Births! "Flrrbl With Red Apples" (8x10 oil on panel) and creature development
G'morning.
My wife's water broke when I was making the first sketches shown in this post. I got the phone call while sitting in the sunshine on our deck in September 2013, researching and drawing insects. (Sunshine...we lived in Palo Alto, CA at the time)
I was creating what would eventually become my Flrrblz. My desire was to infuse my still life paintings with a purely imaginative "object". I've always been a fan of illustration. I decided to create my own bug. It began with some sketching of various critters from reference:
Now that I had some loose introduction to various critter anatomies, I began creating my own bug-thing (orthogonal views....ex-architect here):
Our daughter was born, and with her came all the ensuing joys, discoveries, worries, and groggy days of first-time parents. With the help of a handy little table-top easel, I was able to start mocking up the bug in paint while tending to paternal duties:
Nana, a peer from my time at the Schuler School, gave me this little homemade cigar-box painting box, which I used as my palette below. Normally you can put a tiny panel or paper on that tilted surface. Very handy.
This one is good-natured and smiley.
This one is extra glowy.
Things become more refined against a light background:
All this led to a first painting in the series, "Flrrbl With Red Apples" (8x10 oil on panel, 2013):
Many more Flrrbl paintings came after, and I'll gradually be posting them here. Thanks for reading! -David
David, it's great that you have an outlet for your science fiction passion as well as your passion for art! These are very striking paintings for sure!
Thank you. Yep, I needed an outlet for sure :)
These are very nice David :) They almost have a steampunk/Metropolis kind of feel.
Awesome thanks! hmmm I should try a version that is really mechanical....
I suppose using some classic Masamune Shirow manga as reference material couldn't hurt? ;)
So good!! That is a brilliant idea :)
Awesome idea mate, I love how the final bug designs turned out. I also really like the pencil sketches, it looks like your a master at what you do... Everything is just perfectly executed.
Thank you very much :)
wow this is really fabulous work!
Thank you!
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Sounds great, thank you! 😁
looks great!! wow..
nice post!!
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing, David! it is pleasure to see how you interweave realism and fantasy in your paintings
Thank you, glad you like the interweaving :)
Actually I never did the real one, I mean with all that knits and needles :)
Beautiful work. And such adorable creatures. Well done!
Thank you very much!! :)
Itukan gambar kartun kakak
Google translate isn't making much sense with your comment. Can you post in english?
it's translation in aceh language .. not in google translation
Those Flrrbls sure are cute...even though I don't like bugs. You make a classic still life never boring.
Haha, awesome thank you!
Came here because @ocd recommendation. Your work is amazing! You have one more follower. Hope to see more from you.
Thank you very much! :)