EVAN M. LOPEZ: Autumn Society

Showing posts with label Autumn Society. Show all posts

This is Me on Level 10 Excitement. "Crazy4Cult" show

After much necessary deliberation, I present to you my piece for Gallery 1988's upcoming Crazy4Cult (yes the 4th one. Click for poster)...in NEW YORK!!! Its called "Always Like This".

Crazy for Cult has been a series dedicated to cult classic films. For this, I have chosen to do a piece based on the movie "Leon" (a.k.a. "The Professional). I have moved away from digital coloring, so this is a mix of inks and pencil. I love this movie, so watching it over and over for reference was no problem.

I have shown with Gallery 1988 for some time, but this is both my and their first New York show. They have gone through a few months of back-and-forth, negotiating a new space. It has certainly worked out, because the show will take place in the esteemed Meatpacking District (address soon to follow). I just hope this is the first of many NYC shows for the Folks at '1988. I cannot wait to go!

What Time Is It? "Garbage-Pail Kids" Show, 2011

The time, and strange interactions with street crime and hospitals, have passed by. Despite all this time, the earnest work and dedication to one of the coolest west coast art show interactions prevails. I present my piece for the Garbage Pail Kids show for Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.

This piece, like all the rest in the show, is a version of an existing Garbage Pail Kid. In this case, the character is named "Hy Gene". Take a wild guess why.

Its a Crab! "Shell-Shock" Show, 2011

I present now my piece for the Autumn Society TMNT art show "Shell Shock". There is a metric ton of really great art going into this show, and I was a bit intimidated, frankly. After quite a bit of mulling around, I got to this grotesquery from a simple sketch (that you can see below).

Yeah...this one.

I had thought of doing a more heroic piece of somewhat realistic turtle warriors, but all for naught. This is the only sketch I did for that ole chestnut. I simply cannot pass up an opportunity to make something ugly.

Raccoon Eyes! "3B" Show, 2011

"slee-eepless nights" (sung to the tune of a song that doesn't exist because in my sleepless state, my brain is spitting out nonsense like so much car exhaust). Here I present my 3 pieces for the 3B Show! This is yet another fantastic Autumn Society show with Gallery 1988 Venice. Much like the 3G show (peep my pieces here), this show spotlights 3 movies for the contributing artists to depict. In this case, the movies are: Back to the Future, Bill and Ted's excellent Adventure, and Beetlejuice. I have been supernaturally excited about this show since I was invited (once again, thanks Chogrin), and thus have been wracking my brain for what to do. All in all, working on these has produced a fairly consistent mind-boner since I began. Im REALLY curious to see everyone else's work.

I would add in-process sketches here, but there really wasn't any process. I just sat up late at night, watching all 3 movies, taking screen-caps of different scenes and characters. For what seemed like a few years, I walked around, angry-eyed, pouring over details trying to think of what I wanted to draw. There were many situations I would just fade out, mid-conversation, just thinking "I gotta get that corndog in Sigmund Freud's hand".

I decided not to draw the main characters, or any particular scenes, favoring instead to draw a setting or feeling that represented each movie. Im just more interested in doing my own thing rather than copy the movie. Other people are able to represent that style better than I can, so they can do that. In any case, after a few sleepless nights, I got em done. So here they are.

I tried to fill each piece with lots of detail and little fun crap for people to find and look at. This little feller is definitely one of my favorite details though.

Till next time, Im off to bed.

"8-Bit Calavera" Show 2010

The Autumn Society triumphs again at THE 8 BIT CALAVERA show for the DAY OF THE DEAD at GROUND KONTROL! Now that we have the all-caps out of the way, this was an installation made entirely of custom-painted (classic) Nintendo caridges... at a classic arcade to boot! This, like many Autumn Society shows, was a really cool concept, as all the cartridges were to each be painted like a skull or "Calavera" (day of the dead decorative skull) and eventually arranged into a...MASSIVE SKULL!

Unfortunately, for yours truly, I was not able to make the cross-coutry trek to Portland to see the show. After a bit of a wait, I received the above (and bottom) photos, and to my surprise my little Calavera was DEAD CENTER! And here I was, stressing that the piece had not shipped in time.

The back was never to be seen by the public, as each piece was fixed to the wall. It seemed a shame not to do something for it anyway.

Thanks big time goes to Joe Game and the Autumn Society folks, as well as the kind people of Ground Kontrol Arcade.

"Playtime" Show 2010

"Slobulus"
The most recent Autumn Society/Brave New Worlds show has been the holiday "Playtime", benefitting the toys for tots. The show feature the work of several artists depicting their favorite/ most memorable childhood toys. Although I rolled around the rug with many a plastic oddity, few brought as much pure creepy joy as madballs. There was really no choice in what toy to focus on, but there were many choices within the Madballs faction(s). I chose the following three.

"Dust Brain"

"Horn Head"

Each piece began as a mildly labored pencil drawing, then colored with me beloved TOMBO markers. . Im still not sure if I should have left the drawn pieces uncolored, as I really like the way they look in this raw state...?

"Video Game Gore" Show 2010

Those who read this blog at all, know I am affiliated with The Autumn Society. Great...anyways. I was asked to create a poster/postcard/flyer for the upcoming 'Video Game gore" show in October. Now, I play video games. Granted, I am not by any means a hardcore gamer, but I play and have played video games consistently since atari was new and I was in small blue pants.

That being said, this show was more specific than just the overall theme of video games; it was about GORY games. I could have gone the route of drawing up some familiar characters in some cartoon fashion, which would have been fine. But thats not really what i do. Its hard for me to draw someone else's stuff when I know I can come up with my own. So, I needed to think, and think i did. I imagined simplicity, gore and video games. This required a peek into the "vault", which means I had to go into my parents basement, where all my old toys and game systems now reside. I pulled out my old V1 Nintendo system for an impromptu reference photo session, and had my pops hold it in various positions till I got the right perspective. I wanted to get all the grooves and screw sockets into the drawing, so this all was terribly necessary. After a quick sketch (that was approved just as quick with an enthusiastic "Fuckin' Awesome" (seen below)) I was ready to really draw this draw...ing.

The only rules I was given regarding this piece, were that it be 300dpi Cmyk (of course) and that it only be red, black(with grays) and white. This put a little pinch on the idea I initially had of a meaty pink and pukey green bloody monster coming out of the box, but no problem. I set to work giving this bitch as much red bloody nastiness as the size allowed, and soon had the piece below, and eventually the card at the top of this post.

But the story does not end there. That meaty pink and pukey green and bloody thing, will be my submission to the show. With all haste, it shall make it onto the digital crannies of this site (as soon as i do it).

(Update)
Sometimes even the end, is not the end. So is the final of this piece (which is shown at the top of this post.

"3G" Show 2010

For The Autumn Society's 3g (gremlins, goonies, and ghostbusters) show, I present these three little rascals. I heard about the show a while back, but was only invited recently to join it. The problem was, I was just about to go on vacation! But I put a down payment on a few groggy mornings to get these done. I don't know why I ultimately went for self portraits, it just seemed the thing to do for me. I try to make my pieces more personal, even if they deal with pop culture. Making yourself a character from the movie is a bit blatant, and might be a little narcissistic, but I really like these pieces. Simple. Fun?

"Japanese Pop Culture" Show

I have been showing alot recently with a group called The Autumn Society ( check their website out here). Their most recent shows theme was Japanese pop culture. Most of the pieces were based on video games and Pokemon, but were all quite good. I was a bit surprised to see a predominant lack of godzilla imagery in the show. THEREFORE! I chose my favorite creepy, monster zero/ghidorah controlling Planet x Alien men to lord over the zombie-geisha!...?

..and check it out, I did it with MOTHERF**KING GOLD PAINT!

Monster!? "80's Show" 2010

In honor of this fridays Autumn Society 80's theme show, I present my piece titled "F*ck it, we got a better world under the bed".

Since I was never without my crayola markers in the 80s, I made this with those very same markers, sprung from a box in my folks basement.

"90's Show" Piece 2010

This is a small piece I recently did for a 90's theme show. No explanations needed. Somehow I have managed to wrangle quite a few art shows recently and in the future, and they are all fun? Oh well, on to the 80's Toys theme show. This is my life.

Hellboy Art Show 2009

I have recently been contributing work to shows organized by The Autumn Society, a group of mostly Philly-based artists and Illustrators. So far I have seen nothing but really excellent/ imaginative work from all the artists involved, and it has been a real pleasure to show beside them.

Recently, I was involved with their Hellboy-themed show at Brave New Worlds, a great comic book shop in Olde City. All the work centered around Hellboy characters from comic and film, and we all sent copies of our work to Mike Mignola and Guillermo Del Toro (the creator of the character and director of the movies). The piece I contributed was of the "Baba Yaga", a mythical with character. I checked out the history of the actual myth and lore surrounding the character as reference for the piece. Ultimately It was alot of fun to do an original take on something pre-existing.

Check out more great work on The Autumn Society Blog

Halloween Art Show 2009

I recently was asked to be a part of a limited Halloween showing at the gallery space of my local comic shop. This spot hosts a variety of monthly "First Friday" shows in conjunction with The Autumn Society, a collection of Philly Illustrators and artists.

I was asked a little bit at the last minute, after the head of the collective, after he had scene my most recent cover piece (below). Becaus of this I only had a title ready, which was "All These Negative Bastards Can Go Straight to Hell", but soon had an idea involving the pumpkin-headed parental figure squiring his horrified-fying? young protege around on all Hallows eve.

More Demons...post Halloween, more to come!

Here is another Autumn Society sponsored project, this time from IMAGE Comics. It seems that, after reviewing the oceans of talent present with AS, Image put an open call to reinterpret some of their new titles for possible publication. The first focus in this new collaboration is the book Sullivans Sluggers, which centers around a surly amateur baseball team which encounters a small team of bat-swinging demonic shapeshifters!

So far a few folks have "taken a swing" (gasp!...bad joke) at this book, with a true variety of results. Check out these excellent few here