Archive for July, 2008

Jul 30 2008

Milwaukee

Published by under sketchbook,travel

Just got back yesterday from Milwaukee. I actually liked it a lot (unlike the last time I visited which was for a convention, in the winter, about 10 years ago). This time we were there for the wedding of our friends Tim and Sarah:

Tim and Sarah

They threw a great shindig. We also got to the Art Museum, which is architecturally stunning:

Milwaukee art museum - entrance hall

Here’s a fun drawing I did at the entrance to the main galleries, and a photo of me drawing it:

Missing parts

Drawing in the space-age museum

They have a couple of nice suits of armor — a subject I can never resist drawing:

Armor!

Milwaukee also has a pretty decent zoo, but I won’t make you look at my zoo sketches unless you want to. Except the penguin.

Milwaukee zoo - penguin

Milwaukee zoo – gorilla
Milwaukee zoo – more gorillas
Milwaukee zoo – baboons and bonobos
Milwaukee zoo – monkeys
Milwaukee zoo – monkeys and macacques
Milwaukee zoo – polar bears and seals
Milwaukee zoo – giraffes and rhino
Milwaukee zoo – peacock, prairie dogs and elk

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Jul 24 2008

Blast from the past

Published by under sketchbook,travel,Uncategorized

Okay, so I’ve been traveling too much, which is why I haven’t updated much. The past few days I was home in VT, where I did an author event at my hometown library.

While I was up there I rescued some forgotten childhood artwork from my Mom’s basement. Most of it is going in the recycling or a box in the attic marked “do not open until the artist’s death,” but there are a few pieces I want to scan because they represent distinctive personal stages of my work. Here, for instance, is a sample of what I’ll call the “big fights” series, in which numerous human and supernatural combatants fight simultaneously on a full sheet of paper.

Big monster fight #1

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Jul 14 2008

More digital life sketchin’

Published by under sketchbook,tools & tech

Last night I was playing around with Photoshop brushes and did this little piece. I think I might like the unframed version better, but I give you both versions…

twilight in Watertown (unframed) spacer (ignore me)spacer (ignore me)twilight in Watertown (framed)

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Jul 11 2008

More interview

Published by under press

I recently mentioned the two interview segments which ran in the Harrisburg newspaper about Merchant and my author visit. The interviewer, Chris Mautner, has now uploaded the entire interview to his blog, including questions not included in either previous segment. And this was linked to yesterday by The Comics Journal, on their Journalista! blog.

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Jul 02 2008

More about Pennsylvania

Published by under appearances,sketchbook,travel

So yeah, as mentioned in the last post, I did an author visit at Penn State Harrisburg for their summer writing program. Actually two writing programs, one for kids and one for adults. I was a pretty big hit, or so it seems from the feedback.

This blog tool is too clunky for uploading a large number of photos, so I’m going to start a new Flickr account for this sort of thing with the username garethhinds. (You know what I hate about Flickr, though? Photos appear in reverse order unless you go to the set.)

Of course I also did some sketching, and here are a few samples. Arguably one of the best features of Harrisburg is the lovely path along the river:

Sketches of Harrisburg’s river walk

Some more from the river, and some plants at Ashcombe’s nursery:

More sketches from PA

The nursery also has bunnies (with too-cute names)!

Bunnies!

These are from the Railroad Museum of PA in Lancaster:

Sketches from the Train Museum

And you know what else is in Lancaster — lots of Amish! Seriously, I mostly didn’t draw the Amish themselves, as they have this thing about graven images (guess I won’t be joining that religion, bucolic as it may be!). But drawing their horses, barns, and buggies I have no problem with.

Sketches of Amish country

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