Category: Artwork

Originals for sale, prints for sale, works in progress, techniques, tutorials, and thoughts about art.

Posted on by

Countdown

All pages are drawn. I have two pages remaining to shade. Then I have to draw the cover, put the ads sections together, figure out what sort of extras I want to squeeze in there, add my credits and thank yous, and will probably need to write up a lot of legal clauses about “please do not try this” as well as statements regarding various parodies within.

It is really a shame I can’t use the middle through last pages as my preview – the thing with this being my first comic book is that my comic style is improving with leaps and bounds for both coloring and lineart as I go – making the overall art a bit inconsistent – but in a neat”I can actually see him getting better” sort of way. And the pages that leave me laughing, are of course the very last – making me already wantto go back and rewrite the entire thing, for the fifth time – but no, I won’t.

In some ways, I really dislike releasing or selling anything. the reason being that within a week or so of doing one thing, it is already far worse that what I am presently capable of… and not only have people seen it, but people have it, and other people are seeing it… if I want those works to be un-seen, well, there are a lot of large black trash bags involved by that point and it is really too much work anymore.

As you can tell, I have been up for a while – working 36 to 48 hour shifts with 6 hours between, for about three weeks now. So, before I say too much – here is an invisible picture of Ted Kopple with a rabid cat for a forehead.

And… thank you for reading, but please forget you ever saw this.

Posted on by

Sale continuing.

Beth and I, through work for clients, and a few sales here, managed to get together the money needed to get her out to Michigan – where she is taking care of a large number of animals which were hoarded and terribly in need of, well, everything.

Several weeks in, all but 7 of the cats are gone, and she is starting to see some headway on the rest of the project as well, but, I still need to do what I can to raise funds to get her back here.

On Sale, are a number of prints and even originals, drastically reduced for this purpose. There you will the remaining limited edition giclees and metallics for “the Rescue” (painted for Robert of Abney Park), as well as a number of other limited editions, and variations on “Conception” (featured just recently at Brass Goggles).

the Rescue

Also, I would like to direct you to my comic preview, now up. Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake (sgwbm.com) is an Art Noir comic book set between a fictitious Lovecraftian Town, Cincinnati Ohio, New Jersey, and Hell.

Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake

If you have ever been offended by anything, I would highly recommend never going to that site. However, if you have a terrible sense of humor, like me, you might find it worth checking out.

Some may call it gothic, or steampunk, or punk rock, or horror punk, or deathrock, or any number of things such as “terrible”, “hideous”, “uncalled for” or “just plain weird”, but mainly it is a dark horror comedy with a lot of characters from subcultural groups, set in a story which revolves around all sorts of pulp horror stories and cult classic movies.

Therein you will a lot of death and destruction bound together by bad ideas and general silliness,  but the overall primary purpose of the project is simply to make everyone in the world rather mad or otherwise imbalanced, through a sort of harmful sensation. If you have read the “King In Yellow”, the actual stage play, not the stories about it, you probably have no idea what I am talking about.

Posted on by

24

Beth is away in Michigan taking care of some cats that needed her.

I’ve been working 24 hour shifts between the comic and for-pay work, napping out for 5 hours at a time, and planting myself back here again. I felt too tired to work today, BrassGoggles forum is still down, and everything else seems rather dead – I spent part of today putting together a preview over at Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake, otherwise I have refreshed pages and email all day.

There are better paths in life to take than being an artist type. It has been years since I have been a part of the real world, always hidden away with my face planted in a canvas, or this screen; ‘always something that must be done; ‘always one more project to go before I let myself rest.

This video, beautiful as it is, pretty much meshes with my current mood. I guess I am feeling a bit down and discouraged today; It will pass.

Taken from Porphyre’s LJ, a music video for Little Dragon’s “Twice”:

Posted on by

Preacherman

click for a larger view

This is a digital piece I have been using to pass the time waiting for my scanner to arrive (hopefully Tuesday).

Click the thumbnail, or click here, if you would like to see the full image.

I had several variants on this, but I opted for the washed-out less colorful one; with the rich vibrant colors it looked too much a video-game casing – which is not a bad thing, but I wanted this piece to look better as an art print, and less like a poster.

Of my favorite character architypes, most of which are the reluctant anti-hero, but I have always loved the gunslinging preachers of anime and spaghetti westerns. I chose to give this one more of a steampunk, cyberpunk, and horror spin of course – because that is primarily ‘my thing’. 

This started as a cover for someone else’s trade paperback, the project fell by the wayside, regretfully after I had put much work into it – one reason I will hardly ever do pro-bono work or work for credit/exposure, is not so much my desire to get paid, as it is that paying for things tends to make people actually commit to getting use out of them.

I cannot tell you how many times over these past centuries I have found myself doing work I loved, only to see it die an unknown death with bands, authors, and other entities who for good reasons and bad, just could not get their act together :/

I am going to make 50 of this one available on Hahnemule fine art rag paper, and 95 on metallic paper, both of which at 16×20 inches.

Please check my store here and there this week if you are interested in having one.

Posted on by

Details About the Limited Editions

The 36×24 limited edition metallics are near gone. There are 6 left: 3 here and 3 at The Miskatonic Archive, and that will put me at 20 – the limit for the series.

The 32×22 giclees are selling as quickly, though there were 50 of those, they will also be gone soon.

About the Metallics:

  • There are only 20 of this edition (1 through 20), and two artist’s proofs (I, and II). One HC (flawed version) exists, kept by the artist, and it is documented so and also tracked by certificate, and not for sale. Leaving a total of 22 between the 6,602,224,175 people on the planet – or 1 to be owned owned by 1 person in every 275,092,673 people.
  • They are printed on very heavy archival metallic photo stock, in Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks, with a calculated archival lifespan of 200+ years.
  • In metallic, they look utterly amazing… simply amazing.
  • They are hand-embellished and in silver archival ink,  with slight and subtle additions and effects.
  • They are signed, numbered, and dated in the margin with black archival ink.
  • They are packaged with care, rolled in paper and foam, and placed in huge 4 inch diameter tubes (less curling that way). They are shipped USPS Priority mail or better, with delivery confirmation.
  • There will not be a second edition, third edition, bonus edition with a different border color, or special extra-bonus edition with extra doodles, no first edition revisited, no special custom-framed edition, no printed upside-down on a blue moon edition.
  • There will be none released the same print size, larger print size, or close to the same print size on this support type (metallic paper), in order to keep these every bit as special in the future as the day they were purchased.
  • There will never be a metallic version of “The Rescue” more special, and more spectacular than these.

About the 32×22 inch giclees on canvas:

  • There are only 50 of this edition, and two artist’s proofs (I, and II). One HC (flawed print) exists, and is appropriately marked, and also tracked and documented by certificate, and not for sale.
  • They are printed on quality gloss canvas, in Epson Ultrachrome K3 inks, with a calculated archival lifespan of 200+ years.
  • Almost identical in size, and with all the appearance of a real painting, they are the truest to the original one could possibly get.
  • #1, and #3 (sold), are hand-embellished in paint with slight and subtle additions and effects.
  • #2 (sold) is practically completely repainted, almost a unique painting in its own, as the hand-embellishing got away from me. It is re-varnished in satin, and looks so spot-on the original they are hard to tell apart.
  • They are hand-signed, numbered, and dated on the back border of the canvas.
  • They are packaged with care, in hand-made cardboard crates, securely padded with paper or foam, and wrapped in an acid-free cellophane for protection from moisture. They are shipped USPS Priority mail or better, with delivery confirmation.
  • There will not be a second edition, third edition, bonus edition with a different varnish, or special extra-bonus edition with extra doodles, no first edition revisited, no special custom-framed edition, no printed by bhuddist monks in the Appelachian Mountains edition.
  • There will be none released the same print size, larger print size, or close to the same print size on this support type (canvas), in order to keep these every bit as special in the future as the day they were purchased.
  • There will never be giclee on canvas version of “The Rescue” more special, and more spectacular than these. Actually, there will never be a giclee of “the Rescue” more spectacular than these.

Assurances for these and All Current/Future Myke Amend Limited Editions:

  • Each have a unique serialized hologram on them, matching the serialed hologram on the certificate of authenticity, which is printed on very high-quality (and expensive) Hahnemule rag paper.
  • The certificates are registered, to further ensure the uniqueness of your print.
  • Myke Amend releases editions in three support types: Canvas, Photographic Paper, Fine Art Paper. There will never be more than one limited edition on any given support type. Each Artwork has but one limited edition, ever on each of these three.
  • As an added measure, to keep your purchases special, open editions for any given support type, will never be as large in print size as their limited counterparts. If there is a 36×24 limited metallic, there will not be a 32×22 metallic, a 30×19 metallic, and there will especially not be a 38×26 metallic or anything bigger. 
  • Once the limited editions for all three support types are done, the ‘fixed’ file for these, in other words – the retouched, dust and blemish-free, color and lighting adjusted version of the original scan is destroyed, and open editions from there on are made from a different and newly retouched file – making all limiteds as unique as possible from their open-edition counterparts.
  • I will typically release only one of these support types at a time, not two, as I did with this one. My favorites will typically be the most limited and the first released. In this case: 20 hand-embellished and hand-signed metallics, 50 hand-signed giclees on canvas with hand-embellished prints going to the first three buyers, and 75 hand-signed giclees on fine-art paper with no hand-embellishments available.
  • These are giclees and digital prints. As you can see, I have taken a lot of measures to make them as secure and as guaranteed as limited editions as they can possibly be, and will do everything I can to protect your investment.
  • Eventually I will do Lithographs – but of other artwork – not this one. I wanted to do art paper ones as lithographs, but realized that would make them more special then the already selling giclees on canvas and metallics, and would not be fair to the owners of those editions.
Posted on by

Coming Soon

Here are some brief details about things to come, and a even a handful of things that were.

Artworks as Prints, Old and New:

Old: I have found some art I thought forever lost. I have also remastered some older works to print more boldly and brightly, and have taken to refining some of my older digital works. Some of these are things I’ve previously sold open edition prints of – about one to ten total for each of these, making those older versions incredibly unique – though their existence undocumented except for here in this entry and previous posts about them. For the newer remastered versions, I plan on making some limited editions out of them – on fine art paper, with signatures, and certificates.

Books:

In September, I am slated to share pages with Bethalynne Bajema, Brom (wow!), and other fantastic “gothic artists” who are not Brom (wow!), in an art compilation book. When published, I will have links to that book from this site. I am unsure what details I can disclose at this point, but cannot wait to talk about it.

My comic book, “Some Ghouls Wander by Mistake” is currently in the pre-press stages, and on its way to print. Release date is mid to late September, just in time for Halloween. I have worked on and dropped this project many times over the past years, beginning anew each and every time I picked it back up… meaning I have been talking about it forever, ad nauseum. Be relieved, very relieved, that I will soon be talking about its release in present and past-tense.

My spooky, crazy weird children’s book, which will probably plant a lot of bad ideas, and therefore should not be read by, to, or around children – that will be out by the end of 2008. At which time family-oriented groups will protest outside of somewhere, in celebration of this great work. Previews will be here when I go to press.

Also, I am working out the details on illustrations for two novels: one horror and one fantasy, which will likely be done under the same general agreement.

In October, Bethalynne will be gracing the pages in another wonderful art compilation by Goth Magazine, it is a Steampunk Compilation featuring over 100 amazing artists from this genre.

“Goth Magazine is producing a full-color oversized bound book of steampunk fashion, gadgetry and artwork.  Featuring the costuming of Enigma Fashions, Heavy Red Clothing, and editorials by Derek Caballero, actor Crispin Glover and more than 100 more artists, this will be the largest collection of steampunk imagery in one book…” 

“…It will be available via GOTH Magazine, Barnes and Boble, Walden Books, Borders Books and retailers worldwide.”

I am not quite sure yet whether I will be on time to catch this boat, but go Beth!

Music:

Bethalynne Bajema and I will be jointly creating a new piece of artwork for another great Steam Punk icon, their name to be disclosed at a later date. All I can say is that I am thrilled to be working on this new piece, and will be doubly thrilled to see it released in a few months. Available here will be fine art prints and limited editions (95 giclees on canvas, 195 metallics, and 395 giclees on art paper) .  “Branded versions” (versions with the band’s logo) will likely be available as poster prints, Cds, t-shirts, desktop graphics, screen savers and/or other things through the band’s site come October.

Pictographs: 

Long, long ago, my coming was told in a rather non-flattering series of images crudely carved into stone with poorly engineered tools. The perpetrator, being human, is by now surely dead, and it serves him right.

Movies:

“Quench” by Zack Parker, is soon to be released everywhere on DVD October 28th, 2008 by Vanguard Cinema.

My artwork makes a good number of cameos in this piece, as many of my paintings make a personal appearance set design and props in this renowned, dark spooky, Modern Gothic Tragedy. If you are interested in pre-ordering a DVD, you can do so at Amazon for only $17.99

“Diary of the Dead“ – I watched it last week, I didn’t like it, for many reasons. I disliked it so much, that I erased from my mind that I had even seen or rented it – and now I owe late fees, which I should bill to George Romero accompanied by a request for a refund on my $3.99 rental fee, and a bill for the time I spent hoping it would get better.

WikiPedia!

I am not on Wikipedia. In order to do so, I would probably have to do something incredibly important for humanity – like hitting myself in the balls on camera, being obese on camera, getting killed by a squirrel, stapling things to my butt, or begging the public to leave some famous celebrity alone. I will likely be doing all of the above soon, and in that order.

Stay Tuned!

Posted on by

“The Rescue” Discount Ends Monday the 18th

The Rescue - Painted by Myke Amend for Robert Brown of Abney Park in June 2006
The Rescue - Painted by Myke Amend for Robert Brown of Abney Park in June 2006

Creative Commons License

The ($255) special-priced editions at Etsy (ettadiem.etsy.com) have run out… within minutes of posting about it actually. The price will remain at $265 here, on Etsy, and the Miskatonic Archive through Monday, August the 18th before bumping it up to something more sane, simply for the sake of giving fair warning.

The 24x36s ($89 – only 10 left) will also be ending on Monday August the 18th. This shop has run out of them, but there are 6 left at The Miskatonic Archive. They are absolutely beautiful in metallic sheen BTW, and I really wish I had not limited these to twenty (especially since I want one for myself).

The cost in time and money involved in just packaging and handling the giclees is high, and all of these are selling so quickly that I am working very long days just to catch up on shipping and at the same time keep up with my clients’ needs.

In retrospect, I see limiting them to 50 or 20 just caused a bit of a frenzy, and put a serious amount of work on my table. There really is no way to unlimit an edition, or to move the quantities up – but for future artworks, I will limit my editions to 295, or 195, or 95 – and not 50 or 20.

The open editions, are made primarily for this reason, so that people can have nice sized versions of this artwork cheaply and without the time/money expense of certificates and such. Though still a nice size, they are smaller than the limiteds and uncertified, so as not to devalue the limited editions. They still dress up a wall, entry table, book case, cabin, or galley quite nicely.

But… They are not necessarily guaranteed to remain in print, as Abney Park has been so incredibly good to me and good for me that I do not want to make too much of my living off their icon – “The HMS Ophelia”.  I may eventually opt to bring AP Logoed posters instead, for easier storage, travel, shipping, and packaging – and so that while on the road, I can better promote Abney Park (who in case you haven’t guessed – are one of my favorite bands).

I will have other new artworks up soon, and will be working on promoting those. One in particular for another favorite band, yet to be disclosed.

Web preview of the comic is next on the plate.

Creative Commons License
The Rescue by Myke Amend is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.mykeamend.com.

Posted on by

Wakey Wakey

It is almost 4AM – and it has been one whirlwind of a month.

Beth is out on family business, and after handling her side of the shipping for less than a week, I have decided that I should really give her a serious raise. The way she packages things, and the speed at which she does it, is nothing short of amazing.

I however, am in a room piled with prints in chairs and even more across the bed I am not using. There is cardboard everywhere, and probably a bit of blood and assorted body parts from that taping accident. I am afraid that when I do go to sleep or sit down, it is then that I will probably find the scissors and my exacto knife.

I think I may have accidentally shipped a cat, though I’ll never admit to it. I am sorry, she is yours now – and I do not know what you are talking about.

I have been working 18 hours a day without break for a while now. Offers are coming in from all over the place to do this or that, and I am shipping like crazy. I have been bouncing between correspondence, shipping, ordering, screaming at people on the phone, threatening to invade neighboring countries, waving shoes at people, and doing my regular ad design and web programming work… while dying for a chance to send the comic book off to the printers and finish my children’s book.

I am however taking time here or there for a happy dance. It is nice to sell things, not so much for the money – I don’t mark things up much, but because of the happiness of being salable.. saleable.. sale-able… all selly and stuff.

My colleagues are saying I am pricing my prints too cheaply, and they just may be right. It does not seem like I can keep any on hand this week… well, on hand and unordered anyway. This sale might end soon.

The ordered things are piling up… at least as far as the limited editions are concerned.

Currently, I am waiting on my certificates of authenticity to arrive – they should be here later today. I’d tell you the hell I went through for that, but that would be a book.

In the mean time, I am pre-packing everything, labeling everything, hand-embellishing a few giclees, and printing shipping lists and postage. Open edition prints are going out as they are ordered – limited editions will be catching up with the arrival of those certificates.

Today will be likely spent applying holograms, filling out certificates, registering those certificates, and making the post man really, really hate me.

Thank you for visiting. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for your purchases. And most of all thank you for your patience. The great hologram certificate shortage of 2008 is finally over – back to … things.

Posted on by

*gasp* an update!

Anymore, it seems my life can be summed up by a ‘to do list’, which I suppose is much better than the past decades where I could have used a ‘not to do list’ to work by.

Once in a while, I think to myself that I must have been more interesting as an insane person, and possibly even more likeable for some bizarre reason… but that thought is whimsical, fleeting at best – not because I think it is without merit, simply because I would much rather be the self who is typing this rather mundane entry, than any alternative. 

This is about as far as I am going to go in expanding upon that thought – because it likely sounds a lot like “blah blah blah me”… which I guess is a symptom of journaling in general…

anyway…

I’ll be in Chicago next week – June 26th through 30th – at the Wizard World Chicago convention.

I am not quite sure, but I am mostly confident that there will be people in robes, turning things and people into chickens, which means it should be pretty exciting. I will however be very wary of anyone wearing a robe.

Aside from this, Bethalynne Bajema and I will have a table, and we will be selling things and signing things as if we were celebrities or something. I will not be showing my new comic book to anyone but co-conspirators, but I will be returning home ready to print … meaning I should probably find a quick and cheap way to make some sort of promotional whatsits with a release date on it… though I would always rather be doing than promoting things done… hence my lack of content here…

The last days, the next days…

I spent the 5 hours a day for two days and the last 22 hours programming and tweaking some super cool thing so I could get paid… only to find that there was a mixup and I was not supposed to start on it yet. Not that the job wasn’t approved… I will see my monies eventually… but the payment I was anticipating is not the instant reward I was anticipating in those hours I feverishly worked to get it done. I am kicking myself for not concentrating on other pressing things *hint* *hint*  I could really use some people buying some stuff to make up for my miscalculations.

Also hopefully be going to Salem to see those other printers and get that Abney Park painting back so I can ship it off to them.

This also means I will be able to offer prints of that piece soon (below).

It is called “The Rescue” and incorporates Vernian overtones with a lovecraftian feel, slight peril to keep it interesting but not too busy, the HMS Ophelia (Abney Park’s Airship), a somewhat Nautilus-like submarine, and of course Tentacles – otherwise the elders would never grant their seal of approval. I hate to say it is “steampunk” because the intention of the piece is to illustrate a story, and to make art – timeless art. I’d hate for it to only be seen for that, as much as it does apply.

If you would like to buy a 32 x 22 inch giclee on canvas at a very limited time presale price, I am selling two for $165 a piece plus S&H.

They will be Shipped between July 3rd and July 7th.

One is for sale here, the other here

The Rescue by Myke Amend for Abney Park