Meat Quest: The Quest for Meat

This project was put on the back burner while I finished up the office art and has just been hovering over my head for two months. It's a continuation of the pulp series I've been doing ("Thag!" and "It Came From Beyond the Moon" being the others). One of the biggest challenges was that every title and tag line I came up with made it look more like a cheesy dime store romance novel cover than a pulp magazine. I'd hoped the mastodon carcass and general over-the-topness of the image would make it more obvious, but I still think it has a touch of the Fabio factor that just won't wash out, no matter how much blood and misogyny I pour on it. But I'm okay with that. It's sort of the result of a late night impromptu photo shoot I did with some friends at my place a while back, during which I promised to do a poster for each of the attendees (myself included). And no, the models did not strip down to loin cloths. I had to make believe the muscles and belly buttons. So you can expect to see more of these in future months. Hopefully the other ones won't take so long to complete.

Greg White Illustration

My Art Cave

So posts on this site have been pretty sparse for the past couple months. A big part of that has been due to this project I've been pouring all my extra time into. I ask you, how can an artist create anything in a room that makes him want to vomit? My home office had been a nursery for the previous owners, and what a mess they made of it. I'm talking blue sponge paint and wallpaper trim level damage here. So I worked up a design plan and have made it my mission to transform the revolting nursery into an art office that I could actually spend more than five minutes in without wanting to drive a screwdriver into my eye sockets. It's still got a little work left to go, but the centerpiece of the room is finally ready for unveiling. Witness the transformation:

Ugh, this is what I had to start with. What's with the 5 foot high chair rail? Honestly, the things people inflict on children.

Here's the completed design. It's supposed to represent my journey from the structure of the daily world into a creative zone in which I have total freedom. And yes, that's my brain in the middle.

After ripping off half the wall with the wallpaper, chair rail, and book shelf removal, I had to retexture everything before putting down the cream base coat and penciling in the design.

So close and yet so far. The cityscape proved to be a complete pain, which only reinforced my decision not to use any straight lines in the rest of the design.

Ignore the clutter on the desk and floor. Here is the wall as it stands today; a tribute to extended adolescence.

Bleepity bloopity, it's a big scary robot sending radio messages from his head!

And look! A Godzilla-like creature emerging from the sea of my subconscious!

Here the straight lines and oppressive structure of the city melt into a river, bamboo, and a curly tree. Very Zen.

Finally, here's the comparison to the first picture (which, funnily enough, you can see in the computer screen on the desk). Eventually I'll find a place for all that junk lying about, but I still have plans for the wall in front of my workspace. So for the moment, the office will have to stay in a sort of limbo state. Until I can complete the design on the other wall, finish out the cleanup on the main wall and slap some posters and bookshelves up, I've at least got a space that I can stand to be in to do my work. And that's good enough for now.

Greg White Illustration

Fireflies

This is a character rendering I did this month that was scrapped. I hated to just toss it out.
Greg White Illustration

Some Old Backgrounds

I'm still doing some finishing touches on a big piece I started earlier this month, but until I get that up, I thought I'd post a few old backgrounds that I did for a book a while back. I was heavily influenced by the classic looney tunes backgrounds at the time.

Greg White Illustration

A Little Billy Shakespeare

For September's art prompt at work, we selected "Shakespeare" so I decided to go with Titus Andronicus, one of the Bard's earlier and more violent tragedies. It's an insane revenge play that includes war, rape, murder, human sacrifice, mutilation and cannibalism (hence the innocuous looking pies in the lower corner). The style was inspired by another artist, who was in turn inspired by German film posters from the silent movie era. So if ole' William Shakespeare had lived in the 1920's and been born in Berlin, maybe his play would have been advertised something like this.

Greg White Illustration

Three Lovely Ladies

Meet Priscilla, Candy and Crystal; three charming characters that I developed a while back for a video project. The resulting scene was later cut for time and taste, but I still had a great time working on them. What can I say? Trashy but harmless.

Greg White Illustration

Hey, hey, hey, the KKK isn't Funny

Here's an image I just finished today for a historical fiction novel about post-Civil War Georgia. I've rarely stuffed so many people into a single image, and I'm pretty proud of the results.

Greg White Illustration

It Came From Beyond the Moon!

In the same vein as the last post, here is another pulp-inspired poster that I did a couple months back. Apparently I have a thing for titling all my pieces with exclamation points, as if the bold, red, monster type was not enough to convey the intensity. Up to this point the giant squid alien has gone nameless, but as I feel compelled to name all things on this site, I'm quite sure that on his home world he would be known as Galgimac the Abhorrent. Tremble in fear for the end is nigh, and its name is Galgimac the Abhorrent! Yeah, that sounds about right.

Greg White Illustration

Thag! The Mutilator

Below is the first poster for what I'd like to become a series. Meet Thag! the Mutilator (that exclamation point is part of the spelling, btw). Thag! is the personification of the primordial human id, a man so tired of the reign of the dinosaurs that he takes matters into his own hands, hastening the day of their extinction. Armed with nothing but his club and a fathomless arsenal of rage, Thag! the Mutilator will destroy his reptilian overlords and haul the rest of humanity by its matted hair toward the destiny that awaits.

Greg White Illustration

Dog Abomination

For work this month I've got a book about a one-eyed pug. While the author describes his left eye as a narrow slit, I thought it would be funny to see it as a colossal, repellent orifice.

Greg White Illustration

A Caesar for Caesar's Sake

This stately gentleman is another character for the commercial that I'm working on. Think he looks like an "Octavio" personally.

Greg White Illustration

Freaks and Greeks

Last month I got obsessed with Greek mythology for one reason or another. I guess the Romans had a point in stealing the Greek gods for themselves, as the mythology itself is a lot more interesting than most of its contemporaries, (I'm looking at you, Paleo-Balkanic mythology). So I started off with the myths I was most familiar with; Persephone in Hades and Perseus killing Medusa . I guess it says something about the pastel nature of my day job as a children's book illustrator that my personal art projects immediately tend toward the morbid and downright gruesome.

After that, I got obsessed with Disney animated features AND Greek mythology, so my style took a bit of a change as I tackled Prometheus stealing the fire from Mt. Olympus (both the clothed and unclothed versions) and the centaur Chiron tutoring a young Jason (of the Argonauts).

Greg White Illustration

A Caveman for Caveman's Sake

Here's a character I did yesterday for a commercial I'm currently involved with. I suppose his technical name for our purposes is "Storyteller Caveman" but I think he looks more like a "Stewart." So there you have it; Stewart the storytelling caveman.

Greg White Illustration

The Birthday Beast

Here's a little birthday card I did for a friend of mine before starting work this morning. When in doubt, draw monsters.Greg White Illustration

First Blog!

Well, this is the maiden voyage for my new art blog. But let's not get bogged down in lots of pomp and circumstance, shall we? Down to business. For the inaugural post, I've created a little character that I thought would compliment the title of the blog. It also represents a theory I have about the evolution of artificial intelligence. This little fellow, all resplendent in his new finery, has obviously developed a sense of modesty, and has therefore become self-aware. When robots start wrapping their chassis in underwear, we will know that technology has gone too far.

Greg White Illustration