Lunar Boy Show and Shipwreck

Had a great time at the Creature Feature opening on Saturday. Astoria is a fun little place. The gallery was warm, welcoming and modern and there was lots of foot traffic. Here are a few photos.






Andrea and Matthew Porter relaxing.

With the missus and friends.

I also got to do a watercolor and gouache plein air sketch of the Peter Iredale shipwreck off the Oregon coast at Fort Stevens. Something I'd like to do more often.

Creature Feature

The Creature Feature online preview is now up at Lunar Boy!

Click to see Matthew Porter's work and pricing

Click to see my work and pricing

Here are my pieces:

Real Chicken of the Sea - 9" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol

Longest Horn - 5" x 11" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Slight Disadvantage - 12" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Three Heads Are Better - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol

Unihorn at Choco Mountain - 5" x 7" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Raging Mountaintop - 6" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Cycloptical Exam - 8" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Fiery Escape - 8" x 6" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

Mermaid Service - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on deep cradle Aquabord

If you like free drinks and art and happen to be near Astoria this Saturday, please stop in and say how-do. Matthew and I will be there with our ladies.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13th from 5 - 9pm
Lunar Boy Gallery
1133 Commercial Street
Astoria OR 97103
866.395.1566
info@lunarboygallery.com

Ape on the Moon

Alex over at Ape on the Moon did a nice little feature on me. If you check it out, I'm sure all your wildest dreams will come true.*




*Wildest dreams not guaranteed to come true.

Upcoming 2-Man Show

Here's one of the pieces I did for my upcoming 2-man show with Matt Porter at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria, OR. Show opens Saturday evening, June 13th. More details to come.

A more finished version of the little card I painted awhile back.

Three-Headed Mutant Bird - 6" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on heavyweight bristol paper.

Blogs of Note

Here are a couple blogs you should be aware of:

DigiPen instructor and former Disney background painter (Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, etc) Peter Moehrle is blogging.



Art Director and background painter (Foster's and more) Carol Wyatt is posting her beautiful paintings.

Same stuff, new package

Finally, I've finished overhauling my website. Time was of the essence, so there may be a few kinks to iron out, but at least it's up!


drakebrodahl.com

P.S. My Etsy store will be launching after I get some packing supplies... I'll let you know when.

Magilla Gorilla

Here's my other piece for the upcoming G1988 SF show, that opens one week from today. A tribute to the great Mel Crawford and his masterpiece HB book. It's big so you can see the details. Magilla Gorilla character is copyright Hanna Barbera, of course.

12" x 18" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper.

P.S. Special thanks to the talented Mr. Steve Lambe for his helpful layout advice!

G1988 Group Show - Beyond the Page

Guess what? My painting made it onto the flyer for the upcoming G1988 SF group show "Beyond the Page: re-illustrating our favorite children's books".



Since the cat's out of the bag, here's the whole painting. I'll have another in the show, but you'll have to wait...

On The Way To Grandmother's House - 10" x 10" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol.

The show runs May 1st - 23rd.
Opening reception is Friday, May 1st from 7 - 10pm. I'll be there with a slew of talented folks, so come by and say howdy!

Latest from Scott Wills

For those of you who have been wondering what Scott's been up to lately, wonder no more!

Besides wrapping up art direction on Monsters vs Aliens, Scott teamed up with Genndy recently to produce a short for CN called 'Maruined'. Scott painted all the final backgrounds himself over an incredibly short span of time... around 50 in about 2 months (on top of his full-time job)! It's uncertain if Maruined will ever air on TV, but Scott sent over a few of his BGs and as you can see, they are absolutely spectacular. Looking at them again, I'm still having difficulty comprehending the brilliant artistry. To say the least, they are like nothing I've seen before. How often can that be said these days?

Before you ask, they were painted mostly by hand (except for the characters and a few digital elements for animation purposes, I believe). Images are Copyright © Cartoon Network.

Doodle Me

A few seconds after watching Kali drawing over at Sketch Theatre I was inspired to do a quick, sloppy caricature of myself.

Looney Tunes exhibit at MOHAI

For those of you living in (or visiting) the Pacific NW, the Seattle Museum of History and Industry is hosting a fantastic exhibit of original Warner Bros Looney Tunes artwork. I can't show you, because the museum unfortunately doesn't allow photography, but believe me, there is some incredible work on display. In addition to beautiful original storyboards from old Porky Pig episodes and others, there are a slew of original layouts, cels and to top it all off, several lovely original background paintings by the likes of Warner greats Phil DeGuard, Dick Thomas and Paul Julian. Paul Julian's were especially amazing. The highlight of the show for me, are some breathtaking concept paintings by Maurice Noble from the #1 ranked cartoon of all time, "What's Opera, Doc?" The man was a super-talent amongst the super-talented.

The weekend before last, my wife and I attended the exhibit and corresponding events... animation workshops, demos, tours, and even facepainting for the kiddies. Most notable were the animation demos by talented former Looney Tunes background artist, Bob Abrams who lives in the area. He showed how to animate some simple Daffy Duck head turns and even better, produced his portfolio for us to look at, all while telling stories from his career and answering questions. In his portfolio were several lovely examples of his background paintings, a storyboard and some of his fine art paintings. He also produced from the portfolio case, an original Maurice Noble final background layout. A stunning triple-pan from a well-known Wlle E. Coyote episode. He said they used to just give them away because they were considered mere byproducts of the trade at the time. Little did they realize the value these original pieces of production art would hold. Bob said if he had known, he'd have grabbed a lot more!

Bob was kind enough to chat with me one-on-one for a bit and allow a photo. It was a pleasure to meet him and get to watch the considerable skill honed (and still sharp) through his time at Disney and Warner Bros studios.

My nieces also showed up for some of the fun.

The exhibit is up through May 17th, so do yourself a favor and go see it.


On a related note, some of the talented artists from Portland's Grass Hut gallery were recently commissioned to do some Looney Tunes art for Warner Bros. One such artist was the talented Martin Ontiveros, who knocked out some fabulous paintings of classic Looney Tunes characters in his inimitable style and with his usual unmatched precision. They're up on his Flickr page, so check them out! Like the rest of his paintings, you won't believe the quality of these suckers.

Three of Martin's paintings.

Color Roughs

Can't leave you guys hangin' anymore. Here are some rough color studies for an upcoming piece. Going with something close to the first.

Both are about 4" x 4" cel vinyl acrylic on bristol paper.

It's February

I haven't given up blogging, though from my lack of activity you may have assumed so. I've been pretty busy with freelance design work and other things. Lots of planning and behind the scenes sketching going on though. I'll try to be better at bringing the posts.


So here's some stuff that's happening:

I'll be in a group show on May 1st at Gallery 1988 SF. The theme... a secret, but happens to be well-suited to my tastes.

In June I'll be in a two-man show at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria with the amazing Matthew Porter.

October will be my solo show at Bluebottle Art Gallery here in Seattle.

Vacationing in Thailand with the missus very soon. Can't wait to shed my winter clothing for some fun in the sun (and 90 degree weather).

Upon my return, I'll jump into production on Welcome to Monstroville, where I'll be doing some digital backgrounds with a slew of mighty talented folks.


Also, Chinese New Year has come and gone. Lots of quality family time spent with the in-laws and delicious food digested. Hope those of you who celebrate it had a good one!

Doodles

Happy 09!

Hope everyone is having a good start to 2009! Sorry for the lack of posts, but it's been a busy couple weeks.

I've finally got a few photos from the show opening last month, which comes down in a couple days. Sadly, I forgot to take many pictures of the event as I was usually in the middle of talking to someone.

Some of the crowd. Lots of former colleagues and pals.

Me bredder.

Niece.

Niece.

For my first art project of the year, I was asked by my sister in law to paint a castle mural on cloud wallpaper for my niece's 5th birthday party. Used a couple tiny stickers for the castle reference, but altered the design and colors. I ran out of time to do some of the nice detailing I wanted to do, but the kids seemed to like it nonetheless.

Mixing colors.

Action shot.

Final product.

A gaggle of princesses.


Lastly, I have a bunch of goals for the New Year and beyond:

1. Get better at painting
2. Start working on my next solo art show for Sept.
3. Finish my website
4. Start selling stuff on Etsy
5. Do studies of artwork I admire (goes with #1)
6. Take a painting class (goes with #1)
7. Clean and organize the garage
8. Get into some group art shows
9. Finish watching the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs
10. Finish watching My Life As A Teenage Robot episodes
11. Play more soccer
12. Be a better husband and more patient person in general
I have more, but that's enough for now...

Transfer Process

I've had some people ask about my process of transferring the final image to my painting surface recently, so I'll share. It's pretty straightforward. Btw, this is just the way I do it... there may be other, better ways.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Final image.

Traced and cleaned-up (same step).

Tape traced image to watercolor paper. In this case, 300lb Fabriano cold press watercolor paper. Small piece of Saral graphite transfer paper (use for multiple tracings).

Carefully slide transfer paper under the tracing, while trying not to smudge the surface.

Press fairly hard (without denting your final surface too much).

Transferred image.

I darkened the transferred lines, but I used a fairly light wash, so this step was unnecessary.

Initial wash, some drybrush texture and starting in with the solid shapes. I'm careful to cover over my pencil lines.

More of the same.

Finished painting with tape removed.

Hope this is useful!

Show Paintings

Here are the ones I didn't post yet. It was a great night for me... thank you to everybody who made it out and to all the bloggers who've been so supportive! I'll post more photos here when I get them.

Show wall at Schmancy.

Bird Condo - 7" x 14".

Tree's A Crowd - 12" x 12". SOLD.

Surprise Guest - 8" x 6". SOLD.

Bit Of A Stretch - 4" x 10".

L'Elephant - 7" x 5".

Sparrow's Call - 3.5" x 2". SOLD.

Chatter - 2" x 3.5". SOLD.

Bird Garden - 3.5" x 2". SOLD

Curious Critters Online Preview

Sorry to beat a dead horse... but, *KICK*

The online preview for my little show will be up at noon today here. Here's a taste of what you might find there:



Also, I'd like to point out that my work will not likely be this inexpensive again, and that any purchase will very likely turn this economy right around. Permanently, I bet. No pressure! I'm just sayin'.

Interview

Want to know what makes me tick? Sorry, the interview doesn't cover that, but does cover some other topics of interest (I hope).

Head over to Schmancy Gallery to check it out!

For Me Mum

My Mommy's Birthday is coming up, so I painted both of these yesterday. I'm giving her the warmer colored one. This was actually supposed to be a Christmas present last year, but I ran out of time doing all the niece's paintings. On the bright side, I'm a little better at painting now, so the final product is probably better than it would have been.

6" x 4" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

6" x 4" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper

Also, I finally have my postcards in hand and will be sending them out in the next few days. Thanks to everyone who emailed... sorry I didn't have time to reply. Be forewarned, the colors are a bit off from what they were supposed to be.. but I guess I have to live with them.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Freebie

I'd like to extend this offer to my loyal blog readers... I'll mail a promo postcard to whoever wants one (while supplies last, of course). If you're interested, just email me your name and address and I'll send one your way as soon as I get them from the printer a few days from now. My email: dbrodahl (at) gmail (dot) com. I respect your privacy, so your information will be strictly confidential and not sold to any third, fourth or fifth parties. :)

Nathan Fowkes Class

Back from my recent L.A. trip. Nathan Fowkes is an amazing painter and put on such a great workshop. It was fantastic to learn from him and chat with some very talented classmates.

First half of the 7 hour class was lectures about color theory, including many stunning examples of said theories. Second half was Nathan giving a painting demo from a costumed model where he applied some of the theories we discussed and then our turn to do the same. Here are some shots from the class, sorry for the grainy ones... had to go without flash. The colors will obviously be a bit off.

Enjoy!

Examples of creating color harmony.

Nathan setting up.

Nathan's materials. Winsor Newton watercolors and white gouache, plus various brushes, rags, tape, water reservoirs, etc.

First abstract color study from the model.

Second abstract. Purposely very different from the first.

In progress.

Thumbnail rough from model, using the first color scheme.

Final studies.

My attempts with Liquitex soft body acrylics (first time using these).

It was a really fun and challenging exercise! The big challenge was in editing the colors from what we saw in reality... tons of garish colors side by side. The model was dressed in purple on a blue chair, with a lime green and vivid red scarf draped across each shoulder. Various colored scarves were draped around her against a black velvet backdrop that picked up both red and white raked lighting. And she had orange hair to boot! It was a cornucopia of color.

The goal was to pair the colors down and establish a harmony, focus and use unexpected accents.

For more of Nathan's work, visit:
http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/
http://nathanfowkes-sketch.blogspot.com/

LA Part Deux

Off to L.A. again for a few days. Should be a lot of fun and a lot warmer than Seattle (dryer too).

I leave you with a very small, quick, Eyvind Earle inspired gouache study I did a few days after watching the new DVD release of Sleeping Beauty. The backgrounds in the movie are mind blowing... some of the most extensive and detailed in history. Extremely scarce, but if you find one of Eyvind's Sleeping Beauty bgs for sale, it could be yours for a mere $50,000.

Halloween-ish

This is what happens when I'm trying to sleep at 4am and a vision pops into my head. I run downstairs and paint it down as quickly as possible. This occurs fairly frequently.

I'll do a cleaned up version of this one later, but I thought it was appropriate to share today.

Happy Halloween!

About the size of a business card.

Finally, an Update!

Hi all,

Sorry I've been absent lately. Been working on my show paintings and have become a temporary hermit. A couple more to finish up this week. I'm striving to explore something new visually for me, even if it's something small, in each of the paintings.

It's been hard for me to hold out on you... so here's one of the new ones to whet your appetite. I've added my show details at the right, btw >>>


5" x 8" cel vinyl acrylic on watercolor paper.

Also, I'll be heading down to LA again for a few days in early November. In the interest of continuing to grow and improve as a painter, I'll be attending a one-day color theory and painting workshop taught by Nathan Fowkes. He's an amazing artist who does concept art for Dreamworks, so I'm really excited to go and get me some more learnin'.

More from Scott Wills

Since I'm under the weather and finding it hard to draw and keep my nose from running... here are some phenomenal paintings Scott Wills recently sent over.

This first batch is from Star Wars Clone Wars Vol. 1. No, not the new CG feature, but the 2D animated series for CN. Available for purchase on DVD. If you haven't seen it... you're missing out. Genndy and his dream team pulled out all the stops. Copyright Cartoon Networks and LucasFilm Ltd.

The detail, color, design and lighting in these backgrounds is truly amazing.





Scott was nice enough to send over this Samurai Jack background that he painted. This is a better version than the one I posted before. Apparently the overseas painters felt the need to repaint this final background, even though Scott sent them a better, finished one. Copyright Cartoon Network.


Scott also confirmed that yes indeed, he painted the original "Reflections" piece, that was turned into a giclee print and is available at various animation art dealers. Absolutely gorgeous.