Back, with marker pens!

I haven't posted to this blog in about  9 months.  I've to decided to use this "Howard Salmon, artist" primarily to as a black white collected of drawings and drawings. Briefly, my cancer diagnosis has improved (in somewhat) so for some of you are primarily interested my health chronicles, please check on those blogs.  This stuff is just about drawings.  Check this stuff whenever you're interested into what I'm up to with sketchbook stuff (that other thematic issues such as how my life is going)  For those are interest in those more personal drawing books please checks those other please collections of those drawings.  So, here's a drawing I did earlier did today.

Hello 2014 so far, I'm still here...(marker on paper) (2014 by Howard Salmon)

The Symbiotic Art Cancer Culture Ball

So we finally meet!

Well, I'm blogging about my dire cancer diagnosis, and going all out literary and artistic, to explain to the webworld what's going through my mind. I'll be postings via Facebook, and my various blogs (on Google's "blogger" platform)

My main blog will be

http://howiesalmon.blogspot.com/

...this is where I'll post all of the latest opinions, artwork, journal entries related to my sudden reaquaintance with a creature called "stage 4 brain tumor". I've got a negotiating strategy. I'm going "in" to "bond" with the tumor...wish me luck.

Room Service in the Astral Plane, #2

Holy cow, what's going on here??  Some freaky bald dude flips his wig while considering the room service menu in some unknown hotel.  A slice of cheesecake manifests instelf into a swirling blur, as the shadow of a tourist looks for something to eat. Crumbs of cake, bread, and chicken wings swirl together as if Food Network did a show on the Cosmos. So what's on the menu? Well, is that "menu" with a small "m" or a big "M"? Will the tourist eat? Will he assert himself and actually order something? At this point, it's still a mystery...

Room Service in the Astral Plane

Welcome to the start of an online graphic novel/webcomic which starts in the middle (somewhere) and works it's way out, backwards to front (simultaneously) until somehow, a story appears.... The first installment of a story that is out of order... A journey in search of a story, a structure, characters....you get the idea...

Bedside Bric-A-Brac

Here's a new sketch of stuff by my bedside: an Ott lamp, a bottle of water, a roll of packing tape, some books.... I'm thinking of getting back to straight drawing. Just drawing objects in front of me. Any artist worth his salt has got to have basic drawing skills.  Oddball experimental work is all fine and nice, and I love creating it...but some of my favorite work of my are my drawings from life: straight from pen to paper, without any preparatory planning or sketching.

The Bald Truth

Nine different views of a bald head floating in a surreal desert landscape. Drawn as a comic strip. With faux gold in the gutters. It just speaks to me... (size: 14" x 17", mixed media on paper)

Space Farts

ink on paper, 18" x 24" (c) 2012 by Howard Salmon

Blowin' Smoke

marker on paper. 18" x 24" (c) 2012 by Howard Salmon

Light Bulb on a Plate

ink, graphite, and acrylic on drawing paper ((c) 2012 by Howard Salmon

Fight Of The Night

"Fight Of The Night" (c) 2011 by Howard Salmon. Acrylic on wood. 4 ft x 4 ft in size

Kitchen Countertop Clutter

graphite on paper (c) 2011 Howard Salmon

It was the middle of the night, and I got an impulse sketch all of the clutter on my kitchen counter. From left to right (more or less): books, paper towels, mail, box of chalk, some mugs, a thermos,  a large plastic cup, a bottle of soda water, a canister of sea salt, soy sauce, hand soap, a baggie, a microwave pot, bottle of honey... snapshot of the artist as a consumer.

Whoa Baldy!

graphite pencil on paper  (c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

At bald sweaty guy gets tough at some unnamed antagonist, while the lettering "Whoa!" takes on a life of its own... instant sketchbook comix...

Surreal Angst

(c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

The latest from my "Comic Book Expressionism" series. They just keep comin'! Stay tuned for more chunky ambiguous drama!

More Comic Book Sketches...

Inspired by the Superman story, hopetul parents send their child off to college...on Mars (c)2011 by Howard Salmon

I'm feeling a strong urge to make a hastily drawn superhero comic book... there's no time to waste!  I can't draw this stuff fast enough!!

Comic Book Expressionism

 (c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

Thought I'd do a litte sketch tonight. Feeling rough and chunky, artistically speaking...

Where's My Band? ( A World Rocked)

"Where's My Band?"; approx 30" x 30", Sharpie on synthetic paper. c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

Just drawing, intuitively and spontaneously, seeing where it takes me. I like to work this way, because it keeps the process of artmaking (and art thinking) very "live" and in the moment. Since I'm drawing directly with ink (without a pencil sketch), the stakes are much higher (that I could totally botch it). One thing I did do to tie everything together was that after I made the drawing, I went back into it, closing as many open shapes as I could.  This is just one of the things I like to do when I draw: I work towards converting my drawings into a series of interlocking puzzle piece. I often use this puzzle piece method to  help my drawings "gel"...

Man, Machine, Woman

"Man, Machine, Woman": acrylic, ink, Sharpie, graphite, and crayon. Size: approx 30" x 35" (c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

End Of The Day

Acrylic, ink, Sharpie, & graphite on synthetic paper. (Approx. 30" x 30") (c) 2011 by Howard Salmon

This painting is a still life of some random objects, clustered together: a pair of shoes, a bike helmet, and a wine glass.  Somehow, this piece evokes an apocalyptic feeling. It's that intense background... Is this the end of the day? Or is it the End Of The Day? Hard to tell...

In the background, some new "mask" icons: a "kilroy" character (who is supposed to look like someone clicking a computer mouse, or reading email on an iPhone). The other character is my "Alan Ginzberg 'Howl'" character. He's basically a shaggy looking dude howling ("ooo"), with an abstracted cityscape in the background. I've included a close up of my two new characters below:

ClickRoy and The Howler: my new cartoons!

Cuppa Wawa (Mug of Water)

30" x 34", acrylic & Sharpie on synthetic paper. (c)2011 by Howard Salmon

I found myself getting in a rut with my "masks" concept; it was starting to feel like a shtick. So, to shake things up a bit, I decided to just start drawing from life. In this case, I sketched directly onto my drawing surface with a Sharpie. The subject matter: my hand holding a bottle of water (and one of my Andy Iventosch mugs, on the far right). Then I went in and added color with several layers of acrylic, and reinforced some of those lines with more Sharpie.  I worked in a very "automatic" way, not really thinking too much about the imagery I was laying down. My only concern was to draw from life,and have it all overlap and congeal together into a cluster.  The result: a bunch of frozen moments that together describe the act of pouring water into a mug.

The Card Holder

"The Card Holder", 30"x 40", Acrylic & Sharpie on synthetic paper (c)2011 by Howard Salmon