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Corben and Me Page 3 of 3 The only thing left for me now is to go the final distance. I'll enter Hell, headfirst and with my eyes open. After that the transformation will be complete. I will have peeled off the old Mattias and replaced him with the new, improved but slightly tainted Mattias - also known as C. Rockwell. What started out as an ambitious project aimed at learning and improving my abilities has now turned into a runaway train headed for destruction. At times like these, what could be more appropriate than a little bit of Nietzsche?
I should have seen this coming the moment I made a picture of human skulls as decoration for this document. Rockwell takes on a voice of his own, echoing the comments made by the German division of the Turbonegro fanclub Turbojugend: "You have created a monzter, und it's out of your control." I'll queue up some Enya and Vangelis in Winamp, light some incense, get a bunch of refs from the usual stock photo websites, and get down and dirty with the mother of all kitsch paintings. When I'm done, Jeff Koons will have to re-evaluate his entire career. Odd Nerdrum will scream in despair and proclaim himself bested at his own game. Elton John will send me love-letters. I'll be forever damned, my immortal soul lodged firmly in Satan's sphincter as I ride the Gravy Train into oblivion.
November 22, 2005 I'll do an underwater scene. A sea turtle swims toward us through a coral reef as the spirit of Sitting Bull looks down upon us. A crying child peaks out of the coral, probably sad because he won't get to ride the red Lamborghini that sits on the seabed. In the distance we glimpse the Manhattan skyline, backdropped to a couple of dolphins playing near a rainbow. I'll throw in some boobs just to set it off. That's the plan folks, and that's what I'm gonna do. Before we go there there's something else I want to show you... Usually I try to do a warmup sketch before I start my day. Even in that most sacred of rituals Corben sneaks up on me, I'm slowly being soaked in Corbenian influence. Not as powerfully as in these pages but, well, look:
No different than the rest of the crap I produce? I feel
a change, and it's even more clear when you compare it to something older,
like this one:
Or, this one:
All right, let's get back on track. Most of the raw material for the piece I'm about to make is looted from the net. Copyright infringement? Copyright shmopyright. With a little bit of stamp filter I got a bunch of black and white pieces to play with. It's like a jigsaw. I arrange the different elements the best I can. It's not easy with so many things going on but hey, that's what the game is all about. See, I got all the suff in there:
A quick color test reveals the true horror of what is about to unfold:
I lay down the colors now, not much changed from the quick mock-up. Same procedure as always, the black sketch on a separate layer and a color layer set to "mutiply". Also I did my own scuba-girl, the photo in the first sketch lacked... Something.
I work on the elements separately, hoping that the color sketch holds up well enough without me keeping an eye on everything at once. It's all about the detail here. I use the Variable Flat oil brush variant and the Fine Spray airbrush exclusivly throughout this entire piece. Turtle all done now:
I keep at it, one step at the time. Nothing is rushed, but I try to use
every shortcut I know of. Here's a close-up of the crying boy. Ain't he
adorable?
Scubagirl gets a makeover:
I could drag this out forever but let's skip the magic step
and jump right in on the final piece:
Download as a wallpaper: Buy a poster and other merchandise with this picture at CafePress Hope you enjoyed the ride. Direct your comments and questions to mattias@mattiassnygg.com. |
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