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R.E.C.

@rec.artanddata

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NeoExpressionist Pop Surrealist. Paintings, comic art, character & creature designs, etc. As well as my thoughts on art theory, design, & technique.

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"Sleeping Leah." 1992. Oil on Canvasboard. My friend Leah was taking a nap on the bed of my dorm and I did this painting of it. She knew I was doing the painting.

#oilpainting #oiloncanvas #oilpaintingoncanvas #sargent #instaart by @rec.artanddata

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2 years ago

"2 Pages from an Earlier Version of the Frank Prinkel Saga." 2008. Pencil and Photoshop. Here are two pages from an earlier version of what is turning into a much longer story - "Frank Prinkel In The Bardo Lands of Indra." These two pages were written by a guest author (and still illustrated by me), but I'm happy with the script I came up with which will be coming out in "Phantom Comics from the Islands of Paradox."

#lynchian #davidlynch #strangecomics #surrealism #neosurrealism #surrealistart #ｗｅｉｒｄｃｏｒｅ #weirdcomics #weirdart #bizarre #bizarreart #otherworldly #supernatural #strange #strangeart #strangeartwork #vision #strangecomics #strangecomic by @rec.artanddata

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2 years ago

"Scream of the Henchmen from Beneath the Lodge." 2019. Oils, 18"x18". This is an oil painted version of a character that started as a pencil drawing, and became a digital painting. Now it is an oil painting. Pretty close to the original which is posted in earlier posts. If you can't tell by my artwork, I love fezzes and would wear one if my face wasn't so fat. #oilpainting #dark #darkart #darkartists #weird #weirdcore #weirdcoreaesthetic #weirdart #weirdartist #strange #strangeart #bizarre #bizarreart #neocubistrealism #cubist #moderncubist #monsterart #aura #aurapainting by @rec.artanddata

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3 years ago

"Inverted Sadie's Reverse." 2026. Photoshop and Oil Painting. The original version (undoctored) of this painting is the second image. In Photoshop holding down the command key and the 'i' key will give you the photo negative version of an image (called "inverting"). Anyway, I tried it with an image that had solarized effects I'd created originally in Photoshop (and painted from that reference). Anyway, I was impressed at the quality of the inverted version of this painting so I posted it.

#oilpainting #digitalart by @rec.artanddata

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9 days ago

"'Frank Leonard and the Bardolands of Indra' page 50." Photoshop edited pencil drawing. 2026. This turned out to be one of my favorite pages. I skipped ahead 3 pages to work on it, and it came out perfect.

#surrealistcomic #digitalart #neosurrealism by @rec.artanddata

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21 days ago

"Ether Face 2014." 2014 (approx.). Oil paint on cardboard. This is from my 'Ether' series. Back in 1992, I had a religious experience and started becoming fascinated with blurred photos. I was inspired by xeroxes I had done of my face that looked like blurred photos and when I was first exposed to Joel-Peter Witkin he had a photo of a person shaking their face back and forth. The image was so powerful and it captured the apocalyptic tone I wanted to do as well as having a supernatural tone to it (which is core in my 'Ether' style - transcendental tones from my memory of my religious experience at Tower Books in Manhattan).

#etheric #supernatural #transcendental #myownartstyle #oilpainting #apocalyptic by @rec.artanddata

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2 months ago

"Oil Sketch of Dita." 2004. Here is an unfinished painting of Dita I started back in 2004. From back when I was doing pinup art. Dita was extremely cool and gave me her cellphone number after seeing a pinup I had copied orginally by Gil Elvgren. I didn't do anything with it, other than do around 5 paintings of her. Never started the oversized painting I had done a layout for. Dita was married to Marilyn Manson and had become extremely famous. I was so intimidated I kept putting it off rather than work with her. Sorry, Dita. At least I did a few pretty damn good oil paintings which I still have. Including this one there are at least 3 on this page, and a couple I couldn't find photographs of.

#oilpainting #pinup #pinupart #pinuppainting #dita #ditavonteese by @rec.artanddata

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2 months ago

"Taoist theory and Timothy Leary's 8-Circuit Model Applied to Art Theory." 2016. Pencil. Here are some ideas on Taoist theory such as the idea of Paradox expressed in the two fish eyes of the Taijitu symbol. At the most extreme Yang, you find a transformation into Yin, and at the most extreme Yin, you find the most concentrated Yang at its center. These two dots in either polarity are what I call the Islands of Paradox and are where the title to my comics comes from.

On the first page, we have visual elements as seen through the perceptive filters of Timothy Leary's 8 Circuit Model of Consciousness.

Here we see the second circuit model (Y axis) applied to the triangle. Point facing down is a top heavy shape & in the 2nd circuit territorial filter reads as a dominant or aggressive shape (Yang). Triangle pointing up reads as a bottom heavy shape and thus stable and resolving (Yin).

The black fish of crudeness with the paradoxical eye of virtuosity is a diagramming of what many artists did who purposefully used crudeness to show off their virtuosity with the paint. Famous artists who've painted this way:Picasso, Basquiat, Nicolai Fechin, Jeremy Mann, Munch, David Salle, JS Sargent, Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon.

On page 2, we have some Taoist ideas applied to art theory. Such as the constant switching of polarities, in art theory taking advantage of this is known as "Contrast." Use the opposite of what you're trying to convey to emphasize the original's presence by contrast.

Here's a Taijitu (Yin/Yang symbol) of a polarity - weird vs. normal. When things are so extremely normal that it comes off as deeply strange like the movies of David Lynch. Also, when something is so weird that it becomes reassuringly normal. Such as Jim Gaffigan's humor.

Page 3 is showing the face broken into an upper (intended actions) half and lower (emotional relationship with self) half. Circles read as benevolent or harmonious. X - lines read as antisocial and emotionally dissonant. These two faces show two major examples of behavior contradicting the internal emotional states. The "DON'T SHOOT" face and the joyfully Sadistic face.

#taoisttheory #howtodraw #arttheory #timothyleary by @rec.artanddata

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2 months ago

"The Zookeepers." 2012. Pen, ink, & digital art. This is a comic I illustrated which was brilliantly written by author & comic artist, Will Frank. All 7 pages of the story are here.

The sixth page has an octopus. I worked on this drawing for two weeks. I did four pages of drawings of octopi in different poses. Picked my favorite three and drew them full size. Then I sculpted the body of the octopus (without its legs), lit it from two sources, then did the ink drawing, and then imported it into photoshop and colored the left side of the octopus and put a gradient behind it with some artificially generated noise for texture. Didn't look right, initiially, but after fine tuning and shading it in Photoshop and working at it until I was satisfied, I achieved a splash page I was very happy with. And this is coming from what was initially a mediocre drawing. In my experience this happens more often than not because when you are working on something that sucks, you don't care about fucking it up, your anxiety is low and you get good, inspired ideas. So keep a sketchbook so you can develop your mistakes. Just because it starts out shitty, does not mean it can't become something great.

If you focus on fixing what you PERSONALLY don't like about something you drew or painted, the way to success will be quicker because doing this repeatedly will develop an emotional connection with that piece of art and reduce the mental static in your creative trance. This is also an excellent way to get yourself in an intuitively boosted state of inspiration. Simply ask yourself what part of this image don't I like? Then alter that to be more in line with what you do like visually. Repeat until you love the image. It will naturally become the best image you are capable of making. Trust your artistic tastes. They are like psychic handles for manipulating your art. This is one area where, if you treat yourself as capable of getting accurate, psychic impressions (of an artistic nature), over and over, you will eventually get them. That was my experience.

#weirdcomics #strangecomics #dystopianfiction #surrealistcomics #surrealistcomic #howtodraw #arttheory #arttheoryandpractice #artadvice by @rec.artanddata

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2 months ago

[Repost]
"Red Angst" 1992, oil on canvas panel. I did this painting in Newport, New Jersey when I was going to college at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I was at a pretty rough point in my life and got the image in my head of a guy taking off his wristwatch and biting into it. I did this painting primarily in alizaron crimson and a little bit of lamp black and sap green for darker areas. This was from a period of time where I had just decided that creating the darkest art I could create was what I wanted for the rest of my life. I was trying to channel my depression and anxiety into my artistic process (which totally doesn't work, and if you're able to I don't recommend it. Imagination is the key to the best dark artwork and a long career doing it. And see my entry on David Lynch for more on this issue). At the time, I was able to create this painting, and it was my favorite painting for several years. #schoolofvisualarts, #darkart, #darkartist, #edvardmunchfan, #torment, #alothappiernow #darkartists #dark #edvardmunch #angst #leonardodavinci #leonardodavinciacademy #leonardodavincisfumato #leonardodavinciart #sfumato #oilpainting #aura #auraart by @rec.artanddata

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2 months ago

"Finished sculpt of 'Ed Nerris' mask (with closeups as requested)." 2026. Finally finished out the skin texture. Took multiple passes of hand stippling. Time consuming but at least it's kind of relaxing. And satisfying to finish.

#howtomakeamask #creaturedesign #halloweensnotthatfaroff by @rec.artanddata

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3 months ago

Working on skin texture by stippling pores on this sculpture. Luckily I sculpted it in oil based clay so it never dries out and I can spend a while on it then take a break and work on comics. Using the dull pointed end of a felt-tipped pen to tap randomly all over the surface. Taking a lot of reworking to get a good texture. It will be a latex mask soon enough.

#halloweenmask #makingof #spooky by @rec.artanddata

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3 months ago