New Little Experiments...

I have been experimenting with some new digital directions. Always searching for new directions and techniques to play with. These three pieces turned out pretty well.

I was trying some limited color pieces to add to the somber tone. The text on the bomb hanging in the top piece is Persian for "Peace." another piece I did for Earth Day... also a little dark and foreboding.
All of these pieces had a similar feel and theme.
 

"The Waiting Game" © Bill Mayer 2015

"Peace" © Bill Mayer 2015

Alternate idea for a time magazine article...but really this was sitting around in my head unfinished for a while... just good to get it out... © Bill Mayer 2015

I love the drama this simple image created... it has a kind of retro feel like some thing from the Sixties... © Bill Mayer 2015

Also continuing to play with some expansion in the gouache paintings... A few more interesting palettes that seem to work...
In between deadlines it has been a good way to keep the hands busy... Some revisited themes that always seem to surface...

This painting stated off as a portrait of "The Donald" (Trump) and just sort of went off all rooster.... © Bill Mayer 2015

The "Buffalo Hunter" I loved the texture of Buffalo hair... I could paint that one again and again... ©Bill Mayer 2015

Another from the dark side... The Dark Angel... just playing around with a cooler palette.. © Bill Mayer 2015

Another surreal image with crows and boats...This one reminds me of a scene from Time Bandits... But I loved the color... © Bill Mayer 2015

I was trying to paint something that was not creepy... somehow just made it creepier.... The Flower Lady.. Gouache on paper. © Bill Mayer 2015

A rather simple but melancholy image of a fish out of water...Sometimes clichés can be poignant. Everyone loves to draw gold fish...(so why not...) Gouache on paper © Bill Mayer 2015

 

Butterfly Girl. I think might have worked better if I covered her face with butterflies...or at least maybe more of her face... (I did that) © Bill Mayer 2015

Bird Lady... Started off kind of like a blue fairy and just grew into a freak... I was not happy with it until I added tentacles and horns... © Bill Mayer 2015

Old Crow... Bible touting steamship for God and Country.... © Bill Mayer 2015

Today is the Day!

 Just before the break this summer I started on a poster for a short movie called "Seth."

It's a gem of a little short about trying to gain your fathers approval. Insanely funny... Horse dicks and all.... A little corny in spots...
The Writer/Director Zach Lasry does a marvelous job, and when you take the time a watch you'll agree. Just so ...uh...endearing? We had about a million ideas but this was the one that stuck.... Here is a link to the trailer...  Watch for this film, coming soon.

There was so much great material in the movie to pull from. The ideas were really easy.  The hard part was figuring out the right tone for the poster. It felt right to almost go as absurd as the "horse Dick" joke but just pull back a little.

And the four we picked to send Zach as candidates for a great poster....

The winner, of course.
A kind of classic portrait of Christopher, the insanely menacing mute of a stuffed animal.

New Technologies in "Tomorrowland"

Interesting project I recently did for American Gas Magazine. Always starts with some thumbnailing...

lots of great ideas. there were a few I thought worked best so I tightened those up and sent them off.
have been playing around with some digital directions. This seemed a perfect fit.
The articles were about some interesting technologies in industry and agriculture,
They really liked the "giant tomato".and the "tomorrow land" ..... We decided to keep the cover more directed at the future technologies side, a bit more of a broad direction for the cover.

I really liked a few of these ideas and I am sure a few of them may show back up down the road. For now the winner is "Tomorrow Land."

I loved those old pulps-ish covers from the Thirties and forties...  My initial thought was to have old industry represented by gears with a bridge tied to the new tech of fuel cells. They didn't get this connection and wanted the gears replaced with more of the tanks and cells. Kind of a scifi look to it.
I made all the buildings made of fuel cells connected with walkways and piping.... Once i got deep into the finish it seemed just too hard so i pulled some trees and birds into the environment to soften it up a bit....They also help add some weight to the bottom.

I wanted to add spires in the back and decided that clock hands worked well conceptually and visually. There was some thought that they looked a bit to much like the Islamic towers... But no one mentioned it at the magazine.

 Blue is the color for gas so the obvious choice for a color scheme.... I tried a quick hue slide and saturation to the green side but Tina liked the blue and that's where it stayed.

Big thanks to art director Tina Enck at The YGS Group for thinking about me on this project ... great fun....LInk to Magazine

What Doesn't Kill You...

A new piece for Scientific American... This article is about the health benefits of not only the antioxidants in vegetables but also the toxins produced naturally by them, that stimulate our nerve cells and bolster our immune systems.
A lot of ideas and variations. Love where this one went... Kind of saturated painting with an alien like blood red beet looming above.... Much thanks to Jason Mishka... Great gobs of fun.....Thank you.