Dragons have always been Female to me! Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Book One. Part One. Page Three. Behemoth, Seeds of Destruction.

  The art on these pages are two and three years old so I don't have an immediate connection to what I was thinking when I drew it, still there is a narrative intention that tingles when I see the words with the pictures and it SEEMS to make sense.  I do know I was beginning to think a lot about movement and forward progression.  Left to Right.  Behemoth is a fiction of my wounded Anima.  Not understanding how to balance the good and bad in a person that is loved, I create an Ideal that always fails...always destroys. 

  Music List: T-Pain(on you-tube)
                      Ludacris(also on you-tube)                     
                     Charles Mingus, Mingus mingus mingus mingus.

 Reading List: DC Secret Origins(Kevin Nowlan Covers!!)
                        James Bond Movie Posters, the Official 007 collection from Chronicle Books.

What becomes of the Brokenhearted. Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction. Book One. Part One. Page Two: Sophia's Touch

Change often comes after pain or tragedy.  Ruminating over the whys and wherefores of a broken heart inspired the design for this page.

Music List:      A Love Supreme John Coltrane.
                        All is fair in love, Stevie Wonder.
Reading List:  Man and his Symbols, Carl Jung
                        On the Origin of the World, Nag Hammadi Library

New Beginnings: Of Mythic Proportions. Book One. Part One. Page One. Gnostic Ignition.

I know this is the second time i have put this image up, but I have learned a little about lettering and though alot more about design. 

Reading List: the Nag Hammadi Library

Music List: Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd.

OMP:Notes on Beginning.

OMP: NOTES ON BEGINNINGS….

for REALS, this time.

  

 

            So, the whole time I was sketching out the visuals for OMP: Extinction and mapping out the final larger plot, I was seeing this Artist *wink* and she broke my heart…wanh wanh. 

            But, I was into my craft at the time.  I became an improved draftsman and technician during my time teaching college.  I read a lot, finally finding in The Nag Hammadi Library, the beginning of this story. 

           

Still it really starts with the memory of a kiss…

 

 

            A bit jarring to look at; two engagements, a marriage, a divorce, and a new relationship later, realizing the intensity of that moment (birthday in LA 2006?) and the very different emotions it evokes now from when it was experienced and drawn.   I suppose it would be easier to say six years later… but that’s another story that inspired this story.

            This is this story of Lord Lizard.  A story set in the deep distant well of humanity’s mythic beginnings.  This is a story of entropy. 

 

 

     “---a god outgrown becomes immediately a life destroying demon. The form has to be broken and the energy released.”

        Joseph Campbell. “Hero with a Thousand Faces.”

     So coming every Wednesday starting next Wednesday,  will be a page of sequential art.  Starting out by reworking the lettering on the preliminary pages of OMP:EXTINCTION. 

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Book One. Part One. Page Eight.

  
Sorry for my absence...  is there anybody out there....

Anyway starting to feel like playing with the composing of the lettering
here.  You only learn by doing.  Finding ways to layer the flat comic page.  Creating dimensions of expression.  Making myth.

 

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction Book One. Part One Page Seven.

    
                                             Art and Words by Kevin L. Patrick.     Copyright 2012


    The different shaded word boxes are indicative of different narrators.  Please bare with me.  O.M.P. is an exercise and evolution for me.  A discovery of process and a defining of technique.  Still thinking a lot about movement and how black & white work to move the eye.  Storytelling.

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Six

         I think I need to letter smaller.  I hate how much of the image I lost.  Or keep paring down my wordy script.  The inspiration for part of this story was young men growing up without fathers.  Instead of Madonna and child we have Widow and child.  I was a little miffed when I saw how much Female Trinities are being played up in the recent issues of Thor.  But thats myth.  What can you do. 

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction Book One. Page Five.

  Tentacles have been spiraling thru my art for the last decade taking form in this reality as my Locks.  I'm still working out what that means.  This page and the last are meant to be viewed as one spread.   Sometime after I stop posting Part One I'm gonna show ya'll the Digital Art Omni made from some of these images.  Listening to alot of Pandora lately.  Right now its on the Kanye West Station.  Yesterday i was listening to Bowie all afternoon.  Man I'm loving this cyber age.  Thanks William Gibson and them. 
Addicted to Fringe and reading Jung voraciously.  Oh and reading comics reading comics.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Four.

  Every film has opening credits.  The Pantheon of this story.  The young fantastic beings  around which this story rotates.  Diana, Lord Lizard, Dzr, Lady Orb and Lord Lyonmane.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction Book One. Part One. Page Three.

Start slow and with introductions.  Building a mystery.  Story and Art by Kevin L. Patrick.  Copyright 2011

Of Mythic Proportions:Extinction. Book One. Part One. Page Two.

I must admit reading alot of the Naghammadi Library while writing this story.

Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Book One. Part One.

It’s a myth. It is a parable. It is a reflection. From a footnote in Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand faces: “ …(a god outgrown becomes immediately a life destroying demon. The form has to be broken and the energy released.)”

Story and Art by Kevin L. Patrick The Abyss

In and Out of Boxes: An American in Paris

In and Out of Boxes: An American in Paris


A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment.


If you know me or have talked to me in the last couple months you would have heard from me, ad nauseum, thst the highlight of my year was my trip through the United Kingdom and France this summer. I visited Galleries and Museums in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. I was moved and inspired.
I saw a lot of impressionist in person that taught me about color and brushwork. And I took a bunch of pics. Many are earmarked to become parts of paintings.



Like this one

Marcus said this would make a great comicbook cover. I agree. It was one of my first attempts to take a self shot of myself so popular on facebook. It was the last full trip of the journey and I was exhausted but excited. We sat in the courtyard of Notre Dame waiting for our whole group to get back together. Deonte playing on his Ipod and me listening to mine…


So part of Art is process. This is mine. This is the first in a series narrative painting inspired by what has been happening to me over the last year. I want to mix observation with sequential storytelling. Essential to the sequential narrative is the panel. The panel is the doorway into the constructed reality of the storyteller. The panel introduces the concept of time to the twodimensional world. The gutters(white spaces) are as important as the information in the panels. This painting is about attaining dreams and goals without losing connection to where you have been. This painting is about coming Out of the Abyss.

Stage One: Rendering

Up until recently I would not use black when make representational work but I have become very interested in a lot of more illustrative thought; envisioning watercolor and ink drawings. A hard-edged but color rich space.

Stage Two: Value Placement/Creation

At this stage I am mixing what I see of light with what I see as tone and create some constructed light source to move through the composition. Oh yeah in the right I improvised a monochromatic fever dream. The internal dialogue to the external world represented on the left. Magical Realism with Constructivist tendencies from a post-Post-modern intention direct the compositional choice. Oh yeah and comics. PANELS.

Stage Three: Color Washes/Building Layers

Putting down areas of primary colors and browns. Working out background darks on Notre Dame. Keeping it simple.







Stage Four: Final Color Under painting

I have my color buildup and undervalues. Leaving some white and a hint of pencil on canvas at the bottom of the left panel. Finished with the right panel. Very happy with it.

Put in my finishing touches and tryin' to leave it alone. I like it. My students like it. I'm content. For the Impressionists.

Building a Mystery: Self Absorbed Series: The Box/Red Fugue

FUGUE

:a musical form in which a theme is first stated, then repeated and varied with accompanying contrapuntal lines

:a disordered state of mind in which somebody typically wanders from home and experiences a loss of memory relating only to the previous, rejected, environment.

I love words.

My art is Sequential.
It is about mastering forms and processes, to communicate a narrative. It is observation, meditation and communication.

Self-Absorbed is about ME. The reflexive self and all that entails. I am the subject matter. What I see , feel, and my presence are the recurring components of this series of paintings.

Self-Absorbed: The Box/Red Fugue
Acrylic on canvas. July 2011

The Owner’s Box has been my hangout in Montgomery since it opened a couple years ago. Run by a good friend last summer, I began painting at the club on the slower Thursday evenings. Sometimes it was Reggae Night or Karaoke or Comedians were the entertainment, giving a nice group of night lifers to watch and a nice place to create.
The Box began as a stream of consciousness painting, attempting to relate the atmosphere of the Owner’s Box.

Unhappy with this stage I let it sit unfinished for a number of months. My trip to Europe at the top of the summer gifted me with great inspiration and understanding of how the Western European Masters worked. I studied the brushstrokes of art I previously only experienced in books and online.
I learned a lot.
I returned to The Box a few weeks ago and let it free. I shadowed the face as it was distracting and turned Me* into an object in the painting as opposed to the viewers conduit into the world of the painting. Everything else is all in my/His* head.
Of course my love for Mondrian’s structure comes into play in this work. I see and communicate reality in a modular manner. The use of panels is a nod to Sequential Art and the language of Comic Books.
Red is Carnal.
I always leave a little pencil evident.
Painting is a process. I always try to leave a trail.

This crimson dream is the source and drive of the Abyss, the potent darkness; the place all creations emerge from.

Building a Mystery: Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction. Lord Lizard.Transmutations.Kronn Lord of the Dead.

Lord Lizard in Repose. Acrylic on Watercolor paper. 2011


So the Idea for this character came from The Dawn of the Dragons Campaign created by Paul DiNunno back when I was an undergrad at St. Mary's College of Maryland two decades ago. One of the major antagonists of our adventuring group was the shadowy leader of the swamp nation of Nilth, Kronn. As described by the Gamemaster he was a huge necromantic Lizard man whose body was deteriorating. A decade or more later, after my experiences as a profesor and my journy into Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, i began wondering where Kronn came from. What makes a villian. The tale of Lord Lizard came from these musings. Discovering and creating his story turned into a long story that explained for me my experience with young male students without father figures, the transformation of the godpower for good into a monster, and the destiny of two characters in that first campaign: Arrak the Archer and Dwayne Lyon.
As presented in this first painting he is the leader of a nation having recently betrayed his bloodbrother and looking upon his destiny.

Kronn Ruler of the Snake Clann, Lord of Nilth, Heart of the Behemoth.
Acrylic on Watercolor, 2011.

I have not created the definitive image of Kronn as a enemy of the Crimson Guard, but this is him at the height of his rule.
In the end it all went bad. But all of that is in the details.

thumbnails, Thumbnails, THUMBNAILS

Thumbnail of Immorals pg 1, Origin of NV


I'have begun to really embrace the use of thumbnails in preparing my sequential art ideas. Its a good high but small vanishpoit to best plan out the page. Now I've begun scanning the small pencil thumbnails, blowing them up to half 8"x10" and roughing out my blacks with sharpies and micron pens.

Painting as therapy...

Self Absorbed:MidLife Crisis. Acrylic on canvas 1/11


Turned 41 at the end of last year and it hit me hard. I started this painting painting just before New Year and finished it the first week of 2011. Taken from a photograph where i give the Lil' Lo salute. This is my mentalyy for facing this new stage in my life. Embracing the shadow, creating a foundation and accepting as true my own thinking. A Toast to the Scumbags.

Work in Progress.....

Self Absorbed:TheBoxx/RedFugue
Acrylic on canvas
in progress....

Trying to share what I felt in the Owner's Box. Using carnal color to encompass the intensity of sensation it can be at its best. Began painting this one on Thursdays at the Owner's Box. Close to finish. I'm really learning some things about value. Standard Mondrian homage.

Sketches and stuff......

A character for a story Omni and i are putting together. This is NV.

And this is The Horror.


I'm inking those images now and will color them later. looking to make strong visual stuff.

Back to coloring OMP:Extinction. Thumbnailing the second book now. Being productive...

OMP: Girl Trouble

Infinity slays Behemoth.2010. Acrylic on canvas.

It took me awhile but I finished this painting. I worked on it in front of my students on a Free Day. It was inspired by a short comic story that came to me. It stars Lady Orb from Omp:Extinction after she leaves Lord Lizard The story explains where Lady Orb's descendants come from.
I was also interested in connecting the Women Issues(meaning trying to understand them) I went through in my thirties and the problems Elias Infinity has with women later in his life.
I'll post some thumbnails and sketches from the comic strip as soon as I can.

Art is Doing.

Edition Two: Of Ninja, Samurai &Sensei

TELLIN’ STORIES
The We Back Edition
Edition Two: Of Ninja, Samurai, and Sensei…



Sketchbook Page: Micron pens and sharpie markers


Deljuan has been riding me all semester. Tellin’ me he can outdraw me. Explaining to me that while I am an artist he is an artiste’. Whatever that means… Still I am not surprised so much by his bravado. No all teachers and so called masters of the arts are called out and tested. From Ogami Ito to the Iron Chefs to Billy the Kid to Bruce Lee someone is always ready to test the skills of an artist. No I was shocked by his youth. Deljuan is a seventh grade student of mine. For two quarters I have listened to him tease and try me. So at last on the second to last day of school I accepted his challenge. A drawing contest to decide once and for all who was the best artist in first period Art I7. He chose the subject: Ninja. I laughed. I been drawing Ninja twice as long as this boy has been living. I grinned. I recently returned to sketching Ninja in preparation for illustrating Blak Fox. I smirked.
Of course Deljuan did a very nice pencil drawing of a ninja with a ripped tunic and rippling stomach muscles, arm foreshortened, throwing a shuriken. Good range of value considering he was drawing on newsprint. I chose to draw using pens. Ive been thinking a lot about blacks and finding planes of dramatic shadow from fluid form. More importantly it was an opportunity for a teachable moment. I learned that I must warm up my hand as much as my thoughts. I gestured out three thumbnails using a XS Micron pen. My fourth gesture produced an arch typical Frank Miller inspired Ninja. By this sketch I had moved up to an F (fir Fine)Micron to get some fuller and varied outlines and contours. Finally I came in with the B Micron (for Brush) and blacked out deep shadow and dramatic form. The final sketch I did as the character Assassin Ninja created as a foil for Blak Fox by my brother decades ago. Just a good ninja squat pose.
Well Deljuan looked at both our works and told me I had tools in my favor. I told him no I have Process. And process is learned from observed repetition and adaption. Though he didn’t understand what I meant he understood I knew and understood something he did’t about drawing and he needs that knowledge from me. He found humility and drew silently for the next two days, stopping only to get my comment on his progress. A student is born.





Reading this joint for Book Club. First twenty pages have given a incredible narrative voice to the declining faculties brought on by dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. But I love the cover the most. A visual that typifies the scattered days as the mind looses cohesion. I watched my Grandmother succumb to dementia before she passed. We were reintroduced repeatedly until I simply was the young man looking after her that day. But I also learned that she played basketball in high school and that she was good too. Walter Mosley continues to impress me.

Oh Shit Almost Forgot!!!
Went to the Atlanta ComicCon two weeks ago. More about that next time. And John Byrne’s NextMen are back!!!

We Back Edition One... no seriously.

TELLIN’ STORIES
The We Back Edition

It takes a Crisis to find focus. Necessity is the spark of production. So let us stop bitchin’ and get to producing!
I have been inspired by the diverse and high quality of art coming out if American comics lately. I think my voice can fit in there. So how do I get there? Producing. Art is doing.
First, Of Mythic Proportions: Extinction, Book One. The pages are drawn and inked. The script is written and the coloring process has begun.



This is page 2.

Second, is Self-absorbed: In and Out of Boxes, a biographical piece covering a Magical Realistic look at seven years of my thirties. It follows after the style of WAR: In the key of JUNG. I have up on this sight. Go head look back a bit I’ll wait………




Page two of War: In the key of JUNG.

Third is Dawn of the Dragon: the Crimson Guard, a fantasy joint inspired by the games in college. Uptown Forever!!!





Thumbnails from Crimson Guard.




General Bergen.




Ael “Flick” Flicksten


And Finally the fourth tale is one of the first characters I created Blak Fox. It’s an origin piece set to music structures.





Sketches for BLAK FOX: GUNS, BLADES, GREASE, BLOOD & SWEAT
CHAPTER I: REVENANT


Big PLANS, and lots of work to do. Stay tuned.