The Pony Club Sideshow

I haven't been using this blog too much lately, but I recently curated my first group show at The Pony Club gallery in downtown pdx and I thought i'd share some of my work for it and some photos from the show. The show was called "The Pony Club Sideshow" and all the participants were asked to create a show poster or portrait for their favorite real or imagined sideshow act:

The two pieces above are both in gouache and are a continuation of my new children's book style. I'm really excited with how this style is progressing and I'm excited to make more stuff like it in the future, but I also had to sneak in another piece in my more realistic oil painting style:

This is isn't color corrected yet but you get the idea.
Check out my Instagram if you want to see the ridiculous frame I got for it. 

 Anyway the show was a huge success and so much fun. I got to meet and work with a ton of new artists while curating the show and I'm looking forward to doing more shows like it in the future. On that note, I'll leave you with a few shots from the opening:

You can see more online at The Pony Clubs Facebook page.

Pony Club'n

Wow, I hadn't realized it's been nearly two months since my last post, but I promise there are some good reasons! The big news is that I became a member of The Pony Club Gallery in downtown pdx. The Pony Club, for those not from around town, is an artist co-op gallery based out of the Everett Station Lofts, with a focus on illustrative art. I've actually been in a few of their group shows over the years (like the last one I posted about) and have been visiting the gallery religiously ever since it opened, so i was super excited when i was invited to join.

There it is, my new art home away from home!

I've never been a member of anything quite like this, and my fellow clubbers are pretty amazing artists. That makes me a little nervous to live up to expectations, but there should be some great things in the future. My first real task as a member will be curating a show for this coming July, so stay tuned for updates on that. Until then....

Updated Website

Just a quick post today to let everyone know I've finally got the "Children's" section of my site up and running! I'm still tweaking the portfolio a little, but go check it out and let me know what you think: http://johnnyacurso.com/childrens1.html

The main portfolio also got a little updating so feel free to browse around.

Valentine's Day Show at The Pony Club!

This is just another reminder that I will have a couple of paintings at The Pony Club's Valentine's/Anti-Valentine's Day show this coming First Thursday (2/5). If you read my previous post you saw the first painting, but then I decided I wanted to offer something smaller and more on the cutesy side as well, so I busted my ass and churned out this little guy:

get a room.

Various terrible punny titles were tried out ("Screw it", "Nuts for you" Etc.) but I settled on "Pipe Dreams" proving that I will make an excellent dad someday based solely on my ability to make bad dad jokes. Anyway, there will also be some prints of this little guy available at the show and later via my store if you can't make it out that night. Hope to see you there!

The Black Valentine

Hello all! Holidays are over, stress levels have returned to normal, manageable levels and I have a new piece to share! This coming First Thursday (2/5) I will be part of a Valentine/Anti-Valentine's Day group show at The Pony Club in downtown PDX. When they asked me to join in, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do a fake detective novel cover, which I've wanted to do forever. I'm a huge fan of old pulp covers, and while there isn't a huge market for that style of work, painting grizzled detectives and femme fatales all day is still my not-so-secret dream job. The first thing I had to do was come up with a title, and because of the show's theme, "The Black Valentine" seemed to fit pretty nicely.

Generally speaking, when I do stuff like this I try to change how the models look, so my characters aren't specifically attached to any real person, but Erin looked so badass in the reference photos, she is now officially the Black Valentine:

If you've seen any of my recent posts, you'll know I've been experimenting with gouache a lot lately. While the Robot piece a few posts back was technically my first complete painting (background and everything) using the new medium, this one is my first full size illustration using it. The original painting is 11"x16.5" and while gouache certainly speeds the process on those small paintings (as compared to my usual medium, oils), I found it took pretty much the same amount of time when scaled up. There are a lot of benefits to working in gouache over oils — less toxicity, quicker drying times — but there are also quite a few drawbacks. I found it more difficult to get smooth transitions, and much like acrylics (which I hate), colors tend to dry a significantly different color than when applied, making color mixing a challenge. All that being said, I'm pretty happy with how this came out and am excited for the show. I'll leave you with the FINAL final version with some extra campy text applied digitally.

MURDER!!!! (Lobo is named for our friend's dog)

The Great Gouache Experiment

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been working in gouache quite a bit lately, and so far I've liked the results. For the most part I've just been doing little spots and sketches, but the upcoming Geek the Halls event gave me a good excuse to try doing some slightly larger pieces. Here's some of the stuff I've been working on, and some of the stuff that will be for sale this weekend at the show:

A couple of mythical creatures from Japan. The Kappa on the left is a water monster meant to scare children away from lakes and the Tanuki is basically a symbol of hedonism and good times! 

This was my first "full" painting in gouache. I'm still just playing around at this point, but this was really fun to work on. 

My favorite gouache piece so far, but I'm a sucker for a girl with a ray gun. 

All of these were quick 1-3 day experiments, but I think I'm gonna like this gouache stuff. If you like these, you gotta come to Geek the Halls this weekend!!! I have prints of the larger two, and all four originals will be for sale. See you there!

Geek the Halls!

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram,  you've probably noticed a flurry of small paintings popping up and wondered what the heck I was up to. Well nosy, I've been preparing for Geek the Halls this coming Sunday (12/14) at the Double Tree Hotel near the Convention Center in PDX! Geek the Halls, for those not in the know, is a holiday craft fair/bazaar with a focus on all things geeky, nerdy and SUPER COOL!!! This will be my first time participating in the event, so I'm not sure exactly what to expect, but it should be awesome and a great opportunity to pick up some unique gifts for the geek in your life. For my part, I'll be showcasing a ton of new prints, original gouache and oil paintings, buttons and maybe even a few surprises, depending on how productive I am over the next week. To further entice you, I'll also be selling my prints at special event prices, with most $5 less than anywhere else!

A sampling of what I'll have available.

I'll post some better versions of some of my newest pieces and prints as the week goes on, so check back and hopefully I'll see you Sunday!