Home FAQS
to 'Thingys'
Do you do commissions? I do commercial projects and commissions. But I do NOT do caricatures of people. (see next FAQ)
Are your paintings caricatures? No. A caricature, by definition, is 'a representation in which the subject's distinctive features are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.' So sayeth the dictionary. I don't do that. I usually keep the eyes, nose and mouth in proportion. I distort the outer shape of the head and body. I also change the skin color on occasion. This is what suggests the character to me.
Are your characters people you know? Sometimes. Often at other times they are composites. And occasionally just people I encounter in passing.
Where do you get your ideas from?
To be honest. I really try not to plan a painting. I wait until I get a mental flash of a picture. A 'snapshot' as I call it. It's odd. But it just pops up in my head. A very detailed picture. I try to vary as little as possible from that. I find that if I vary and start refining it then the Commercial Artist/Art Director part of my head starts to become engaged. And that's not what I am looking for. I start to over think things. "Perhaps I should make that background blue instead of red, people will associate more with that." And that's not really where I want to go. I do very few preliminary drawings too. I think it's part of the adventure to sketch it on the canvas with the brush and see it come alive.
Do you show in galleries? Yep. I will post it on the web site if I am doing any shows.
Whats with the mouse character? It's not a mouse. it's a RAT!!!!
S'cuuusseee me.
Whats with the' Rat' character then?
He started out as an aborted animation character. Then an aborted newspaper strip cartoon called 'Rat Pack'. I liked him. If he ever apears in a painting then he usually represents me. Check out the cartoon strip idea here at this link - 'Rat Pack'
Do any of your characters appear in more than one painting? Yes. Often actually. If I like the way a character turns out, I tend to want to explore them a little more. Bit of a soap opera actually. I will link paintings together to tell a short story. I explain all this in better detail by clicking here - How it all works
Do your characters have names? No. I don't even have a name for my rat character.
Why don't you do limited editions? I may do at some point. Trouble with limited editions is that once you commit to a limited series of paintings then you are also restricted to a set format of size and materials, and to be honest, right now I enjoy the freedom of being able to experiment with different sized prints. ALL my prints are signed. Most canvas prints are 'enhanced' with extra brush strokes. So considering that some dimensions of prints may never be repeated, I would say that's an even more limited edition.