Radiant Comics

I think I’m going to pull an old painting out of storage, take a look at it, and write about it. I don’t think I’ve done that in a long time. I’ll grab one of my 8×10 inch acrylic on canvas paintings.

The painting I pulled out is called “Sleeves of Grass.” It’s got the date on it of July 10, 2009. As it’s December 12, 2021 as I write this that makes it over 12 year old. A pretty good chunk of time has gone by since I painted this.

It’s a painting of a person who appears to be in some sort of clothing or armor that’s made of art. It’s certainly not made of anything practical. It’s a profile view with the head and shoulders in frame. It’s also an androgynous figure. There are no clues to if the figure is male or female. A lot of my art is like that. This could be an alien for all I know.

I think there is a balance to the color in this one. I’m trying to determine is there is a dominant color in the painting but I don’t think there is. The red border might be but the blue inside rectangle balances the red out very well. I think balance might be the theme of my color in this one.

The yellow of the face is the brightest color in the piece. That makes it the whitest white. That’s important in the color theory I’ve been using since college. I use color and create depth by organizing around the values of the colors. The brightest color always moves forward in the viewer’s eye. It stands out. So when someone looks at this painting the yellow face stands out the most. Everything else revolves around that.

The light blue rectangle in the middle background was an interesting choice. It’s the second brightest color in the painting and it’s right next to the brightest color. That really draws the eye to the face and everything else swirls around it.

There are a lot of stretched and bent triangles in this painting. I think that adds to the swirling felling of it. The bottom of the painting has purple and blue bent triangles that makes up a bunch of cloth in what may be a cloak or cape. There is a lot of alien-ness to this painting. It’s tough to make out the clothes. What kind of headdress it that? Are those spikes on his forehead? Is this a martial outfit or some kind of fancy dress? I have the questions but not the answers.

I often make art where I don’t have all the answers. I like that. I enjoy looking at a piece and wondering. I like to go to place on the edge of the dreamworld and bring back images that I can’t quite explain but like asking questions about. I like finding meaning in them.

There are a lot of neutral browns in this painting. Neutrals are an important part of organizing the color in a painting. It terms or brightness they’re usually in the middle so they are never the brightest white or the darkest black of a painting. They sit there in the middle of the spacial structure. The brights pop over them and the darks sit behind them. The neutrals do their job here separating the colors.

The bent red triangles near the middle of the painting really stand out well over top of the neutrals. They kind of unite with the red outside border to almost creates a dominant color but not quite. The influence of the light blue knocks them down a bit. I notice there is a darker red on the sides of the border. The dark red even starts higher up on the left side. I bet I did that to knock down the amount of bright red. If the dark red was bright then it may have thrown the color balance off. I bet that’s why I put it there.

The color that does the least heavy lifting is the blue down the bottom. Blue and purples actually. They work together in harmony and since they’re analogous colors they don’t fight with each other at all. They sit down there and provide a strong foundation for the image. They’re the ground that the tree is planted in.

The three circles of blue in the upper right corner are interesting. They don’t bring much attention to themselves by virtue of being near a bigger area of brighter blue but they stand out on pondering. They become part of the story. What are they? Why are they there? Are they a line of sight? A super power? Once again, questions.

The finishing touches were those decorative brush strokes on the right and left sides. Some blue/green rectangles with marks of yellow in them. They’re there for the color balance and to give the eye something to look at. I always do them last and they are not part of the color sketch. I like to leave room for spontaneity when I’m painting and they are it.

The thing green brush strokes are a little more important. I’m sure I did those at the end too and they bring the painting together for me. In terms of both design and color they are there to make the painting come alive. They’re gestures that suggest direction, lines that suggest detail, and with enough of them they influence the color too. For little thin lines added at the end they do a remarkable lot of the heavy lifting.

I like this one. I don’t think it’s one of the most striking images I’ve ever made but it holds up to viewing. As I look at it I get more and more intrigued by it. There is a complex organization to it that becomes more noticeable the more I look at it.

The last thing I’ll observe is the pink brush strokes on top of the red triangles. They work for me. I’m not sure why but I’m attracted to them. My eye keeps looking at them. I’m good with that.

I just finished marker coloring “Dreams of Things” #126. It’s a comic book cover to a comic book that doesn’t exist. This series of drawing started out many years ago as a way to create some simple dream like images but hey have morphed into more complex images. They used to take a fairly short time to complete but not anymore. Instead of about six to eight hours to make one it now takes twelve to fourteen hours. That’s a big increase.

I mention the time they take because even though they take a while I can break them down into three four hour stages: pencilling, inking, and coloring. That has allowed me to get some of them done over the last month when I haven’t been able to get much else done.

It’s November 29, 2021 as I write this and I often find it hard to get my own art done as the year is winding down. Between Christmas, Thanksgiving, and various paying jobs a lot of my time is taken up with things than making art. It’s tough to be self motivated so I have to find ways to keep going.

I finished a lot of big stuff this year. I got five 24×36 inch acrylic on canvas paintings done plus I finished another one bigger than that. The big one had even been sitting around my studio for 20 years. I also got a lot of big ink drawings done. I’m not exactly sure how many but it’s a least a dozen. I also started my Patreon and finished three 68 page magazines filled with my art. I can say I accomplished a lot this year. But still it brings me down a little when I slow down.

So I’m going to take a moment and contemplate “Dreams of Things” cover number 126 to bask in something I managed to finish. I pencilled it fairly recently. Sometimes I have ideas and do drawings for these covers but then they sit around for a while. Not with this one. I ran out of “Sitting around” drawings so I took a few days and did some new ones.

That’s another thing that plays with my felling of “getting something done.” It takes time to draw one of theses covers. It takes about four hours. After I finish the drawing I scan it in, put the logos on digitally, and then print it out to be inked. It’s still far from done at that stage so I never feel like I accomplished anything at that point.

I made this one using my side of the brush technique. That means I wasn’t going for a smooth and pretty line but a rough and ragged line. Not as ragged as my busted brush technique but it gives the line more texture than usual. All the lines on the two characters are rough edged but the background lines are smooth. That helps give it a sense of depth. Years ago, one of my teachers said to forget everything else; it’s overlap that really creates depth. I’ve got a lot of that going on here too. I’ve taken that lesson to heart.

When I pulled my markers out this morning the first part of this I colored was the background. That’s another thing I learned in art school. When making a painting always paint the background first. It’s actually hard to do since the background is usually the most boring part and we all would rather paint the interesting parts but it’s also really helpful.

I knew I wanted the background to be dark and neutral so I colored the sky at the tipity-top first. The part under the logo. It’s two different dark blues and they are barely visible. Then I colored the mountains below them in another dark blue. That was the easiest part of the whole cover. After that I made the second, and bigger, sky a dark and light purple. The brown and wood grain pyramids came after that. Then the greenish water. I flew through all of those because the color choices were easy and the areas small.

I colored the person on the right next. I knew his clothes should be orange so I pulled some orange and yellow markers out and went to town. It was just a matter of arranging the color. That part went down easy too but I had no idea what color his (or her) face should be.

I decided on red for the left hand character but his clothing was more complicated. He takes up half the drawing and is more flat than round. Plus he has a split face and two more faces in his shirt. I think I used five reds.

Actually the first thing I did was color the lower left face brown. For some reason I knew I wanted it that color. The half blue face was decided on next and that lead me to the half green one. The purple face was the last one chosen. Almost the last one. I had to go back and choose a color for the person on the right. I ended up going with grey. I couldn’t see any color working there so I went with a neutral. I usually don’t make faces grey but here it works.

Let me say something about the texture in the red shirt. Those are large flat areas of color and can become a visual hole in the picture if the artist isn’t careful. In marker I tend to use some indications of texture to give areas like that more visual interest. Otherwise the viewer can fall into that visual hole, be bored by it, and skip out on the whole drawing.

I’ve done 126 of these covers so far. I generally like them otherwise I wouldn’t still make them but some I like more than others. This one is middle of the pack. I don’t know why. It’s okay. I generally like the drawing, color, and imagery but it doesn’t move me like others do. I’m okay with that though. Sometimes I don’t like something I do but someone else does. I have to leave room for that in my judgement. I try not to get too high or low with any individual piece. At least I got something done.

I’m in the mood for a “Friends” walkthrough. I’m writing this the week that “Friends” actor James Michael Tyler died. He played Gunter on the show and was the manager of the coffee shop. He was 59 which makes him four years older than me. Most of the cast was around my age so it’s a little strange to read that one of them has died. Death is right around the corner for all of us but it’s getting even closer for my age group.

It’s episode 20 from Season 5 that I’m watching and it’s called “The One with the Ride Along.” If memory serves that means that Chandler and Joey go on a ride along with Phoebe’s new boyfriend who is a NYC police officer. It’s first aired on April 29, 1999. I watched it as it aired. Let me check my calendar to see what I was doing that week.

Looks like I did nothing on that Thursday. “Took it easy” was my only entry for the day. I must have needed a rest. The rest of the week I was working on the second issue of my “Delia Charm” comic that I self published back then. It was my last self published issue after six comics. Red Menace Comics came to an end. The day before this episode aired I was in NYC to have lunch with my friend, Marie, and then I went to a Brooklyn bar called “The Gate” to bid farewell to another friend, Juliette, as she left for Arizona. I ended the week by working at Marvel for the day.

Let’s start the show. We start in the coffee shop. Turns out that Ross’s ex-wife Emily is getting married tomorrow. He’s a bit down so Joey tires to distract him but it just gets weird. Phoebe and her new boyfriend Gary come in and it all becomes about the ride along. Chandler gets the worst of the joke. Here comes the theme song. That song is tinged with nostalgia for me.

Now we are back at the girls’ apartment. Monica wants Rachel to help her organize some snapshots. We’re supposed to relate to Rachel here while Monica is the weirdo but I’m on Monica’s side. I like organizing things. I find it fun. I have all my photos organized. It’s one of the ways I keep track of my life and things I’ve done. Monica is funny about it though. Rachel messes things up but then we get a weird and funny moment with Monica revealing she, on occasion, steals money from her brother. These weird moments are my favorite part of the show.

Now we’re on the ride along with Gary, Ross, Chandler, and Joey. I forgot Ross was there. Some funny goofy stuff is about Joey’s sandwich happens here. Joey and sandwich jokes are always fun.

The scene cuts and we’re with Rachel in Ross’s apartment. She’s over there by herself borrowing a blender. A big plot point happens as Emily calls and leaves a message on Ross’s answering machine. She’s having cold feet about her upcoming wedding (to someone who is not Ross).

Back to the ride along. Ross goofs around.

Rachel and Monica are both now at Ross’s and listening to Emily’s message. What should they do? They don’t want Ross to get back with her. Their conversation is funny. Rachel accidentally deletes the message which makes Monica happy.

Back to the ride along again. Here is where they think they hear a gunshot and Joey leaps to protect Ross (not Chandler!). It’s a quick scene but sets up some stuff for the second half of the show.

Back, once more, to Monica and Rachel in Ross’s apartment. Rachel wants to fix things and recreate the message but it’s impossible. Monica and Rachel are particularly good in this episode. Ross calls his own machine to leave himself an inspirational message that amuses the women.

Here comes the coffee shop and Gary hailing Joey as a hero. They tell the tale to Phoebe. Chandler is bitter because he wasn’t the one to be saved. We get some Phoebe weirdness which is funny.

Now we’re at the boys’ place and Chandler is seething because Joey chose Ross instead of him. Joey tries to calm him down with some flattery but it doesn’t work so he is forced to reveal that he was really trying to save his sandwich. More sandwich jokes happen and we get a goofy and funny conclusion.

Ross comes back to his own apartment and Rachel is waiting for him. Ross’s new found appreciation for life, after his near death experience, has got him acting goofier than normal. He explains this to Rachel. Rachel is looking extra slender in this episode I notice. Rachel tells Ross about the phone call. He wants to call back. Rachel tries to talk him out of it. And she does as the show credits roll.

Our last post-credit scene is at the coffee shop. They talk war, promotions, and who would be best under fire. Phoebe steals the scene and walks off.

First I’m going to check the rating I gave this show back in 2012. I like this one as I watched it tonight. Maybe I’m nostalgic because of James Michael Tyler’s death but an episode of “Friends” really hit the spot. I’d give it four out of five stars right now. Let’s see about 2012. I gave it three stars back then. That’s what I suspected. I don’t remember this being a four star one but tonight it was.

Now I’ll look up what scenes were cut out of this episode for HD and syndication. They cut out a Serpico joke on the ride along. They cut out Monica’s closing line in the answering machine scene. That was a good line. They cut out the whole scene with Rachel trying to imitate Emily’s British accent. That was funny too. They cut out a reference to Phoebe knowing when all the friends are going to die. I always like those weird references. And that seems to be it. The British accent Rachel scene was the biggest thing.

Well, there you go. Another walkthrough is written. Let’s tip our hats to Gunther and say goodbye.