Rotty Blog

Now through Halloween, get stuff from these Rots’ Zazzle stores as cheap as it will ever be (they won’t let me sell it any cheaper):

iFrank
Rita
Skulls
Vlad
Witchipoo

You’ll find t-shirts and posters and postcards and binders and even Ked’s shoes! There’s something different in each store, so make sure to take a look around before you decide.

And I want to thank you sincerely for all of your support! I can’t do this without you!

Gris Grimly (one of my favorite illustrators) decided to publish a book totally full of sketches he’s made over a 13-year period. (Which 13-year period, I really don’t know.) It’s called Gris Grimly’s Atrum Secretum: 13 Years of Hidden Truths, and will be available on Amazon October 1.

The book is beautiful, inspiring and discouraging all at once. Some of what he considers sketches I wouldn’t be able to do on my best day. They make me want to do better at the same time they’re punching me in the face and screaming there’s really no hope.

Except for a title page, one end page explaining about the book, and copyright info just inside the end paper, the book is all about the sketches. The only text in the book was written when the sketches were drawn, so pages aren’t filled with insight and analysis or whatever filler usually invades books like this.
 

I bought my copy directly from Gris, so mine is a little different than the one available on Amazon. (Mine looks like the one above.) In mine, he drew an original sketch on one of the pages before he sent it out (image to the right) and included a signed and numbered sketch coupon “certificate” to authenticate the drawing as original.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I’ve been up to something, likely no good, and I’ve been keeping you out of the loop. I’ve been writing. Yes, and designing. And drawing pictures for a…a book.

I know. I know. But I’ve had you in my heart the whole time.

Especially when I animated the book trailer:

You thought I was joking, didn’t you. I would never joke about something like this.

I also wouldn’t joke about this:

I put the book project up on Kickstarter to raise money so I could publish it independently.

Please don’t cry. Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball. Here, take a look for yourself…

I’ll still be there for you when this is all over. Wait for me, will you?

P.S. Did you like the video?

On June 29, 2006, I drew the first page of what later became “The Rots.” The scan of that first sketchbook page is over there to the right. You can click on it to see it bigger if you want.

I know, it pretty much sucks. But that’s why I drew it in a sketchbook and not on something expensive or important. It wasn’t meant to be viewed by the general public. I was just getting my feet wet, and artwork like this was very new to me (see my fine art portfolio here).

The Rots have grown up since then (a lot), and in celebration of their fifth birthday I decided to paint Rodney as I thought he might look today (see below). Rodney was the very first Rot (he’s in the upper left corner of the sketchbook page above), and he’s changed a bit, hopefully for the better.

Did some more work on the Rodney painting, and I’m thinking he might be done, but I may go back in and tweak a little more if I see something that doesn’t feel quite right.

I collaged in a few newspaper headline clippings which are probably a little hard to see in these photos, but I know they’re there, so that works for me. I also gave him a little friend in the background.

For my latest trick, I’ll post some magical paintings all in a row so it looks like it only took a tiny second of work between each one.

Ready?

Hold onto your butts…

On June 29, The Rots will be celebrating their fifth-year anniversary (or should that be birthday?). Woo-hoo and all that sort of thing. It was on that date back in 2006 when I drew the very first Rot ever:

Rodney, the very first Rot ever

Seeing as how he’s five years old now (and all grown up), I thought it would be a stellar idea to paint him for the occasion. The problem is, The Rots have grown up quite a bit since Rodney was born, and I decided to give him a bit of an update.

I’m painting him on a 24″x30″ board (birch), and decided to try to step outside my comfort zone a little. I’m adding some collaging into the mix and also using colors that I normally don’t. First up, I sketched something close to the old version of Rodney on the board, just for me. Except for this photo, nobody will even know he’s there. I ended up covering that sketch up in the next step.

After that, I completely covered the board with comic strip pages from our local newspaper (the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Not only did that give me a texture of comics to paint over, but it also gave me a physical texture of wrinkles and gel medium-textured brush strokes to catch the paint, which worked out perfectly.

Next I worked on the background. My original plan was to paint the purple as an underpainting for an off-white sky, but I liked the color so much it pretty much stayed.

Then I sketched in the new idea I had with a little of the yellow I was using, fully intending to leave whatever yellow marks that didn’t get covered up with further paint as-is (we’ll see if I change my mind later).

After that I just started filling in the blanks. Tomorrow I’ll finish his skin tones with some much darker shades before I move on to whatever part of the painting I decide to tackle next.

To celebrate the upcoming 100th birthday of Vincent Price, I decided to Rot him. Here’s the initial sketch, final color version in the works.

Happy Birthday, Vincent. Thank you for scaring the living bejesus out of me when I was young and vulnerable.