Sunday, October 26, 2008

DEFCON STEWIE




Here's my latest painting from last weeks Family Guy Crap opening. The show was a lot of fun and featured some of my personal fav's in the industry Joe Vaux and Joseph Lee to name a few. There will be prints of DEFCON STEWIE for sale through ACME ARCHIVES. Prints of STEWIE'S DREAM are still available as well.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

FAMILY GUY ART EVENT













Yes the folks at FOX are putting on another Family Guy inspired art show! I and my FG comrades, along with many other artists, will have paintings for viewing and prints for sale. If you're in hollywood this Saturday stop in and check it out at the La Luz De Jesus Gallery.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

IT"S A BOY!

Weighing in at 6lbs 7oz, our son Aidric Max Covell was born
on August 14 in Glendale CA at 4:13 am! Needless to say I'm a proud and happy dad and I'm loving being home with my family for a few weeks.















































Tuesday, August 05, 2008

FATHERHOOD, IRON MAIDEN, AND FAMILY GUY.



















What do these three things have in common you ask? It's only the biggest and most important moment in this artists life. Joy is now showing signs of the early stages of birthing our son! I was able to crank out two final paintings before he breathes his first breath of air. Unfortunately I can only reveal one. Another Family Guy art auction approaches and I had to partake. This time the theme is album covers. And of course everyone turned and said "We all know which band Mark is doing." So here it is!! Hope you dig it. I'll be taking another three week hiatus from work so I can get to know the new little man in my life.A HUGE thanks to everyone for all the love and support!! I'm going to be a dad......unbelievable!!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

NEW WORKS

In my last post I mentioned new work. Well it's done!! I'll have five new paintings at the Copro Nason Gallery for the High Fructose Magazine group show. This is another great event that I'm excited and humbled to be in! Here are a few drawing samples. I had a great time during my hiatus exploring and bringing my ideas to life. Every time I create new paintings I discover new ideas for the next series. If you're in the Santa Monica area on July 12th stop by and check out the show!







Friday, May 23, 2008

TIKI SHOW





It's a bit late but here are some pics from last
weekends M MODERN Annual Tiki show. It was an impressive and crowded show. I'm still new to the L.A. gallery scene and I'm always amazed by the talent and variety of work that is out there. I'm humbled and excited to be part of it! Especially when I sell a painting. Many times I don't get to meet the buyer but this night I did. He was opening a TIKI bar in Las Vegas and he was collecting paintings for it. In the mean time I've been cranking out as many paintings as I can during my hiatus , Which unfortunately is at an end. I'll be Joining my cartoon comrades soon at Family Guy. My new works will be shown in July at the Copro Nason Gallery. I'll keep you posted.




















Wednesday, April 16, 2008

BEWARE THE ORPHAN WORKS BILL !!

YOUR ARTWORK IS IN DANGER!

This is a warning to all visual artists. A Bill is currently being written that could change your art career for the worst. It's called the Orphan Works. It would make it very easy for anyone to take photographs or works of art from artists and use it for monetary gain, and take away the rights or ability for the artists to do anything about it. So why would any advertiser, publisher, or licensing company ever buy art directly from an illustrator, photographer, or fine artist when they could just browse the web and take any image they came across. This Bill reads as if someone was specifically making a plan to bypass paying artists for any work they use, and make it nearly impossible for the artist to take legal action. Please listen to this podcast by Illustrator Brad Holland who is part of the Illustrators Partnership. It will explain this issue in better detail than I am.

Since the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Convention Implementation Act in 1988, intellectual property has been protected by the government. Artists, along with authors, musicians, or anyone who created a work, were protected. Nobody could use your work without your permission, and if you registered the work with the Copyright Department, you could get monetary damages for the violation. You simply showed them that you possessed this work.

If this Orphan Works Bill passes, artists, only visual artists and photographers, are NO LONGER PROTECTED, can NO LONGER GET THEIR WORK COPYRIGHTED, and have to prove HOW and WHEN someone stole their work, using their own lawyers. It would make artists and photographers the only artists who can't. Artists can register their works for a fee with private commercial agencies(which don't exist yet), but this gives no protection either. A company will just have to look at one or two of these agencies, and if they don't see the work, can legally use it, paying a whatever fee they choose. The artists has no say. The company can always say,"Oh, I just came across this image." And legally they are protected. Artists will have to register their images with every single company if they want full protection, and still get close to nothing if an image is used. A lot of time and money for nothing. My paintings and drawings will no longer belong to me.

The Bill is being written as THIS blog is being written and is scheduled to be put into motion THIS SUMMER! The podcast and website will let you know the steps you can take to help stop this.

If you care about your artwork and your rights as an artist GET OFF YOU ASS AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Serpent





Here's a new creature sketch. I've been switching modes a lot during my hiatus. This past week I was immersed in painting for my upcoming gallery show. Now I'm back to concept mode. GOTTA PRODUCE before the baby arrives!!!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Jake Lee


I recently discovered the work of the late Jake Lee in a Westway's magazine of all places. He Illustrated several covers for them back in the 60's and had a pretty lucrative painting career. The Chinese American Museum has a great retrospective of his watercolors and cover work. The museum store also has a catalog of the show for $12.00. Check it out if your in down town L.A. His work beautiful!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

MORE TIKI??

Yes more tiki! The trip to Maui was pretty sweet, naturally. A lot of snorkeling , jungle hiking , volcano exploring , and of course picture taking.

























































Right when we got back I got an invite to partake in the annual TIKI show at the M Modern gallery in Palm Springs. Perfect timing since I was already surrounded by Tiki sculptures and had endless reference. Here's the sketch.


Saturday, March 15, 2008

OFF TO MAUI !!!















Joy and I never really took a honeymoon so we decided to spend some time in Maui before the bundle arrives. We're looking forward to a completely different environment than asphalt and concrete buildings! Here's a few TIKI sketches to tide you over until we get back.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

We did do the nose. And the hat...BUT SHE IS A WITCH!!!



















You'd think that the first week of an artists two month hiatus would explode into a frenzy of painting and drawing.......but nooOOOoo. So far the first three days has been an annoying exercise in cleaning , reorganizing the studio, and throwing out crap loads of garbage I've been hanging on to for years! I really had a hard time beginning work surrounded by chaos. So in the meantime here's an old sketch that reappeared in the madness. It's a sketch for a painting I never started. In fact the halftone drawing is on my website http://www.markcovell.com/Concepts003.html but I always liked this sketch because it was drawn pretty fast and is full of movement and fluidity. Now I have to keep all the same movement in the final painting. Whenever I get to it that is.

Monday, February 25, 2008

NINJA

































Talk to anyone who knows me and they'll tell you "Mark Covell digs Ninjas!"
Not only am I a fan of the ridiculous 80's Ninja movies starring folks like Sho Kosugi, but I'm an even bigger fanatic of the true historical aspects regarding those reclusive warriors. Here are a few interpretations that I sketched. What the hell is the bottom Ninja pointing at you ask? I dunno. What do you want?....it's a quick sketch!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

BUGS

Switched from Bots to Bugs!

























Monday, February 18, 2008

New Bot



















Here's a quickie I managed to sneak in this weekend between painting, looking at condo's, and prepping for fatherhood. The madness never ends! I found some old halftone paper and remembered how much I like this method using marker, ink and white colored pencil.

Monday, February 04, 2008

WOAH....BABY!!!!


Well I'm always talking about sketching interesting new characters and creature designs so here's my latest and best creation PERIOD!! Yep it's a baby if you haven't guessed already! Joy and myself will be new parents in early August. We'll know whether it's a boy or girl in another month but for now we're having fun looking at the baby name book and imagining what it will be like six months from now!

RECENT SKETCHES 08



Some people have complained that I've had no posts for months. Folks I know it's annoying but you apparently have not figured out my blog pattern. Post something ...wait several months....post something else. I'll try to be more attentive. Here are some more Post-it sketches. When I have time for a break these robotic creations come naturally and are a nice change of pace from drawing cartoon characters!