Angry Duck Studio

After spending a couple hours on The Chief, I needed to do something different. So here's another Yupo quickie.


The Escape (Shroom Ship)
Acrylic on 11" x 14" Yupo

I planned this as another color exercise, using two complements (yellow and purple) and an analog (orange), but couldn't resist the green-gold for the background and the anthra-whatever blue for the 'danger'. So I bent the rules, as usual. Also, the original shape was a mushroom. One day we saw slides in class and at least two works were about mushrooms. People seemed to like them. But I like spaceships. This one's kinda both.

I'm really proud of this one. I think it's an interesting piece and generally exceeded my expectations. My old neighbor, Hans, likes Native American imagery, so with him in mind, I created this portrait of a tribal chief. This photo, Bull Chief, was the inspiration.


The Chief
Acrylic on 18" x 18" stretched canvas

For some reason, I chose to begin this one with the shadow around his face. But I didn't want just a dark area, I wanted it to have life and color. For a while it looked like a colorful fur muffler around his neck, but adding the white details mostly fixed that. At one point, Jason wanted me to warm up the lower portion. Ok, a little orange never hurt anyone! I'm not sure that's what he meant.

I just realized that I cheesed out on the horns of the headdress, simply outlining them instead of giving them a real presence. And the skin tone's probably not right. And he's a little Johnny Cash in the face, not that that's a bad thing. Oh well. It's still great, in my opinion.

Class ends at 9pm, but I like to stop earlier to allow time to clean up. So at about 8:07, right after finishing Lamprey, I taped up a sheet of Yupo and challenged myself to do a really quick self portrait. Mark Bruck, a classmate and fine portraitist, was using the mirror, so I used the crappy picture from my school ID. I was done with it a 8:20 and it's great!


Hasty Self Portrait
Acylic on 11" x 14" Yupo

Yes, I know it's a bit 'Shaggy' from Scooby-Doo. "Rut-roh, Raggy!"

Anayway, this post wouldn't be complete without the source material, so here's my ID:


Clearly you can see that I don't have a large mole on the right side my face, as the painting suggests. It's just trying to make me look bad.

I had it in my head to paint something about lampreys. You know, the fish-eel-parasite things that are just a slimy body with razor sharp teeth? I like teeth. So I made this.

It shares a similar symmetry with Tomb Tennis. I also like the simple representation of ground and sky, as well as the texture of the lampreys (click on it for a larger image).


Earth Lamprey Vs. Sky Lamprey
Acrylic on canvas 16" x 20"

I think it's a classic.

I finally painted a good, big one!

The concept isn't new -- an archaeologist disturbs a slumbering spirit while investigating the hieroglyphics on the tomb wall (with a magnifying glass). However, this piece also could be taken as someone playing tennis with a skull-creature, hence the title.

Either way, people seem to like it. Here's the finished version:


Tomb Tennis
Acrylic on 30" x 40" paper and foam board

Now, here's the initial version:

• too much white
• no relationship between the entities

The final version is definitely better.

Throw together some gel, a little retarder and
a few well-chosen, colorful brushstrokes and
ya got yerself a masterpiece. Ok, a prettygoodpiece.
About a person trying to decide whether or not
to climb upward. Sorry about the scanning
artifacts along the edges.


Red Stairs
Acrylic on 9" x 12" canvas paper


This one's a dripper about two creepy phantom
entities. They're individuals, but they somehow
go togther. I like the way there's just the slightest
amount of detail around their 'faces'.


The Bond
Acrylic on 9" x 12" canvas paper

The talented artists here at Angry Duck Studio have created so many great pieces that they no longer fit on a single page! So I added the 'Paintings!' drop-down box that now resides in the upper-right section of the page.

• Pick a title
• See the preview
• Click it, baby!
  

Enjoy!