Plum and Leather, and other stories

Scenes from a Bad Life: Volume II

2012-02-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

I've continued working on the "Scenes From a Bad Life" series, and here are a few of the later ones that I had some fun with.

It's Worth Mentioning that this is not social commentary.

It's just that if I were absolutely forced to make a zombie movie,

this is the one I would make. Also, fever dreams can be a blast.

Cragoe, out!

And now, Evidence of my Mom Being a Weird Lady

2012-02-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

These are images from a calendar I made for my mom for her birthday. They are all of historical/entertainment figures that she has a thing for. It's an odd collection, as you will see, and the calendar itself is entitled "A Year of my Mom's Weird Crushes."

Enjoy the pinups of dudes who should never be pinups:

Books Obsession: a Continuation

2012-02-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Last March, as my stay in Baltimore was reaching an end, my roommate at the time (one ms. Laura Eng) and I had a dual exhibition at a tiny gallery in the derelict art valley of Baltimore. She makes models of imagined spaces in hollowed out computers, and just as an exercise I asked her if I could draw scenes in her spaces. She said yes, and so I started developing an idea. The way I like to describe it is, if what she makes are miniature film sets, I draw stills from the films that would be set there. To complete them, and bringing it back to the concept of a single image telling a whole story (or at least indicating a whole story), I housed the images inside of small book covers I made. The show itself was mainly set up on 3 massive bookshelves that were in the space, which I don't have images of (bad move, me), but I do have images of the drawing that went into the books, as well as pictures of the final pieces.

And it goes a little somethin' like this:

Nickel-Plated 8mm

The Manager

Champ

Goliath

Solitary

The Repertory Company

Marvin vs. the Machine

Sally Sherman and the Unbelievable Everything

The Year of the Avarice

Man! Books, am I right? So cool.

Remember that time I had a blog?

2012-02-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

I remember too.

In the last two years, I've been making just tons of of stuff, but haven't really felt the inclination to post it or make anyone aware of it. Silly. Now, however, I am full-on embarking on a new creative path - filmmaking - and my partner in this, the lovely mr. Timothy Printup, has been asserting and reasserting the importance of The Internet. We even have a blog about our progress, which he will be very good at faithfully maintaining, and I will be very good at being pleased with him for it. Look: filmchampion.com! This being as it is, I am encouraged to return to my own dusty, neglected documentation of progress. So here, let me show you some of the stuff I've been doing, presented alongside a weak promise to think about being more reliable in future.

Since it's been just about 2 years since my last post, I won't ov

erwhelm you. Let me just show you the three major projects I've done, does that sound reasonable? So first things first. For most of the time I was in Baltimore, I was completely obsessed with books, and I liked (still like) the idea of combining the look and feel of a book with the simple statement of a single image. I was also really afraid of color. I took both of these things in hand and came up with 4 little pieces for a juried miniature art exhbition, 3 of which are pictured below.

The elephant lady is the tallest one, ranking it at a height of 6 inches. For each one I made a tiny book, painted each page a color I would need for the image, cut into the pages, and pasted them done to create the final piece. It was a good learning experience, but probably not a process I'll be returning to any time soon.

Illustration Friday: muddy

2010-02-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have not done an IF in ages, so here is my contribution for "muddy"

You know how sometimes there's a huge muddy swamp and you get stuck in it without a shirt on and it's all really terrible? Yeah, this guy's having one of those days.

Snow Day Fun Times!

2010-02-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

This is quite possibly one of the dumbest, most self-indulgent things I've ever drawn. Plus I like it a lot. Snow day!!

A few things!

2010-01-25T20:15:00.001-08:00

Two of these things were christmas presents.
The first is a two-layer lino-cut of a little girl in a forest. She is lost?
She was a present for my mother.

Next, there is this - my most nuanced (and technological) butt.
This was a present for my father.

And finally, I made a little painting of a girl standing against a truly hideous, filthy, orangish sky. She seems cool with it, so I'm cool with it.

Things are getting done around here; yes, sir!

Hey! I'm back! (part five)

2009-12-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

And finally, I've been doing some lino-cuts (linoleum block prints), so here are a few of them!

And now we are all caught up! Life is an exciting place.

Hey! I'm back! (part four)

2009-12-19T14:50:00.000-08:00

This one's for my brother. Finally, some Better Angels sketches.

They're pretty sparse, and they don't really accomplish much, but these I guess are just my notes on the main character and the old man in the bar. Masks optional?

Hey! I'm back! (part three)

2009-12-19T14:24:00.001-08:00

I've been doing a series I'm calling
Scenes From a Bad Life.
Here are a few of my favorite scenes.

This is kind of a set. The window in the first image is cut out, so you turn the page, and then...

Woah! What's going on there!

Those sre some more complete things. Woo! This is fun! Right?!

Hey! I'm back! (part two)

2009-12-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

Now for the sketches made between May and December. There are quite a few!

Here are some people I made up! There's a man who will never get a date. He has those dainty hands and feet. What a shame. There are also some fat ladies being affected by gravity! That's what you call science. Anyway there's also a lady who is as sassy as she is done in red ball-point. So very.

There's also the White Trash Princess. She's fun.

The woman here is Darla. She may be the white trash princess' mother, who knows. The man is some dandy. You know how that goes.

This girl, I think she speaks for herself.

Those are the sketches! Ok?

Hey! I'm back! (part one)

2009-12-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've finally gotten around to setting up my scanner, so, oh man, I have some stuff to show you. Here we go. Full force.
For those of you who remember the Creep (read: me) there is some stuff coming up. Stuff like this:
And like this:
And even like this:
The third Creep is FORTHCOMING. So...Look out...or something.

Art school: done.

2009-05-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

I am finally finished with art school! My senior show went up, and I've got a finished graphic novel to show for it. Life is somewhat promising.

To all of you Minneapolis folks, I'll be there soon, looking forward to hanging out with you.

Illustration Friday - Poise

2009-04-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

It's kind of a dumb image, but I was experimenting with a few different things, so I'm fairly satisfied.

BUTTS. TRASHY.

2009-03-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

I am on a butt roll. You know. So to speak.

This may be my favorite butt to date.

BUTTS. CLASSY.

2009-03-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is my second butt. A refined take, this time around.

The world is full of butts. I'm just doing my part to draw some.

BUTTS. AWESOME.

2009-03-06T11:06:00.000-08:00

I can't explain to you exactly why I'm so proud of this, but here you go:

This was a marker drawing done for my friend the Filthy Little Punker who gave me 75 cents and told me to "just draw [him] something." It may turn into something of a brand identity for me, so keep your eyes peeled for more butts.

Here We Go

2009-03-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

A second (and I think, better) attempt at Illustration Friday's theme, "breezy":

This is black and white inks on dark gray construction paper. I think I do my best work on construction paper. It may just be the future of art. (but probably not)

Various Things, Things Which are Drawings

2009-03-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

Thing 1: my fairly uninteresting contribution to Illustration Friday (topic: breezy).

Thing 2: I'm a little warped. Here's a goat-lady who ran up against some pretty fucked-up times.

So there's that.

Instinct

2009-02-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

A quick sketch for Illustration Friday, the prompt this week being "instinct":

One must always follow one's instincts, no matter how strange, mustn't one?

Get Prepared for Some Weirdness

2009-02-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a thing; I had a kooky idea for a collaborative project for the Militant Illustrators' Association, which is now underway. It goes like this. I asked everyone if they wanted to take part in a pass-around comic kind of thing, and assembled a list of 13 participants. I doubled that number, and now we have the number of pages: 26. So, I did pages 1 and 26, and sent it along. Laura Vaughn, who I tagged to go next, will do pages 2 and 25, tag someone else, and so on until the middle. Crazy, right?

Well here they are, my contributions:

Page 1:

And page 26:

If you wanna keep up with the story as it progresses towards its triumphant middle, you can find it here. That is a subpage of our club website.

Also, here's a little taste of my senior project, written by my very own brother, Nick Cragoe, etched and watercolored by me:

I'm not convinced I like the colored speech bubble. It's subject to change.

That's the first page of the second chapter, so don't feel bad if you don't understand what's happening.

Birthday koalas, and the dealings therewith

2009-02-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

This is an ink drawing done for my good friend Sarah for her birthday:

She asked for something involving koalas, and so: a koala who has no idea where he is or how got there. Mission accoplished! Happy birthday, Sarah!

And Finally

2009-02-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

Some weird things I drew on construction paper when my other work was causing me to become completely nuts:

Hey, primary colors, how are you?

Round two!

2009-02-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

These are just some more complete doodles, fresh from my sketchbook:

There, now! That wasn't so bad.

More to Follow Soon

2009-02-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

Now, to beef up this blog with a ton of new things(!):

First, some of my favorite sketches for a book I'm illustrating for my brother:

There's a windfall coming soon!

2009-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the images of a few covers I've done in the last week.
First, the cover for The Creep volume 1:

Second, the cover for the issue of The Creep that I just finished (issue 2):

And finally, the cover for M.I.A.'s 24-hour comic anthology:

Lots of work, lots of productivity. Good!

I am a Blogger Now!

2009-01-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

First post, for the purpose of getting acclimated.
This will be a place for me to post sketches, works in progress, and so forth.
For example:

He just wants to give you a candy bar so you have a great day.