The Mouth of the Underworld

New small painted sketch:


The Mouth of the Underworld, 2010, acrylic on board, 10" x 8".

Promotional video for Love, War, Fire, Wind

In a similar way to the Small Drawings book (see a couple of posts below), I've put together a slideshow of the images in the Eliot Katz/Ayton book of poetry & art, "Love, War, Fire, Wind: Looking Out from North America's Skull":



There are a couple of bonus images in the slideshow that are not in the book...leftover drawings or alternate versions, basically.

See sidebar to the left if interested in buying the book.

Orpheus in the Underworld

A new small painting that overlaps the Orpheus cycle of paintings (ongoing) & the Hell images:


Orpheus in the Underworld, 2010, acrylic on board, 10" x 8".

Promotional Video for Book of Small Drawings

I just put together this short (2 mins 20 secs) video slideshow containing the cover & all of the images in my "Small Drawings" book:



The book is available on Amazon here.

Landscape Head With Horns

I just bought some new ink (Speedball Super Black India Ink, it says here on the box), so to try it out, here's a new Hell ink sketch of a head. Or a landscape.


Landscape Head With Horns, 2010, brush & ink on card, 11" x 8.5".

Fleur du Mal

Due to adverse weather conditions (again), I haven't been able to spend much time in the studio the last couple of days. Also ran out of ink again.

Here is a small ink sketch that might become a painting (or might even go into the Hell portfolio):


Fleur du Mal, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

The Hell Portfolio

Due to adverse weather conditions & related factors, I haven't been able to work on this series for the last several days. However, I am back working now & shall start to upload the images into this posting (rather than a series of separate posts) as soon as possible, perhaps even later today.


2. The Behemoth


4. The Abyss


5. Hope


7. The Mouth of Hell

Notes:
1. I'm working on these out of numerical sequence
2. Please scroll down a couple of posts for the rough sketches
3. The images are done in brush & ink on paper, 23.5" x 18".
4. As noted below, the drawing "Hope" was completed before the portfolio images were decided upon.

Video Slideshow Retrospective

Here are over 200 artworks from over the years...the soundtrack is a little loud, so you might want to watch the volume control...the images are presented alphabetically by filename...it's a lot to take in...enjoy.

Hell Portfolio -- Rough Sketches

I've decided to condense the flow of somewhat random images from the Hell series into a portfolio of 12 drawings, which might evolve into paintings, and might also evolve into a large single painting containing these elements...

As you can probably see, these are very rough images which might change a little, or even completely, as the process continues. Stay tuned for further developments...


1. The Wheel of Souls


2. The Behemoth


3. Demons


4. The Abyss


5. Hope


6. Soul Catcher


7. The Mouth of Hell


8. The Serpent


9. The Lake of Souls


10. Fall of the Rebel Angels


11. The Face of Hell


12. Lucifer

I'd like to publish these, maybe in a leather binder or slip-box or something. If there are any publishers out there who may be interested, please get in touch via this blog, or via email at info at ayton dot net (just reformat that for regular email.)

I'll post the finished drawings as I do them. "Hope" is already done, I put in the sketch of that one for completeness.

The sketches are all done in black pencil on printer-sized cardstock (11" x 8.5"), and have been slightly darkened in Photoshop for easy visibility.

Hell: Misshapen Head

New Hell ink sketch:


Misshapen Head, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Hell: Too Close to the Abyss

Another new Hell sketch:


Too Close to the Abyss, 2010, brush & ink wash on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Hell: Dweller in the Shadows

New Hell sketch:


Dweller in the Shadows, 2010, brush & ink wash on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Hell: Behemoth

Hell sketch:


Behemoth, 2010, brush & ink on card, 11" x 8.5".

Hope

Drawing of a partially shrouded face. Not sure if this fits in the Hell series, but here it is for now.


Hope, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 23.5" x 18".

Souls on the Vine

Drawing from the Hell series:


Souls on the Vine, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 23.5" x 18".

There is quite a bit of glare on this one. Sorry about that. Will try & get a better shot later...

Bored Demon

New large-ish sketch/loose drawing, Hell series:


Bored Demon, 2010, brush & ink on paper (with traces of pencil & china marker), 23.5" x 18".

The Machinery of Hell

Rough working sketch for what might eventually be a large-scale painting:


The Machinery of Hell, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 23.5" x 18".

Note the Wheel of Souls in the lower middle section.

Cycloptic Demon

New Hell drawing (again, slightly cropped by my scanner):


Cycloptic Demon, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 12" x 9".

Fire Elemental

Hell drawing:


Fire Elemental, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Perdido

Hell drawing:


Perdido, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Intertwined

Another Hell drawing:


Intertwined, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 12" x 9".

The drawing was slightly too large for my scanner, so has been cropped slightly.

In Darkness

New Hell series drawing:


In Darkness, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Wayward Soul

Another new Hell drawing (see post below):


Wayward Soul, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Hell

I've started on a new series of Hell drawings...I've done this before & never been totally satisfied with the results. Maybe this time...


Daemon, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5".

More to follow.

Shadow Bay, the music video

Here is a short video that Donald Rothschild & I put together this morning, with images from Chapter 1 of Shadow Bay. Music is by us, vocals are by Donald.



It's deliberately quite murky.