UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Face of Darkness

Another update from the Rescans.  This is one that benefits greatly from the rescan.  No glare at all, in fact, you get some of the subtlety of the Sharpie transparency showing through on the scan.  That almost never shows up in reproduction.  Please check out the old post and compare.

UPDATE Sketchbook Archives: Winged Cat Demon

Here is another of the rescanned images from the sketchbook.  On this one, the scan was so much better than the photo I took, I didn't have to touch up the image at all.  Please check out the old post and compare.

Hell, Another Entrance

There are many roads into the Underworld...as many as there are names for it.  Hell, Hades, Underworld, Mictlan, Annwn, Niflheim, and on.  Sometimes, like it or not, you have to walk into it, because it is the only road before you.  All other avenues of escape have been removed and only darkness waits.  Pulsing darkness and pain that calls like an old addiction.  It wants you to believe that it is all there is.  The light was only a trick of your mind and only madness and blood are the truth.

Light and Dark Kachinas

Here are a couple of the little ginger bread astronaut men that drive my machine.  Made from the same source material and pretty much the same composition, I figured I'd keep them together.

The Process: As Above, So Below

This is a map of the intensity and resources and energy necessary to make even small changes in the world.  The Alchemy of Spirit, the challenge of bringing desire into reality. Viewing this piece finished was when I realized all the changes that I was making in my world were changing me, permanently.

Versus

During the month of December 2011, it felt as though there was no escape from everything that was wrong with my life...no shelter, no respite, no answers.  I had just moved all my belongings into a space half the size of my previous abode, after a year of job hunting I was still unemployed, and my new housemate's mother passed the second week of December.  By New Years Eve, I felt as though I was losing my mind. 

The Labyrinth of Vain Striving

Recommended Listening:
Apoptose
Nordlicht
from Nordland

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Before You Receive Their Mercy, First You Must Bleed

Recommended Listening:
Hildur Gudnadottir
Ascent
from Without Sinking

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

What's that behind you?

This is thing that you always feel staring at you when your back is turned.  That creepy tingly feeling are its hairs on the back of your neck.  It always zips away when you turn your head around, though.  I aimed my camera over my shoulder and caught this quick snapshot.

Mandala: The Blockade

This has been the energy in my life since the end of January this year.

Baphomet

I was worried upon my first viewing of this piece that it was too muddy and obscure, but the more I view this piece, the more it reveals.  Learn more about Baphomet here.

Thee Prison of Flesh

A friend of mine is in prison.  Thinking of the life he is forced to lead within those walls has made me think a great deal on freedom and what that word truly means.  I wonder at the pressurizing effects of that kind of incarceration on human consciousness. When natural movement is forbidden by physical restraint and social strictures, the feedback creates extreme intensity and behavior that otherwise might not exist within an individual. I wonder sometimes if there is a better way.

Mandala Cross of the Mothmen

Once again a mandala has found its way over from Trail of Breadcrumbs.  This one isn't so much gruesome as the last one, but it's dark air of mystery was what felt more appropriate to Zombie Bites...that and the Mothmen.

From the Sketchbook Archives: Ghost

This piece was created very shortly after Sharpie premiered their new fine tip writing pens.  Needless to say I was VERY excited by the mark making possibilities.  Straight to paper here with no graphite sketching before the pen.  I was playing with the new fine point and this little guy emerged.

Astaroth

I had some confusion initially as to who this was a depiction of.  My first thought was of Baal, but upon checking other source materials, I feel that the crowned prince of hell, Astaroth, maybe be more accurate.  Also, this is not to be confused with the butt kicking axe wielder from the game Soul Calibur.

The Guardian

Blocked and bound at the wall of forbidden passage. This is another one of those pieces that doesn't want to give up its information.  There seems to be a diffusion around it.  My attempts at revealing its inner nature seem to be pushed away each time I try to analyze it.

Interesting that there is a Venus symbol in the structure of the piece and what appears to be the head of a large bull hidden in there as well.  If we follow the structure of the Crux Ansata and apply it to the Kabbalah, the guardian head emerging from the circle would be in the placement of the Daath level which is associated with Choronzon.   Choronzon is often considered to be the dweller at the threshold, the demon of dispersion, the guardian at the gate.  So now my difficulty in analyzing this piece becomes clearer.

Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III give a very interesting depiction of this level of consciousness in the 20th issue of Promethea.

Recommended Listening:
Moderat
Seamonkey
from Moderat


{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

I Raise Up My Light

It burns in my heart like an ingot of molten metal. Sometimes it moves to the forefront from the far reaches of my mind and boils over my view until I cannot see past this driving force.  There is no reason, just the scream, only the scream.

It will be free.  If I do not find a way to release it, it will seek its own purchase in the world.  It will strike like lightning, burning and breaking until it is spent.  The surge of blood.  The great red sea.  The Odin force.  The Kundalini.  The opening of the great eye. The life death scream of the hawk.  When it wakes, the world trembles.

There is an older piece I created in graphite that is a sister piece to this one.  I will get a photo of that one soon.  It is larger than my normal work.  Also, It was packed away during the move and will need to be extracted.

Recommended Listening:

VnV Nation

Lightwave

Matter+Form

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Gestation Mandala

I usually save my mandalas for Trail of Bread Crumbs, but this one was so gory and dark I figured it would be more at home here on here on Zombie Bites.  I don't have much for you on this one, other than it makes me think of raw steak bits or a wounded heart.

Recommended Listening:
The White Birch
Breathe
from Star is just a Sun

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

5x5 Issue Four Cover: The Mask of Fire

This was the image I created for the fourth issue cover of 5x5 fiction.  I had two 5x5 stories accepted to this issue.  Please check out the fourth issue!  I have also had two pieces accepted to issue four!

Recommended Listening:
Vibrasphere
Floating Free (Krama Remix)

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Io Pan!

I spent a good bit of time trying to truncate this image once it reached this state, but I finally chose to accept it as it is.  There are so many elements that are important to the meaning of this piece and every time I tried to crop it or manipulate it further, something important disappeared.

Here is Crowley's Hymn to Pan.  An interesting symbol to start the new year off with. Also, there are some elements hiding in this piece that remind me of some of the strange artwork associated with Alchemy.

Recommended Listening:
Access to Arasaka
Nostromo
from Oppidan

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}


UPDATE 011515:

This piece is now available as a tshirt or other paraphernalia at my Neatoshop.  Drop by and check it out!