Friday, August 31, 2007



This is the first drawing in a new promotional flyer zine (see www.tedmcgrath.com for where I got the idea for the booklet layout) entitled "Bond". It will include portraits of three James Bond actors plus a large Bond montage illustration inside.

With this zine I'm also planning on making a 1986 Boston Celtics zine in support of my favorite team who have recently aquired Kevin Garrnett (DYNASTY in 2008?). It will include Celtics of the past (most likely the big three, Bird, Parish and McCale) plus another zine with Pierrce, Garrnett and a third player to be determined.

Art Directors ... you have been warned.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007






In the old days they had been called Mysians,**212 but later their name was changed to its present form. They live in all countries divided from the Roman Empire by the River Ister (Danube). Suddenly they left these districts and emigrated to our side of the river. This movement areas caused by the activities of the Getae, their neighbors, who by their plundering and ravaging compelled them to abandon their own homes and seek new ones. So, at a time when the Ister was frozen over, they crossed as though on dry land [242] and emigrated from the Trans-danubian territories to our province. The whole nation was transported, bag and baggage, over our borders, incapable of living at peace themselves, and bound to spread consternation among their former neighbors. More than other nations they are difficult to fight and hard to subdue. They are neither vigorous of body, nor brave in spirit. They wear no breastplates, put on no greaves, and no helmets protect their heads. They carry no shields of any kind whatsoever, neither the long sort like those traditionally borne by the Argives, nor the round shield, nor do they gird on swords. The only weapon they carry in their hands is the spear, their sole defensive armour. They are not divided up by battalions, and when they go to war they have no strategic plan to guide them. The terms 'vanguard', 'left wing', 'right flank' mean nothing to them. They build no palisades for their own protection, and they are unacquainted with the idea of defensive ditches on the perimeter of their camps. In one mass, close-packed and pell-mell, fortified by sheer desperation, they emit loud war-cries, and so fall upon their adversaries. If they succeed in pushing them back, they dash against them in solid blocks, like towers, pursuing and slaying without mercy. On the other hand, if the opposing force withstands their assault and if their ranks preserve an unbroken line in face of the barbarian onslaught, the latter forthwith turn about and seek safety in flight. But there is no order in their retreat. They scatter in all directions, in small groups. One hurls himself into a river, and either swims to land or is engulfed in its eddies and sinks; another goes of into a thick wood and so becomes invisible to his pursuers; a third escapes in some other way. They all disperse at the same moment, but later, in some strange fashion, they meet again, one coming down from a mountain, another from some ravine, another from a river, all from different hiding-places. When they are thirsty, if they find water, either from springs or in the streams, they at once throw themselves down into it and gulp it up; if there is no water, each man dismounts from his horse, opens its veins with a knife, and drinks the blood. So they quench their thirst by substituting blood for water. After that they cut up the fattest of the horses, set fire to whatever wood they find ready to hand, and having slightly warmed the chopped limbs of the horse there on the spot, they gorge themselves on the meat, blood and all. The refreshment over, they hurry [243] back to their Primitive huts and lurk, like snakes, in the deep gullies and precipitous cliffs which serve as their walls. Taken in the mass, this is a nation to be feared, and a treacherous one. Treaties of friendship exercise no restraining influence over these barbarians, and even oaths sworn over their sacrifices are not respected, for they reverence no deity at all, not to speak of God. To them all things are the result of chance, and death they believe to be the end of everything. For these reasons they make peace with great alacrity and then, when they find it necessary to resort to war, they at once violate the terms of their treaty. If you conquer them in war, they invoke a second treaty of friendship; if it is they who win the combat, they massacre some of their captives and hold a magnificent sale of the rest. For the rich prisoners they fix the price high, and if they fail to get ransom, they kill them.



I've been cleaning up my room in an attempt to make it somewhat studio-ish as there isnt' any space in our house. My parent's are building an addition (including a huge studio I'll get to share with my mom for a little while!) but in the meantime things are cramped.

As I was cleaning up I came across this ... a piece I made sophtimore year that I really like. There's a lot of energy in it. What happened to that energy in me? I'm going to try and "tap back into it" this year as I pursue freelance illustration, comics ... all that stuff ... I guess just trying to figure it all out.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

New Painting


I've been working and putzing around with some paintings this summer just trying to figure everything out. I've finally made one that responds. I like this lil' guy and I think it's the next logical step to that wedding commission I did in June.

I have the week off from my dayjob next week and I'm going to be trying to work on that horse commission I got plus a painting a day. I'll be working around the clock!

Also, I think it's time for me to make a global warming awareness cartoon using Max/MSP. Load that up to youtube and try to save the world.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Making friends online.

http://blackmoth.livejournal.com/

The new max/msp video should be up ASAP.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007



More max/msp mayhem. I'm pretty amateur at this, but that should never stop anyone (plus, they honestly don't take too long and I have a lot of sitting to do during my gallery shift).

Expect more of these shorts.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

I've also been keeping up with Max/MSP. Here is a new Pop meditation with guitar (unfiltered) and animated RPG characters. All done in max/msp and imove HD.

End of Summer Update




Hey Bloggers,

I've been pretty busy this summer ... and NOT just making sandwiches.

I've started a series of portrait paintings of people of not much personal significance; people I see on the street, imaginary people and the like. I've also gotten a huge illustration assignment to illustrate 12 greeting cards for WYO-Cowgirl.

I made some samples of what the product could look like. My art director and I have talked about it and they'll be changed, but this work is still worthy I believe on posting here.

I'm slowly drifting into a polished style. I don't think I'm fully there just yet, but progress is gradually being made.

I will post paintings when I get back to Providence (in a couple days, I've been home dealing with family matters).
<3,
Jack

PS-
I'll be on the cover of Watershed this fall!