Matthew Kriske: The Blog

"A Battle Most Royale"

2011-01-16T23:39:00.003-06:00

A new painting for the "Fanboi" show at Altered Esthetics.

Based on the Japanese film "Battle Royale".

Watercolor, marker and acrylic on paper. 2011.

For Sale. E-mail me if interested. -----> mkriske@comcast.net

To the Tune of Another's Drum...

2010-06-26T02:32:00.012-05:00

Continuing on with our updating, the following is presented...

Portrait of Nadia. From me forthcoming book "Oddment." (I'm rather proud of this one.)

"Kriske/Rents Frequencies." An older drawing on notebook paper in colored pencil and ballpoint.

"A Warped State of Mind." 2009. Colored pencil and ballpoint.
A ceramic collaboration piece done with my girlfriend. (Melissa Plooster.) She made the clay piece and I glazed it on up.
A commissioned piece for a wedding gift. Cubism. Woo.
An older self portrait. Watercolor and rapidograph.

"Jean- Michel Basquiat." Watercolor and rapidograph.
Don't even ask. Some small commissioned sketch thing. Yeah... Colored pencil and ink.

That New Sound.

2010-06-26T02:20:00.010-05:00

Some of that new shit for y'all to dig on.

Ghost drawing on a hand silk screened print, worked back into with spray paint and pens.

Small glazed ceramic drip container.

Busted up hollow zombie head.

Takashi Murakami Sake Cup.

Random Hippie chick-esque drawing. (I like the sad little squid necklace.)

Another Print. "Truth Beauty Turtles". Live it.

Another view of the same Sake Cup.

More updates to follow...

Also, check the nice swank site I've got too: http://www.matthewkriske.com

Updates, Part Two.

2009-04-22T20:46:00.006-05:00

I'm Back, you all.

Here's some more for your viddying pleasures.

These are all pages from my upcoming book "Oddment" which is now in the closing stages of production.

Keep an eye out, it will be coming your way soon.

Peace!

-M

Updates, Part One.

2009-03-21T22:07:00.017-05:00

Since my last update, I've been busier than a hive of beavers on crystal meth.

Here are some of the paintings I've done over the past few months.

It will take me quite a while to post them all, so I'm posting them here in increments.

Enjoy!

-M

Magic Carp.

2008-10-13T20:28:00.002-05:00

It's live and running.

http://www.magiccarp.com

Please feel free to stop by and take a look around, let me know what you think.

Thank you!

-M

Bam, Fallcon Comin' at ya!

2008-09-29T22:52:00.002-05:00

Here's the first piece I've done up for Fallcon this weekend.

This and everything else I post between now and then will be for sale at Fallcon!

Yay! See you there.

Webcomics, they're coming for you.

2008-09-24T22:06:00.002-05:00

Mrrr...Update time.

I'm starting a webcomic next week called "Magic Carp."

It will be stupid, but well drawn.

Please check it out and let me know how much it sucks.

Cheers.

The Great American Mural Project (Part Two)

2008-09-03T17:32:00.039-05:00

Here are the finished pics from my mural gig.

(Lots and lots of pictures.)

A city.
Kim Jong Il. This was also one of the things that I was asked to include in the mural, and I obliged, despite vague moral inklings that a giant picture of Kim Jong Il on your wall isn't the best thing ever. But far be it for me to judge.
Hammer and sickle, also specified. (Theme going here.)

Bruce Campbell from the movie "Army of Darkness".
Another reference to Army.
Bob Dylan. (Who's tangled hair is turning into music notes. A touch I'm rather proud of.)
The song All Along the Watchtower is based upon the tower in Prospect Park, which is across the street from where I painted this.
Harry Potter reference, also requested.The finished coke can.
Detail of the Prospect Tower.Football! (Drunken yell.)
The finished Hokusai wave.
Tusken raiders kick ass.Yellow Submarine. (The fact that it's coming out of the Hokusai wave is the one other touch in this painting that I rather like.)

Another city.
Another shot o' the Harry Potter reference.Han Solo.Han "Mutha-fuckin" Solo at that.
From the Radiohead song "Idioteque".
Rocko's Modern Life, the best cartoon of the 90's, hands down.FOOTBALL!!!

Finishing up the ninja.
Deatail of Han, note the space-y look of it I managed to achieve.Another shot of Bruce Campbell as you go up the stairs.
This is what you see if you look upwards when you go downstairs.

What's that pirate doing on my American flag? (Or rather, what's that American flag doing on my pirate.)

Oh yeah, Han's blaster shot turns into the Tusken Raiders gaffe stick. Crazy cool!
Le sig, and we're done.

Phew! This was a ton of work, but I kind of like how it turned out, even though I ended up making it a good bit looser than I'd intended when I started.

A good learning process as it were.

Thanks for looking.

The Great American Mural Project. (Part One)

2008-08-26T19:25:00.002-05:00

Howdy.

I was commissioned to do a mural in the attic of a three story house over in St. Paul.

It has ended up being a lot of work.

Here are some of the progress pictures, and more will follow as I finish it.

Side of the banister.

The surface of the banister.

Base Coat. (Eventually Bruce Campbell will be here.)

Stairs leaving the attic.

Opposite side of the banister. (The random colors will end up being a city.)

Going up the stairs. (Trippy!)

Ninja holding a coke can. (This was specified as something I needed to include in the painting.)

As was this.

They'll be back, and in larger numbers.

Once again, a painting chronicling my love affair with the movie Trainspotting.

Dead cans and a Hokusai wave.

That's it for now. Check back for more updates in the coming weeks.

Another Tattoo.

2008-08-08T12:50:00.002-05:00

Here's another tattoo design commission I just finished up.

(I've been painting lots of hearts lately. I should stop at some point.)

Tattoo Design.

2008-08-04T23:55:00.002-05:00

Here's a tattoo design I was commissioned to do recently.

Experimental Commissioning.

2008-08-01T22:55:00.011-05:00

What follows are photos of a very large commissioned piece I did recently. I pondered about whether to post it here or not, as it's quite different from most of the stuff I put up here, and is a good bit looser than most of my work. But I decided to throw it up here anyway.

Here goes.

The whole piece is 26 X 30, and was done in Acrylic, Spray Paint, Sharpie, Metallic Inks, and a piece of Very Old Wrapping Paper.

Detail of the Woman's Face. ( The photo doesn't show it, but there's little flecks of gold in her eyes which i quite like.)

Another head view.

Detail of the heart. (Second post in a row featuring a heart. Actually, they look surprisingly similar...)

The wrapping paper is the three women in the circle. (Mixed Media Alert!)

I was not able to resist the temptation to put a mustache man into the picture. ( For more exploits of the Mustache Man, pick up a copy of Muscles and Fights 3.)

I made the sides of the canvas all fancy like too.

And my favoite bit of the whole painting...

Sad Squid! I'm very seriously considering using him in other stuff, so keep an eye out for him in the future.

And a cool looking photo of my signature to cap it off.

So. What do you think world? Any and all feedback ( need not be constructive) would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Tofu Goodness!

2008-07-18T20:45:00.006-05:00

Hooray for non-sequitur blog post titles.

Here's a one page comic I did for the City Pages. I'm generally not too interested in doing political cartoons, but this was a fun project. (Click the Image to expand.)

Next up we have a set of commissioned paintings. Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin. Sorry for the bad picture quality, at some point I'll learn how to photograph paintings.

And keeping in step with the non-sequitur theme, here we have this.

Thanks for stopping by.

Old Junk (A post conspicously lacking William S. Burroughs)

2008-07-02T13:16:00.005-05:00

Here's a couple of paintings, all of them about a year old or so. All of them have been gifted or sold at some point, but I still have scans of them collecting dust on my computer, so here they are.

More current work coming soon.

And lastly, just because it makes me happy, we have this fellow.

Take it easy out there.

For What You Dream Of...

2008-06-10T14:04:00.002-05:00

First painting of the summer!

I'm a huge fan of Trainspotting, so I did up this picture. This one will definitely be included in the still- as- of- yet- unnamed art book.

It scanned slightly oddly, but it's good enough to post here.

Otherwise I'm keeping busy with commissions, while still plugging along on the book.

Speaking of plugs, here's one for ya.

Please take a moment and check out http://www.weirdtales.net , and take a look at the 365 days of Blasphemous Horror. It's an incredibly ambitious project, by an artist I admire very much, Steven Archer. If you feel so inclined, please buy something as well.

(Tell him Kriske sent you.)

That's all for now.

Boom. A contest!

2008-04-26T12:15:00.005-05:00

Here's my latest footwear creation, made just for me.

But I'm going to have some fun, so the offer is as follows:

There first person to leave a comment correctly identifying the person upon each shoe, wins a drawing of whatever they choose from me.

Sound good?

Here's the shoes:

There you go. Now get cracking!

(The offer is good for as long as it takes to find a winner.)

Good luck!

Art for Sale! Get your piping hot art for sale!

2008-03-18T20:07:00.007-05:00

Well, as you might've guessed, there's some art for sale. Call it a spring cleaning of sorts.

First, We've got these two fine fellows.

$15 each, formerly $25. (Or both for $25) Comes framed.

Next up, a painting done for the Daily Cross Hatch's V-Holiday thing. $10

Small design for the Muscles and Fights logo contest. $5

And finally, the last Olde Tyme Drawing that I have left! Your's for only $10, was $25.

And there you have it. Buy something, tell your friends, etc. You will make me a happy man.

Worth Waiting For...

2008-02-20T20:56:00.003-06:00

Howdy all.

Another week, another update.

This time around we have a commissioned drawing of Mr. Samuel Beckett.

I'm really quite pleased with how this one turned out, so if anyone would like a similar drawing commissioned, I'd be only too happy to do it.

Without further ado...

Gadzooks, an update!

2008-02-14T16:23:00.005-06:00

Yes, an update at last.

And I have several things to report on as well, so brace yourselves.

First off, over at http://www.bigtimeattic.com/blog/ I have a new comic up, and will have one or two more posted there soon enough. It was fun, so I'm glad I was allowed to do it.

Second, the swank website is on indefinite hold. This could change suddenly, but for now it's a no go.

Thirdly, sketchbook update! If anyone was paying attention, I'd intended it to be ready by Christmas of '07. Ha, fat chance. I'm about a fourth of the way done, so I'm going to push myself to have it done in time for FallCon, at the very least. But, this way I'll have a higher page count, and a better final product. Plus, look for a nice introduction by local legend Kevin Cannon. (http://www.kevincannon.org/)

Fourthly, I had an 11 page story in Muscles and Fights 2, and just wrapped up a 3-pager for the third volume, which I am very pleased with. You can buy a copy (or two) online ---> http://www.musclesandfights.com/ , or at The Source, and Big Brain (I think.)

I still hope to get better at posting things here, but as ever, I make no promises.

To make up for the total lack of posting last month, here's one from the sketchbook.

Take Care.

-M

The Epic Holiday Shoe Post

2007-12-25T00:02:00.000-06:00

If you remember back, I customized myself a pair of shoes by painting upon them. This idea has proven popular, and I've been doing a few of them of late. With that, here they are.

First, some football fellow, not really my kind of thing, but I'm not one to judge if I'm being paid for work.
I did two different views, as opposed to doing the same image mirrored, 'cause that would have been weird.
Close up, (really shitty picture quality, sorry.)

Close up of the other shoe.

Generally, as anyone who knows me can attest to, I really hate sports and sports culture in general, so why would I agree to do this pair of shoes? Is it because I'm an artistic whore? Simply put, possibly. These are paintings on shoes, so they're not exactly "high" art, and I really don't mind painting a person whom I wouldn't want to watch kick or throw a leather ball around as long as I'm well paid for it. This might make me a bad person, I really haven't decided yet.

Next up, we have Bob Dylan and Levon Helm.

Close up of Mr. Helm.

And Mr. Dylan as well. (I really like this one, and the picture doesn't exactly do it justice.)

And lastly, we have Mulder and Scully from the 90's Televison program "The X-Files" (played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson)

Close up of Duchovny. (Also slightly blurry, apologies.)

Closeup of Ms. Anderson. (This one is also one of my favorites.)

And, as always, all three pairs carry my signature on the back.

So there you have it. Thankfully, these round out my commissions for the year, giving me a week or so of rest to embark upon some personal work, which I'm really looking forward too. I've been ignoring my canvases for far too long now, having spent nearly the past year doing ink work, with intermittent breaks. So I'll be diving right back into the paint, so to speak.

Also, I notice it's become Christmas since I started typing this. So, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, no matter your religious affiliations, because Santa Claus is just damn cool.

If this isn't updated before the New Year, I wish the world a lovely New Year as well.

(As always, we shall see.)

Please Excuse the Interruption.

2007-12-15T13:22:00.000-06:00

Taking a quick break from the Commission posts to display this pin-up I did for Bob Lipski a while back.

Bob is one of the nicest cartoonists you could ever meet. He also keeps up a crazy schedule of producing a fantastic comic each month, which he has done for almost the past 5 years. I highly recommend picking up any issues of Uptown Girl you can lay your hands on.

I did this drawing of Sulky Girl, which he then put up on his site.

I tried to combine my usual somewhat realistic style with the more cartoon-y elements that I like in Bob's work. Not really sure I succeeded, but there you have it.

Back to the drawing board.

Commissions: Part One

2007-11-21T00:09:00.000-06:00

I have a stack of commissions that I'm working my way through at the moment. I will post most of them here as I finish them. Stay tuned!

Here's the first....

It scanned sort of oddly, but it is acceptable for the sake of posting it here.

(Also, it is my Birthday as I type this. Hurrah, Hurrah!)

We're moving...

2007-11-09T11:28:00.000-06:00

...to a fancy new website, hopefully sometime before Christmas.

New features should include a storefront, numerous examples of work, a bio page, a website embedded journal thing, and all other fanciness. I'm quite excited for this.

The link will be posted once it's all set up.

I've been pretty bad about updating this thing. New work to be posted soon, so sit tight.

'Tis the Season.

2007-10-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

In honor of Halloween on Wednesday, I'm posting this page of The Man Himself from my sketchbook. (To the uniformed, it's Lon Chaney Sr.)

Also, an announcement. I'm currently working on a sketchbook which I hope to have out by Christmas time. This is just one of the many drawings to be included in it, though I won't post all of them, or else no one will buy it.

Happy Halloween!

My Cool New Shoes

2007-10-16T16:41:00.000-05:00

Here's a pair of shoes I did recently. I stole the idea for painting on shoes from Sam Hiti, but the design is my own. Enjoy. (Or don't, as the case might be.)
That's Oscar Wilde on the left and Frida Kahlo on the right. They look slightly distorted due to the curvature of the shoe, but look normal when you flatten the surface.

Close up of Mr. Wilde

Close up of Ms. Kahlo

The back, complete with my signature.

If you are interested in having me do a similar project, I'm happy to do so. Just send me an e-mail.

Ye Olde Tyme Drawing Project

2007-10-14T14:26:00.001-05:00

Several months ago, I thought it would be a neat idea to try and replicate an old photograph as a drawing, and then to give them away as gifts. I've played around with materials and styles and finally found a consistent technique and look to them. Thus "Ye Olde Tyme Drawing Project" was born. I'll continue to do these in between stories and other books as a quick and fun exercise. ( I should also mention that any of these are available for purchase unless otherwise noted. Prices are flexible. Danke!)

Here's a sampling of some thus far...

"The Children at Home"

"P.T. Barnum" *sold*

"19th Century Man" *sold*

"19th Century Man II" *sold*

"All Which Lies Unseen" *sold* "H.P. Lovecraft"

...And there you have it. Many more of these to come, so stay tuned.

Welcome!

2007-10-13T16:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, the time has come at last. I've finally gone and made a website. Soon this page will be filled with artwork, comics and other wonderments to delight and amuse you.

Welcome, and thank you for coming.