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"King Krok"
When I was about 16 I was pondering centralized control of media, especially TV, and the fact that most people didn’t seem to mind the pablum they were fed. Possibly inspired by the Macintosh commercial of 1984, I drew this pen and ink drawing of a mohawk festooned punk rocker jabbing an oversized needle into the glassy eye of the idiot box.
I started a new painting late last year as a 20 year re-visitation of the theme. A lot has changed in the realm of media outlets, distribution and the offerings available to anyone anywhere. Between the Internet and Tivo, I’ve been able to jab my own sharp needle into the baleful eye of the thing I really hated about TV, the commercials.
So I thought it would be a good time to revisit the theme.
The painting is 24×30 on hard board, and was larger than anything I’ve attempted recently. So it took me forever to finish it. It has the recurring one eyed monsters and lizard men I’ve been painting and drawing reecently, but there are a few other noteworthy cameos.
Here is the punk from the original drawing, 20 years later. Now he’s married and is trying to figure out how to plug the TV in. The original tv is also there, on its side, obsolete and useless.
Here’s my mom and dad riding around in my dad’s a-model hot rod project car.
Here we can see David Rose, Tommy Long, and Doctor Who peeking out of the Tardis. He’s not sure he wants to get involved with this mess, because it’s a tangle that can’t be solved without guns, face punching and biting. Dave on the other hand, is in his element, gleefully chasing a monster with a broken beer bottle. Tommy is putting his hockey equipment to good use as well.
Matt Turner is wearing part of his Spartan costume while George uses his MTG cards to cast some sort of spell. Behind them is a LARPer, casting a level 1 Lightning Bolt.
Finally, there’s Lauren, reloading her Beretta, while my brother Jon lines up a shot. The Time Bandits are making a quick getaway. The item they were after has already been stolen . . .
Here’s my design for this year’s Christmas card. I had the nice people at Docusource of NC handle the printing and folding, and it turned out nicely.
Here’s the front :
Here we see Santa granting the deepest wishes of both the Lizard Man and the Monocular Horned Yeti. See how happy they are?
But what do mortal enemies do as soon as they open their presents? They fight! And it was all part of Santa’s plan!
I’d like to thank George Lamontagne for the idea of the prehensile mustache. Matt Turner also deserves some credit for suggesting a revision to the Monocular Horned Yeti’s mouth.
My friend Chad Morgenstern suggested that perhaps this wasn’t the real Santa, but rather a Jewish Rabbi who being out of work, signed up for a job playing Santa to earn some extra cash. Little did he know he would save the world when he shared a couple of gifts with The Aliens! Chad’s odd sense of humor may surpass even mine.
This painting is taking longer than I planned, so I’m posting a little update to hold over until I can finish the thing.
Robert Frost once began a poem with these timeless lines :
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
Perhaps Mr. Frost was foreseeing the worldwide commotion portrayed in this epic illustration.
Behold the hordes of Lizard Men, bursting forth from their cthonic strongholds. Nixiebots and giant kin obey Saurian masters above and below to completely disrupt human society.
Here’s one of the Saurian masters. Mysterious electronic devices transmit lizard-mind impulses to robotic slaves.
What hope does the human race have? Surely they’re overwhelmed?
Not if Mr. T has anything to say about it.
And who are these mysterious diminutive anachronisms?
They seem to be studying a map of some sort. Are they here for the fight, or perhaps to loot a few treasures while everyone is occupied with more urgent matters?
Until these questions are answered, keep a wary eye open for anyone expressing sympathy for lizards and snakes. They might be fellow travelers with Saurian forces! You might also consider purchasing robot insurance.
This one’s taking me a long time to finish, so here’s a preview of some areas of the painting that are more finished.
The painting is 16×20 and I’m using acrylic, as usual. There’s a lot of detail, and I’m still exploring technique and methods so it’s taking too long! But I’m having fun.
It’s still pretty rough, but this is where I’m headed with page 1 of my King Krok story. I started this in ArtRage with a rough pencil sketch. Then I inked in lines in ArtRage using the felt tip marker. After painting in the colors in ArtRage, I’m finishing it in Photoshop, because Photoshop has “lock transparent pixels” which I’m using to push back the lines I inked in earlier, like Mike Laughead’s process.
More Thursday Meeting notes.
The Lizard Men have a ray that instantly turns Humans into Lizard Men!
He’s digging tunnels under your home.
More Thursday meeting notes.
Another meeting on Thursday generated some more doodles. This one is connected to the text of my King Krok story. Lawless anarchy is just one beard away from reality! I enjoyed the doodle enough to color it in ArtRage. I’m still struggling with the style of the illustrations for the King Krok story, and I wanted to test a flatter style of modeling this type of cartoony character, so I used this doodle as a vehicle.
Saucer Saurian - 2007 - 9x12" Acrylic on Hardboad
I painted this as a test for style and technique for a project. It was fun, and this size is much more manageable than some larger things I’ve done!
