NEW from The Birdhouse Series -

"Birdhouse III (Alternate Version)"
digitally manipulated tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

I'm quietly posting this version of "Birdhouse III" that was posted yesterday at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG. You can see the original posted version here.

Lelainia L. Lloyd Photograph -

"The Birdhouse"
photograph by Lelainia L. Lloyd

It's been a while since I talked with the fabulous Lelainia L. Lloyd and, finally, I'm able to post this original photo that set me along the path of a wonderful new series. It was posted at her fine blog, Tattered Edge, where I had hoped to link this post; please do pop in at her place to see some fabulous assemblage and other marvelous work. You can see the manipulated version of this photo here and, once again, my heartfelt thanks to Lelainia for permission.

Old skool -

"The Girls at the Office (Alternate Version)"
digital collage by Mick Mather

As mentioned at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG this is the version that was posted there most of the day. It kept bothering me so I took it down and replaced it with yet another version.

Tempera-on-paper original -

"Summer Air Travel Likely"
tempera-on-paper painting by Mick Mather

As mentioned at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG, here's the original painting (inspired by Candy Pegram over at her wonderful blog Panels, Portals & Pop) that resulted in this digitally manipulated version.

Alternate Version for Illustartion Friday: Fail -

"The Epic Fail"
digital collage by Mick Mather

As mentioned at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG, I had two ideas for this week's Illustration Friday theme of fail. You can see the other version here. With this post, it's the somewhat hilarious idea that failure has a superlative usage, hence the title used. With that in mind, how much more superlative might the epic fail be if there was a magazine that students could avidly research to maximize their minimal efforts! :D

Gestural drawing: a quick study -

"Mick's Glasses"
pencil sketch by Mick Mather

Last week I participated in Career Day at one of our local High Schools. My presentation was a general discussion of drawing & illustrating by hand vs computer generated work and how both relate to individual fields in real life. Such as: graphic art, design, architecture, illustration and fine art, to name a few. Each student was encouraged to take pencil and paper and do a quick study of the coffee cup I was drinking from that morning. When they turned the tables on me I said, "okay, what should I draw?" Their answer was, "how about your glasses." Above is the scan of that very fast sketch, used as an example of the difference between a sketch, a working drawing, a preliminary study and a finished work of art. They seemed amazed that it was "okay" to just scribble out something in less than 30 seconds as I went on to tell them that, "this method of letting yourself go will accomplish a few things, not the least of which is a much more interesting, fluid and loose drawing style compared to something restrictive and tight." You can see another, manipulated version of this drawing at MickMathersARTblog.

NEW from The Telephone Series -

"Telephone #5"
monotype by Mick Mather

Here's another image from The Telephone Series - "Telephone #20" and a group of thumbnails can be seen here at MICKMATHERSARTBLOG - that was the precursor to The Toast Series. I talk about it here, where you can also see "Toast #7" from that series ... take a peek.