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| "Their Perpetual Soiree" 36 X 48 Oil on Canvas 2011 |
Alright friends, like most of my other paintings, this one is semi-autobiographical and semi-fantastical. After years of as bartender I wanted to paint about drinking and partying and the weird tole it takes.
I love whiskey and booze still pays for a big portion of my bills. My inspiration for this painting however, was the tired, cheerless look that I've noticed in people get when they go out night after night. It is as if hanging out at the bar has become a boring routine rather than an exciting choice. In this painting I wanted create a party in which no one is really having any fun at all. I wanted to illustrate that fine line between the habitual drinker and the alcoholic.
Actually, the T-Rex is an alcoholic. He is an angry drunk, and so am I. Just kidding, I'm really nice. And by-the-way I can't drink anymore. My doctor told me not to.
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| The Sketch |
This painting took me much longer than usual, about two months. I had a couple of other projects in between the time I started the painting and the time I finished. Also, the painting is huge.
Here is the rough sketch for the painting. It is kind of beat-up looking. Honestly, I thought that I had lost the drawing. Later I found it in a sad pile on the floor behind my drafting table. As you may notice, the monkey in the tree was almost an after thought. I quickly drew him on tracing paper and taped him to the original.
There are many differences between the sketch and the painting. I think it's fun to compare the two to see what I changed along the way. I love doing this when looking at comps and painting by artists I admire. When I am working on a comp like this, I am really only interested in the composition and placement of key elements. I usually freestyle everything else.
Along with sad drunks, I was inspired by two other things, the first being my t-rex figurine. I have a whole collection of figurines, and they seem to appear quite often in my paintings.
And the final thing that inspired me was the Shadowmarch series by Tad Williams. When I work on a drawing, I listen to heavy metal, and when I paint, I listen to horror or fantasy novels on audio book. I know I am a dork, but his series is pretty bad-ass. I am almost finished with the last book and if you like fantasy novels, be sure to check it out.
