The Blues are BACK!

Yep. It's that time of year. I just finished the artwork for this year's Granville Hot Licks Blues Fest and we're a couple of short weeks away from this great downtown event. If you are in the area, stop by, bring a folding chair and enjoy a day of great blues music, food, drink and pick up a poster or tee-shirt. See you there!

Back to the drawing board... -T.

Bowers ART goes to the kitchen.

I've got a few children's book projects that I'm currently working on but wanted to show some other art that I've been cooking up. I created a series of chef paintings. Here are a few in progress images.

As usual, I start with some sketchbook ideas. Here is the pasta chef, the wine chef and the dessert chef in the early sketch phase.

I tape the edges, gesso (with thick strokes using a large brush) the pieces of Bristol board and transfer the sketches onto the textured surface.

Work on the background and paint the checkerboard border.

Then, focus on the character, letting a lot of the texture show from the underpainting.

Here's a detail. I love to create texture, allowing different colors to peek through the top layers of paint.  So, there, you have it! My recipe for some fun kitchen art. Of course, you may need some reference for this one...maybe a bottle of Cabernet...or two.

NEXT TIME: It's that time of year to start another Bluesfest painting. Update to come.

Tuesday Blues...

The new 2013 Hot Licks Bluesfest poster is finished and on it's way to the printer.

2013 Hot Licks Bluesfest poster

I painted this one in acrylic (again) and wanted it to compliment a previous illustration, done for an earlier Bluesfest poster. You can see that piece of art in the photo, on my easel. The main band for the night is Ruthie Foster. I used photos of Ruthie to inspire the design but I didn't want to create a portrait. I picked up on the dreadlocks, facial expression and style of guitar and used those in the artwork but didn't try to make an exact likeness of Ruthie Foster. I do that on every poster. Last year, my inspiration was Sean Carney...and so on.

I can't wait until September 7th, when the blues blows into Granville, Ohio. It's a great night of music.

I can hear it from my house but it's better when you are with hundreds of other blues fans, in the heart of the village. My folding chair is packed and waiting.

...I'll save you a spot.

The Blues are Back!

Final poster (11"x17").

The annual Hot Licks Bluesfest returns to Ganville, Ohio in September. I’ve created artwork for the festival poster in the past and it’s one of my favorite projects of the year. It’s a full day of great music in the heart of a beautiful little village and when you combine music and art, I’m on board!

The end of June and first part of July was lost to a storm in the area. My work schedule was really messed up and the Bluesfest poster deadline was approaching (I think that could inspire a blues song, like- Couldn’t Stand the Weather…oops, that one’s taken).

Anyway, I only had a couple of days to create some blues art magic and thought I’d share some project details.

I usually like to include something in the art that reflects that year’s headliner, or bands. If the main band is guitar driven, I go with a guitar. If it’s harp, I try to include a harp player, and so on. This year, the headliner is the hot, hot band from Chicago-land, Funky Mojodaddy. As I researched the other bands in the line-up, the flash of Sean Carney caught my eye.  Carney is an excellent musician and performer. I pulled some pics of Sean for reference. The guy has an extremely cool jacket, trimmed with a leopard print…that’s where I started. 

 Pencil sketch.

Final illustration (acrylic on board).

He’s very animated on stage, so that became perfect inspiration for the poster layout. To get away from the photo reference, I took parts (hands, head, guitar, legs, etc.) from various pics and photo-shopped them together. I enlarged parts, stretched parts and came up with a photo-collage that became my final reference image. The legs and shoes in the reference were actually from a pic of guitar player, Chuck Berry. They worked perfectly with Sean’s cool jacket.  Then, I did a pencil sketch from the Franken-sean photo-collage.

Working on the final art with Franken-sean reference.

The festival goes into the night, so I thought of a starry night as a background…plus the movement of the brushstrokes would add more energy to the final art.

If you are in the central Ohio area, stop by Granville for a great Blues festival. I just hope we can “stand the weather”…pray for a starry night!