This a newly completed piece. I hope you enjoy it! The work is available for sale. Please message me for details if interested.
- Richard
Firebug
Author: richardakirk
I am a Canadian artist, illustrator and author. This blog is where I talk about projects that am working on. I show finished works, but I also show works in progress and things that inspire me along the way. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Thanks for dropping by.
Weight
Here’s another quick ink and watercolour piece. I’m starting to think about a slightly more ambitious piece.
- Richard
Art of the Socially Distant
I hope everyone is doing okay. Today I’m posting a couple of things I did over the weekend. I hope you enjoy them.
I found a little scribble in an old sketchbook and decided to turn it into a drawing. The watercolour gives the piece the feel of a children’s book illustration. One of the faces is even smiling, albeit a little wistfully, which is fairly unusual in my art.
This piece was more or less freestyle. I love playing with the hard silhouette of a profile. This character’s head has the shape of a flea. The foreground character was meant to evoke a death’s head moth.
Both of these pieces are available.
- Richard
Winter Update
I’m not sure how I let two months get behind me without updating my blog, but it’s nice to be back. I’m planning more or less weekly updates for the rest of the year. So let’s catch up.
The big news this week is that my novel Necessary Monsters, published by Underland Press in 2017 is now available on Audible in audiobook format (Encyclopocalypse) Senn Annis did an amazing narration. You can hear a sample on Audible.
In other book news… at the end of last year, I produced a book called The Darkling Lands, Volume 1, under my Radiolaria Studios imprint. It consists of 40 pages of my art and a new short story called Ecesis. I still have a few copies left in my webstore. They come signed, but when they are gone, they are gone.
I’ve already started compiling volume 2 and as soon as the war chest looks a little less scary, I’ll be putting it out. My hope, knock wood, is that it will be 80 pages instead of 40. Like volume 1, it will include a piece of new fiction.
Still on the writing theme, I am currently working on a new novel – well two actually. I know, it’s a sickness. One is the next book in my Irridian series and the other is a completely new fantasy novel. It’s really too early to talk much about these projects, but I will be supplying updates as things progress. I’m hoping to have news about my as yet unpublished novel Tailor of Echoes before too long.
A few weeks ago, I launched a new giclee print offering called Wandering Star. There are a few of these left on my webstore. If I may be so bold, this is a f*n nice print. Again, if you are interested, grab one now because I will not be making more.
A couple more things before I wrap this up. I have revived the Ink in Unfailing Supplies blog that artist John Pierro and I started 10 years ago. Basically, the blog was based on a challenge to create an interpretive work of art around a particular phrase. With the blog re-boot I am opening the challenge to the artist members of a closed Facebook Group by the same name. The first new challenge starts in March.
Finally, I have decided to discontinue my writing blog, Amnesiac’s Library, and consolidate everything here. On reflection, I figure it’s best to have everything under one roof.
Thanks for reading. With my next posts, I’ll be showing you some of my new art. I hope you’ll check it out. As always, you can check out work, old and new, on my artist website.
– Richard
The Pact
Sometimes, when making illustrative images, I find it easy to forget that I’m making a thing. This is especially so when most of the engagement with my artwork happens on the web. As grateful as I am for that avenue of engagement, it tends to have a flattening effect. Sometimes I like to remind myself that art is about things (for me anyway). It’s about the visual immediacy of a work created by hand. The way the light bounces off the ink or paint, the dry whisper of the paper under my fingers, the care I must use in handling these objects. That’s why I created The Pact, a little 4 x 4 inch accordion book. It is actually a prototype for some other, slightly larger accordion books I’m planning to produce in the New Year. In the meantime, please enjoy this little movie.
I also wanted to remind everyone that my short novel The Lost Machine is available on Audible as an audiobook. Mark Miller at Encyclopocalypse did a fantastic job bringing this to fruition. Jake Ruddle’s narration is spot on. If you enjoy audiobooks, please give this a listen. Next year is TLM’s 10th anniversary! The New Year also brings an audiobook version of my novel Necessary Monsters. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Finally, I am building a mailing list for a newsletter, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. The first one will come in January and include things that I’m working on, things I am excited about, and there will be special offers and maybe even some special things for subscribers. We’ll see how it rolls. If this sounds fun, go to my website where there is a mailing list sign-up for the newsletter. I promise it won’t be spammy and I will never use your email for any purpose other than the mailing list. I hope you’ll join me.
– Richard
The Darkling Lands
The Darkling Lands is a new 40 page perfect bound book, which reproduces 28 of my images and includes a new weird tale titled Ecesis. I posted 10 copies on my webshop yesterday, and I am pleased to report they went quickly, but there will be more copies available in about a week. As I noted in the book’s introduction The Darkling Lands of the title, first appeared as a setting in my short story Magpie’s Ladder. The project itself is conceived as a kind of inexpensive portfolio of images from the past few years, selected because they work together. You may have noticed that this is Volume 1. My intention is to create future volumes that follow the same pattern of art and writing, and always include something new with each volume. I hope you enjoy it.
- Richard
Mystery Sketches
During the latter half of October, I offered incentive sketches on my webshop – a free sketch with every shop order. There was some demand from people to purchase the sketches outright, so I introduced the Mystery Sketch option, which is still active. As you can see, as time went on, the sketches became more elaborate! After the first few, I upgraded the paper to a heavier cardstock in off-white with rounded edges. I introduced darker shadows and half-tone marker shading. Overall, I’m quite pleased with the result and plan to have the October sketches as part of my annual calendar. I’ve collected the sketches done to date in this slide show above, though one or two may have slipped the net! I’ve already heard of a couple that are going to become tattoos! Sketches are still available, but since the sale is over, you now have to pay to get one. 😉
I hope you enjoy checking them out.
