G'morning.
My wife's water broke when I was making the first sketches shown in this post. I got the phone call while sitting in the sunshine on our deck in September 2013, researching and drawing insects. (Sunshine...we lived in Palo Alto, CA at the time)
I was creating what would eventually become my Flrrblz. My desire was to infuse my still life paintings with a purely imaginative "object". I've always been a fan of illustration. I decided to create my own bug. It began with some sketching of various critters from reference:
Now that I had some loose introduction to various critter anatomies, I began creating my own bug-thing (orthogonal views....ex-architect here):
Our daughter was born, and with her came all the ensuing joys, discoveries, worries, and groggy days of first-time parents. With the help of a handy little table-top easel, I was able to start mocking up the bug in paint while tending to paternal duties:
Nana, a peer from my time at the Schuler School, gave me this little homemade cigar-box painting box, which I used as my palette below. Normally you can put a tiny panel or paper on that tilted surface. Very handy.
This one is good-natured and smiley.
This one is extra glowy.
Things become more refined against a light background:
All this led to a first painting in the series, "Flrrbl With Red Apples" (8x10 oil on panel, 2013):
Many more Flrrbl paintings came after, and I'll gradually be posting them here. Thanks for reading! -David
David, it's great that you have an outlet for your science fiction passion as well as your passion for art! These are very striking paintings for sure!
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Thank you. Yep, I needed an outlet for sure :)
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These are very nice David :) They almost have a steampunk/Metropolis kind of feel.
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Awesome thanks! hmmm I should try a version that is really mechanical....
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I suppose using some classic Masamune Shirow manga as reference material couldn't hurt? ;)
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So good!! That is a brilliant idea :)
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Awesome idea mate, I love how the final bug designs turned out. I also really like the pencil sketches, it looks like your a master at what you do... Everything is just perfectly executed.
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Thank you very much :)
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wow this is really fabulous work!
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Thank you!
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Sounds great, thank you! 😁
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looks great!! wow..
nice post!!
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Thank you!
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Thanks for sharing, David! it is pleasure to see how you interweave realism and fantasy in your paintings
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Thank you, glad you like the interweaving :)
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Actually I never did the real one, I mean with all that knits and needles :)
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Beautiful work. And such adorable creatures. Well done!
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Thank you very much!! :)
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Itukan gambar kartun kakak
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Google translate isn't making much sense with your comment. Can you post in english?
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it's translation in aceh language .. not in google translation
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Those Flrrbls sure are cute...even though I don't like bugs. You make a classic still life never boring.
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Haha, awesome thank you!
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Came here because @ocd recommendation. Your work is amazing! You have one more follower. Hope to see more from you.
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Thank you very much! :)
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Goddamn. Top-notch stuff. Following you to add some much needed variety to my feed.
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😄 Thank you! 🙌
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These are wonderful! I'm reminded of scientific illustration. You could consider doing an even larger series of these and create a sort of technical, fantasy, bug hunting manual (I'm reminded of codex seraphinianus).
Beautiful work for sure! I hope to see more stuff like this.
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Thank you! I've designed a few different 'species' of these and will be posting 😁👍
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