Mixed Fables The Art of Christian Ward

Lonely Hearts - Solo Exhibtion

2007-01-04T02:25:00.000-08:00

Finally got a date sorted for the private view it's going to open in two weeks today at THE FLEA PIT49 Columbia Road, Shoreditch. London

Should be good, it's a great venue and first solo show for five years.

The paint is drying as we speak.
more details can be found here
http://www.myspace.com/tom_and_bob
come and say hi

Chris

Batman, Buffy, Mark Grimm and Desolation Jones

2006-10-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Something different

2006-10-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Fence

2006-10-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Heres a few things i did for Fence...what? you don't know what fence is...well go here...go here fast...www.fencerecords.com

Kontroll

2006-09-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Fanatstic film! if you've not seen it...well you must.

Meeting Neil Gaiman

2006-09-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Was lucky enough to meet Neil Gaiman tonite which is always a pleasure. Presented him with a painting, which he seemed to like very much. So all in all a good night.

myspace

2006-09-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

anyone with a myspace account you can now see more work at www.myspace.com/mixedfables

new work pt 2 - hellboy

2006-08-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

In honour of having a wonderful meeting with Guillermo del Toro today...he was doing a signing at a screening of his new film Pan's labrynth...(go see it! it's superb)..heres some hellboy inspired stuff i did to show him. I think he like them...well just look at that smile!

new work....pt1...a few favourite films..

2006-08-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

First post in a while..and it's a whamy! First up ...thought i'd try something new (using photo ref...gasp)...so we've got oldboy, steve zissou, donnie and little old lady V.

another cover

2006-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

like the title says....

Covers for flax

2006-07-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hi working as the cover artist for flax comics www.flaxcomics.com ...heres the first 2.

3 pages of hunch

2006-07-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

here it is....3 pages of Hunch written by Chris Lynch. It'll be hitting the shops in september.

New comic page

2006-06-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

heres my contribution to a up comming comic project called Normal. Same one page script, done by 25 different artist...one of which is me.

They're coming to get you Barbara....

2006-06-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

First panel of my zombie comic for MWM.....uuurrrgh

In between zombies

2006-05-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have zombies coming out my ears right now...had a little break with this...trying to push myself...hope you like.

One door closes....

2006-05-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

so it turns out...i've been dropped from the colouring project....but i've got my first proper comic gig with the guys over at monkey with machine guns... www.monkeyswithmachineguns.com

the other good news is....it's got zombies in it!

Something really new from me colouring

2006-05-14T22:00:00.001-07:00

Well, this is a real first for me. Got contacted by a few guys with a really nice comic up their sleeves wondering if i'd do the colours.
never coloured anyone elses work before so it was a bit of an unknown country. any way heres the original comic page by Eric then attempt number 1 and then the style we're going for attempt number 2 which is the top image.
anyway would be really interested in what people think.

first post for a while and first comic page...

2006-05-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

First post for a long time...things have been really heavy at work so I've simply not had the chance to work on anything. Anyway..heres the first page of a 6 page submission for 2000 ad...might not be finished yet...but it'll do for tonite.

any crits or comments welcome...and possibly needed as this is my first comic for 15 years!!!!

When things get bad...draw Batman (kind of)

2006-04-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've had a bad couple of days now. Been working on my sequentials and can't get the damn things right at all. Was frustarted so scrapped it for today and did this instead..I'm experimenting with how to process my line...thought it look quite cool in the white. Anyway heres batman (kind of)...

Last one from me today...

2006-04-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Been a good work day today...and now it's time for me to retire for the night..but before I go...one last illustration. This is a piece I've done for the JInxworld forum....hope you all like....heres Deena.

Just imagine

2006-04-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

..it wasn't a wolf little red riding hood met on the way to grand ma's. Originally planned to work this up far more...I was picturing it really dark with the hyenas eyes glowing in the musk...but this kind of felt right...but if anyone disagrees...let me know.

SPACEMAN

2006-04-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

erm....like the title says.

Gumball Ghost

2006-04-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get titles and i'm not sure if they should be a story or an image...this one I think may be both but for now it's just this.

Something Hard

2006-04-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

Been working all morning on this and can't work out if it's been worth it.
I've included the original drawing. One thing I find really hard to judge is style...I can see in other peoples work but to me my stuff always looks so middle of the road. This is quite a finished piece from me..I don't normally working so polished, but I'm trying to show as much scope as I can.

A break from the art for another story.

2006-04-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

The Yawn

The yawn was passed down the carriage like a parcel.
I watched it being passed from one commuter to the next.
A thin man with high cheek bones and drooping eyes yawned like a dog, rolling his tongue with the strain.
A boy standing with friends revealed his far too chewed gum which quivered on the brink of his girlish lips threatening to drop.
A girl got it out the way quick. Hoping no one was watching.
A prim woman reading a week old newspaper she'd found on the seat looked more drained after it than before as if some life had escaped through her yawning mouth.
A portly man attempted to conceal it, contorting his face to hold it back. Water appearing in the corner of his eyes.
A young black man listening to music like tinnitus, coolly rolled the yawn out the side of his mouth not looking up from his dog eared copy of the Hagakure.
A business man did it simply.
Finally the girl with the big blue green eyes who’d got on a stop after mine and had smiled at me made the yawn divine and effortlessness, moving her slender hand up to her mouth as she did so.
And me.
I didn’t need to yawn, but did so any way. I smiled, trying to say aren’t yawns funny with my expression but she simply carried on reading her magazine.And the yawn carried on its way into the world.

Psychedelic real

2006-04-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

Another painting given a digital splash. I've included the original painting to give you a sense of comparision.

The Tick Tock Prince

2006-04-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

The Tick Tock Prince

Once upon a time there was a place, which some say still exists now, which lay between the districts of the Iron Men to the north and the tribe of the Bazuki people to the south. It was here, where herds of great grey beast with snakes for noses shared the grass and the cud with tiger stripped horse, and birds, the colour of the sun, darted and played, that there stood a ladder. And half way up the ladder, halfway between the stars above and the earth below, there was a house. Here there lived a soul who belong to no one. He was not one of the iron men and nor was he one of the Bazuki people. A Prince of lost and found, neither this nor that. Where there should have been flesh, skin and hair there instead was a mass of threads, cords and cloth and instead of bones there was only turning clogs and wheels and levers. The tick tock prince felt so lost and alone, for there was no one like him.

The clock work Prince would sit lonely in his house with only the stars above him for company. He would sit on the roof and talk with them. He would enquire of their day and of their night. He talked about the wind and how wonderful it would be to dance in the snow. He chatted about the animals, having his own names for each and everyone of the creatures. Sometimes he would tell the stars about his dreams and sometimes, but just sometimes he would talk about how lonely he felt.

The Prince was good with his hands and so would often try to make himself a friend using a clog or wheel or bolt or screw from his own makeshift body, but try as he might he could only make clocks. Soon his house became filled with the things echoing his own sad tick-tocking.

The Prince did not believe that the stars heard the night he asked for help. But indeed they had. For It was said that this makeshift man’s heart was not of flesh, muscle and tissue or even machinery but a star itself - Burning bright within the dark clockworks. Above the stars really did shine for him and watched with wonder as he worked on his clocks, knowing though that each passing day his heart dimmed more with each passing sad day. But they knew his gift was true. The stars spread to the corner’s of the world as it was and sent down a messenger to each of the lands, or found some wanderer touching the sky upon a snow capped mountain and sang gentle of their wonder friend’s talent.

It was upon the fifth day of the moon, halfway between the season of the rain and that of the sun, when the horned deer began it’s journey south, that a gathering of people came to the Prince’s land. First one by one and then two by two, until there was one visitor for every star above them. None of the visitors he could see were like him and try as he might he could not fathom why they had come here. Surely, he thought, it was not because of him and so still he hid.

Even from his house he could see their amazing diversity- each was of different shape or size and few shared the same colour skin. A rainbow teemed beneath him. A brightly coloured bird man step from within the cloud to the foot of the ladder.

“Your Majesty. My Prince,” The Birdman called. His voice rose with such ease and tenderness the Prince felt he was beside the feathered man, the words were whispers in his ear, “We have come such a way. Travelled across land and sea to be here, please bless us your council.”
The Prince made no reply at first and was afraid, but the Bird man would not give up and told the Prince how the Stars had sung of him and his gift and after a time Prince agreed to be among them.

There was discussion within the group and from it rose a huge metal man. He rose steadily and was soon as high as the star touched house. He reached up to the Prince with huge hands ;‘Step’ he seemed to say. Step. (He gently lowered the Prince like an injured bird to the ground below.)

“Your Majesty.” said the birdman to the Prince. His voice was even sweeter in close contact and the Prince felt calmed by it. “ I bring you a gift Sire.” Said the Birdman presenting the prince with five of the most amazing coloured feathers he had ever seen. Red, green, violet, yellow and a colour the Prince had never seen before and even seem to change each time he looked upon it. (It was then that the Prince realised that the feathers had been pulled from the man’s own body.)
“Sir. I can not.” He said.
“This feathers will never be again Sire, just as you will not, there are as a unique and as special as you my Prince. They are all I have worthy of giving.”
This made the Prince sad for he had nothing to give, no thing of beauty to equal that of the Birdman's feathers.
(Gently the bird man put his hand beneath the Princes chin and lifted it.)
“My siree. With your tick tocks I could know when the sun will set and the moon will rise. I know nothing more special than knowing the way of the world.” he said
With that the Prince took apart of himself and made a clock which he gave to the birdman.

The Prince began to move through the crowd and meet those that had come to meet him. Some who he came too bowed down, where as others parted before him. Others planted kisses on his cold cloth skin (but oh how they warmed him). He came a man part made of the clouds themselves who brought with him a bird made of sunshine whose song touched all that heard it, spreading smiles as it went. There was a bear man giving rides to children on his back. Then there was the gent whose stripped cousins grazed in the very plain where they all now stood and his stories of old which thrilled and enchanted those that sat around him. A woman as much shadow as she was flesh darted in front of the Prince, an orbit of glowing balls being juggled by her arms. The prince caught his breath in excitement and the girl smiled coyly back at him. The smile thrilled him even more, though he kept it hidden. There were many other sights to be seen; a part fairy girl putting on a show of fire flies, an ice boy cooling those who were hot, a fire girl warming those who were cold and so on and so forth and they were all there for him.

For each visitor he took a part of himself, and, with it made a clock or a watch or a tick tock thing and It was said that they were indeed the most wonderful clocks ever seen. As they Prince moved through the crowd he offered himself and became less and less with the more he gave but with each gift given he felt his heart begin to burn brighter and brighter like the star it was. Then as the last of the visitors came to him and with so much fulfilment the Tick-tock Prince gave the last of himself and his heart was free.

And so it came to pass that on the fifth day of the moon, when the horned deer began their journey south, between the lands of the iron Men and the tribe of the Bazuki there was a meeting so wonderful that it’s story would be told for generations to come. People would talk of the noble Tick Tock Prince, hardly believing that the clocks they hold in their hands were once part of the Prince. The Tick Tock Prince who undid himself and gave himself with such joy that his heart flew from where his body had been up the dark ladder, not stopping at the halfway house, but instead went where it had not gone before. Pass the house and into the sky. Together with the rest of the stars.

Where it truly belonged.

Broaden the strokes.

2006-04-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Just finished these...basically playing around with some paintings in photoshop. I've always like the contast you can between high stark graphics and a vague rough realism. Hopefully it takes the paintings into a more interesting place and can help to extend their use.

Another spec of paint.

2006-04-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

I really need to paint again.

Comics Baby yeah! (coming full circle)

2006-04-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

It has to be said....I love comics!

It's strange like many young artists it was all i used to draw between the age of 8 and 18. I was convinced comics were where I wanted to make my living, but a sequention of well meaning art teachers and tutors all slowly moved me away towards more serious illustration and now, now that I'm one of those well meaning teachers all I want to do is illustrate comics.

Working on a number of sequentials at the moment..something for Fleetway and something for Marvel so who knows...anyway I feel like I'm finding my feet again after being away for so long. Heres just a taster of my stuff might look like...

My first story....not written....just posted.

2006-04-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Ten Spells of Clarence White

On Clarence White’s fourteenth birthday he turned the acorn into an oak tree. It was the first time he had performed a spell and it would be twelve days later when he used his last.

Spell Two: Clarence brings a dead sparrow back to life. Cats begin to regard him suspiciously.

Spell Three: Clarence entertains the crowds outside his home with dancing men made from leaves. Clarence enjoys the attention.

Spell Four: Clarence flies. At first only a few inches but then three feet. He holds it for 2 minutes. This is enough time to break a sweat and gain the attention of the world press.

Five: Clarence tries to make friends: it doesn't work.

Six: Alone and lonely, late at night Clarence gives life to his own shadow.

Seven: Clarence is on TV and makes it snow. He is cheered and patted on the back. And told he is amazing.

Spell seven: After some preparation and effort Clarence travels one month into the future he is surprised not to find himself there.

Eight: On camera he makes a crow talk. Off camera the crow tells him to stop the magic. “This isn’t good Clarence.” the bird says. Clarence thinks this over and decides to continue with the magic.

Nine: His eyes hurt. They are now made of gold. The cheers sound strange now.

Spell Ten: Live on TV Clarence White aged 14 Disappears.

He is never seen again.

Attack of the back catalogue pt 2

2006-04-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here be some more of me stuff. Working on a portfolio (of which these feature in) trying to get a balance between style and substance.

Attack of the back catalogue pt1

2006-04-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Hope your all enjoying your Sunday. I’m going to try to post work on here as often as I can and at some point I’ll be posting in real time, posting up new stuff as soon as I’ve finished. You may even seen some work in progress. As for now in an attempt to make the blog look far more interesting than it is I’m going to be posting some of my older illustrations (although when I say older I’m actually meaning older than a week.).

I’m off work for two weeks now so that’ll be some good working time, so with a little luck I’ll post a lot more here…also trying to work out the best way to post some of my fiction without making the site look to wordy (anyone with any ideas let me know.) Anyway enough yaking…here’s the stuff….hope you like…

Non Pixel Pigment Paintings.

2006-04-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

Just to balance digital Tyler...heres some examples of me moving actual pigment around rather than just pixel pigment.

Getting the ball rolling with Tyler.

2006-04-01T02:21:00.000-08:00

Just to get the the ball rolling...heres a book cover i did for a little known book call Fight Club. You might not of heard of it. Apparently theres a film...never seen it. (ahem)

anyway...first ones out of the way.

Calling it Hello

2006-04-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

Hi

Welcome to my blog. Place is pretty bare at the moment but I wanted to set up a place I could easily share and discuss projects. So I have and this is it. Here you'll be able to find examples of my paintings, illustrations, drawings, and sequential work along with my short stories and numerous first chapters.

You'll also be able to contacted me and tell me what you think...and please do.

Chris