Thursday, December 23, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS


Just want to wish everyone out there, a very Merry Christmas, may God bless you all and bring only good things to you in the new year.

This Santa is a quick little fella done in oils on Tracy-nite, and 8 X 10. I did him in a little over 3 hours...........a nice and fun way to spend some time and get into the Christmas spirit.

Monday, November 29, 2010

SORTING IT OUT

We all have our own way of keeping our "stuff" organized and ready at a moments notice for use. At one point I was the tackle box king..........everything in tackle boxes except for my fishing stuff, but after awhile they were unorganized. After building my "ultimate taboret", I started using one of those little slide drawer organizers, and has now become a "why didn't I do that sooner??" type of thing.

All the paints are at an easy reach, the drawers are clear and you can see what is in there......of course I wrote on the drawers what the colours are so I don't have to remember what is where, and the paint fits perfectly!! except for the really large tubes which I don't really use except for white and sap green.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

GIRL WITH LION AND CIRCLE


Realizing it had been a long LONG time since I had sat down and done an ink, I doodled out this image in my sketchbook, and said to myself......" ya know, that would be a nice ink" so I continued sitting down and penciled this in and proceeded to get my ink on and here we have it.

Once it was done, I sort of realized it was similar to my favourite Frazetta ink, the one on the cover to Living Legend......which really doesn't bother me especially since I had been working on a few things for the Tribute Show. Who knows I might just submit this one as well.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Finished Fritz Tribute Paintings

Well folks I have finally gotten photos of the two finished paintings for the Frazetta Tribute Show that is being held by The Gallery Provocateur in Chicago. This is a juried show and no guarantee that I will even make it, but it is worth a shot and for a good cause. If nothing else I got two pretty good paintings out of the venture and that is never a bad thing!

ON THE BLACK RIVER

This is a Conan piece loosely based on the story Beyond the Black River.


THE DEATH DEALER

No real need to explain who this is, but I will note that although this is an original image done by me, the Death Dealer is a creation of Frank Frazetta and  belongs to him, it is his creation, and this is just my interpretation of it.




Monday, September 27, 2010

A FEW ROUGHS FOR THE FUN OF IT

After making yesterdays post on the FRAZETTA TRIBUTE SHOW I thought I would post a few roughs for the pieces I am doing as my entries.


This is the original concept for the Conan piece, the sketch in the upper left is the beginning, then I started playing with the fellow impaled on the tree, and fleshing himout.....sort of became fun so he is a lot more detailed in this than just a normal doodle

Now we have a rougher but more fully lain out rough of the painting with a few production notes of what I want going on in the piece, complete with coffee stains, (I think Frank was around while I was doing this and bumped my hand............I was pleased, sort of made it seem more of a tribute)


............just sort of a colour schemey thing ..........


.......here we have a bit of progress on the actual painting..........

This little yellow doodle came out of nowhere one night. My wife and I were at the local community theater's ( the Rush County Players.....aka RCP) awards program.......The Hammies, and while I was talking with a friend of ours, I sort of rudely began doodling while listening to her, and this ol' boy popped out..............he is drawn on a folded up paper place mat .......

......so in the morning when I got up and looked at the doodle again, I thought to myself....."I really should do this one" so I re-sketched it and did this little colour rough.

..........and here we have him in progress....................



 Originally the emblem on the shield was the bird from the first Death Dealer, but as I was painting on it I thought that the Frazetta "F" would be more than appropriate. I hope the family will understand and not be offended.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

FRAZETTA TRIBUTE SHOW

This is just a quick little heads up, The Gallery Provocateur in Chicago is having a Frazetta tribute show and I will be entering a few pieces. More Details will follow as well as some pictures of the images that I will be entering.

This is a juried show with an amazing pannel of judges:

Jon Schindehette, Creative Art Director of Wizards of the Coast


Master Artist Simon Bisley

Paul Hellard, Editor CG Society & Assistant Editor Ballistic Publishing

Master Artist Gerald Brom

Arnie & Cathy Fenner, Publishers, Spectrum Fantastic Art Books

Veronika Kotlajic, Curator of Gallery Provocateur & Art Muse



I  will be entering:

 2 oil paintings............a Conan  piece that I have been working on for a bit as well as a Death Dealer that sort of just came about and had to come out.

A pencil piece..........Man or Beast, which I happen to have some 11 X 17 prints of available for $20.00. Just drop me a line @ tracy@tflynnartgallery.com

I am also intending to do an ink piece as well as a watercolour.

So please stay tuned for further updates, and best of luck to all who enter!!! I hope to see many of ya'll there..........I personally intend to be there whether or not my pieces make the cut.

All the best.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

BIG BONE

Here is a little pencil thing I did a month or so ago, it is I think 14 X 17. Still in need of a scanner so unfortunately the photo is really all I have right now...........

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tarzan Yell's

A while back I made a post about Life is a Taboret, and had a movie quote in the post and turned it into a giveaway. Guess the movie the line is from win a drawing, a drawing drawing.
The winner of the drawing was Carlos Pereira Da Silva, and I must appologize to Carlos for the delay in getting to this, but life has a way of doing this, so Carlos I am sorry for not getting the image to you sooner, please forgive me for this.

Part of the life getting in the way is also a scanner that has decided to die on me and leave me without means of getting good digital images of some of my images. So here is a rather bad photo of Carlos' drawing.


With the advent of me being scannerless, I will be posting some drawings and paintings to help offset the expense of getting a new scanner, ( I am looking at a bigger one )or if you would like, I am always open and willing to do a commission of two or three as they come along.


Wednesday, June 02, 2010

BEAUTIFUL GRIM AUCTION

Here is a  artist list for the 2nd wave of artists contributing to the BEAUTIFUL GRIM ART AUCTION. I hope you will stop by and look at the amazing works by the folks and if you feel compelled bid.

Now is a good chance to get some works by the best in the buisness, just look at the list:
1. Aaron Coberly
2. Anastasia Belov
3. Andrew Jones
4. Ben Thompson
5. Chenoa Lindsey
6. Christine Griffin
7. Christophe Lautrette
8. Dan Cole
9. Daren Bader
10 .Dave Kendall
11. Dominique Fung
12. Eric Braddock
13. Eric Favela
14. Evan Hunt
15. Everette Downing
16. Frank Lin
17. Gayle Wheatley
18. Horia Dociu
19. Jeff Miracola
20. Jessa Sininger
21. Jessica Ward
22. Josh Cole
23. Joy Ang
24. Katy Hargrove
25. Kekai Kotaki
26. Kristen Perry
27. Lettie Lo
28. Lisa Evans
29. M. C. Matz
30. Martha Chan
31. Michael Corriero
32. Michael Phillippi
33. Patricia Smith
34. Richard Anderson
35. Richard Sardinha
36. Sarah Gonzalez
37. Scott Altmann
38. Sergio Lopez
39. Shyla Ford
40. Simon Christen
41. Simon Otto
42. The Loin
43. Tom Bagshaw
44. Tracy Flynn
45. Victoria Ying
46. Willie Real

I am seriously looking for some extra cash to bid on a few pieces myself, Daren Bader, Eric Braddock, Scott Altman, Mike Corriero..................

Well anyways, a great cause and an honour to participate, stop by look, bid, and tell everyone you know.

Thanks

Tracy

Monday, May 24, 2010

BARBARIANS, MORE THAN A BLOODY CROWN

Now running at LuLu.com is Timmothy R. Jones' s book BARBARIANS, More than a Bloody Crown with a 10% discount.


To recieve your 10% discount type  in the code FLOWERS at checkout.
Discount good thru May 31, 2010

Saturday, May 15, 2010

A few final words on Frank

It has taken me a few days to get my thoughts together on this, the passing of Frank Frazetta, at this point I think I can maybe put together what I have been feeling and thinking for the past few days.

Like so many people in the field of fantasy art.............I took this path from seeing the works of Frazetta. I first saw one of his paintings in the 7th grade on the cover to Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Tarzan swooping down out of the trees at a lion by fire light. The copy of the book was old and the dust jacket was gone, but it was a light blue book with spotty orange inking on it. I loved the motion the intensity of the image, but was unimpressed............next was Conan the Usurper. HOLY CRAP I was hooked.

From the moment I saw Usurper I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do THAT! I wanted to paint those pictures. Then one day I found the Ballantine book, THE FANTASTIC ART OF FRANK FRAZETTA. If I wasn't hooked before, I was then. It wasn't until the third Ballantine book came out tha I saw Opar in full colour...........I was wrong..........that is the most amazing painting ever. I am always asked at somepoint or another what my favourite Frazetta image is.........that is tops on the list, but as I have said way to often, my favourite painting is whichever one I am looking at at the moment, which really does hold true.

You look at a Frazetta, and I have been doing this for about 35 years now ( I am a young buck in fandom ) and I STILL see something new everytime I look at one of the images. That says it all about his work. I will continue to look at and study the mans paintings for the next 35 years and still see something new. Newer generations of fans will look at his stuff and point out something new to me........let that soak in.... there is ALWAYS something new to see in a Frazetta.

Frank Frazetta was a mythical giant to me, a mentor, an inspiration, a guidance counsoler, and in many ways a friend. If I was stuck on an image .......... go see what Frank would do. That was something I constantly did growing up and trying to learn my craft. It was almost always  "look to Frank", pull out the books get a new grip on the problem and go solve it. Still to this day I will do this......I know I will do it in the future as well. You may say what you will about it.

I would look and see how he would solve a similar issue and then apply that to my image and do it my way. MY Way........a big key in life, follow the examples of those who went before you and learn from them and apply it to you and your situation, and resolve it your way.........through their guidance. Frazetta seemed to always say " why be a second rate Frazetta, be a first rate you" . Very inspiring words to me, and in my art I have always aspired to do that and in life in general.

I got to spend several hours with Frank in his studio in the mid '80's just prior to all the health problems, and I have to say meeting the giant was more than I ever expected. Warm, gracious, friendly and interested in me and my stuff. In that meeting it was for me, a dream come true. Sitting on the floor of his studio him flipping thru my portfolio ( all college stuff and a shambles and everything I had......EVERYTHING ) pausing here, and commenting, holding this up and that up, asking questions. It was honestly a better crit and review than I ever got in school, not because it was Frank Frazetta, but becuase of the interest and passion in the man.

During that visit, he would bring this painting out, and that  one .......Reign Of Wizardry, and if I remember, the nude from '64 because at the time it wasn't hanging in the first museum............and as he was doing so, he would ask what do you think of this area, should I do this or that or just leave it alone?? We talked of art, coffee, guns all sorts of things just had a grand time.

That night I had purchased a museum print. I didn't have all the money, but was allowed to make installments. I brought the last payment up to Pennsylania a year later, and got to visit the house again. Frank wasn't there, he was getting tested. Ellie brought out the print, and pointed out the drawing on the bottom, and said he did that the night after I left.

Twenty some odd years later, I got to go back and see the new museum, met up with some friends I had just met, but had known for a few years thru the internet. We wandered around the place, talking, discussing and discovering new things about the paintings. We got to meet Frank,  and after the twenty some years, the bad health and all..............the one thing I saw that never changed was the sparkle, the fire in his eyes. Intensity..........Frazetta.

We all knew that the Master would one day leave us, it was expected, as it is for all of us, but I just wasn't expecting it on Monday, May 10, 2010.

I have not had an artistic life without Frank Frazetta in it. Many of us haven't. His art will endure, and continue to astonish and amaze people for a long, long time. I guess I went through that brief lifestory for this........

Frank Frazetta was a mythical giant to me, a mentor, an inspiration, a guidance counsoler, and in many ways a friend.

The images he painted, drew or thought of were larger than life and left me with a desire to be better, to do the best I can and to be me, to do it my way......INSPIRITATION

He sat with me for a few hours talking art, discussing my images, suggesting things, taking the time to offer advice and crit the works of a young 22 year old wanna be, but on the level of an equal. ..............MENTOR

Looking at his works and seeing ways to resolve my own conceptual problems ......GUIDANCE


 A lot of us have read about him and heard things over the years, grew up with him and in a sense known him. Now I cannot claim that I was his friend, I only met him twice, but in those meetings, he made me feel as tho I was. I can say this, in my heart he was .............my FRIEND

Frazetta was so many things to so many people that it is a difficult task to put things into words that will encompass all. I can only relay what he was to me.

There is a passage from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, that I love and have hanging on my studio wall which reads:

"The friends that we have lost do not repose in the bosom of the eath, but are buried deep in our hearts; and it has thus been ordained, that we may always be accompanied by them."

Frank Frazetta will be carried in numerous hearts, and memories. His works will continue to warm and inspire the hearts and works of generations to come.

I know personally that I will carry him and all I have garnered from him with me, and will pass on what I know and have learned so that the chain will remain unbroken and more links can be added.

I got to say this to him in person on my last visit and I wish to say it again now


Thank you.




Monday, May 03, 2010

Un - COVERED

A few posts back, was a post titled Cover Up, shows me at the easel working on a painting...............well folks, here is the finished painting and the book for which it was done for.

BARBARIANS More Than A Bloody Crown

    written by Timmothy Ray Jones

"Journey to an Age when civilization clashes sword to sword with barbarism under the watchful eyes of gods, and lurking in the shadows, users -- masters of sorcery ever seeking power at any cost. Follow four adventures wherein: A barbarian learns there are times when it takes more than victory on the battlefield to usurp a throne. A barbarian escaping slavery learns there are more kinds of slavery than he ever imagined. A barbarian discovers there is much more to going home than just the mission assigned him. A barbarian awakens from a mysterious slumber to find he is not the man he thought he was. "


It is available thru Lulu.com at this link....BARBARIANS More Than A Bloody Crown

This was a fun project for me and I amlooking forwards to reading the thing. Just the brief bits I was given to do the illustration was enough to hook me and make me WANT to read the stories, and do the painting.

So congratulations to Tim, and may we see many, many more from him in the future, and a thank you to him as well for letting me do the painting for him.

And here is a picture of the completed painting as well.

WINNER...........................

Just letting the word out that we have a winner to the movie quote from  the post "Life is a Taboret". The line was " without further elloquence", and the movie was THE QUIET MAN, and is one of my all time favourite films.

Our winner is a fellow artist, Carlos Pereira Da Silva, I will try to get a link to his site so that we can all share in his gift.

We will be doing more of these from time to time, so please stay tuned and as always please let us know what you think and are up to.

Ok here is a link to Carlos's site..........:

Carlos Pereira Da Silva

Saturday, May 01, 2010

LIFE IS A TABORET....................

Over the past few days, maybe a week or so, my wife and I have begun to remodel, our studio/office space in the house. In doing such, I have had to do a bit of cleaning and cleaningout, and organizing.

The closet in the room was made into a storage cabinet for various things such as a few needed household tools, but also oganized to hold my art supplies, old paintings, boards for new paintings and paper and those sorts of various things.



In getting the closet organized, and cleaning things out, I was afforded the opportunity to do something I had been planning on and wanting to do for quite awhile. Build my "ultimate" taboret. Like many folks I am not quite an off the rack person, and have to customize things to suit my particular needs and wants. I built my own easel when I started painting again, of course there were numerous reasons for doing such, but one of the main ones was I want it to fit me and my needs. Now a few weeks back I purchased an easel I had been wanting for a long time, a simple H framed thing that I felt would do what I wanted and needed. Well once it was out of the box I had to customize it....................not much, but the bar in the back wouldn't hold the smaller size boards I use without them being all wobbly, so I took the backing off of my other easel, and added a paper towel holder to it.........pretty much it....suits my needs MY easel.
Doing this also allowed me some of my needed nostalgia of previous paintings and in a sense a sort of tradition...........silly I know but it works for me.

NOW............my "ultimate" taboret:

This Frankenstien of a thing is pieced  together from all sorts of things I have collected and made use of over the past 10 to 15 years. So " without further elloquence" ( movie quote.........be the first to guess the movie win a free 9 X 12 pencil drawing) here is my ultimate taboret:
A) a cheap little table used as a taboret some 15 years or so ago. Mainly held brushes and watercolour stuff, the drawer keeps extra pencils and things.

B) an old surplus card file I got somewhere that I now hold new brushes in.
C) an NYC Police Dept.       coffee cup
D) a vertebrae shaped coffee mug my mom gave me one year for my birthday...........looked like marrow in the bone when you had coffee in it.
E) an old flower vase picked up somewhere.
F) old glass plates used as palettes during the college portion of life.
G) a strudy oak staple style table I got from a neice.......thanks so much, Mo.
H) an old painting I never got around to completing......yes it was gonna be a big one.
I) some 2 x4' s from an old video rack bought when Deb and Bob's went out of business.
J) the youngster of the group, a cheapo file cabinet maybe 3 to 4 years old.
K) the glass palette I use now, I got from OfficeKing while I worked there.

.....and a couple of other views just because:






Sunday, April 04, 2010

COVER UP

Here is a little preview of a recent comission that I am currently finishing up. After this one I will be back on a Conan that I have been dying to finish.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Evening Sketches

I have publicly stated so many times about my compulsion to just sketch or doodle.....I can't  help it, it is an ithc that I have to scratch one way or another. Most recently I have been scratching the itch in what I feel is a more productive way.

Instead of just randomly doodling a hand or a leg, face or what have you, I have been trying to do full sketches more in the vein of getting a more refined rough done for a painting or ink, anything that would lend itself to a bigger and better finished image. The forementioned method of doing head, hands, and feet ( great band with Albert Lee as well ) is productive, but I am wanting something a little bit more from the time spent. Now I haven't stopped doing that, but am spending less time on it.

These few sketches here, I've done late in the evening, just kicking back and relaxing. They have mainly been done before turning in for the evening. They have honestly helped me to sleep better at night as well. They have really relaxed the mind and body and gotten me some good doodles as well.

Axe guy, possibly a figure for a battle scene, could be another Conan, who knows but nice fellow.


Kull, he is floating but is obviously standing on something, and I will figure that out at somepoint, I like the attitude of the pose and will find a fitting background for him ................suggestions always welcome if you like.

The Creature...........yes our old friend and in my opinion the best movie of the classic horror films. He has an environment, and I am torn between doing an ink on this one or an oil. I am not sure which, the layout really lends itself to the ink, but see the painting as well. I might do both although I really don't like to do that. Not sure why, I guess I feel ......done it time to move on and get something new, but with this guy, I really might do both. Voice an opinion if you want, would love the help.

Friday, March 19, 2010

THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

Here is a quick pencil I just finished this morning, for a contest over on the ArtOrder forum.

The Beholder.



I had started this one around 8:30 in the morning, and completed it by roughly 11 a.m. It was honestly a good time, I had not sat and just drawn like that in a long time, and just had a blast with it. Might have to make it a regular thing.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A LITTLE UPDATE AND IN THE WORKS

This is just a little heads up for what is coming up in the near future.

There will be a new Conan piece coming out shortly, it will be the best one I have done so far, and is based on Beyond the Black River.

I am currently working on a comission for a bookcover that will be released later this year.

I am also currently working on the next ArtOrder challenge.....MUTATION NATION.

We are still waiting on the dates and location for the BEAUTIFUL GRIM artshow and auction, as soon as that is available I will be posting it here as well.

Well that is about it for now.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

BEGINNINGS

Seeing as this is my first blog for the year, I thought I would talk about ......Beginnings. Every picture has to start or come from somewhere.

As an illustrator, the images that I create do not come from some divine inspiration or muse, but 98% of the time come from some kind of text giving me a description of what is wanted, some of it very specific :

Art Description:

Assassin Devil
— 6 feet tall
— Devilish humanoid
— Female
— Indigo skin
— Unappealing devil face with the left half covered by frightening iron mask that looks like a demonic face
— Two horns
— Lithe but muscular
— Wears dark leather armor with iron parts that resemble demonic body parts (iron pauldrom with iron horns sprouting from it)
— Wears a cloak made of shadows and darkness
— Wields a black longsword made of shadowstuff
— Has devil feet.
— Looks at us dourly with her sword held at the ready
— Vignette image on white background

............ sometimes something as vague as "I need a warrior with a pruple sword".

Once givin the description........the divine inspriation comes in handy in putting the words into a picture.

The longer more specific description above comes from over at Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder. It is the first of the challenges I worked on this year........anothe beginning.....and is what gave me the idea for this blogs subject.

Since I have my first step ....... a discription of what is needed for the illustration, the next step is to turn that need into an image, so I start to scribble.....and that is litteral. My first initial roughs are nothing more than little gestural scribbles:


these little scribbles are on the back of the piece of paper where I took and printed out the description for the image. I had folded it up and kept it in my pocket for reference and it also gave me little sections to do my doodles in while playing with the image. The one on the bottom right is the one that I liked best and started there to develope the concept further.

Once I had my visual concept, it was time to take it further and get a little more detailed:

In the top left of this you can see the refined scribble. That was the first thing drawn on this page, the others are me still playing with the concept and looking for the best positioning to make it a non-static pose.


These two sketches are a continuation of the process, and they really weren't working for me, but the sketch in the center.......


....that one said work with me. I liked the positioning and the movement of the figure. The attitude of the head. It all worked better for me than the original concept, so I went here and fleshed this one out more:

....and this is the finished sketch I went with for the painting:
So, there is the process from beginning to end, description, concept to completion, and its like the Dave Edmund's song says " From Small Things Mama, Good Things One Day Come". From the humble little scribble to the finished painted image.