Brezelburg Images

2011-05-30T15:55:00.001-07:00

It's been an awfully long time since I last posted something, so let's change that quickly! Here's another Cthulhu, this time a commission. The customer has kept me waiting for quite a while now, so if want to have this piece, drop me a line. It's huge and was a truckload of work, though, so it won't be cheap. But there's always the possibility to make a nice, high-quality poster print:

"Cthulhu V", 100 x 70 cm, acrylics on canvas

And here's another commisioned piece, this one is already sold and gone. The customer asked for "something bizarre and end-timey", so, grateful for such a loose desciption, I let my imagination loose:

"Trilobite Jesus at the dawn of time"
50 x 70 cm, acrylics on canvas

This bio-mechanic aesthetic turned up during the work on "Cthulhu V", and struck a chord with me. I think I'll explore it some more. Right now, I'm working on a piece that combines this theme with the nude paintings you saw in earlier posts, and can also be seen as a nod to Beksinsky, who I regard as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. I am, of course, not insane and try to compare my work with his, but I can't deny that he's left an impression on me. If you're not familiar with the guy, google his name for a dose of highest quality heebie-jeebies and a true sense of melancholia. Powerful stuff.

Oh, and I've also treated myself to a pretty decent camera lately (mostly to take pictures of my pictures, and other work-related purposes), and although I haven't had much opportunity to get accustomed with all the fancy gadgetry that comes with such a high tech machine, I jumped right into it and discovered that I have a weak spot for the microcosm around us. So here's a bunch of pics of very small things from my parents' garden:

These two show a variety of lichen. The individual "trumpets" are about one centimeter high. I've always loved them for their otherworldly shape, and often imagined what it would be like to wander among them as through a forest. My low-grade fancy gadgetry and non-existent understanding of photography of course limit my capability to put them in scene like that, but I think these images get the point across: just one order of magnitude below us, the world begins to look really weird.
I might get deeper into the matter and maybe buy the necessary lenses and stuff and become a hobby microphotograpoher some day. That would be fun.

Oh, and the above images are, of course, altered in Photoshop to stress the alien nature of the habitat. It wasn't that dark there, and the light wasn't quite as dramatic.

Here's the smallest flower I could find. The individual blossoms are about as big as a pinhead. I found that these photos make for good desktops, so if you want to use them for that purpose (or any other, really), just go ahead and do so! It would be nice to hear some feedback, though.

And one other item of news: Zoofights has started again! I haven't made any super duper kickass paintings yet, so that will have to wait for a while.

More Zoofights

2010-08-29T07:29:00.001-07:00

Alrighty,

after about 20 (twenty!) weeks, this tournament is now over. It was the best thing, and I'm glad I was a part of it. It will, of course, happen again next year, and besides drawing fights and portraits again when the time comes, I'll do my best to help the guys with anything they plan in the meantime. Zoofights is seriously among the best things mankind has invented, right up there with fire, the wheel, electricity, and sliced bread.
So, 'nuff sed, here's some bizarrity:

Here we've got Punchules the Magnificient, wielding the Shiellelagh of O'Batahan, and offering us a sip of what is probably the hardest drink in the post-nuclear world.

This is Aggronaut, not-so-stupid elite fighter in the war agains Seanet, about to face his deadliest foe.

Australian competitor Banebarramundi relies on a constant drug-poisoning, in order to survive the wound Sting Kong dealt him in Round One.

The Snapture just arrived back from a good few weeks of bus-hunting and cactus tripping out in what was once the Arizona deserts. He's quite relaxed, as you can see.

And finally, the Seal of Disapproval, President of the United States of America, and greatest Beachmaster that ever was, proclaims his goals of brutal sexual world domination.

This stuff gives you just a tiny glimpse into the sheer awesomeness of what awaits you at zoofights.co.uk - so don't waste your time but go there and read the stuff!

All credits for character design, names and such go to Major Failure and the London Squad, developers of the best ideas ever. Stay tuned, I'll post more of this stuff later on!

Zoofights- RAWR!

2010-05-09T08:47:00.001-07:00

Yay world,

today I happily announce that I'm once again participating in the world's most over-the-top display of nonsense and violence, Major Failure's Zoofights. If you've never heard about it, Zoofights is a kind of forum RPG that focuses on hypothetical fights between made-up monstrosities. Every few days two of 16 monsters are introduced, and the audience makes bets on the outcome of a fight to the death. The fight itself is decided largely by popularity, and is displayed in comic book fashion, alongside Major Failure's hilarious commentary.

In the last few years, every tournament has ended in some cataclysmic disaster, as the winning monsters get beefed up more and more with each surviving round, up to the point where the last encounter is a giant threat to everyone involved.

Find out more about Zoofights here: zoofights.co.uk
Or follow the actual fighting, betting and roleplaying here.

Here are some of the pictures I've contributed, descriptive text courtesy of that magnificient bastard Major Failure:

"Smash Gordon is a controversial attempt by England to circumvent our "no human competitors" rule: a cloned Neanderthal entered into the tournament as an animal. As dense in stature as he is in mind, this brutish thug is the culmination to years of experiments by the propaganda wing of the British police state, aimed at creating an unstoppable terror weapon for Scotland Yard. In fact, he is so colossally challenged that he needs to be guided through non-violent life by his trusty bulldog, Nelson. Nonetheless, he retains a brute cunning, which is truly deadly when backed up by hubcap-sized fists."

"The tattered remnants of Russia's army forgot who they were fighting, but never who led them. Under the forbidding bellow of The Sturgeon General they marched, driven onwards by the hated fish on its ancient tank tracks. When they stumbled through hunger, cold or radiation sickness it urged them forward, and any who disobeyed were transfixed with a mighty shout, then mangled under its treads. The General never let discipline slip, not even when the last man in the legion died under its wheels. Therefore, in admiration of its leadership talent, we have given it an army of devlish antigrav stingrays."

"But he barely has time to clear his throat before a new threat emerges.

Unbelievably, in the 30 seconds that Nelson has been fighting his desperate battle, Smash Gordon has risen to his feet and begun lumbering across the arena sand.

Grunting with the lungs of an actual ox, he launches himself up onto Sturge's stalled tracks and begins a gristly, bone-grating climb up the behemoth.

Cable-like sinews tear around shattered bone, but a chemical rage beyond the comprehension of frail Homo Sapiens drives Smash on.

His axe grinds through armour and scales, and he tears great bales of innard from the exposed body of the arch-anadrome.

As he plants an iron boot on the head of a roller-skate and pistons up toward the face of Sturge, he propels himself into range for a killing blow..."

The Sturgeon General is easily the most absurd thing I've drawn in a long while, but it's fascinating how even such a bizarre creation comes to life with the speculation of a blood-thirsty audience!

This will do for now, as I just want to direct interest towards ZF, not leech fame from it. If devastating battles, monsters, apocalyptic settings and a witty commentary that does the silliness of it all justice might be something for you, you should definetely go check it out!

Fine Prints!

2010-03-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

Yo everyone,

I've finally managed to get in touch with a great photographer who can take pictures of my paintings detailed enough to reproduce them. So there will be gorgesous, poster-sized prints now! They are limited to 20 pieces each, and you can buy them here: http://de.dawanda.com/shop/Brezelburg

Here are some previews:

Go ahead and enhance your place with some affordable tentacle goodness!

Yay me!

2010-01-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

'sup everyone? Already posting something new today! I haven't done a self portrait in years, so it was about time.

Self portrait 2010
digital painting, 489 x 647 px, PS

Took me about three hours, with no reference (I looked in the mirror like once). As you can see, the photo isn't quite accurate anymore, there's more and more hair growing out of my face. I don't know why, but I feel like keeping it :) Also, I realize that I enjoy acquiring more wrinkles as time goes by. I think growing older is cool.

My favourite villain

2010-01-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know if it's my favourite villain ever, of all times (Cthulhu is one, too), but Bowser is a pretty good bad guy, or isn't he? I love the weird combination of animal features. It's not easy to throw something together like that and come up with an identifiable "person".

"Your Princess is in this guy's castle"
Digital Painting, 1200 x 800 px
Photoshop

So yeah, I finally started to practice some digital painting. We'll have more of that in the future. Take care!

2010-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yo everyone!

2010 already, seems like I didn't post in quite a while. So let's make up for that with two new pieces:

"R'lyeh"
60 x 50 cm, Acrylics on Canvas

The sunken city of R'lyeh, finally rising again now that the stars are right. Comissioned Piece for a Lovecraft fan, sold.

"Nudes with Tentacles, green"
70 x 100 cm, Acrylics on Canvas

Yes, two of them ladies this time :D
I love the colours, which are of coure much more vibrant in reality. That blueish green is pretty much the exact opposite of the warm skin tones, and the overall appeal of that colour situation is very relaxing when you sit in front of it.

And now for some old stuff! I changed some details in this one and got a photographer friend to take some proper pictures. Unfortunately, getting the colors right doesn't seem to be a matter of a good or bad camera, as there are some parts in here that look absolutely not the same IRL. Strange.

And here's a preview of what a print of one of these looks like. This is the first one that was sold. Each print (Poster size/A1, numbered and signed) costs 50,- Euros, drop me a line if you want one!

Alrighty, that's it for now. Take care!

2009-08-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

Well well kids, here it is!

"Cthulhu III/Cthulhu for President"
50x60 cm, mixed media on canvas

vote for him, he'll make it all end soon. This painting is getting mad props wherever I show it, so maybe people would even buy prints or so? I don't know, but let's see what we can do!

I've been pretty productive in the last few days, experimenting with different techniques and formats. Here are two other new pieces, both done in a very quick fashion. Another Cthulhu:

"Cthulhu IV", 40x50 cm,
acrylics on painting board

I never get sick of that guy :D Painting this took about two evenings, that would be a quick painting (it's 40x50 cm, not large)

And this one is a depiction of a horror story local parents used to tell their kids to keep them away from the river, so they wouldn't drown: If you're alone by the water, the witch (she's got a strange german name I forgot, need to ask someone from there) will come out of the river and pull you down! Two friends of mine who grew up by that river only recently discovered that they had both heard this story when they were little. They also both agreed that it was very terrifying.

"The witch" (in lack of the real name),
40x30 cm, acrylics on painting board

2009-07-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

Hey you people!

There's been a lot going on in the past few weeks, though I haven't taken a photo of the now finished Republican Cthulhu yet. It turned out pretty well, you'll see it in a couple of days, I hope.
For now, here's something different. I've returned to a weird topic that seems to be haunting me: Large, flying objects that aren't supposed to fly.

"Seascape I", 60x50 cm, acrylics on canvas

The idea for this one popped into my head a few nights ago, and it simply wouldn't leave me. Around the Same time (during the freakquenzy records Roundup, which is an excellent occasion for weird ideas), the title "Laser Moses parting the Red Sea" also came up, but I'm not entirely sure yet how to realize that.
I've also done some smaller pieces, one of which falls into the same category as this one, might post them next time.

Besides these weird images, I'm also workingon another tentacle chicks-painting, again a large piece that takes forever to be finished. I'll take my time. Though a rough, quick style is fun for works as the above one, some paintings need a lot of care and a very fine brush.

On the above mentioned Roundup (and you'll probably never find out what that is, because it's so beautifully obscure), I had the opportunity to show some of my paintings to a bigger audience, and the reactions were great: Although nobody had the money to afford an original, many people asked for prints, especially of the nudes and Republican Cthulhu, so I might look into that.

Finally, I'd like to direct your attention toward my official site again, where all my work is being featured, and where you'll find contact information and all that official blah-di-blah.

Have a good time, dear internet, we'll meet again!

Cthulhu III, first steps

2009-05-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

Somehow, this guy doesn't leave me alone. After the dramatic depictions in the first two paintings, I'm going for a slightly different look this time: the uniform of evil, a well-taylored suit.
This here is a preparatory drawing I made in charcoal, already on the canvas. I fixed it with some fixative spray and am currently applying color. nice unhealthy green for the skin, a bright, cool light from above and a gloomy red one from below.

Later that evening I found this myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/cthulhu2008
I'll definitely send them a jpg of the finished piece, and now I think of giving him a star spangled banner-pin :) He'll also get a signet ring, and I'm thinking about a monocle. But that might be too much.
Cthulhu is a republican, or isn't he?

Digital stuff!

2009-05-06T15:43:00.001-07:00

yo world! today i've got something digital for you. these are parts of the artwork to my awesome band's first full length album, which will be be released on may 22nd all across europe. check out our music: myspace.com/parityboot
you can also find the video to the title track in one of the first posts in this blog (and on the myspace profile). all the visuals for the band are supposed to stick to the topic of decayed, abandoned places, so textures of rust and mold make up most of these images. i took many of the billions of photos worked in here by myself, in hamburg, the rest come from this site, a great place for every digital artist.

the front cover. the band logo and name were made in cinema 4d, with textures later applied in photoshop. the background is composed from pictures of some kind of tar container that stood in front of my house for a while, some broken concrete and loads of dirt photos.

these two were made almost entirely from photos i took on a sunny day in hamburg. locals might recognize some places :)

that lamp thing in the foreground is from one of dozens of german tanks that stand and rot on a field near the band's hometown as a reminder of war time. it's a famous place for local metal bands' photo sessions.

this last one is the tray card, the inside of the cd case. it's supposed to look like one surface with a hole in it, although it consists of countless seperate images.

when working in this manner, you find out what photoshop is actually capable of: everything. big thanks to my teacher anthony who taught me this stuff, and to travis smith, whose artwork for devin townsend's terria album is a gorgeous example of what can be done this way (and was probably my biggest inspiration).

there's another painting in the making right now. after the flying elephants, it features a rificulously large flying whale. might be finished toward the weekend.

more paintings

2009-04-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone,

today I'll give you some more art. This first one is a work in Progress. As I mentioned earlier, I'm trying out new techniques. This is how far my layering and super fine brush detail-painting has come as of now:

"Nude with tentacles, blue"
Acrtylics on canvas,
70 x 110 cm

It's still far from finished, but I'd like to take my time with this one. Breaks of a few weeks can be pretty helpful when I'm not clear what exactly I want to change in a painting.

Here's another thing. A friend of mine had a birthday party a few days ago and I painted him a little painting. He likes apocalyptic visions, weird stuff and elephants, so I combined these ingredients. It's called "the 5000 elephants of apocalypse", is about 40x50 cm big and was made in a completely different technique: very quick, raw, big brush strokes, more focus on colors and composition than details. The reaction of the party people (and the birthday man) were great, and some said they paricularly liked this rough style. I do, too. Looks like I won't specialize in the slow, detailed technique anytime soon.
This absurd, catastrophic topic is also something I enjoy. Might be that you'll see more of this otherworldly, bizarre stuff soon.

Excuse the crappy photo, I'll try to make a better one:

Thirdly, here's Cthulhu II, which I made earlier this year and somehow haven't posted yet. I wanted to make a really majestic, magic-the-gathering-style portrait of the Great Old One, so that's this with the strong vertical direction and energy bolts and all.
I will do more Lovecraft/Cthulhu, probably darker and more sinister the next time.

"Cthulhu II"
A. on C.
60x80 cm (I guess)

And finally, the video I mentioned some posts ago is finished. Have a look!

That was a fun project. 2 weeks of storyboarding, 4 weeks of animation and cutting, no boss or co-workers, no fixed hours, but just 6 weeks of free, creative work. And the band loves it. Who's next? :D

repost, this time with a proper photo

2009-04-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

...also, I changed some details in the anatomy. If you've got some time to spare, find the differences between this one and the original :D

"nude with tentacles, red"
Acrylics on canvas, 60x90 cm, 2009

The next piece for this series is almost done. As I mentioned earlier, I keep learning stuff with every painting. Sometimes even when I don't paint at all (I was busy making an animated music video in the last few weeks, should be up soon), since I will always dig around the web for tutorials and "how-to"-pages from other artists. Since I last worked on a painting I learned a lot about layering and translucent paint. Incorporating these techniques makes the process slower, but the results become better. I guess I'll finish the next one within the next two weeks, and then it's time for another commissioned painting I'm already pretty excited about. Stay tuned, there's a lot going on!

No image today

2009-03-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

...instead I'd like to write a bit about the recent shooting at a german school. I can't stand the media reaction anymore. I never want to hear about video games, black coats, guns or "violent music" in this context again, because nothing of this has to do with the root of the problem.
It's also no solution to watch out for symptoms or closely control kids who might become a problem someday.

Millions of kids worldwide dress in black, play first person shooters, listen to metal and hate mankind, that's their way to cope with the angst and aggression that normally builds up in an adolescent person. That alone should make us think. Doesn't anybody in politics or the media realize that this generation has every reason to be mad? Being protected from all things hard and real for the first years of your life and then finding out that your are one of the gun-selling, clear-cutting, over-fishing, blood sucking evildoers that drove the world to the edge of destruction is a bitter pill to swallow.

Especially the demographic all those school murderers belonged to has a very good understanding of what's going wrong in the world, of how we, the industrialized nations, give a shit about the rest of the world and run from our responsibility. Then take into account that their peers usually behave as if they had no clue about those big topics, yet the goth kids and weirdos are isolated and ignored.

Those school shooters see very clearly that the majority prays to fake idols. They know how the consumer mentality is wrong for people, they see how shallow the mindset is that their peers celebrate. And they get mad when they see that all the other kids at school, who are mean to them, obviously don't care about the evil they are going to continue once they are old enough.

No add to that the fact that they never get the girl, that they get ridiculed and ignored, although they really are superior in a way, and you see what it's about.

Millions of kids feel like that. What makes some of them go out and kill everybody?

Look at it like this: The human psyche is a very complex thing. It takes years of socialisation to build it up, and over the course of millennia, it was normal that this took place among siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends of the family, other kids from the neighborhood and so on. Humans usually grow up in a web of responsibility. Kids take care of each other and rely on several adults to watch over them. In our "natural environment", we have close personal contact with many people from all age groups. It has been like that since the dawn of mankind. We should understand that we've gotten used to that. That it's a part of being human.

Well, within the last three generations, we have destroyed this structure. The natural environment we evolved in and adapted to is gone. The extended family is completely extinct in our culture, and school can't be a replacement, because they largely work against character development and favour those who shut up and blindly adapt, instead of encouraging children to look after each other and understand people.

Many people still manage to develop some social skills, because humans are smart, but we must not be surprised if some don't. It's exactly the same problem with young mothers killing their babies (wich happens every year here in Germany, especially in poor areas): they don't do that because they're evil, they simply don't know how to deal with the situation, because their cold social environment didn't let their brains pick up the necessary skills to take care for a child. Think of zoo animals. The mother polar bear kills her kid, because instead of snow and other polar bears, there's only concrete and yelling people around, so she doesn't learn how to be a proper polar bear. We understand that, so what's so hard about drawing the parallels to humans?

If we let the grown structures that built up mankind over hundreds of thousands of years suddenly crumble away in favour of a materialistic world where everybody lives only to consume, we must not be surprised if some of the mechanisms such a healthy social environment guarantees fall away.

So, people of the internet: Shut your face about those evil, evil killer kids, unless you understand that we, collectively made them.

I really had to get this off my system. There's not much painting going on at the moment, as I'm working on a video. That might become the topic of the next post.

2009-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hey there,

here's another commissioned piece. The task was "paint me a magic forest". Oh well, here it is:

80 x 60 cm, acrylics in canvas

I left one out. there's another Cthulhu painting, maybe I'll put it up witht the next update.

2009-01-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

So,

back on track. Here's another Tentacle Chick. 60 x 90 cm, Acrylics on Canvas. I realize how I keep learning lots with every painting. That's great. Also, screw small paintings! Large is the new black.

Oh, I'm not sure if this one's finished yet, there might be an update later. As always, excuse the crappy photo quality. Once summer comes around with proper daylight, I'll take pictures outside that should turn out better.

And this: if you want to post one of these images or show them around, do so, but always link back to this blog and give me credit, ok? I've got most of the originals in my flat and can prove that they're mine, so I suggest you don't try to make money with my work.

2009-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

Hey there,

today I'll post something out of the line. It's not haunted, weird, sexual or anything, but quite mellow and nice. It's a requested piece, some kind of harbour scene after the humans are all gone. I went all Bob Ross on this one :D
It was a nice experience, though. Halfway through, when I hadn't painted all the big ol' trees yet, the reflection of the ship looked really convincing. Then I painted it over :/ But it reminded me that reflections are something to do more often. It's so easy: Paint something, then paint it again upside down, with slightly darker colours and a bit blurry, and that's it. Looks perfectly like water.
Well, there'll surely be other water paintings in the future.
For now, I'll back away from that friendly nature stuff, since it looks like I'll have an exhibition later this year. Can't talk that much about the location + context yet, but it would surely demand something else than peaceful landscapes. Right now, I've got the second tentacle chick in the making.
Oh, and I did another Cthulhu. Not sure if it's done yet, but I'll post some pictures in the next few days anyway.

So yeah, enough talking. Here's todays piece. I like the lighting on the Ship. Looks sunny :)

2009-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:00

Final steps

So, I think this one is done for now. Next steps are to find out what kind of finish to use, since the conventional varnish would eat up the colour, then apply that, paint the head (I haven't got the neck here yet), finish that and finally put the baby back together again.

In this last big effort, I decided to give the front side two distinct layers, by making the "lower" parts darker and keeping the brighter, more saturated tone on the "lips" and tentacles.

Also, I'm very happy with the elongated teeth and depth in the mouth. The lower part of the mouth will be obscured by hardware, so I had to find a way to incorporate that into the painting. I think this "deeper" part in the jaw should do the job

Here you can see how the decoration goes
all around the body. I'm particularly proud
of that veins- and-bubbles part on that stretch of flesh in the middle. Seeing how that turned out, I decided to paint more of these blisters or bubbles on the lips.

The pieces of "skin" that cover part of the front side wrap around the edges of the body and connect again on the backside, creating a cloth-like surface with blood vessels on the center of the back. Most of the pointy edges of the guitar stick out from that, as I thought that would emphasize the shape and at the same time help create the illusion of an organic entity, rather than an instrument.

This "skinned flesh" look you can see on the side here (and on several other parts of the guitar) was a new experience for me: The highlights are created by removing paint with a dry brush. Usually, I would have either used white paint to lighten up the colors, or applied the red and blue tones in very thin layers. Instead, the really smooth surface of the white base colour allowed to wipe of the freshly applied paint in parts, thereby generating this very organic, chaotic effect. Even from close up, it looks really fleshy and "alive" (in a painful way) in some parts. Also compare the "neck" in the picture above.

Finally, here's the one really sharp picture my trashy old camera managed to take in artificial light.
I love to paint with relatively big brushes, aiming for a convincing effect from the distance by working with rather rough strokes and low detail.

In the end, this guitar will be seen in stage light, often through haze, and from a couple meters away. microscopic detail makes no sense here. Instead, effects like strong drop shadows, color contrast and unrealistic reduction and exaggeration of details are necessary to transport the image under the given circumstances.

Overall, this project is more related to stage design or movie prop making than it is to classical painting or fine art. I find this very interesting. Painting a picture is fun, of course. But painting something with a distinct function in mind, and therefor having to respect certain rules of perception is a very different task.

I'll take proper photos outside in the sunlight when the guitar is complete.

In the meantime, check out the band it belongs to once more: myspace.com/tsagd

2009-01-13T16:02:00.000-08:00

Yay everyone, here's a new project, and a really different one, too.
Upon seeing my custom painted guitar (that one there on the right) on a gig a while ago, this metal dude asked me if we could maybe co-operate in the future.
Turned out he was totally dedicated guitar player, or even guitar nerd, as he quit school in order to have more time to practice and even build electric guitars on his own.

Some months went by when he (who is named Thomas, by the way) approached me on another show and showed me his new, hand-built, edgy heavy metal axe, which he apparently assembled from hand-picked parts that he ordered from all over the world. Of course, it had no finish on it, just the smooth pure wood.

Well, now the body of that thing stands on my easel, and I spend hours giving it a face that fits the purpose: His band is called the splatter and gore department, they play death metal and usually have an additional band member operating the barbeque on stage. So the way to go was: blood and flesh galore, make the thing look really horrible, but with the tongue in cheek.

Now, here are some photos of the process.

This is what the body looked like after applying several very thin layers of white acrylic paint:

I forgot to take a photo of the outlines I painted on it after that, so here's an impression of what it looked like after a few hours:

Before I went back to it today, it looked like this:

And now I'm going back to work on it for the rest of the night. Next steps are:
- Getting the whole thing covered in paint, so I get an impression of what it'll look like in the end
- Adding cool shades and blue-ish relections for more depth
- Adding loads of tiny detail, like maggots, scars, and blood vessels of all kind.

If this guitar turns out well, that is, if it still sounds as awesome after the painting is finished as it did before, we're planning to make some more guitars together, and that might even include desgning a new body shape instead of using a pre-made body that the world knows already.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited!

tentacles and piranha flower

2008-11-24T05:45:00.000-08:00

hey there everyone, here are two new paintings for your enjoyery.
I hope this here is not too offensive for the public eye, I mean, it's not porn, is it?

and this one doesn't need much explanation. excuse the bad photograph, i'll try to make a better one. maybe it's not finished yet, we'll see.
both paintings are acrylics on canvas, the tentacle chick is (i believe) 40 x 50 cm, the plant is 30 x 40.

2008-11-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Yay! something else: Videos!

These are two videos I made for my own bands. People seem to like them, so I thought I'd show them here. 2D animation is a great medium that allows you to do everything that would either be impossible or incredibly expensive in a real setting. I'm currently discussing the money stuff with several bands and producers, so hopefully we'll see one of my vids on TV or so. That would be fun.

Alright, this one is for our ass-kicking industrial metal band, Parity Boot. Check us out: myspace.com/parityboot

Parity Boot - Into Nothing from Eike Braselmann on Vimeo.

And this rather weird one is for our candy-throwing all-over-the-place band Knorke Südfrucht. For some reason it seems to be especially popular with U.S. American viewers. Maybe they need some happy nonsense after all the evil nonsense they've gone though in the last eight years.
You can find us here: Myspace.com/knorkesuedfrucht - and here (which makes us proud): www.avantgarde-metal.com - in the reviews section.

Knorke Südfrucht - Mindbomb (animated music video) from Eike Braselmann on Vimeo.

Yop, that's it for now, gotta go paint some more. It's already night, the best time to do so. Do you know that feeling when everything's asleep and you feel like the world belongs to you? I love that. Big ol' cup of coffee, radio on and nobody there to tell me what to do. Perfect.

Hey world!

2008-11-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hey there, internet!

This Blog is one of several places I'll be putting up my art from now on, so you, the world, can get in touch with it. That is because I've decided to be an artist and struggle for survival with only my vision to hold on to, rather than throw away my lifetime for some industry that - in the end - gives nothing to the world, maybe except for relieving their employees from the fear of financial insecurity.
You can say that's a stupid decision, or a brave one, I really don't care. I want to paint stuff that inspires people and reminds them that there's more to life than going to work everyday and paying your bills.

Alright, enough talk, let's start with my last painting, which was actually sold this week. It's big old Cthulhu from Lovecraft's famous story. This will not be the last time that some Lovecraft-inspired work shows up on this blog. That guy knew what he was doing.

Of course, I don't just want to show off my work here, but since I try to make a living from it, I'm also glad about everyone who'd like to buy a finished painting or comission something. If your idea rocks, I'll probably paint it.
That's enough for now. Until next time!