Packin' up shop...!

As some of you may already know, I'm relocating my art blog over Tumblr! It seems that the site is better equipped for networking images, which is always a good thing. Anyway, head on over! Per usual, I'll be updating regularly with my newest work with some backstory and super-secret process stuff!

Go check out the newest blog here and as always, support!

SEREN Self-Titled EP

So it feels like its' been a while since any recent updates, but rest assured the workflow has been furious in this flea-ridden Savannah apartment. Oh, yes my cats have fleas, a problem first encountered during my stay in the South which I'm still not doing anything about... But I have been slaving over another album piece for my brother's new prog-djent-black-metal outfit "Seren". At least this is all written down for when they get famous. Anyway he's basically doing what I am doing only in music form and since I was already on a roll from Decretum, I jumped straight into this one. That being said, this EP cover has been finished for a few weeks now but due to a series of recording issues and time complications it sort of sat on my desktop for a while, gathering digital dust. Now's a pretty good time though.

The name Seren translates to something roughly like "tyrant" in Hebrew (not 100% on that one folks) and I wanted to create an image of this terrifying mask on the cover. I figured it would be a fitting image for a demon warlord..... so also a metal band.  I had actually originally planned to have this cover look a lot more graphic and simple; you can kind of a get a hint of that in my first sketch that I laid out, but things evolve. Sidenote; I had no idea that my brother could do black metal shrieks.

Front cover process screenshots

Finished front cover

The back cover is a scene of this masked warlord standing over slain people. It was more... serene, in the beginning. Hahaha. But it changed, understandably. Its' more metal this way.

Back cover process screenshots

Finished back cover

I couldn't find a good solution for the bands logo on the front, so eventually I just broke down and summoned the great Radfan to contribute some awesome ink brushwork for the "Seren" type. And here's the final image, front and back with the back text and band logo:

These guys are going to be famous, I know it. Put the metal in your earholes. I'll link it here so you can do that. Seriously, seriously, do listen. And Steve, give 'em some hell.

Seren's bandcamp: serenmetal.bandcamp.com

Seren's official facebook: facebook.com/SerenOfficial

Decretum - "Create Your Own Solution EP-IC"

Back in high school, my brother and I jammed with a few friends as they were trying to put together a local metal band. God, I remember we were all actually part of a Metallica cover band at one point, with my brother on lead guitar and me on the bass, but that's another story for a different time (and it was awesome). Anyway, that band formed into Decretum, and they've been writing music and playing shows back in Grand Junction ever since I moved to Savannah. Turns out that they've been eager to release an EP for their upcoming album and looked to me for some cover art! Of course I wanted to help out my old bandmates so the project took off a little over a week ago to coincide with their March 3rd release date.

I had to haul pretty fast for this one, so I started off with a sketch that illustrated their first song "Absent God", which had to do with aliens. Here's the original drawing I did of the earth being destroyed and absorbed by some kind of alien machinery:

I wanted to make more of an effort to record my working process for this one, but for some reason I couldn't remember to take screenshots of all of the steps, but I at least attempted it.

  

The background was made up of star charts, digital paint, and ink/pastel rubbings that I had scanned into the computer. From there it was mostly a render-fest, with me trying to slowly work in more detail over the entire piece, one layer at a time. The planet seen in the next two is just a photograph, for a placeholder.

And finally, the finished piece with the logo and font. I originally had planned for a small spaceship that was escaping the earth (you can see it actually, in my original sketch), but due to time constraints I had to leave it out:

It was fun, trying to get back into digital painting after almost eight months of ignoring it. It's a different beast than my usual acrylic to be sure, but I learned a lot and I am probably going to start using my tablet more often now. I've got to give a big shoutout to the members of Decretum, as well as my brother Steve who helped the band record and mix their EP. We were all able to make an idea into something awesome and real together, and I'd love to work for the band more in the future.

If you wanna check out Decretum's music, head on over to their facebook page and give them a listen!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Decretum/207041099346399

And to any of my Grand Junction buddies out there that listen to metal, which is pretty much all of you admit it, go see the band play and pick up the EP! I'll be doing poster and t-shirt art for them coming up too so keep an eye out for that! 

Little Casey...

So my good friend Casey and I kept a small series of comics going about us as if we were little kids during our SCAD adventures. He visited me in Savannah a little while ago and this was basically the result..

Chris Logé Illustration Facebook page!

Oh no! I'm on Facebook!

Check out my official Facebook page. Please support! New work and news are now in motion!

EKC 02/2012: A Summer Rain (With a Mustache)

After the completion of last month's Electric Keychain painting, I went straight into the next with "A Summer Rain (With a Mustache)". This painting was to reflect the month's theme: "Objects turned into living things... with mustaches!"

You know, the strange thing with this project was that last month, I thought that I was having trouble with the theme of "Just Causes". Editorial work never was my strongest point, so last month's painting took more effort on my part to come up with a plausible concept. Once I heard the news about the mustache theme for the new painting, I instantly thought it'd be worlds easier than last month come up with an idea for this... Turns out that it was the complete opposite. I'm not much into mustachio'd humor or stately gentleman characters with top hats and monocles, so it was super hard for me to think of something that wouldn't be generic. I eventually came up with the idea of giving a rain storm a mustache and ended up with more of a spiritual thing than a living thing. Oh well:
  

And here's the finished one; part of me wants to go back and continue touching it up, if only because this painting was to be completed in around five days and its been crazy working round the clock then coming home to paint! I'm happy with this one though, I seem to have a thing for those space-men:

Head over to the Electric Keychain site to see all of this month's work: http://www.electrickeychain.com/#2691682/06-Mustachioed-Machina

And if you want, support the group on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/electrickeychain

EKC 01/2012: Kaleidoscope Culture

Hello world! A few new paintings have been completed, but first a short update:

Its' been a while since I took the time to update my art blog and that's because I'm slowly getting used to living a life that isn't scheduled by school but instead is ruled by the regular hours of working a day job. So. As expected, my artistic side has taken a serious hit now that school has ended and after spending day after day maintaining two part time jobs, I had a striking realization. It became clear to me just how easy it is to lose momentum and forget about the art degree that we all worked so hard to get. Its' very easy to fall into the routine of paying bills and paying student loans but at the end of the day, I still have a passion for creating things and its' what I'm going to continue to do. This all being said, my seemingly never ending hiatus from doing art is reluctantly over and projects are going to be completed again.

I'm working multiple projects at the moment, including creating the backgrounds and character concepts for a video game with a few SCAD graduates. We have several projects lined up and we're actually thinking about creating our own studio together. Things are still young, but expect more updates to come from this in the very near future. Now on to this painting.

A group of fellow illustrators decided to get together and form an art group called "The Electric Keychain Collective" straight out of SCAD. Its' primary purpose is get everyone motivated to create art after graduation and to get our name out there and bounce off of each other for ideas. Its also pretty cool to see art up there from everyone I went to class with and to see how far they've come with their individual techniques and ideas. Anyway, EKC comes up with a theme every month for the artists to work with, and all of the art is eventually displayed on their website: http://www.electrickeychain.com/

The theme for January was titled "Just Cause" and each artist was to create a painting about an issue that he or she feels strongly about whether it be social, economic, whatever. Here are a couple of sketches that I did to start out with.

I wanted to make a painting about debt, not only national debt but on an individual scale as well. I wanted the concept of debt to be of this abstract beast whose form couldn't be easily comprehended, as if it was something that couldn't exist in the natural world. So I ended up making this creature made up of various shapes, with a whirlwind of different images inside the stomach. Things like hospital buildings, a school campus, a battlefield, cars and gas. A man steps through a doorway and falls into this new world, into the beast's stomach to be trapped inside with the torrent of buildings and objects. Here's the final painting:

I was originally going to do this one in the cut paper style, but the lack of time made that pretty difficult. I decided to paint it instead and use pen and ink make it look more like paper edges. It reminded me of of looking into a kaleidoscope, so I called the piece "Kaleidoscope Culture". It felt great to get back into painting and I guess I have EKC to thank for getting me started again.

See this painting as well as all the EKC pieces at: http://www.electrickeychain.com/#2552179/05-Just-Cause. There's some cool work on the site, so check it out.

Oh! And if you like what you see or want to support, their facebook page always loves fans: http://www.facebook.com/electrickeychain.