CVIC Works Weblog

TBL TALK

2012-01-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

First 3 pages of a new comic for black & gold. Maybe risograph-destined.

Michael Willis and Lindsey Gooden

2012-01-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

Can you believe I like these images by Michael Willis and Lindsey Gooden? Awesomeness.

Ganged and ready

2012-01-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

The 2011 prospectus is ready to print. They will soon be ready for consumption.

Tests

2012-01-15T14:40:00.001-08:00

Testing some new color ideas in abstract form for a 2012 direction. White and black on dark gray is something I has always wanted to tackle. We'll see.

posting this only for linking purposes.

2012-01-11T17:57:00.001-08:00

Uncommercially viable and NSFW

2012-01-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

New puerile fantasy drawings with bold colors. possibly for screen print. possibly for 2012 prospectus. No edit function is the key.

Mamms

2011-11-20T10:01:00.001-08:00

The decision has been made. This will be part of the 2011 Black & Gold Prospectus.

Dang State 1

2011-11-20T09:43:00.001-08:00

Needs work but wanted to post.

New 6 page comic for C'est Bon magazine

2011-11-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

SANS TITRE

2011-10-02T16:08:00.001-07:00

Scroll down to see partial inspiration (bearded head). I am a chameleon. Of sorts.

MICHAEL DAVID BROWN

2011-10-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I can't express how much I love these graphic images by Michael David Brown.

JOHN AUSTEN II - The Little Ape

2011-09-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

I don not own this book. I did not do these scans. But since I just lost this bid on Australian eBay and it is in mind at the moment I want to post these few great shots from Little Ape illustrated by John Austen. I my years of collecting his work I had never come across this rare gem.

JOHN AUSTEN I - Everyman

2011-09-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

In my travels around the internet I have found that my favorite book illustrator, John Austen, is very poorly represented so I have decided to begin scanning pages from my book collection to post them here. His work was exceptionally suited to erotic illustration, but he rendered in a way that was not sexy (as was common in the 20s and 30s) and he also had an exceptional command of spot color rendering; he and the printers obviously worked together to make some of the finest books of the last century. The images below area a large representation of those found in EVERYMAN (& Other Plays) printed by Chapman & Hall in 1925 and printed at The Whitefriars Press of London & Tonbridge. The images represented are printed in black, gold and lush blue. Even in the scans you can see that that the publisher chose not to use leaves of any sort to cover the illustrations as the gold ink and black ink on the preceding pages affected one another over time and the text can be viewed within the gold on the proceeding page. It is both very frustrating and also an interesting happening caused by the passing of time that no one who owned this book when it was printed would ever see.
If my house caught on fire and everything living was safe I would return to the library and choke down more smoke than I have allowed into my lungs in my lifetime to recover this book.

Two New Unicorn Afire Colorways

2011-09-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

The always popular Unicorn Afire print which lasted three editions has finally been put to bed and is sold out. In its place I have printed two brand-new colorways more in line with my current color scheme. The yellow & gold version is limited to 40 signed & numbered copies. The gold on black version is limited to 20 signed & numbered copies. Each is only $10 post-paid in my web store.

MY GOD IS A THROMMING GOD

2011-08-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

Image number 7 in the ten print Prospectus Series (as is building on my homepage). this still has a some minor cleanup and detailing work to do, but for the sake of on-screen viewing it is as it should be.

I like it just as well flipped. What appears like a demon head in the upright image is actually more similar to an elephant skull in shape and design.

Rise Again

2011-08-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

Unless there are a couple spare prints up at the Merchant Co., the third and last printing of Unicorn Afire is officially sold out. This has been my most popular print over the past few years and I am going to somewhat put it to bed while at the same time resurrect it in a different form. I have decided to try to print the fourth run in a black & gold colorway - more in line with my current color choices in my work. Paper is cut & screens are thawing. If they come out to my liking they will be available online and at the Merchant Co. in the next two weeks.

TATTOO FLASH

2011-08-21T05:49:00.000-07:00

Can't wait to get all of these on my body. The colors in these prints by bongout and the brutish designs are just fantastic.
C. Bongout, Gfeller & Hellsgard

AU

2011-08-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

Part of the 2011 Prospektus. First completed state. I still need to add veins of gold to the stone structure. I hope it won't take away from the design/structural integrity but it relates to the gold used to construct the castle and references the material engagement of man and how he uses the materials for his own lofty means ignoring the effects on the frailty of the surrounding nature.

For years I have fantasized a vectorized drawing system that could be added into my handmade drawings that was built of pre-existing parts. Like a side-scrolling video game or Lego it can be quickly edited, copied, rotated, added to, and scaled to fit in with anything upon which I am working. I finally turned that fantasy into a real system and found it quite satisfactory to build a castle with it to add to the hand-drawn portion of this piece, from which I believe it does no detract but only compliments.

New organic Psychedelia Darksss

2011-06-04T13:16:00.001-07:00

New organic Psychedelia State I

2011-06-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

Aquirax Uno

2011-05-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

Another artist I had never heard about until two weeks ago. Aquirax Uno. He is like the psychedelic Harry Clarke of Japan in the 60s. Where did this stuff come from?

A blog?

2011-05-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

While doing a google search I stumbled upon this great blog - I guess that is what one would call it - that is just page after page of random images. It's like a visual test. How many proprietary images can you identify? I've never seen anything like this. I cannot stop paging through. Good stuff. below is just one of the the thousands of images set along-sdie Twi'Leks, the Time Machine, food images, x-rays, old electronics, logos, movie stills and celebrity portraits. I only post this one because it seems to optically alter when you scroll up & down and that is killer.

breaking the monotony

2011-04-17T14:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry for posting 5 almost exactly the same images. Here is something to break up the monotony. I don't think I have posted it previously.

Solution?

2011-04-17T14:19:00.001-07:00

Uncertainty about current piece

2011-04-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have been messing with this a bunch today. I'm not sure which version, if any, is my favorite. Any thoughts from anyone?

Old Sins State 1

2011-03-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Still needs detailing work done...

If an Ass Clap in the Woods...

2011-03-20T08:33:00.001-07:00

First state. Not sure about this one. I want it to be better... obviously without redrawing the whole thing.

Silhouettes V

2011-03-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Great stuff by Alexander Ovchinnikov. There are a lot of terrible silhouettes to wade through on google by people who make vectorized stock illustration. I was happy to come across this talented and inspired individual. More on his behance page here.

Seismogrification

2011-03-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

There's gold in them there hills and I am prospecting.

c. 2011 Chad Verrill/Verrillius

Eviscerated Mountain

2011-03-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

For black and gold. 9" x 24" screen.

Two new comic pages

2011-02-12T12:42:00.001-08:00

Pages two and three of new endeavor. Untexted. I have about 20 pages done. These are my first color tests.

Flashback

2011-02-05T16:59:00.001-08:00

Old stuff from early 2000's. if you have seen these you have probably been on the internet too long.

Keiichi Tanaami

2011-02-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

His name is not common, but you may have seen his work before. He's been doing pychedelia since its inception. The last one is contemporary. Nice stuff.

Miguel Calatayud

2011-02-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

I would like to find more work by Miguel Calatayud. These are great. Definitely influenced by the popular culture of the time, but they have more of a natural thing going on and the way he draws women is pretty killer.

Throm State 1

2011-01-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

Tattoo design

2011-01-16T10:50:00.000-08:00

Finally finished this tattoo design for my wife. Goes on inner forearm. Crows wrap around and meet on back of arm.

11:54 Pattern III

2010-12-12T08:54:00.001-08:00

11:16 Pattern II

2010-12-12T08:16:00.001-08:00

10:29 Pattern I

2010-12-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

Woodcuts

2010-12-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

Some woodcut jpgs which I collected this morning (for you). A set of images with two similar images of a very unscary-looking demon sitting on men. This set includes the often-blogged about "mowing-devil" and although I am not really interested in crop circles I am very interested in woodcut from the 1600's that shows an explanation for them from a time when people believed in demons but had not the notion of life on other planets. Also in this set is an image of Moses as he was often rendered with horns (image 5). And a knight under water.

Leviathan Intermediate State

2010-11-20T13:46:00.001-08:00

Screen grab of a leviathan image I am working on for a series of brackish water related screen prints. Not sure is the green is what I want or if the gray is too dark or too light.

Working on Leviathan

2010-10-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on a series of four 9" x 24" drawings to make into 2-color screen prints. All the drawings deal with water and are somehow dark or foreboding yet beautiful at the same time. While working on the second one - a kind of cuttle-fish headed Leviathan - I took a lot of photos so I could show how I work and how cruddy my paper and pens are. I will post the scan when I get it all finished and will post the others drawings - one based on the Cthulhu, one based on bog bodies and one that is just an island in water at night that kind of makes me never want to go swimming again even though it will make a very pretty print - once I have them finished and scanned. I expect the series to be printed and available in early spring.

New Website Is Up

2010-09-11T04:59:00.001-07:00

I have rebuilt my website. With better navigation, a better shopping cart, new artwork and the re-addition of the comics gallery, this website, in my mind, is much better and more enjoyable to look through. If you like what you see, let me know or better yet let your friends know.
http://www.cvicworks.com/

Mountain Light Deck State 1

2010-07-25T06:08:00.001-07:00

Center part of the skate deck tryptych from the sketches I uploaded yesterday.

Skate Deck Sketchery

2010-07-24T12:36:00.001-07:00

Starting to work on some skate deck designs.

New Pages

2010-07-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

Submitting these new pages to a semi-annual book I am sometimes a part of called Bailliwik.

A Couple Things

2010-05-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

A tattoo design (first state) that I am working on for someone very very close to me.

A bunch of brightly colored weirdos. May be evil.

Preliminary working of a new page

2010-04-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

May end up being colored. Not too keen on the top font. Click to enlarge and read.

NEW YESTERDAY

2010-02-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

This will probably become part of a set of random whiteline screenprintst that I anticipate releasing this year. Contents and title to be determined.

PRELIM NOW AVAILABLE at COAST CITY COMICS

2010-02-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

If your are from the Portland, ME area and have not yet secured a copy of my recently published book, Prelim, it can now be purchased at Coast City Comics on upper Congress Street in Portland. Go there and say hi and spend a few.
If you are from far, far away, Prelim may be purchased here through my webstore.
Prelim is 96 pages of gorgeous black & white comics, drawings and sketches and is well worth the price of $9.95.

NEW TODAY

2010-02-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

A new black & white drawing (Bow Savage):

And a new sketch testing an old color scheme:

NEMATODA COLORED

2010-01-31T14:06:00.000-08:00

Five minute colorized version of image I posted this morning.

NEMATODA

2010-01-31T05:54:00.000-08:00

I have been working mostly on comic pages for the Book of Ung, but took some time out yesterday for this dark beauty.

PRACTICE COMIC PAGE

2010-01-23T08:09:00.001-08:00

I did this freestyle comic page last night to warm up before starting a new chapter in what I am currently referring to as "The Book of Ung." This was basically me just trying to free-up how I was making comics to make it more fun (& visceral), quicker and something that could be completed in a timeframe when the inspiration is still there. I think I am getting close to this goal and will post some work from the new book soon. I have a lot of started chapters and a lot of un-lettered pages so it will have to wait a bit.

C'EST BON Vol. 9 Out Now

2010-01-23T07:47:00.001-08:00

Allan Haverholm, over at C'est Bon Kultur, was kind enough to reprint a chapter from my book in the larger format, slick anthology publication, C'est Bon Vol. 9. This is a really top-notch perfect bound large format book that comes out of Sweden, where they know about comics. You can get a preview and also purchase the book over here. Other artists in the book include Michel Ducourneau (SE), Mike Diana (US), Eliza Frye (US), Allan Haverholm (DK), Ed Homer (US), Jacob Rask (DK) and Hanna Pettersson (SE). Below is one of the pages of mine that appear in this new book. Go check it out.

ISO-URKER FEMALES (& MORE)

2010-01-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

Vengeful Iso-Urker Females.
Every Urker has their own job to do against humanity.

NEW DRAWINGS

2010-01-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

I spent almost all of 2009 sketching. This year I am going to work in a more finalized fashion and get some stuff done that can be made into prints or put into a book. Here is a start from yesterday.

NEW B&W SKETCHES

2009-10-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've drawn anything worth posting, and it's also been a while since I've posted. Life got ahead of me recently and my fantasies of controlling time have shown themselves to be empty.
These drawings are done by doing a line drawing on paper, then flipping the paper over and filling in the negative areas by hand. I could certainly do this with photoshop, but it does not make finished piece and lacks the hand-drawn feeling I strive for. The second one is NFSW, but if you are looking at my blog at work, your boss needs to give you more to do.

Images copyright 2009 Chad Vercus

Gerd Arntz

2009-07-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

While image searching for George Grosz drawings the other day I stumbled across this master of dynamic black & white illustraion of whom I had never heard. Much like the way that almost every computer in every home or office has the font Gill Sans pre-loaded but no-one knows who Eric Gill is, Arntz also left his mark in iconic history by creating a style of drawing the human form that is so bleak and masterful it is used to tell each gender which room they need to go in to squat. You can see in some of these earlier images how he was attempting to refine his style to a point of purity & perfection where the blacks & white are always in perfect ratio and the forms, although being quite human are neither comical or expessive. They are so start in their design it is as if he was more interested in the designs and forms than the often political points he was making in his work. I think Arntz reached a perfection that some of us (myself included) strive fro every time we sit down. not to draw from the right side of the brain but to draw from the left. To make an iconic system in which anything can be rendered and look stylistically the same. I will certianly be ripping of his style for a couple weeks and then add Elvis Studio elements and then get frustrated and go back to drawing art deco plants. Well done, Gerd. You can tell me which door to walk through to piss any day.

Tadanori Yokoo

2009-06-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

I promised myself that I would never put youtube videos on my weblog, but then I came across his a couple weeks ago and knew that I could either write his name on a post-it note and lose it on my desk for years, or I could just embed this fantastic animation short from 1965 inot my weblog and know right where to find it any time I wanted.

2009-06-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Three New Paintings

2009-06-20T04:11:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was aksed by a local organization to do 3 new pieces for their charity show they do every year where about 100 local artists provide pieces that they frame in 10 x 10 black frames and display in a giant room for one night. All the charitable folks from around the town show up and buy the pieces off the wall and everybody wins. Last year I even made money from it, which was beyond me because I thought I was doing the work for charity. These are what I came up with. The scans are not that great becasue I use 70% gray on black and the scanenr has a really hard time picking up what I am putting down. The paintings do not mean much or say much, but they are pretty and most anyone can appreciate them.

Empirical01

2009-05-09T06:28:00.001-07:00

I am now accepting submissions for EMPRICIAL01 - an anthology of comics & art to be produced in the fall of 2009. If you are interested in submitting work to this anthology, please email me for submission guidelines.
Submission deadline is: 07/01/2009
chadverrill@maine.rr.com

Skate or Die

2009-04-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a skate deck I just finished for the Skate or Die IV show that opens at Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta, GA on May 2nd. Go buy it for $100.

Equinox

2009-03-21T12:08:00.001-07:00

Image c. 2009 Chad Verrill

Initials

2009-03-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

ere are some initials I have been rendering slowly off-and-on for the past three or four years. They are drawn on paper - about 2 inches square each. They are definitely inspired by other initials, but basically I just wanted to make my own set for a comic I was doing at the time and not just grab some uncopyrighted decorative alphabet from online or one of my books. Instead I just looked at ones I liked (and ones I didn't like), sat down with a grid and just started sketching in my own style without having any source material close by to tempt me. My style is pretty informed by decorative arts, so it's no small wonder that these look like I copied them even though they are original. What will I use them for? Wait and see...

Images c. 2009 Chad Verrill

New Scans

2009-03-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

hese sketches have been sitting on my scanner for a month or two now. Here I am finally scanning and posting them so I can squirrel them away in a folder in my studio.

Images c. 2009 Chad Verrill

Silhouettes III: Karin Dickel-Jonasch

2009-03-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

While wandering the web in search of images related to Walpurgisnacht, I came across this contemporary artist who does papercuts in a silhouette style. Her website doesn't tell much about her as an artist, but regarding her art, she sites Chinese papercuts as a source for inspiration. It is very evident, but her use of minute cuts to create white lines is also reminiscent of British white-line engravers and Greco-Roman pottery art. Her worlds are definitely of a fairy tale nature. Some seem like they may relate to stories that are familiar to us, or the stories are completely her own. I am especially enthused by the pieces that show foreground and background in the same frame and use land and filigrie to cut the image into sections. It is as if not all the parts of the scene are taking place at the same time - a style that could be used in sequential storytelling that I will definitely allow myself to be inspirred by without completely copying.
Find her book here.

All work copyright Karin Dickel-Jonasch

Silhouettes II: Wilhelm Staehle

2009-03-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

Silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com does not give much information about the artist Wilhelm Staehle, but his pieces speak for themselves. An absolutely fantastic series of witty, sarcastic and sometimes poignant images using victorian style silhouettes in the negative with minor text on backgrounds that I don't recognize but look like they are appropriated lanscape paintings from a while back. If I am wrong, strike a blow, my chuck. What I mean to say is, if he painted the backgrounds too, I am reduced to tears & ash.
Prints are attainable at The Bazaarium.com

All images copyright Wilhelm Staehle

Silhouettes I: Eric Gill

2009-02-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

I have been fully immersing myself in silhouette art for a while now. I am attracted to it in ways I never would have guessed and for some reason it is resonating with me deeply and also influencing my work now more than it has in the past. Much of my love of the bold black aeas comes from british white line engravers - one of the more prominent of them being Eric Gill. Despite being a despicable human being, Eric Gill did fantastic engravings, many large sculptures and designed the font Gill Sans, which you probably have on your computer. He toyed with silhouettes but this was a natural off-shoot of being an engraver.
In choosing these images I somehow missed some of his more famous whiteline nudes. They are not iconic enough for my tastes so I probably would have ignored them anyway. Here are some great examples of his darker works:

Zero

2009-02-28T11:49:00.000-08:00

Here I am again, approaching with bold intentions. A lot of people out there have blogs, a lot of them post daily, weekly etc. I will attempt to post things now and again, but I am fuller aware that all blogs begin with no eyes. Although my intention is to eventually make this a group blog where those being published in Empirical can post things, for now I will simply use it ass a scratchpad of my findings on the computer, so that no matter how many beers I have after work I will not forget the names of artists or forgot websites that for a few minutes or a few days I was so gaga about. oh yeah. This blog will be about art. My art. Your art. Dead people's art.