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The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 7:04 am
by gilleyvanweirden
UPDATE:

The Rime of the Pirate King was completed and I'm now running proofs to make adjustments to color, saturation, etc. Two months to finish this sucker :P

Image

ORIGINAL:

Hi tribe - I'll spare you the details and just put it out here that I used to draw, then I stopped for way too long, and now I'm old and I draw again. I prefer to work in ink (Micron pens, brushes, dip pens), as well as 23.5-24k gold leaf. Here's some work that I've put together since deciding to draw again, as well as a couple of pieces from 2012. I maintain a feed of progress shots at http://instagram.com/gilleyvanweirden and post fairly regularly at https://www.facebook.com/vanweirden as well if you'd like to follow along.

Enjoy! Comments and questions are welcome.

"Dulce et decorum" - 2012
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"The Tommyknocker" (detail) - 2012
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"Memento Mori" - 2014
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"Atropa Belladonna" - 2014
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"Bubo Imperator - Lord of Owls" - 2014
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"Harbinger" - 2014
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"St. Peregrine" - 2014
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"Rime of the Pirate King" - 2014 (draft/work in progress)
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Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:33 pm
by Synch
This is some absolutely amazing work. Your Memento Mori work is similar to a tattoo I have in mind; I'd like to have Tempus Fugit and a skull or an hourglass of some sort.

On that note, have you ever designed tattoos? I think your inking work and art style would be perfect for it.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:49 pm
by gilleyvanweirden
Synch wrote:This is some absolutely amazing work. Your Memento Mori work is similar to a tattoo I have in mind; I'd like to have Tempus Fugit and a skull or an hourglass of some sort.

On that note, have you ever designed tattoos? I think your inking work and art style would be perfect for it.
Thanks Synch! I actually shipped 2 of my prints to NZ - Aukland and then Paraparaumu. I've designed a couple of tattoos, and have been asked about it quite frequently (and never grow tired of looking at the wide open eyes when people discover what it costs for a personalized design :shock: ). I even have a queue of people waiting for me to break down and buy a machine so I can ink them directly but that's not likely to happen hehe

Thanks for the comments - hoping to see you around!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:51 pm
by Synch
gilleyvanweirden wrote:I've designed a couple of tattoos, and have been asked about it quite frequently (and never grow tired of looking at the wide open eyes when people discover what it costs for a personalized design :shock: )
Looking at the labour of love and amount of hours you must put into each product, the cost wouldn't surprise me. Many people seem to undervalue high quality art.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:07 am
by LooksClosely
Great work Gilley! :)

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 10:12 am
by gilleyvanweirden
LooksClosely wrote:Great work Gilley! :)
Thank you, Looks!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 3:14 pm
by LooksAndSmiles
The two bird pictures (Bubo Imperator and Harbringer) look as if they were 3D in parts. Pretty cool.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:04 am
by gilleyvanweirden
LooksAndSmiles wrote:The two bird pictures (Bubo Imperator and Harbringer) look as if they were 3D in parts. Pretty cool.
Thanks, LooksAndSmiles! There are parts of the owl that continue to mess with my head when I look at them, just because of that 3D effect from the shading.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 3:47 pm
by featheredfeath
I think that owl is my favourite one. It just looks so crisp!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:59 am
by gilleyvanweirden
featheredfeath wrote:I think that owl is my favourite one. It just looks so crisp!
Thanks Featheredfeath - there are many things that went just right on that one :)

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:57 pm
by SeeAMoose
I absolutely love the Lord of Owls, it is just stunning to look at and the level of detail throughout is awesome. If I had the money right now I'd buy a print in a heartbeat. Keep up the great work!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2015 6:18 am
by gilleyvanweirden
SeeAMoose wrote:I absolutely love the Lord of Owls, it is just stunning to look at and the level of detail throughout is awesome. If I had the money right now I'd buy a print in a heartbeat. Keep up the great work!
Thank you SeeAMoose!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:27 am
by gilleyvanweirden
Here's the latest piece that I've been working on. Sorry - but because of the technique I use to illustrate there's a lot of time for "work in progress" and not a lot of "hey it's done!" It's the album art for a prog-metal band out of Ontario that contacted me. They gave me advance access to their lyrics and the art is steeped heavily in themes they visited for this album.

Image

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 1:35 pm
by LooksAndSmiles
It looks pretty good already. :)

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 4:54 am
by gilleyvanweirden
LooksAndSmiles wrote:It looks pretty good already. :)
Thank you Looks :)

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 5:29 am
by gilleyvanweirden
Papercraft!

I created this chest as a stretch goal reward for the Kickstarter (2 weeks to go and we're within shouting distance of the first one). I haven't done papercraft in some 30 years so this was a lot of fun to put together.

Once the Kickstarter is over and the backers have had some time to enjoy these, I'll eventually release the PDF with the templates into the wild so more folks can enjoy them.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:30 am
by spiderwrangler
OK, that's awesome. It has such a weight to it, even though I know it's just folded paper.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:12 am
by nikohl
Oooh, I want one :)

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 3:41 pm
by gilleyvanweirden
spiderwrangler wrote:OK, that's awesome. It has such a weight to it, even though I know it's just folded paper.
Then I did it correctly :) I think that the inner liner has a lot to do with giving it a visual weight. This prototype is now stuffed with Easter candy (as stuffed as 5 pieces can be) and going to a friend's desk tonight.

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 3:43 pm
by gilleyvanweirden
nikohl wrote:Oooh, I want one :)
Thanks Nikohl - that's as high a praise as I could hope for! :cheer:

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 5:43 pm
by spiderwrangler
I, more than most, can appreciate the amount of work that goes into stippling, even though it remains my favorite art technique. I did a fair bit in highschool art classes, as well as in an Insect Morphology course I took as part of my Masters.
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Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:00 am
by gilleyvanweirden
spiderwrangler wrote:I, more than most, can appreciate the amount of work that goes into stippling, even though it remains my favorite art technique. I did a fair bit in highschool art classes, as well as in an Insect Morphology course I took as part of my Masters.
Love these! Great work there, Spider!

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:43 am
by gilleyvanweirden
Here's the latest thing I've been working on. It's the sample page for a coloring (or colouring) book page for a project with a pastry chef!
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Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:05 am
by spiderwrangler
Made with real hummingbirds?

Re: The Gilley van Weirden Workshop

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:17 am
by gilleyvanweirden
The hummingbirds are a crucial ingredient, but the secret's in the souls of orphans! ;)