Head Replacement Theory (videos)

It was a common theme in Surrealism to replace the head of a human (preferably in a suit of some kind) with that of an animal's, or even an inanimate object. Plus, if you do this in sepia, it looks old-timey. If you do it in video, even better. So, here are some recent short AI videos (& 1 still image) where I have in fact replaced the heads. From top to bottom: The Howler, Eguardo, The Grandfather of the Sea, Monsieur Le Pachyderme & El Perro.

 

The Egg Brothers, AI, 2026

Three Golden Heads

 I recently did a sculpture workshop for students at ASU (where I teach Blender & XR artwork). I started this head in the Zoom workshop to demonstrate Blender's 3D sculpting capabilities, & finished it afterwards. It usually takes me several hours to sculpt a head, & the workshop was around 45 minutes.

Below are 3 versions: top; fully textured: middle; another variation against a cloudy sky: bottom; the sculpted heads in raw, untextured state.

Worlds Without End

From the final days of 2020, I did a small number of ink drawings...here is the one I probably like the best, the title is a meditation on parallel worlds or alternate universes, or something like that...

Worlds Without End, 2020, brush & ink on paper, 14" x 17"

New Dawn Fades

A new oil painting on panel. The title is borrowed from a Joy Division song, & I think they might have borrowed it from William Burroughs (?). Reality dissolves. I might do more work on this.

New Dawn Fades, 2019, oil on panel, 20" x 16"

Two Heads, Talking

I was considering titling this one "The Conversation" or "The Argument", but settled on the current title as it seems more directly descriptive. Both heads are talking, but they don't seem to be listening to each other.

Two Heads, Talking, 2017, ink on sepia card, 8.5" x 11".

2 Drawings from 2010

These were 2 ink drawings that I wanted to rescan at a higher resolution than the versions I had on my hard drive. They reminded me that 2010 was not a bad year for drawings, & the new scans brought out a little more detail and nuance than I had attained before.

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

Woman's Head, 2010, brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5"

Several Heads

This is a small drawing of a number of heads (four, or maybe three-and-a-half).

Several Heads, 2014, ink & acrylic on paper, 11" x 8.5".

2 New Ink Drawings of Heads

These are actually gifts for family members...

Ink drawing of a Woman's Head, 2013, brush & ink on paper, 10" x 8".

Boy with Tousled Hair, 2013, brush & ink on paper, 10" x 8".

Morphing Heads

This is another animated GIF experiment done with Squirlz Morph, a freeware morphing program. I used two recent small paintings of heads, the Boy with a Long Neck, & the Madonna of the Western Lands, to create this strangely fascinating & disturbing image of the male & female images morphing into each other. I originally made this for my Tumblr blog (mymythsandmonsters.tumblr.com), but I thought I would also post it here.

Heads of Birds

A small sketch by my 11-year-old son, whom I expect someday soon will surpass me in the drawing department...

Heads of Birds, by James Ayton 2012.

The Conspirators

They look like conspirators to me...

The Conspirators, 2011, brush & ink on paper, 12" x 12".

Study of Three Heads

This was a kind of experiment where I drew the 3 heads at the same time, moving from one to the other, then scanned them & combined them in Photoshop. I think it worked out quite well...I could have taken one long piece of paper to draw the 3 heads on, I suppose, but this way there is a little interruption in between each image that adds some kind of element, I think...

Study of Three Heads, 2011, brush & ink on paper, each image is 11" x 8.5", for a virtual combined total of 11" x 25.5".