Tyrannosaurus Stops Breathing While Rabbit Keeps Working

It has been a few years since I read it, but Shusaku Endo’s book Silence is a book I still think about from time to time.  The story revolves around a Portuguese priest who ventures to Japan in order to provide missionary services and to search for a long lost teacher and fellow priest.  The book is set in the seventeenth century, a time when the Japanese government was very hostile towards outside ideas in general, and Catholic ones specifically.

It is a rather beautiful book, and I will short change it here, but sooner or later our Portuguese priest has been captured and is witnessing the terrible torture of anyone who has helped him along the way.  One thing that is particularly striking is that despite the atrocities being committed in front of him, our priest cannot help but notice how nice a day it is.  People are being flayed and slow roasted and he keeps thinking how nice the clear sky is or how indifferent the birds are.  The book explains how amazed the priest is at volume of God’s silence (at least at this point in the story, it gets much murkier, emotionally speaking, as the book progresses.)

Now I am not saying this painting has anything near the emotional/intellectual depth achieved in this book, or even that the theme is the same or anything like that. Just that one thing I was kind of going for in this painting is how strong silence can be.

Whale and Air-crane

I guess the first thing I should say is, yes I know water does not come out of a whale’s blow hole.  Other than that I am happy with this one, and enjoyed drawing an Erickson Air-crane, and there is some nice movement with the rabbits.

Dinosaur Dragging Empty Cribs

A dinosaur dragging empty cribs up a sharp mountain on a clear day seemed a lot more profound at the start of this painting than it does now.  Still, I don’t think this painting is a complete dud.  At least it has some semblance of a foreground and background, and the cribs seem fairly recognizable.

There is a real temptation to add a bunch of figures in these.  It could be really cool, or it could really look like a page out of a poorly drawn Where’s Waldo (which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but would be a thing I am not quite ready for, or able to pull off.)

Whales Should Hate Dolphins

Every time you hear about a dolphin saving a person, you know that has to burn the whales up.  I mean who’s side are the dolphins on?  Cousin whale or murderous human?  Do they not know people kill whales?  And they think they are so smart.

I had a lot of fun drawing this one, and think it turned out pretty good.  I like the reduced color scheme and the half-pipe-like ocean.

Dinosaur: Old, Whale: New

I think there are some nice things going on here.  I think the multi-limbed rabbit has some appeal.  I also like the whales.  Space wise, I really enjoyed making the layered seas, I think they work well with the floating platforms.

I am glad I took a break from the semi-trailer, although I hope to do more car things or at least more wheeled things in the future.  Also I do miss the chlorinated gas.  I think mixing drawn ink lines with the implied line of two tones butting up against one another is a cool thing to do.

Dinosaur Fight

It was fun to draw some dinosaurs and I was happy that my graveyard did not turn out too halloweenish.  The green gas is still chlorine and the rabbit in the arms of the other is supposed to be a baby and have two heads, although I don’t think I did a very good job rendering that.

Chlorinated Rabbit Explosion!

This broken semi-trailer is a big deal, mostly because it is a real break from the Mario Bros. space and into a more Bruegel-like space.  This might not be a good thing, but it is an exciting thing.

The green gas escaping from the trailer is supposed to be chlorine gas, which I imagine is really yellow but yellow did not look good in my painting.

Moving and Falling

We are off.  So far so good.  Right now I am working on sketch paper and ball point pen.  I like how these are turning out.  It is fun to be making finished drawings again, and fun to use paint in a quick way.  I do not have a lot to say at this point but I think things are happening.