Narrow Escape

I don't remember sea monsters being mentioned in the travel brochure.



The first version of this piece had the Squire running away from a volcano.  As it happens sometimes, it just wasn't coming together very well, and I scrapped it.  Starting over, I swapped out the volcano for a trio of tentacles, and changed the paper as well.

10x18 inches, painted in watercolor.

SMACK!!!

"OW!!"

"Time was, a girl could walk on the beach without having to worry about being accosted by rude tentacled monster things."

Sometimes, it's best not to ask where ideas come from.  Just paint them and make room in your brain for more of them.

7.5x17 inches, painted in watercolor. Available on Daily Paintworks.

Robin's Egg

Presenting something a little different this week.  A photograph.


This is part of a project I started earlier in the year, the aim of which is to improve standard digital photos by making them a bit worse.  I was inspired by my discovery of the toy camera movement.  Basically, you take pictures with a cheap plastic camera with a plastic lens and loaded with expired film which you may develop in the wrong mixture afterward.  All this adds up to an unpredictability and texture you just can't get with point and shoot digital equipment.

But I'm trying.

This piece represents several layers of color adjustment, blurring, light leaks, and blotchy texture.  I create my own blotchiness with watercolor paper in various stages of distress painted with browns or grays.  I then scan the result into the computer and scale as needed.  I added the red streak on the right partly to add some color contrast, and partly to help obscure the license plate.

This is one of my favorite pieces from the project so far.

Photo © 2011 Matt Yost, all rights reserved.