REEFER MADNESS OPENS FRIDAY & More Epic Science Fiction Watercolors

In honor of Reefer Madness opening on Friday, I am going to announce Scenery Appreciation Night, three weeks ahead of Schedule. Friday the 29th of January will be Scenery Appreciation Night for Reefer Madness! I haven't completely ironed out the details on the SAN discount yet, but if you are interested in coming (and getting the discount) just drop me an email. If you are willing to pay full freight (which you tightwads should anyway!) You can go to the Dominion Stage Website for tickets.

When I wasn't engaged in the final push to get Reefer Madness on stage this week, I was plugging along on my Epic Science Fiction watercolor sketches. I completed three more this week, and I think I am nearing the end of the "watercolor sketch" phase of the process. So, perhaps one or two more, and then I will pick the best 4 to turn into full fledged paintings that will be exhibited in It's Electric on February 6th!

Genius and the Dandy
Watercolor on paper 10"x8"

When I made the Genius and the Dandy I stepped back and realized that I had unintentionally made something eerily similar to the "Androids" of Andrew Wodzianski...But, I must confess, it is my favorite so far...Its not going to be very much fun to paint, because it will require me to have lots of precision in order to keep the clean, late 60's British talk show look...(I also chuckle when I see the punch cards!)

Prophet of Doom and the Visitors
Watercolor on paper 10"x8"

This is perhaps the most heavy handed...or, really I should say its going a long way for a joke. But when I was presented with the Prophet of Doom and the Visitors, it was hard to find someone or something that was as "prophet of doomy" than Al Gore...I also get a kick out of robot dolphins (there is some spooky stuff out there if you google "robot dolphin", trust me)

Minotaur and the Old Man
Watercolor on paper 8"x10"

I was kinda stuck on this one for a while, and while I think that the resolution isn't perfect, its pretty close. I didn't want the "old man" to be a steampunk robot, because that seems too obvious...so, I started thinking about what would be "old" to a robot. Well, it wasn't too long before I started thinking of video games, and what game would fit a minotaur really well? Perhaps one with a maze? So, a 3-d Pacman world was a good fit. I have been trying to make these paintings about the environment that they are in just as much as the characters. So, a "Tron"-like setting was a good fit...The technical problem with this watercolor (remember these are just sketches!) is that there are a lot of straight lines in the electronic world. So, if I am to render this as a painting, I will probably need to find some mechanical way of reproducing the background.

The thought has crossed my mind to take these sketches out of the sketchbook and frame them individually for the show (instead of choosing 3-4 to make into paintings) What do you think? Should I choose 3-4 and paint them larger? Or should I spend the rest of the time I have making a bunch more watercolors?I have about 30 pairings of epic archetypes total, so far, so I could add quite a few more...but realistically, I could churn out about 3 more per week...getting about 8 or nine more...I'd be interested to hear your opinions on the matter in the comments or email...