Illustration Friday: Balloon -

"Balloon II"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

This week, Illustration Friday offers the theme of balloon. Since I'm on vacation and trying to get back to my Sherlock Holmes stories, I've cheated just a little bit. If this looks familiar, perhaps some will remember this image from The Toys Series that was posted back in May if my reckoning is right. I used an alternate version, recolored it and put it here for all to see. Now, where was I? Oh yes, in the words of Mr. Holmes, "Come, Watson, Come! The game is afoot."

Not what you think -

"Until the Wheels Fall Off"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

As I worked on this image The Toys Series came immediately to mind. However, that body of work is based upon tempera-on-paper paintings that always precede the digital manipulation. Even though the look and the style of this fits well within the confines of that series, it must, as defined by the criteria, stand alone. I'm thinking that more of these will appear as I begin to accumulate a few weeks worth of images for posting while I'm vacation in mid-August. I'm also thinking that this may very well mean another, new series. What to do?

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse XI"

manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather

Since hanging this series at The Weiskotten Gallery at the beginning of July, the impetus to add new work has ebbed a little bit. I haven't painted anything new for The Toys Series in about 3 weeks either so I'm happy to get back to these whimsical pieces. I think about them quite often, in particular regarding some way to market these for sale while figuring out how to give some of them away. Ideas are whirling about in my head and something is likely to come of all this sometime in the not too distant future.

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Dump Truck"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

Once again I pay homage to my exhibition at The Weiskotten Gallery with another piece from The Toys Series. While I'm at it, how about a nod to Bob the Builder? I actually had a dump truck similar to this when I was about 4 or 5 ... it was made of good, solid metal instead of the plastic toys you get today. They were perfect for clunking the kid next door over the head with and was sure to raise a welt that would be remembered a fair while. :)

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse IX"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

To celebrate the hanging of images 1 thru 8 in The Birdhouse Series I thought I might post this newly created image. Eleven works from The Toys Series were also hung today at The Weiskotten Gallery and I have to admit that the show looks bright and happy. Just right for the beginning of summer! I should also like you to make a note that I've posted an alternate version of this at my other blog, No Matter What Shape - The Archive. Have a peek if you're interested, I'm on my way out to have a little Irish Whiskey along with a few glasses of red wine as a chaser.

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Horse"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

In case what I said about this series the other day was misleading, I should clarify the fact that the only break I've taken is from creating new work. I still have a few more of these in the files but I need a bit more time to think about them. Anyway, once again, I'm not really here, but at a meeting ... on the bright side, I believe there's going to be wine served at this one! :)

Spinning off -

"Memorial Service"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

While I have more images in The Toys Series to post, as well as more to create, I have taken a little break from them. I do, however, plan to continue with these tempera paintings that are done on the daily newspaper. With this image for example, a simple red cross was the final, painted layer atop a small article that had been previously treated with the residue in my brush cleaning dish. Little attempt was made to obscure the text during painting but has been completely obliterated in the manipulation process. The original painting is very small, probably no bigger than 2" X 3", and it was a good bit of fun to spin off from the other work.

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Top"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

Just finishing up what I can in preparation for getting images to Community Darkrooms for reproduction on their beautiful, industrial, ink jet printers. If all goes well, I'll have ten each from this series and The Birdhouse Series. Just like yesterday, I'm off! Back to the drawing board.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse VII"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

As I get closer to assembling the work for my upcoming exhibition I find that I need a few more images in the two series of work that I want to present. I believe I have enough work for The Toys Series but am a few pieces short with this one, The Birdhouse Series. I'm afraid that a flurry of concerted effort and activity is the only way to go about accomplishing the task. So, I've stopped to chat too long already, back to work!

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Tricycle"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

I'm in bit of a flurry as I move forward with my attempt to have 2-dozen images from this series for my upcoming exhibition. This particular piece is actually one of the first to be completed and I've been sitting on it, undecided about the look of it. As often happens over time, my view of things has softened; or, could it be that a few others that followed were also a bit on the edge? In any case, sorry to dash off, I have some painting to do!

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Red Ball"

digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

Today's post is the ninth piece shown in The Toys Series. I have an even dozen in the file and every intention of attempting to accomplish another dozen for my upcoming exhibition at The Weiskotten Gallery during the month of July. Initially I was thinking to mount the original paintings alongside the manipulated versions but expense has thrown that idea straight out the window. I'll quite likely choose one, representative painting as a reference point to hang with my exhibition statement. Gee, now I've tired myself out completely thinking about all of the work that lies ahead!

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Train"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

The series continues with this cacophony of line and, as I was looking back at these over the weekend, I was stunned to see how quickly the images have changed stylistically. Much of that is due to the filtering process while the initial method of creating the fast and loose paintings remains basically the same. I only mention this as a point of interest ... well, interesting to me at least. I look forward to the time when I have 2 or 3 dozen of these to exhibit. When I arrive at that, ahem, station, I may have a bit of a task organizing them any other way than chronologically; but, what could be more fun?

A playful evening in the Lab -

"Miracle Seekers"
digitally manipulated mixed media & collage by Mick Mather

I tend to pay attention to things like splatters, brush cleaning papers, paint mixing swipes on scraps and other throw-a-way materials. Here, for example, I've fallen into the habit of loading a brush with more than one color of paint. I like to test a few strokes on the newspaper photo's that happen to be adjacent to the print areas where I'm doing my tempera-on-paper paintings for The Toys Series. There was absolutely nothing special or intriguing about these until I started sending them into the secret array of plug-in filters and manipulators. I'll be showing a few more of these as time passes and I highly recommend little diversionary tactics like this to keep the mind fresh during those times when the more important work seems stale, dry, forced or impossible to move along.

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Balloon"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

I've been so busy lately that the paintings have been stacking up while attempting to find time to accomplish the manipulations. As it happens, my 5:00pm meeting for today was canceled and I had a bit of unexpected free time to work in the Secret Visual Laboratory. Since no good deed goes unpunished and since nature abhors a vacuum, guess what? That's right! I now have something else to do ... gotta run!

NEW from The Toys Series -

"Big Yellow Whistle"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

Work continues unabated on The Toys Series. A bit less momentum than there was with the initial flurry of activity, but forward progress just the same. The idea that I would mount each original painting side by side with the digital manipulation is no longer feasible but not completely dead as a concept. Either way, I'm off, back to the drafting table for another painting session.

NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse III"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

No one would be more shocked than I at the way this piece came about, considering that the tempera-on-paper painting was nothing more than a throw-away. I was, quite simply, using up the extra paint on my brush as I switched between colors while working on another piece from The Toys Series. As you may or may not know, these simple, quickly made paintings of children's toys are done on newsprint, scanned and manipulated. Here, with today's image, there was little attempt to obscure headlines or text as paint was cleared from the bristles followed by simple washes to get back to clean ... anyway, the various plug-in filters and super secret manipulation tools made this one a fun surprise all around!

(A day later, I've added the alternate version of this image at No Matter What Shape - The Archive. You can see it here.)