Asphodel Meadows

Aside from my work on "Cat & House", here's a painting I did called "Asphodel Meadows". It's based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story "Eleonora". I'm a huge EAP fan, even did a report on him in the fifth grade (I was a messed up kid, I get it)... anyway, Asphodel Meadows is often a term used for the afterlife, reserved for people who led lives close to godliness. I use the term ironically here, as in Poe's "Eleonora", the main character falls in love with his younger cousin in their secluded meadow. I flip-flopped the role of the female and male cousin.

This was done in gouache and I'm pretty pleased with the final result! I was heavily influenced by some shows I went to see down at the Chelsea galleries in Manhattan, NYC. So many inspiring exhibitions down there!

XO Meg

Cat & House: Interior

Here's a preview of some more concept work on my current project, an interior layout design! I've really been enjoying playing around with photoshop and playing with color combinations and settings... I wanted this scene to focus on the idea of the cat toys and scratching post invading the living space. The birds as decoration are meant to further the idea that the human world of the owners is colliding with that of the cats, causing a lot of unexpected outcomes! I'm having a blast with this project and can't wait for it to unfold even more.

The books and birds have been SO much fun for me - I decided to base the birds on several driftwood-carved Jersey shore birds my mother has floating around the house. I'm just really excited about how this project is turning out! Keep looking for updates!

XO Meg

Cat & House: Re-do

I ended up re-doing one of my character paintings for my current project, I just wasn't happy with the way the earlier version ended up - it didn't capture the character well enough. So here's some sneak peaks of the re-hashed version!

I hope you guys are all enjoying the last dog days of summer... Or should I say cat days? ;)

XO Meg

Cat & House Preview: Jasper P. Kittens

I know I posted a sneak preview from "Cat & House", and here's another one! The second of my two main characters, a grumpy old man of a cat, Jasper P. Kittens (but don't ask what the 'P' stands for... you might not want to know!). I had an ultimate data malfunction that ended up working to my benefit, but here's a few progress shots. He's not 100% done and I'll be sure to upload the final product! Enjoy!

I'll be sure to post when he's all finished so you guys can see where he ended up!

XO Meg

"Cat & House" sneak preview

Here's a little sneak preview of a big project I'm working on! Photoshop painting for the first time in eons, but really enjoying myself. I've been so focused on my gouache painting thus far that it's fun to branch out again. Miles from being done, but I'll be finishing it up in Corel 11. I'll be sure to post the final product. In the meantime, you can look forward to some more concept sketches and small illo's. It's been a busy summer!

From Yesterday:

From Today:

I haven't decided yet how I feel about linework versus no linework, and I think I'm going to try and incorporate some sense of linework back into the piece. I'm enjoying trying to figure out what feels right!

Wow, it's so awkward to roll up on your blogspot after abandoning it for like forever. I'm basically going to be re-establishing this as a place to showcase works. Everything that once was on here however will be deleted at some point.

I'll upload works as I go about them. Unfortunately I had a data issue this past spring and my hard drive was compromised, and with it all of the digital archives (and a great amount of my body of work) of my artwork and all of the photography I've done thus far in my life. I learned a great and horrible lesson about proper file storage and respect of external hard drives! But unfortunately I am starting from scratch, which is both terrifying and completely liberating.

Thanks for hanging in there, ya'll! I'll be sure to attempt to keep this somewhat up to date.

Andy 2.0

This is the final vectorized version of Andy McMahon done in Adobe Illustrator CS5. Interestingly enough, I like some aspects of this one better and some aspects of the other one better...but overall I'm very pleased with this project in both formats.