Solace

 

Art Fair!

@The Compost Collective (Queens, NYC)'s Spring/Summer Local Market.

‪Made a little profit, had some fun, and most importantly made a LOT of people happy (and had 2-3 hours of drawing in as well) — so I’d say it was a good day.

 

Defiant Pirate

 

The Future of Art?

As a fellow artist on Twitter remarked,

“… feels like we're headed to a future where human-created artisanal art will be relegated to unmonetizable niche small subcommunities or local communities

people will rush to compete by flooding the market with AI Content™ while human made art will struggle to even be visible.”

Coincidentally, exactly what I was thinking when I made this … anticipating future generations becoming accustomed to generative art as something rendered immediately, almost instantaneously via a text-prompt — foregoing the slow, arduous process of learning how to MAKE art with tangible, physical material, and skills painstakingly honed and cultivated over time.

Hopefully, I will be mistaken in thinking such.

But you take a look at everything that is happening in the space of a year, the exponential LEAPS in technology, the intoxicating allure of it all, the impact on every genre imaginable … and have to admit the temptation to go “full-Luddite” is present.

 

"Overlooked"

This was done for a weekly word/phrase challenge on Twitter, “old town”; just my somewhat dour interpretation of the phrase.

What I was intending to portray was the feeling of being left out, cast aside, alienated. Sometimes it happens by way of economic class and bigotry (ex. “gated communities” intent upon exclusion of the other, “out of sight, out of mind” — indicated by the trash heap, concealed behind the wall); or perhaps by technology or “progress”, as when an industry finds itself outdated, leaving behind abandoned factories and those who once made a living from it.

In many cases, “old towns” can be emblematic to me of those society has forgotten, or intentionally don’t wish to see. 

There are greener pastures, the future may be bright — but typically for the privileged, the select few.

 

The Watcher

 

Blue Ridge

 

Ent - (Tolkienish)

 

"AI will swallow everything"

 

Bridge

"Bridge" -- prompt from Architecdoodle2.0 

Wednesday challenge (via Twitter).

 

Scouting Party

Background photo used w/ permission from Judy Kosolapova. (Moscow artist). https://unsplash.com/photos/Us_dv71f1bc...

 

Dwarven Fury!

 

Squirm

"Squirm"

Micron, Sharpie, white gel pen.

8.5x11.

 

beware of trolls having tantrums...

 

dawn patrol - v.2

"dawn patrol" - black and white original 1/10/23. 

Digital colorization w/ Photopea.com

 (poor man's version of Photoshop). 

(Turned out ok, getting better at it w/ practice).

 

Desert Sunrise

 

Stave Church, Norway

 

Rendering of a Norwegian 'stave church' (for the Architecdoodlez
Wednesday art challenge on Twitter).

The oldest preserved wooden churches in Christianity, there were reportedly 1300 in existence, of which only 28 now remain. (Bucket list is to actually visit one of these in person someday).

https://www.visitnorway.com/typically.../stave-churches/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stave_church

Lost in the Shelves (Colorized)

"Lost in the Shelves", originally colored with watercolor pencils 

and overlaid with some digital colorization via Photopea 

(freeware version of Photoshop for poor artists).

 

First Contact

 

'first contact' - quick pen and ink doodle 

on the subway ride home Thursday evening; 

then digitally colorized.

Ocean

Quick burst 💥 of creativity before heading into another day at the office. #acrylic paint, colored pencils, colored markers, gel pen, ink … little bit of everything.

Castle + Dragon

quick (1-2 hour) doodle

for a Twitter challenge

Peace will come when the bombs stop falling

Support Ukraine

Last Stand

a failed attempt at eviction

Refuge

Lab Rat Jailbreak!

Lapse into some self-indulgent humor and I had a few giggling fits in the midst of it ... Apologies to those who might have a particular attachment for the iconic character. I'll draw something nice next. Promise!

Lost Between The Shelves

My favorite place growing up in Hickory, NC was the Elbert Ivey Memorial Library. When I got to the age where I could walk into town on my own unattended by an adult, my mom would let me spend afternoons at the library on my own, after we were done home-schooling for the day.

I made so many discoveries there -- of authors and books I still read and treasure today.

It was there that I first encountered Ray Bradbury ("The Martian Chronicles"), Brian Herbert ("Dune"), Orson Scott Card ("Ender's Game") and Douglas Adams ("Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

It was also there that I also discovered real, genuine FEAR -- by way of an anthology of scary stories for children, and ABOUT children ("Young Monsters" edited by Isaac Asimov); and it was there that, barely a teen, I dared picked up Stephen King's "Night Shift" and scared myself out of my wits -- and promptly returned the following day for more.

So many fond memories of those days, spending endless summer afternoons, lost in the shelves.

This piece is a tribute to all the bookstores and libraries around the world, but most of all to that one in particular.

Overlook

Summoning the Death Metal Apocolypse

melancholy gargoyle

"Melancholy Gargoyle" (one of 2 versions). 01/02/23. 

Micron pen, digital background. 

Background photo used w/ permission by Aleksandar Pasaric (pexels.com).

NFT - version 2

NFT - version 1

Christopher Doodles - NFT's now on OpenSea

Happy New Year! I'm pleased to announce that my collection of work from this year is now available in NFT form on OpenSea, for those who collect such. I admit when the NFT craze first took off, I was rather put off by them, largely due to obnoxious crypto-bro's pumping thousands of pixelated pabulum, generated en-mass by automated script, with little or no thought except for the dominant intent to market to the masses in get-rich-quick schemes. Suffice to say it wasn't my style. In recent weeks, however, I've encountered -- largely via Twitter -- a host of really incredible and genuine ARTISTS of all kinds, specializing in all manner of genres (death metal to manga/anime to landscapes), dedicated to honing their skills in sketching, inking, painting ... and yes: displaying their work as NFT's, which inevitably prompted me to reconsider my initial distaste and investigate further how that form could be put to better use. So, anyway -- for those interested:

• Christopher Doodles' Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/blosser_doodles
• Christopher Doodles' OpenSea NFT collection, 2022:

p.s. 2022 was a difficult and challenging year for me in many respects, but I have sought solace in art and creatively learned and advanced a great deal. Just looking at my "pen and ink" drawings from a year or two ago and today seems like night and day. Credit is definitely due to the recent discovery of Micron pens. Of these works, the majority were produced in a span of 3 months!

cocoon

forest-thumper

"every sunday evening..."

mountain storm, revisited 12-25-22

12-24-22 - untitled

Nomad

Tree, 12-21-22

 

"Santa Claus, Demon-Slayer"

pencil + micron ink, white gel pen

"ahhhhhhhh, ramen."

quick sketch (w/ some digital editing)

Portal

 

"Space Marines Battle Against Bug-Eyed Creep -- News at 11"

 

Death Star Happy Hour

 

Peace to Ukraine

November Moon

 

Support Ukraine

Dungeons & Dragons

Autumn!

Autumn! -- my favorite season of the year (obviously). A colorized version of a drawing from last month, using watercolor markers and some colored pencils.

In the mood for something a little apocalyptic/sci-fi-ish this weekend…

Surfing the Zombie Apocalypse ...