Here’s a little preview of a work in progress. It’s animated so you can see the steps (only three layers so far). This is only a small portion of the full piece and there’s still a lot to do. Can you guess what the illustration is about?
Author: John Van Houten
I’m Back!
Has it really been an entire month since I last updated this blog? Boy have I been slacking off!
What have I been doing, you ask?
I have been reading a lot of comic books and various books about the comic book industry and it’s roller coaster of a history. I also went camping for a while and spent a lot of time taking photos.
I have to admit that since I’ve purchased a camera I have been neglecting my duties to draw and paint (and occasionally sculpt but that’s not my forte). I’ve also been neglecting to update my portfolio and my blog. It’s more work than most people realize. There’s a lot of annoying back end stuff that I have to do behind the scenes when adding new work to my website (and having to deal with SEO on all of my posts is pretty annoying). But anyways…
Here’s a little taste of what’s on my Flickr:
Thanks for stopping by! (or not?)
Tiny Painting for Sale
If you follow my Facebook page then you may already know about this but The Art Order has the remaining tiny paintings from the Tiny Painting show from Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2014 for sale in their online store.
My painting, Psychotropic Cavern (from this blog post) is for sale in the Art Order store. You can go directly to my painting by clicking here.
Don’t miss out on owning an original painting by yours truly, John VanHouten!
New Art Added to My Portfolio 6-2-14
I have neglected keeping my portfolio updated. Today I added three pieces I created in 2013. There’s more to come.
You have seen “Milk and Cookies” in a previous post. It’s now officially added to my portfolio.
This is a painting I made for my mother for her birthday last year. She isn’t going to get any more original art until she frames this haha. I was experimenting with Holbein’s acrylic/gouache hybrid line of paint: Acryla Gouache. It’s great paint. The title “Would You Be My Girl?” is something I feel this guy would say and it’s also from The Police song “Be My Girl”.
This is one of my favorite pieces of art that I have created. It’s one of the biggest and most detailed drawings I have ever attempted. I prefer working small. This piece was in the 28th Annual West Michigan Regional (Art) Competition at LowellArts!.
Of course all of this artwork is for sale except “Would You Be My Girl?” (because I made it for my mother, duh). Contact me if you’d like to purchase art. “Milk and Cookies” and “Flying Whales” are both already framed.
Graduation and a new camera!
If you follow me on my official Facebook page then you also know that I recently graduated from KCAD with an Illustration degree! If you don’t follow me on Facebook and you didn’t know that then maybe you should stay in the loop (the graduation photo below was taken by my pal Simon Lee).
And what better way to celebrate graduating than purchasing a new camera? Actually I could think of a few better ways but I digress. A new camera means experimenting and making up reasons to use the aforementioned new camera. Today I photographed some lilacs (obviously seen in the photos below).
Stay cool out there in that heat! It’s about time that Michigan weather realized what season it is.
Etsy!
Prints are now available on Etsy!
Spurred by the recent KCAD graduating senior exhibit this week I have decided to make prints available on Etsy! They are so inexpensive that even children can afford to purchase my prints! At the moment I don’t have a reliable way to ship prints larger than 14″ on the longest side so be on the lookout for bigger prints when I finally figure that out.
Click here to go to my Etsy shop.
I’m On Facebook!
Hey everyone I’m officially on Facebook now!
I look forward to connecting with you through yet another social media venue! Don’t worry, I’ll still be posting on my blog and on Twitter, but I’ll be posting some different stuff on each platform (and some of the same). So head on over to Facebook and check it out!
Tiny Painting: Psychotropic Cavern
This image appears larger than the actual painting (unless you are viewing on a smart phone).
Here’s a tiny 3″ x 3″ painting that I’m calling “Psychotropic Cavern”. It’s acryla gouche and colored pencil on board. I created it for Jon Schindehette‘s tiny painting show at SFAL. If you go to Spectrum Fantastic Art Live, be sure to see his tiny painting show featuring over 200 tiny science fiction/fantasy pieces (and buy mine)! It certainly looks like a neon black light poster but sadly it doesn’t look that great under a black light. I’m now inspired to try to make a black light illustration now.
Boy in a Robot Suit
Here’s a detail from a painting I’m finishing this weekend. If you follow me on Twitter then you have likely seen this preview. If you don’t follow me on Twitter (shame on you!) then you are missing out because I fairly frequently post photos. I apologize for the slow updates here lately.
Brilliant Hallucination
Not your average trip to the dentist’s office.
So here’s a digital painting that I’ve been meaning to post to my blog. The concept for which I had to make an illustration was the random pairing of words: “brilliant hallucination”. I made a mind map and determined the subject matter/color scheme. I’ll post some WIP images eventually.