The Death of Frogs Pt. 2

Unfortunately, we had a long time until the final art was due so that leaves a lot of time to rethink what your doing. Jim suggested if I had time his second favorite was the Heron with the frog on his nose... I had an Idea to do some really loose painting a limited palette of colors. Not another airbrush Photo-shopped piece. So I played around with doing these really loose brush drawings. The paper was not getting me anywhere so I tried painting on a glass. A really nice experiment with some great surprises.. Here is one of the Herons blown up, you can see the great detail and looseness. I thought it would be funnier to put the frog in his mouth... Two color version of the heron with the frog legs hanging out of his chops. Then I tried this funnier version.I just thought this was funnier with the frog escaping...I know this one makes me laugh too.... Then I tried a more unexpected version with the Heron coming down instead of the normal way, I added some dark rough spatters (spatters make anything better) around the edges. I knew as soon as I did it, this was my favorite one. And turns out it was Jim's favorite too. So this year as it turns out I may have two Dellas Graphics Frogs. © Bill Mayer 2010

The Death Of Frogs Pt. 1

This years Dellas Graphic Frog Caledar for 2011 . This year I did the usual 50+ thumbnails and the favorite turned out to be "The Death of Frogs" The Final Image 2011 Dellas Graphics calendar Art Director Jim Burke "The Death of Frogs" © Bill Mayer 2010 Dellas Graphics has been doing this frog calendar for years. Always some great work contributed , by some really great talented artists. Some of the 50 thumbnails I did when I started on this project. I know lots of thumbnails but I love doing these ,it's my favorite part of the work. Jim Burke the art director and supreme Illustrator in his own right helped sort through the candidates and came up with several favorites to blow up and look at closer.I thought it would be funny to do death as a frogs death with a frogs skeleton in the traditional robe... We never heard back from Jim about the sketches so the gang at the studio all voted on the one they liked the most . Me I don't ever count, I just do what I am told. Here is the final sketch. The way I work is to transfer the illustration to a board and render traditionally in airbrush. Then build backgrounds in Photoshop. adding trees and water reflections and layers to darken and make the piece a little more ominous... crop and send a copy to Jim to bounce it off him. See if he has any suggestion to help make it better. The Final Image © 2011 Dellas Graphics calendar Art Director Jim Burke "The Death of Frogs" © Bill Mayer 2010

The Rotten Earth

The Earth: Fragile Planet exhibition; Society of Illustrators The Rotten Earth © Bill Mayer 2010 I have had this Idea for a painting in my head for a while. Ever since I read Blood Meridian, a novel by Cormac McCarthy. It was McCarthy's fifth book, but my first introduction to McCarthy. There was a description in the book of a bush the Kid comes across the heads of native infants impaled on the limbs their soulless eyes staring out. When the Fragile Planet project came along it seemed like a great fit. What I had in my head was the Earth as a fragile child crying black tears pooling underneath, a sad and somber piece. I did some little tumbnails and this gouache sketch on corrugated board as a study for a painting, then decided I liked the study.

General Orders No. 9

Deer trail becomes Indian trail becomes county road. General Orders No. 9 provides a history of the state of Georgia, but not in any normal textbook fashion. Instead it takes an impressionistic and poetic approach to span the time when Europeans first discovered the land that was then inhabited by Indians to the present day. It's an almost spiritual history shaped by landscape and geography, but as man began to impart his will onto the land, a conflict develops from the scars of war to the development of interstates, which gave rise to the city, which is presented as an abberation, an oppressive machine that works to isolate instead of unifying with a sense of belonging and place. General Orders No. 9 is one last trip down the rabbit hole before it gets paved over. A deep geography. What is above and what is below. What came before and what will come after. Agrarian fantasies, sacrificial rites, and excavations. A story told with maps, dreams, and prayers. Icons for a Lost Civilization. New Rose Window Art Director Bob Persons Illustrator Bill Mayer Illustration © Bill Mayer 2008 Film stills depicting a texture and feeling of a time gone by.

Trap and Release

These little sketches started appearing in my sketchbook when our flight was delayed in Salt Lake, and there were a cute little family, with two screaming babies. They screamed for the entire two hours we were sitting in the airport. These little drawings start appearing in my sketchbook. Little traps with baby bottles, fat dwarves nailing kids heads to the floor..... Start a trap and release program in your neighborhood, we have tagged and relocated hundreds of little rug suckers in to the wilderness, where they can be the wild things they are meant to be. All Material © Bill Mayer 2012

STAYING SHARP #1

Okay a great way to stay sharp,( ha) take an object from your studio and do ten sketches :10 min.... for me I like being on the sharp end ..so No. 11 blade works... naturally © Bill Mayer 2010 Right brain thinking....So it's a little exercise I started when I was in art school...Doesn't have to be brilliant, just a great way of staying fresh and keeping the ideas flowing. Honestly this little set of drawings only took :10 but then another 20 minutes to scan tham and figure out how to post them....but you get the idea.

Hide and Sheep

Just finishing a little children’s book called Hide and Sheep here are a couple of the little painting for the gallery section I thought were pretty funny. Ultimately these little paintings are my favorite part of the book.”Six clever sheep in the new art museum, some pose like statues, so no one will see ‘em.”…”Hooves click on marble. They dance and they play, with Salvador Dali, Van Gogh and Monet.”