Enlistee's art gallery!

[dlhenderson]

The funny thing was, my teachers were rather long-in-the-tooth abstract expressionists. So I had to sort of beat them at their own game. My colored pencil drawings would have gotten me burned at the stake! I literally began this series by pouring buckets of paint. But I couldn't leave the splatters alone. I started painting edges around them, causing a subtle 3-D effect. Then the transparency gimmick crept in and they became...
I know this is totally random, but the second one here has always made me think of the xenomorph in It Came From Outer Space...

[Illoman]

I'm not a big fan of abstract art but I *really* like these. The 3d effect plus the transparency make these things absolutely come to life. I'm glad you posted these, DL.

[dlhenderson]

This triptych is twelve feet wide. That's the biggest piece I ever did...

[dlhenderson]

I'm just about done cluttering up the site with these damn things, but here's one of the more vibrant ones...

[Scatter]

I really, REALLY like these too DL!!

[horror1o1]

horror1o1!!! Thank you Jon for the new link! Don't laugh but when I clicked on it... I just got the home page to myspace! But I put your link in Google and got there in the end!
My favourite from the gallery is the "Moko" pinup for "Pono Loa"! I keep going back to the one to check it out more closely.

Thanks!

Glad you got there. Thanks it's one of my better works. It's done with ink , marker, and white paint. I had it in a art show years back and got good feed back on it.

[ChrisW]

Zowie.
Dan, I don't know how your brain is wired, but it must be one hell of a schematic!
Did you do any preliminary work in Photoshop or preliminary drawing, or do these develop on the fly?

[dlhenderson]

Chris, these were meticulously planned out. I did hundreds of pencil sketches like these. The first ones here still show a skeletal structure. The second one has elements that evolved into the last painting I posted. The last sketch became another elaborate one (which I need to track down for a photo). Actually these sketches WERE sort of "on the fly". They almost became a sort of automatic writing; one shape would lead to the next. After I chose a sketch, I would transfer it to vellum and draw the faux splatter/river/erosion shapes on top. This was the most intensive part of the sketch process, because these final shapes had to "fit" the cartoon-like images. By "fit", I mean that the lines needed to be fairly perpendicular to the shapes that would eventually seem to float above them (essentially avoiding tangents).

[ChrisW]

Fantastic. Love seeing the sketches. It is so interesting is you seem compelled to apply definition to amorphous shapes, like a self-imposed Rorschach test.

[dlhenderson]

Here's one from my days as a colored pencil maniac. 1980, I think...

[horror1o1]

Here's one from my days as a colored pencil maniac. 1980, I think...

very nice

[ChrisW]

How large a piece? Amazing work.

Here's an oldie I did for the Avalon Hill Game Co. I was still in school, 1978 or '79. I also designed the logotype.

[dlhenderson]

Around 24 x 36". I spent hundreds of hours on these darn things.
That's a classic Dune cover, Chris!

[ChrisW]

I am gettin so JAZZED by these pieces Dan!

OK, here's the cover for the C57-D from Forbidden Planet for Polar Lights. At first they thought the box would be square, so I did the painting square. But when they finally decided to make the saucer sectional, the shape of the box became a 23" x 15" rectangle. So much of the foreground and sky area here was not reproduced.

[ChrisW]

When Polar Lights under Round 2 reissued the kit, THEY put it in a square box - but they included some extra parts, figures and the Id Monster. They wanted those elements highlighted on the cover. We decided to do a close up view and I painted the figures and monster digitally using Corel Paint and Photoshop.  This is the original color. The final box was pushed towards blue so it would compliment the Robby the Robot box. I much prefer these colors, one reason being that the characters in the movie commented on the green sky and hue of the planet.