Happy Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

So Edgar turns 202 today. Or maybe he'll always be 40, as he was when he died in Baltimore in 1845.

Your choice.

Gris Grimly, one of my favorite artists, illustrated two volumes of Poe material: "Tales of Mystery and Madness," and "Tales of Death and Dementia." Tons of illustrations throughout, so it makes for some pretty good eye candy if that's you're intent when buying it (that was mine).

And, if you're keeping track, no Poe Toaster again this year. That's two years in a row after leaving cognac and roses on Poe's grave for 60 years. Maybe one of the Toaster impostors will take up the tradition permanently. That's what I'm hoping anyway.

Edgar and Chloe: They're finished now, I swear

O.K. Edgar's finished now, and this time I mean it. All that's left is the varnish, which I'll wait to do in a few days after I'm sure the paint is completely dry.

Edgar and Chloe will be participating in the "19 Days of Edgar" starting January 1 and running through the 19th. Read about the whole convoluted idea here. If you have any requests for what you would like to see Edgar and Chloe on, take a look at the complete list of possibilities over at Zazzle, and then let me know. Please tell me ASAP, as I'll be designing mostly in advance of the post dates to make sure I have all the kinks worked out before posting. The first selection will be available December 31, somewhere around 9 pm.

Must...go...design...

Edgar's coat, as I see it

The latest installment of "Where's Edgar?":

He may be finished...or not. I'm not sure just yet. I'll have a look at him tomorrow and see what he has to say.

Edgar's vest has come to an end

Worked some more on Edgar and Chloe this afternoon. I would consider Edgar's vest finished (the close-up is below), but his coat is only underpainted at this point. I'm satisfied with how everything's turning out so far.

And I had an idea.

This whole painting was meant as a celebration of Edgar's birthday on January 19th. So starting January 1st (and running through the 19th, of course), I'm going to celebrate the "19 days of Edgar" by creating a different product on Zazzle each day using this painting for each of the designs. I'll upload one design each evening and give everybody a heads up of each product's availability. After the notice, everyone has 24 hours to purchase that specific product at a reduced price. After 24 hours a new product will be released, and the price on the product from the day before will repost to its regular price.

That's it. That's my light bulb for today.

As you were.

Edgar's getting dressed now

Worked a little more on the Edgar painting this afternoon. His shirt and tie are finished, but his vest is still in under-painting mode (it won't be green when I'm finished with it).

I do my painting in our dungeon so lighting isn't so great for taking photos. I have to use a flash which ends up reflecting off the paint, and I have to play with the lighting setup to minimize that whole issue.

The first image here shows the whole painting, bad lighting and all, and the second one is a close-up with more accurate color.

Edgar and his raven, Chloe

Edgar painting in progress:

I think Chloe is finished, so all that's left now are the clothes.

Edgar's got some hair

Here's the latest update on the Edgar Allan Poe painting. Not a whole lot more to show, but it was an aggravatingly longish day trying to get it close to what I wanted. Just added some hair and a little of the Raven feathering. If you missed it, the first progress report would be on a previous blog post here.

Edgar Allan Poe painting in progress

So I decided to use that birch wood board for Edgar. I've been taking photos as I go, but I've been neglecting to post them. I'm such a slacker.

The biggest problem I was having was the paint kept reflecting funny in the photos, so today I tried a different lighting setup. That made everything a little blurry, but at least the background shows up without all the shiny now.

I'm posting a few versions to see it better. First, the whole space, as is:











Second, just the painting:

And third, a close-up of Edgar's face, which took the bulk of my time today:

And speaking of Edgar Allan Poe...

I was working on a PowerPoint about social networking for a conference this November around the same time I did the sketch of Poe with his raven. I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if the two birds — The Raven and Tweety, the Twitter Bird — were to meet. Hee Hee.

Rotty Edgar Allan Poe

I sketched up a little Poe that I'm not sure yet how to finish. I could paint him in Painter for the anniversary of his death in October. Or, I have a birch board that is square and has been really hard to make a good composition on because of its squareness and, as it turns out, Edgar happens to be square...and his birthday isn't until January...Decisions, decisions.