Mardi Gras; or eat drink and be merry, for tomorow we shall all die! A perspective on the human condition, our lust for the physical, and transient thrills, and the paradox of the inevitable that faces us all, the unsaid and never talked about inevitability of death our own deaths. The piece really reflects lust for imediate gratification. The symbols in the piece such as the phone box and other details suggest calling for that quick fix or thrill which we all have to deal with eventually in the eternity of the afterlife which is also represented on the right side of the piece.

People are interested in my techniques and how I go about creating these detailed pieces. I usually do a few concept sketches before hand, hand drawn and very rought just to get a general idea, I don't scan them in, I just work with the ideas. When I start, I usually will start in Photoshop because I've developed a huge library of special texture brushes. I use the appropriate brushes to lay out a very rough shaded and line sketch, this enables me to see more in the piece I then bring it into Painter and start a new layer and refine all of the details that I origianlly wanted and then I add all the detail that my texture brushes make me see in the piece. I flip horizontally and zoom in and out quite frequently. I see a lotmore this way. In the end, I have a very detailed line and slight shading of my piece which I then color and further refine until I feel it is finished. I don't do any drugs or get high for my inspiration, the only "ritual" I have is to listen to music and drinka lot of caffiene. I mainly listen to R&B or opera.

When commIsioned, I print them out in pieces of long sheets of 48"wide Photo or premium Bond and assemble them on site, a wall or whatever I've been commisioned to do.

By
Ken David Matheson