Bob's ART du Jour

Hi, I'm Bob Eggleton and this is my painting and "life in general blog" but mostly paintings. Usually they're for sale. Anyway, if you like something contact me at zillabob@cox.net and ENJOY!!

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Location: New England, United States

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Monday, November 17, 2008

A Chinese Whisper...

This was done for a British music group called The Downliners Sect...quite a crew who's various members have worked with Procol Harum, The Yardbirds and The Rolling Stones. And I can't tell you who they've hung out with and played Snooker over the years....it's fairly impressive. Anyway, it's my first commissioned CD cover which is kind of fun too...I'm also making drawings for the liner notes...

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That yellow sphere is very "Dragonne's Eg" a la Mary Brown... Love it.

7:02 AM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

Thanks!

7:19 PM  
Blogger Annalisa said...

Wow, this is a slight change in pace, isn't it? Would you say this is a significant departure from your usual approach to oils? I can't put my finger on it but it feels different... definitely the color palette (love those purples!) but also the smooth yet painterly quality of the sky.

How do you feel, Bob, about the need for an aspiring artist to find a recognizable style and stay in it, but also to stretch him or herself through experimentation? This question has been plaguing my restless sleep on a regular basis this past year.

I sometimes feel I don't have a style at all, which really scares me.

11:04 PM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

You HAVE to experiment! This is for this British 60's group whom I have been friends with the bass player for some years. I mean these guys have "been there/done that" and seen it all. What a rock and roll history lesson they are. But what I like about them is 45 years later they're STILL rocking on...like me. Art is all about experimentation and sometimes, lack of a style is, in itself, a style. At least that's what I try and tell myself when I lie awake at night...

11:19 PM  
Blogger Marianne said...

LOL. Annelisa, I never thought I had a style and was often gobsmacked when someone pointed out that they always knew my work when they saw it because it was so distinctive. :-o I know just how you feel...

Cheers,
Marianne

9:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“How do you feel, Bob, about the need for an aspiring artist to find a recognizable style and stay in it, but also to stretch him or herself through experimentation? This question has been plaguing my restless sleep on a regular basis this past year.

I sometimes feel I don't have a style at all, which really scares me.”

Sorry to interrupt ,personally, I think ,style lies in the personality, the culture.
A Chinese artist creates an work rooted in Chinese culture.
,and the same goes to the British artists.
Get to know your own personality and the culture you live around, then you’ll be better aware of your style.

12:01 PM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

We live in a pop culture society, at least, I do anyway...my physical society is not something I consider a culture. To me it's all about pushing the envelope and experimenting on things. This worked out fine for me, and the group LOVED it, which thrills me alot to hear!

12:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To Bob & Thinkingdoggy,

As someone who's been in the business for just over thirty years, I've witnessed a sea change both in fine art and in illustration that seems to have made cultural influences in one's art a thing of free choice rather then something dictated by a sort of expected cultural protocol. Similar to the genre of "world music," visual artists are developing styles and taking their inspiration and influences from all over the globe.

Perhaps a style may be dictated partly by personality or personal choice but it has a lot to do (in illustration anyway) with the market, actual time allowed to complete assignments and of course what may be expected by the client for a given job. My "styles" of art and illustration have varied over the decades according to the client's wishes, the method of reproduction, the accepted/required style of the genre I'm working in and my own personal abilities at the time.

I know mainland Chinese artists who paint in a 19th century European romantic style, English artists who work in a 1950's American advertising style and as to my being an "American artist"...I really cannot figure out what my "culture" might mean to me regarding how I should allow it to guide my artistic style choices.

Sure folks can plumb their cultural roots for inspiration in their art or illustration but I like the path of illustrator and artist Kinuko Y. Craft. She came to the United States at age 24 from Japan. She is most inspired by the works of Da Vinci, the Pre-Raphaelites and the Symbolist painters.

I think that stylistically, artists must follow their hearts and their muse no matter where it may originate from or take them.

4:33 PM  

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