Mighty Boosh sketches and prelim

I am a huge Mighty Boosh fan, and really idolize Noel and Julian. They're an amazing creative team: Noel creates the imagery and Julian writes the music and they write the show together. They also both have really interesting, but very different faces: below is a page from my sketchbook featuring a few studies of Noel and some other random things.

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

Here's a bigger view of the same scan - I'm not much for caricature, but I was trying to make a sort of cartoon style by simplifying the shapes of his face.

click image to enlarge

And here's a snapshot of a work in progress - a dual portrait of Julian and Noel as their main characters from the show, Howard Moon (jazz maverick) and Vince Noir (electro ponce) in their costumes from the first series. It's vector and designed to be a large print - I plan on incorporating some graphic elements from the show as well.

EDIT 11/29/10 - check out the finished version

Zombies vs Librarians

Hello and welcome to Misha's new art blog, for those of you just making your way here. There are a few other posts below this one, featuring some of my graphic design work plus some nicer versions of images from the old blog. From here on, everything will be new! new! new!

Following below are images from a graphic design project completed a few weeks ago - promotional materials for a movie inspired by ordinary life. I tried a fun approach, drawing inspiration from a dream my coworker had about fending off a zombie attack at the library. I created a large poster, tear-off sticker sheets for guerrilla marketing, buttons and t-shirts, and an alternate poster. Plus, a good time was had by all.

click images to enlarge

Mother of Compassion

I'm immensely fond of this piece, which I created for a class with the incomparable Deborah Rockman. It's a large mixed-media drawing on paper, and if I had the skill I'd make it into a stained glass window and install it in my shower. (Just as well since I rent so it'd have to be hanging, and that's just dangerous.)

click image to enlarge

It was a fine art class, so we were required to write up a little artist's statement for every drawing. I entitled this Guan Shi Yin (Mother of Compassion), and quoted the Four Noble Truths on the statement, under which I wrote:

The phrase “tree of knowledge of all good and evil” is potentially a merism: a figure of speech utilizing two extremes to indicate an all-encompassing range. Thus, the tree’s knowledge was complete, perfect, Godlike. Through her desire for the fruit of all knowledge, Eve brought about the fall of mankind and the birth of suffering. However, in the same moment she won for mankind the means to escape suffering, through self awareness and the will to follow the Eightfold Path.

Gyan and Varada mudra indicate the root of knowledge and limitless, welcoming compassion. Through the attainment of perfect knowledge and awakening, Eve embodies Guan Shi Yin, bodhisattva called Mother of Compassion.

Yow, that's good reading. Asked today, I would say that this piece is a reaction to the typically negative interpretation of women in Abrahamic scripture. I appropriated the iconography of Guan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion who is often portrayed as a woman, in an attempt to temper the image of Eve as a shamed sinner. Eve is mother to us all, and we should treat her with a little more respect.

Graphic Design

When I started working on my Graphic Design minor, I knew basically nothing about design (which was a big part of my motivation.) These pieces are from my first two classes. Judge them kindly.

click image to enlarge

Orson Welles, you fatty. I do like his typographic bowtie.

click image to enlarge

I am immensely proud of this photo. It took a bit of post-processing, but my little point-and-shoot did the job. This was designed as a rather large poster, so not all the text is readable at this smaller size. I plan on redoing it because I am so fond of the photo and general idea.

Portraits

Continuing the trend of rather old work, here are two portraits from about a year ago. I like that these two portraits are a bit similar in style, although I think the second one is superior technically. Both are life-size, compressed charcoal on newsprint.

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

Watercolors

Heyo, new blog time. Welcome to MV Illustration, the new home of the art of Misha VanVaerenbergh. Bear with me, as these first few posts are just to get caught up. Here are some older pieces that I still think are halfway decent.

click image to enlarge

This is a large watercolor (about 20x30) that took many hours to complete. Look at that pile of paper by the sawhorse. That is the business right there.

click image to enlarge

This is a smaller watercolor, one of my earliest forays into children's illustration.