE
Here are some recent pages from my sketchbook....
Most of what I draw in my sketchbook ends up being something different from what I'd originally imagined. Here, for example, I intended to do a drawing of Chester Arthur and ended up with an image of a man (with Chester Arthur facial hair) being squeezed by a flawed serpent while a miniature man stands on his head aiming a harpoon. Also Jean-Michel Basquiat makes an appearance wearing a pair of boxing gloves from his Warhol collaboration posters.
This one was going to be a drawing of the Japanese band from Kill Bill (volume 1) but I decided to give the ladies a different look. I think I'll use this later for a finished piece...
This is pretty much what I'd intended, except that the walrus was originally going to be a tiger. When I started drawing the tiger, I realized the whole thing would look like an homage to the movie Aladdin. Now it's just an image of a woman having tea with a walrus while two kids in tiger costumes play nearby.
Much of my sketching is done on resume paper. It doesn't hold up too well under the ink washes and watercolors I use, but I like the effect.
Cardboard Corinthians
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 23-10-2011 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: CROSSWALK, WALRUS, CAMEL, QUETZAL, OSTRICH, SATYR, CITY, SCENE, NATE CREEKMORE, CARDBOARD CORINTHIANS
There'd been a half-used piece of illustration board sitting next to my desk for some time. Eventually, the rectangular shape of the board caught my eye and I began to pick away at it between other projects. I added color and ink to the pencil drawing this past week and now it's finished:
What was once a scrap piece of board is now an absurd crosswalk with camels, ostriches, a quetzal, and (in the background) a man being attacked by a walrus.
What was once a scrap piece of board is now an absurd crosswalk with camels, ostriches, a quetzal, and (in the background) a man being attacked by a walrus.