For the Birds - and Some Other Featherbrained Ideas

I'm currently in the middle of a project for Fantasy Flight Games, which means I'm working on things I won't be able to show for a few months, but I thought I'd share a couple things I do in between or during projects when I need to take a break and try something different.

This first one is inspired stylistically by the first illustrations I ever remember seeing as a young child, by a Czech artist named Karel Franta. I added my own element of hats and ornaments on birds, which I've been having a lot of fun with lately:
Mr. Franta's birds have always made me smile. They're whimsical and full of character. He is able to convey so many things in just the twinkle of their beedy eyes and the twist of a beak. I often revisit an old book he illustrated that my mother used to read to me and my brothers every night way back when.... like two years ago. ;) To this day, I'm able to simply enjoy his work without getting lost in the technical details and how-did-he-do-thats like I do when I look at other artists' work.

The next couple are studies for my own developing series of birds in Venetian-style masks. The first one was done very absentmindedly, thus the poor composition and linework (I was playing around with some new Speedball quills). The second, I tried to take a little more seriously. Both are in my tiny Moleskine, done in pen and ink, watercolour, with some acrylic in the second one.


I don't know why I started these, aside from them being very relaxing to do. I guess that should be reason enough, though I also like to think there's some underlying message. I have my own thoughts on that, but I'll leave it up to you as the viewer to come up with your own. At any rate, I'll hopefully get around to taking this theme to a more finished level after some more exploration.

On a completely different and slightly darker level, I also did this sketch a month or so ago, right after completing the Cecilia's Wheels book. I didn't want to show it right away, because it would perhaps have been a bit too drastic to switch from cute little Cecilia, to this:

This painting is a tribute to a large sum of influences I've had in recent years. There have been a variety of artistic ones, but Elliott Smith's music (certainly not his life, poor guy) is probably the biggest of all. Though the initial sketch was done on a whim at two in the morning, I've had the picture in my mind's eye for roughly a year. However, it was never clear enough how I was going to execute it, until impulse and inspiration took over. Living in the Bay Area for about half my life, I've been exposed to and always enjoyed posters from the glory days of the Fillmore. So I used that influence for the font style. Other influences played a role as well; contemporary artists such as Alex Kanevsky and Sterling Hundley, and a host of others that I'm too lazy to list because I'd have to be fair and hyperlink them too...

By the way, in case you are interested, prints of King's Crossing are available over at my makeshift commerce section: www.DuttonPrints.blogspot.com. I'm always open to requests for other works as well.

Cheers!