The Fisher King...digital pulp color

Here is a digitally enhanced & colorized version of the recent Fisher King drawing (original drawing size was 14" x 11")...the color is deliberately a little lurid, to mimic comic books (or pulp magazines) or also medieval colored woodcut prints, which is probably more appropriate in this case.

The Fisher King, 2012, digitally altered & colorized drawing.

Smoker variations

Here are 3 versions of the drawing "Smoker" -- the original brush & ink drawing (size 14" x 11"), the b/w Photoshop altered version (using the "stamp" filter to approximate a woodcut) and the colorized version:

Smoker, 2012, brush & ink on paper, 14" x 11" (above)

Smoker, digital "woodcut" version (above)

Smoker, colorized version (above)

This is Nowhere

Another brush & ink drawing (14" x 11") digitally cleaned up & colorized. These 2 images (this one & the one in the preceding post) are for a specific purpose, which may be revealed...

Nowhere, 2012, digitally altered ink drawing. Below, the monochrome version:

No-One, again

Here are 2 versions of the same image. Both have been processed in Photoshop...the original "No-One" drawing was too large (14" x 11") to scan in directly, so to compensate for the loss of line quality, I ran it through a Photoshop filter (the "stamp" one, which simulates a rubber stamp or similar). The second image I added digital color to, on a separate layer, which has the added bonus of making it easier to try out color variations. It also gives it a kind of faux lithographic feel.

And in living color:

Owen M and the Souls of Arcadia

The latest entry in the Book of Souls, a collaboration with Tim Lowly. I create the original artwork (in the handmade sense) & he does the photography, layout & digital magick parts...

Owen M and the Souls of Arcadia

Owen M is a neighbor of mine here in Rhinebeck, NY.

Orpheus | Angel (aged version)

Here is a version of the recent Orpheus | Angel drawing digitally aged with a texture I found on the web. I know this is a bit hokey, but I was interested in seeing what the drawing might look like a few hundred years from now...

The Book of Souls updates

Here are some of the more recent images from The Book of Souls, a collaboration with Chicago-based artist Tim Lowly, who takes my original drawings & magically processes them in Photoshop:


Sarah and the Souls of the Sea.


DJR and the Fallen Soul (DJR is Donald J. Rothschild, with whom I collaborated on the illustrated version of his screenplay/novel, Shadow Bay)


MHC and the Unemployed Souls.


KH and the 2 Expatriate Souls. KH is Karin Hanta, a friend who lives in Vermont. She's a writer/translator by profession.


Exaltation | Without Faces. This is a piece that Tim did a while ago. It deviates from the usual portrait/setting format, and is the only piece to do so at this point.

Other digital processing with "find edges"

Here are some other examples (see previous post) of drawings enhanced with the Adobe Fireworks "find edges" filter. Using this particular filter produces a negative image with white lines on black, so I reverse the image back to positive with the "invert" command.


By the stream, 2010, sharpie on paper, 7" diameter.


By the stream, digitally processed with "find edges"


Into the wheel, 2010, sharpie on paper, 7" diameter.


Into the wheel, digitally processed with "find edges"


Mortality, 2010, sharpie on paper, 7" diameter.


Mortality, digitally processed with "find edges"

Astarte in ink & digital

Here is a comparison between 2 versions of the same image. The first is digitally enhanced with a "find edges" filter, which has the effect of emphasizing the structure of the drawing & removing tonal variations...the second image is the original drawing. I think I vastly prefer the digital version...I tend to avoid processing my own art, but in this case I think it works...


Digitally processed


Ink (sharpie fine-line marker) version, diamter 7" approx.


Final version in blue with acrylic.

The Book of Souls

This is a new project that I've vaguely hinted at in posts below. It's a collaboration with Chicago-based painter Tim Lowly (see his web site here.) In this case, he is digitally processing and enhancing drawings that I've made for the "book" (which will probably become some kind of a book, but that's not certain.) We're also using some of his photographs of "settings" -- landscapes and environments of various kinds -- to give the soul portraits some kind of context...it will all become clearer (including to ourselves, the artists) as the images progress and the interplay takes shape. Here are some of the early images:


James and the Cycloptic Soul, 2010, Ayton & Lowly.


Without Faces | Old Souls, 2010, Lowly & Ayton.


Elizabeth and the Graminoidal Soul, 2010.

Please click on the images for much larger versions (use the "back" button on your browser to return here.)

Tim's role in this is kind of like a record producer in relation to my role as "musician" -- though possibly much more creative than that. He is remixing & extending my work to create a new series of pieces that is part both of us, but also hopefully something completely new that neither of us would have imagined on our own.

James is my son, Elizabeth is my daughter, the second image is a "remix" of a 1992 drawing I did entitled "Cold Souls"...there shall be more...