Cropped Will Cardini artwork

October 29th, 2010

Stuffed and Drawn Frogheads

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:57 am

My series of posts of installation shots of my show Hypermorph at Domy Books, Houston continues.

Here’s a shot of the western wall at the opening:

Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Western Wall
Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Western Wall

Click here to see close ups of the artwork

October 26th, 2010

Hypermorph Drawings and Miizzzard versus Wojrollox Paintings

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , , , , — William Cardini @ 7:56 am

My blog and site are mostly done, but I’m still tweaking. I’ll let y’all know when I stop tinkering with this. Please let me know if anything’s broken or looks weird.

I went to Houston this past weekend to clean up my old room at my parents’ house. I had to sort through so much artwork, so many drawings of cyborg dragons and spike- and muscle-ridden dinosaurs. It gave me some ideas. I’ll scan some of my old drawz to post eventually.

More importantly, my Hypermorph show at Domy Books Houston went down on 10/21 so I’m free to post everything. Over the next week I’ll be posting what was on each wall. Here’s a shot of the opening with the eastern wall that I’ll post details from this time:

Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Eastern Wall
Hypermorph Installation at Domy Books Houston, Eastern Wall

Click here to see close ups of the artwork

October 19th, 2010

Pardon the Pixelated Dust

Filed under: Admin — Tags: — William Cardini @ 12:42 am

Hey y’all, please pardon the mess around this blog, I’m working on updating it but I’m too sleepy to finish it tonite.

I finished updating my main site yesterday, here’s a link to the home page, or you can reach it from this blog’s header. I added a bunch of old, rare, and out-of-print comics to the Comics section.

And of course if any of y’all notice any weird bugs or have any suggestions I’m all ears.

October 15th, 2010

Hypermorph Work on Sale

Filed under: Events — Tags: , — William Cardini @ 9:13 am

Hey y’all, Domy has posted by work from my show Hypermorph for sale online here.

Also, if y’all aren’t in the area and can’t make it out, you can also see most of the work at that link.

October 12th, 2010

Review of Hypermorph on The Great God Pan Is Dead

Robert Boyd reviewed my show Hypermorph at Domy Books Houston on his blog The Great God Pan Is Dead. I appreciate his thoughtful review, you can read it here.

In his review, Boyd quotes my description of the Hyperverse from the press release and then says that his “first reaction to this is that it seems pretty dumb.” Ha! I can dig that. Boyd goes on to say that, what makes my approach to genre dumb is that, unlike the Fort Thunder artists that I am (all-too clearly, I know) influenced by, my work lacks does not take genre ironically or satirically. Well, that’s true. I definitely take genre, even the most ridiculous parts of it, extremely seriously. If you want me to get all metaphorical on you, I feel like I do live in, to quote my description of the Hyperverse, “a realm filled with immensely powerful inhuman beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies and hoard advanced technologies” where “mountains shift from molten to crystal between moments and clumps of rock are inhabited by malevolent intelligences ready to hurl face-melting spells,” a cosmos of constant flux, “of constant magical warfare.”

I mean, look at these photos by Edward Burtynsky:

I’m just reflecting the world as I see it.

And I have a response to Boyd’s final question:

So, if creating boyish sci-fi worlds is an aspect of the whole Fort Thunder aesthetic, can we say that aesthetic is inherently male? And if we accept that, is there a female counterpart? And if so, are plush frog heads a part of it?

I definitely wanted Glade to be a part of my show. I’m well aware of how much of a “boy’s club” all of the collectives that I am a part of (Totally Wreck, The Gold County Paper Mill) slash admire (Okaymountain, Fort Thunder), with some exceptions, are, and it’s something that I don’t like about them. All I can say is, I am going to make sure that my first long-form comics narrative passes the Bechdel Test.

October 8th, 2010

Monster Show 5 Sketch

Filed under: Artwork — Tags: , , , — William Cardini @ 12:23 am

Here’s a sketch that I did to prepare for Monster Show 5, coming up at both Domy stores:

Obviously I’ve been influenced by those Berserk drawz I posted last week. I can’t decide if I should do this in India Ink with a brush and dip pen or do a full-color gouache painting. What do y’all think?

October 1st, 2010

Berserk by Kentaro Miura

Filed under: Inspiration — Tags: — William Cardini @ 7:25 am

Yesterday I finished volume two of Prison Pit by Johnny Ryan. I had read an interview with JR somewhere on the interwebs where he said that Kentaro Miura’s Berserk was an influence, so when my buddy and I were at I <3 Video deciding what anime to rent, I had to pick up the first disc of the Berserk anime series. It was pretty good, but now I really want to read the manga.

I mean, check out this page:

Look at how ridiculously large the main character’s sword is. I’m working on a similar character design so I’m taking notes.

Really though, this last drawing just kills it. I’m ordering all 34 volumes of the series that have been translated into English so far.