-->Childrens' books fascinate me. Their rhythm, the information good ones impart through a combination of words and images. I would love to illustrate a children's book about evolution by natural selection. Perhaps with aliens or a made-up creature, or some highly unusual organism like a sea cucumber.-->Filling up a whole bookshelf with magazines and books containing at least one illustration by me remains a goal. This year, I'm off to a pretty good start with Secular Nation, Open Laboratory 2008 and La Mente di Darwin.
-->Having a book of illustrations and a story given the spotlight and altering my career the way three of my artsy-heroes have remains an end-goal of mine. James Gurney's Dinotopia series, and Wayne Barlowe's radical direction change in his Barlowe's Inferno have my mind ticking all the time, developing a narrative and waiting for the day I am able to give it a shot.
-->I want to illustrate a comic book cover. Cloak & Dagger or Man-Thing. And do some album art for an electro- or industrial-goth band.
-->Continuing to make strides in online art, such as the blog banners I've done for Shelley Batts & Steve Higgins, Dale McGowan and Dan Rhoads -- it's a niche I didn't imagine five years ago. Wouldn't a collection of blog banners be a great coffee table book?
-->Making enough income from my art that I could produce more. That's a goal. As with most artists, the work is fantastic and I love to get it; it drives me forward. No, no, I'm understating it. I hunger for that, I'm desperate for that, it vexes me each day. I have a good day-job. But I want painting & being creative & failing & overcoming & mark-making & the astonishment of a great image (I created that?). I need to go to there.-->Doing a colloborative project on a larger scale, a movie, a video game, a group book. Yeah.
-->Auction off an original piece and make a ton of money to give to The Beagle Project.
-->A sit-down portrait with a scientist whose writing I admire. Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, Richard Fortey- there's so many, and I have sketches for some.
I have a lot of work to do. Blogging has brought me closer to many of these goals already. It's an amazing time we live in, when images can hurtle around the world so quickly. I live in Toronto Canada, and have been published in Italy and commissioned in Cyprus, as well as by my neighbours to the South. That's a kind of awesome.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
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7 comments:
I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to see a portrait of Richard Fortey by you. Trilobites everywhere!
Hey G-Mel,
You and I have Similar goals, and Publication is a HUGE one for me as well. In the last 6 months I have really Focused my time and energy on writing (with Michele's help) and illustrating 3 children's books...... Children's books is a bit of a grey statement for me, I would like them to be a bit more macabre and a touch more adult. Perhaps not adult but less, "sugar coated" If I would have to make a comparison (in tone, not in design or theme) would be Gary Larson's, There's a Hair In My Dirt. Clearly not a children's book, but can be disguised as one in the book store. It's amazing how the goals you set for yourself can change so quickly, while the destination seems crystal clear at first, it can become very foggy along the journey. And when that fog finally clears the place your in is a wonderful, exciting place, however not the place you set out to when you started.
And in regards to a collaborative project, I have had one on the back burner for a while now with Gary Olivera of Way Cool but I would LOVE to hook up and do a jam piece with you. Perhaps we can pick a theme and brainstorm a lay out, then split the canvas in half with an invisible line and each rock out our half?
Zombie Trilobite's anyone?
god i should definitely buy a child-book about evolution. your blog is so interesting and inspiring, and your header is the most beautiful i've ever seen on blogspot!
Thanks Bob! Perhaps it will happen. I have an long-standing idea for a series of science portraits.
Chris, your artwork is taking you places. And I think at least one of your bears looks good sugar-coated. ;-)
You make a good point about things being foggy on the journey. It's easy to get off track, not by other ideas, but about life and full-time-job fatigue taking over. Working full-time and painting part time feels very much like it did when I was a student.
And are you suggesting a painted Exquisite Corpse? I'd be down for that.
Iris! Thanks for your kind words. Great blog yourself, oodles of interesting things to look at.
Well me and a friend down here are sitting on a apparently "good" (so all our teaching buddies and students tell us) book. However we're having one *BEEP* of a time trying to figure out how to publish it.
Not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, but just alerting you to the one big issue with the process we've discovered. Getting in the door is tricky, but we're told having the art already done is a must!... So hopefully the lot of us artsy wannabe kid's authors have a good shot still!
As for collaberative projects have your people call my people. I've always got 10 too many things on the go :P
The bookshelf full of your own published work, that must have at least half a filled shelf by now? At your current rate of creation/publication that shouldn't take you too long yo!
Oh and as for a Cloak and Dagger cover, why not go a step further and write it... Another teamup of those two with the Runaways perhaps? That teamup was soooo awesome!
As for Man-thing he should totally go to the savage land... Perhaps fight Devil Dinosaur :P
If you fire off a sample or two of comicy art, a very good friend of mine works for Marvel, and I can see if he can pass it on...
Wow Craig!, thanks for tips and support.
We'll do lunch.
What about publishing a first effort on Lulu.com?
Collaboration could be a lot of fun. Maybe we'll have to figure out how to do an electronic exquisite corpse.
You know people at Marvel?!
Hmm. Another piece to make happen.
Thanks Craig, I'm sure we'll message soon. :-P
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