menton3

Reflect 2011

2012-01-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

The above image is 10x14 oil on cardstock.

To try and sit back and reflect on this year is overwhelming to say the lest. There are just so many things that have happened in 2011 this it is impossible to go though all them. I would say it has been an amazing year on so many fronts, but the last few weeks of it have been less then great and that is coloring my feeling about the whole year, which is so unfair in so many ways. I am not going to go into what has happened over the last few weeks as I truly hate it when I see people complaining on any social media about their lives. Lets just say that the last few weeks of 2011 were very difficult to deal with a from more then one angle.

Highlights :
Watching my Son grow a year older, learn to talk, and the first time your child tells you he loves you is a moment unlike any other. Also I might add watching him dance is the stuff of legends.

Seeing my wife continue to grow as a mother … there are no words. In 3 years I have never heard her complain about anything regarding motherhood in anyway, we are talking about a women that gets no more then five hours of sleep a night ( on a good night ) for the last 3 years and looks at that as a reward for the time she has with our son. Seeing the way she loves our son blows away all other notions of love I have ever known, never heard of or seen a better mother in any and every way.

My trip this year to San Diego Comic Con was amazing, had such a great time with Kasra doing what we do. Kasra is one of the most outstanding people I have ever known, and I am truly grateful in everyday for our friendship. Although I do pity him at times for having to deal with me.

Getting the chance to put out another Saltillo record has been a great thing, can not wait to hear what people think of it. It is a really different record then Ganglion, so I have no idea what everyone will think, but I am very proud of it. I had forgotten how much I loved recording music. I will add I am working on the next one now as well...

Things have been great with artwork, being able to put out MONOCYTE has been nothing but amazing, and the reaction from everyone has been amazing. Getting into Spectrum 18 was a truly great feeling. Had the privilege of doing some personal artwork as commissions is one of the best feelings in the world, and had quite a few of those this year, not to mention all the other work like all the covers, TMNT, GI JOE, The Thing, all the HP Lovecraft books, Mark Twain, Dungeons and Dragons , Proof, The Hellbound Train, Crawl to me, The Dunwich Horror and so many others. I could not be more grateful for all of it.

I could just go on and on about this year and what great things have happened, but I just wanted to write a few of them down as a record. Thanks for reading my nonsense. But Thank you all who have supported me in my artwork and music, it means more to me then I could ever articulate.

m3

speed painting Nov 20th 2011

2011-11-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

just another acrylic speed painting, I am pretty sure at this point I hate acrylics. Waiting for the layers to dry is mind numbing and it takes me twice as long to get something I want then it does in oils. I will keep trying but , the whole time I am painting with acrylic's I am thinking to myself ' why am I not doing this in oils ? '

Pearl

2011-11-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

Pearl : Oil on Linen 18x36

a commissioned portrait
model : RazorCandi http://razorcandi.deviantart.com/

speed painting Nov 18th 2011

2011-11-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

just a 11x17 acrylic speed painting, kinda in the area of a new idea I have.

2011-11-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

So now with MONOCYTE #2 done, I have a bit more time between other work to do speed paintings in the morning again. This is my starting point ( sketch ) for working on the elite guard of the Antedeluvian called the Seraphim.

Olignostic o bucket

2011-10-11T06:47:00.001-07:00

A panel from MONOCYTE book 2, one is just pen and ink, and the other is oil ( 11x17 ) , not sure which one I like better….

Working on/to Death.

2011-10-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Believe or not I get asked about my process , so I thought I would post some images of me working from time to time.

This is me working on the first two pages of MONOCYTE book 2, it is oil on panel 20x16.

2011-10-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I swear I am going to start using this blog more…

so here is a oil speed painting I did this morning.

12x16 oil on linen

This year is looking ....

2011-04-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

So much going on the last few weeks it is hard to Summarize it all.

Got into Spectrum 18 ! We don't know how many images got in, or anything like that yet, but we submitted and we are on the list.

http://spectrumfantasticart.com/

I am floored ! Cant believe I actually got in. Must have been a low number of entries this year or something, but whatever the reason. Thank you so much ! For those of you that do not know what Spectrum is, Spectrum is an annual art book, kinda the best and brightest ( kinda strange that they are putting me in there ) of the art-world with Comics, fantasy art etc.

Here is book 16 on amazon, to give you an idea. Spectrum

Looks like I have two more books I will be doing with IDW aside from my creator own ( more on that later ) , and WHOA I wish I could say more on this, both books sounds amazing and I can not wait to tell everyone about them. One of them is with a very very very special writer ! Also working on a new cover today for one of IDW's best selling books, but again I cant say anything more, but keep your eye out for it.

Moving into a new studio !!! Yes ! This storefront building I have been in since last July I think has run it's course , and my new studio will be with in a quick walk from our house... NO MORE TRAIN TO THE STUDIO !!!! Just get up and take a short walk and boom I am working. Also will be able to go home to see the boy and wife for lunch a lot more which is something I am extremely excited about. Trust me I will inundate the webs with pics of the new place.

And ( as most of you know ) I have been given the green light to be able to publish a creator owned book with IDW, which should be out OCT this year, co-written by one of the best people I know Kasra Ghanbari. I am walking on the moon with this, everyone at IDW has been amazing with this so far, can not wait to release more info on this, I am in love with the story we have made and cant not wait to start working on the pages. We are currently working on a website which will be how we announce everything. We have some amazing news about some of my heros in comics doing variant covers as well as some internal story pages, writers and artist this list will amaze you trust me, it does every-time I think about it..

Here is a teaser , a conceptual sketch from the book for one of the characters.

C2E2 ... just wow....

2011-03-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

So I am sitting here looking at a blank page, trying to figure out how to summarize this weekend at C2E2. It would be impossible to articulate the amazing gratitude I feel toward so many people I met and spoke with this week. It was the first time I truly felt like a comic artist. It was an amazing weekend.

Would like thank everyone that came to my booth this weekend showing so much amazing support to what me and my friends are doing.

The weekend start off on friday morning before I had my booth even set up, getting to meet the guy I have working for, for the last two years Ted Adams of IDW. I honestly could sit here and write a book about how great it was to meet him and talk with him, everything you hear about him being a nice guy are all under-exaggerated, he is unbelievably nice !

Then there are the whole entire Comics Pipeline family, and again I could write a book about this as well Marcus, Kris, Tony, Talent, Dirk , Jay, Tyler, little pete, Janna, Seth the list go's on and on, just outstanding talented people from every angle. No one had any big ego's, it was all amazing fun.

But then there is Ben.... yeah that Templesmith guy and the amazing Molly Mclsaac... what can I say here. Just outstanding people. It strange to meet someone that you have really loved their artwork so much for so long, and to top it all off they are such an incredible person. I think we all had dinner 3 times this weekend ? Or something like that ? The best was Sat night where it was me , my amazing wife , Molly, Ben , Karsa and Kelly went to Chalkboard ( thank you Gill ) and had a fantastic time, just basically talking art the whole time, oil paint, watercolor, line art, and .... well projects... ( more on that later ) And whoa that Molly ! That girl can talk to to death with amazing authority on history , photography , painting, writing etc etc not that that is surprising , it was just great to be around. Again I could write a book on this. What an amazing time !

I also had the pleasure of speaking with Scott Allie this weekend when he walked over to my booth, another remarkably nice guy. Was Great fun talking with him. Had a GREAT talk with Ben McCool who has written some AMAZING books, another amazing person. Got an interview with MTV geek , which there is a story there... not sure if I can tell it.... Just an over all overwhelming weekend. Best Con yet.

I am living my childhood dream.

2011-03-13T11:51:00.001-07:00

agnosco1
18x24 oil on Linen.

This is a commissioned portrait I did using Jessie-Lynne as the model. The client had some pretty great but specific ideas about the painting, I really hope this meets them. Again, sorry for the bad photo will post a better scan when the paint dries.

Also with this painting I am using a medium called " Venetian Medium" from Natural Pigments, it is based off of research that 16th century Venetian painters added leaded powered glass to their paint, and I have to say I really love working with it. The pain of using it, is that you have to wear gloves the whole time as if it gets on your skin you have ground glass and lead to deal with. But when it dries is looks amazing from the light refraction, well worth the trouble. Only real problem that I have with it so far is that it dies and gets tacky a little too fast.

http://naturalpigments.com
http://www.jessie-lynne.com/

something close to virtue

2011-03-11T09:32:00.001-08:00

Something I painted day before yesterday , the photo of it is kinda crap. Was trying something very different ... still not sure what to make of it. Trying to explore a bit more.

Will post a better image of it when it dies, which should be in a few years with all the paint on that canvas.

"something close to virtue"
30x40 oil on linen

Wishing I could post/say more...

2011-03-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

So I have been painting and drawing like crazy lately but most of what I have been working on is a bit top secret so I have not been able to post any of the images from the projects, hopefully soon.

Here is a bad image taken with my phone of a 11x14 oil on canvas I just did a day or two ago, this image is a small part of the ideas behind my creator own book being published by IDW this year. I will post a better image of it on comics pipeline when the oil paint dries.

Many things I wish I could talk about here... just not time yet.

silent hill past life trade cover

2011-02-21T14:57:00.000-08:00

original painting is oil on 16x20 linen canvas.

Looks like this might be the cover for the trade paper back for Silent Hill : Past Life.
I had a lot of ideas about what I wanted to do with the cover for the trade, I kinda want to do a montage of a lot of the characters from the story, but every mock up I came up with seem to take away from the story line it self, they all seemed thin somehow, it just did not seem to mix or manifest the story well. So I kinda torn it all down and started over, this is what I ended up with.
The story is really about Jeb, and he never really got his due on a cover, so I set Jeb in front of a "Memento Mori", and to me it simplified and showed the story , it just locked in for me.

wiki : Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember you must die". It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality and the punishment they will receive if they transgress the rules of their religion.
The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to antiquity.

2011-02-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

So here is a better image of the batman commission, all scanned and stuff.
2-x24 oil on panel.

Been working on the new pages for the silent hill trade paper back all day, got the new cover scanned and edited, going to do a bit more scanning and then it is back to working on the silent hill pages, till I can not stay awake anymore. ( I love my life )

m3

the batman...

2011-02-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

batman commission in process , 20x24 oil on wood panel.

2011-02-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Again I have not really been using this thing, and I think I will start up again, I have mainly been using my profile on DeviantArt, and I have a new thing going on over at comics pipeline, which should go live today. Will be post lots of exclusive sketches and pictures of paintings in process etc.
But I really miss my blog here... really want to start remembering to post things here again.... lets see if it sticks.

http://www.comicspipeline.com

Below is a comission I have been working on, it is long from done, but I like where it is going anyway.Vascular #2, oil on panel, 24x48.

m3

My new book has leaked ... Silent Hill : Past Life ( IDW )

2010-07-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

SILENT HILL: PAST LIFE #1 ( IDW )
Written by Tom Waltz, art and cover by Menton J. Matthews III.

IDW returns to Konami's horror masterpiece. Jebediah "Hellrider" Foster is a violent outlaw in the Dakota Territory in 1867. When he falls for a godly widow who longs to move from the Wild West to a family home in Silent Hill, Foster follows--but peace is not what awaits. By Tom Waltz (writer of Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward and the Silent Hill video game to be released in 2011), with artwork by Menton J. Matthews III (Zombies Vs. Robots Aventure). Featuring a character from the new videogame!

32 pages, $3.99, in stores on Oct. 27.

to see an image of the full painting ( 18x24 oil on panel )
http://menton3.deviantart.com/#/d2uyj6o

2010-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Just got this in the mail, hmmmm....

Hello again, news coming soon...

2010-05-27T22:09:00.001-07:00

Haven't really been using this thing much the last bit, going to try and get back to post here more. Lately life has just been insane amazing , too much to say in one blog post but I should have some news on two and a half projects I am working on with IDW very soon.

Below , been trying to get my pen and ink skills to where I am happy using them. I am far from where I want to be with them but here is one of the images i have been messing around with as of late. 11x17 pens , watercolor and ink washes.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Prints now at Luna7

2009-11-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Have not had a lot of time to update this blog as of late, but I have been updating my Deviant-Art account, you can find that here :

http://menton3.deviantart.com/

Lots of new painting and panels there.

Also stop by and see the new Luna7 website, they have three prints of mine for sale.

http://www.luna7.com/Menton/mentonmatthewsii.html

Money

2009-10-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last night an extremely good and old friend past away. I must add at this point it was from old age, he was over 13 years old. Me and my wife got him when we first met and where living in Florida, this seems like a lifetime ago, but I vividly remember walking up to the chain link fence he was in and watching up jump up to me and Sarah, we were sold. We had him named before we even pick him up, " Money " , well because he was so Money and didn't even know it.

In anything written about him, one must speak of his ravishing love for my wife's Lasagna and anything and everything having to do with hotdogs. More then anything my old friend love to eat, and eat well he did, you could even see a change in his behavior around Thanksgiving and Christmas , buttering up to the butterball if you will. I should also speak of his love of snow and belly rubs.

He died in the arms of a true friend telling him that he was loved, and he went very quickly.

I will miss you my friend, see you the next round.

Zombies vs Robots Adventures #1

2009-09-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

pages from : Zombies vs Robots Adventures #1

written by : Chris Ryall
artwork : menton3

coming from IDW Publishing... soon...

2009-08-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

a little preview of my upcoming project with Chris Ryall !!! .... ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS !!!
More details and images to follow....

Another digital test

2009-08-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

it is not like mashing oil around on a panel, but it is fast...

Right before dead brains all over your face.

2009-07-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

On the small easel today.
from another secret project shhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!
Just a test painting , to learn me thAngs.

Ars Memoria : Book One, now in print !

2009-06-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

Delivered to my house today, my first book. Was a GREAT day !
Mail ordering information soon to come.

Crazy Times

2009-06-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have not been updating this thing because all the work I am doing is secret ... shhhhhhh.. but trust me I am working and painting more then ever.

I should be getting the printed Ars Memoria books this week, there was a delay at the printers. My first comic... I can not wait to see it.

On the small easel today "PROOF !"

2009-05-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

A pin up for "Proof "
Oil on panel 11x17

Proof is an American comic book series, published by Image Comics and created by writer Alex Grecian and artist Riley Rossmo. The story concerns John "Proof" Prufrock, a sasquatch, who works for a secret government organization. He hunts cryptids with his partner, Ginger Brown, and seeks clues to his past.

Alex had asked me to do a pin-up for issue #25. I wanted to do a classic portrait painting of him, you know Olen Mills/rich guy portrait, but give it an unfinished look, almost like the guy painting it for John Prufrock, got freaked out and just left before the portrait was complete.

On the NEW small easel today

2009-05-15T12:31:00.001-07:00

A cover I am working on for Robert Richardson's "MemNoir"

Oil and Tempera on wood panel , 11" by 17"

2009-04-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

On the easel today.

both Oil on panel.

It is great to get back to painting after weeks of editing in photoshop, missed it so much. Don't get me wrong working up the pages for print is a great deal of fun, but nothing comes close to oils and brushes.

How would it roll ?

2009-04-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Oil on canvas board.

Gardinus Hospital

2009-04-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

Pencil & Digital.

withered

2009-03-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

On the easel today.
Oil on Panel.

From the "Uncles" collections.

2009-03-29T14:40:00.001-07:00

Pencil & Digital.

You just got knock the F#%* OUT !!!

2009-03-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

oil on panel

--Post From My iPhone

but ... you started it !

2009-03-24T19:27:00.001-07:00

Oil on panel.

-- Post From My iPhone

Smartass

2009-03-20T16:31:00.001-07:00

Oil on panel.

-- Post From My iPhone

the act of imagining

2009-03-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

" The imaginatio, or the act of imagining, was thus a physical activity that could be fitted into the cycle of material changes, that brought these about and was brought about them in turn. In this way the alchemist related himself not only to the unconscious but directly to the very substance which he hoped to transform through the power of the imagination. The singular expression " astrum" ( star ) is a Paracelsan term, which in this context means something like " quintessence ". Imagination is therefore a concentrated extract of the like forces, both physical and psychic. "

C.G. Jung
Psychology and Alchemy
page 278

2009-03-18T17:55:00.001-07:00

Oil on panel.

-- Post From My iPhone

Get your ....

2009-03-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Oil on panel.

on the easel today

projection then reinterpretation

2009-03-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

” The Wheel of nature turns in upon itself from without : for God dwells within himself and has such a figure, not that it can be painted, in being only a natural likeness, the same as when God paints himself in the figure of this world ; the outer wheel is the zodiac with the stars, and after it come the seven planets,”

Vom dem dreyfachen Leben, ch. IX

It has occurred to me with my studies and conversations with like minded individuals, that painting is a process of externalizing subsets of information not only for ourselves to “view” , but to also take in information as to the reaction of “others” and the “outside world” to the information we have presented. No one can argue that symbols existed, and can be full of meaning. As some of my other post’s allege, various symbol sets are collective, meaning we share many of the same icons and symbol sets. This process of projection then reinterpretation based on “other” or the “outside world” projections, has to be away of interpreting location with in the internal architecture, and adding to or taking away from, the validity on the information presented.
This is a similar process to how we come about any information. I am able to remember being young and trying to understand how one makes friends, eat, sleep, attracts others , date etc etc. And if you take any of this kind of information and one is honest, there were many failures prior to success. The basic idea is projecting an idea outward and seeing how it worked, if one was unsuccessful the information would then be re-internalized , knocked around a bit then with new information attached re-project it outwards in another attempt. This kind of process would continue till there was some success or we choice to see ourselves as failures, and just simply quit.
This this idea in mind one would be able to go back and see where an artist was, based in their externalization of the given projection. All one would need is an education of collective symbol sets. Adding to this idea , it is my opinion there have been various “artists” that were conscious of this function. So in this regard where able turn the tables. After all one is forced to place lines, even where there are none, or they are only “seemingly” there.
Please understand, that this idea I have, ( if I am right ) is much more then just subliminal projection and interpretation. And after all, ” sometimes I cigar, is just a cigar.”

athanor

2009-03-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

athanor : 24 by 30 oil on linen.

This is a painting a did a few weeks back as a mock up for a the cover of my first book, but I now have a new one which I like a great deal more. Thought I would at lest post an image of this one somewhere, so it have some-kind of life.

no matter how absurd

2009-03-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Psychology and Alchemy , by C.G. Jung . page 475 par 555.

” What the old philosophers meant by the Lapis has never become quite clear. This question can be answered satisfactorily only when we know exactly what the unconscious content was that they were projecting. The psychology of the unconscious alone is in a position to solve this riddle. It teaches us that so long as a content remains in the projected state it is inaccessible, which is the reason why the labours of those authors have revealed so little to us of the alchemical secret. But the yield in the symbolic material is all the greater, and this material is closely related to the process of individuation. ”
______________________________________________

When he says ” lapis ” he is referring to the ” Lapis Philosophorum “. It is important to understand that when talking about alchemical symbology , that it is just that, symbols. They were not talking about metals and materials necessarily, they were talking about the materials as symbols. This is a language to and for the self, a way of seeing the internal. This is why most of us respond in the way we do to certain icons and symbol sets.
That being said, lets us also say that you and me are individual , but we both own the same symbols and icons with the collective unconscious. There may be infinite variations , but they are all based of certain central types, and these occur universally. In this particular post I am not proposing that we are all connected , I am summarizing a way in which I see how art can and does work. That when one delves into the depths of ones self to then bring out images, it is not surprising that when we do this in a honest way that some people respond strongly to the images. And this then it would be possible to cause change to occur with the observer….
Would the real Hieronymus Bosch please stand up ?

Now with that said , let me also relay another part of Jung’s book, that is equally important to consider.

Psychology and Alchemy , by C.G. Jung . page 99

” People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic text from the literature of the whole world–all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come. Therefore let us fetch it from the four corners of the earth– the more far-fetched and bizarre it is the better ! ”
______________________________________________

This is not to say that the study of such things are fruitless, it is to say, that remember that in the end, it is you that is the focus of the study.

Double page

2009-03-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today

-- Post From My iPhone

Panel work

2009-03-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

On the easel yesterday.
oil on wood panel,

A Fools view of Iconography

2009-03-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

I have only just begun to brake the surface of the study of classical iconography in relation to medieval and contemporary art. A subject base that is extremely large and fairy expensive to study.
But one thing has occurred to me thus far. That by braking the ‘code’ ( if you forgive the word ) of iconography or symbolica we can in fact miss the point of a statement or meaning behind a painting or artwork. To try and further explain my thoughts on this I will take a small turn of the road of education. If one sees a painting and one is able to understand that there is some short of information stored with in the symbolism , but one is unable to bring this information immediately to consciousness one is more likely to investigate the information. To say this in another way, If Bosch wanted us to immediately know what was being done within the art work, then he would have put definitions on it, which I might add that be did at times, as in the study of his ” The stone of folly ” or sometimes called ” The Extraction of the Stone of Madness “, the inscription reads, “Meester snyt die Keye ras - myne name is lubbert das” (Master, cut away the stone – my name is Lubbert Das). Lubbert Das was a comical character in Dutch literature at the time. But even past the inscription, there is much more information with in the symbolica.
On the front of the triptych ” The Garden of early Delights ” we see the world with in it’s creation , this again gives us definition as to the information with in, but does not show or tell us all. From my own experience , one watches the painting and is ‘drawn-in’, and in that way one begins to play with the information or images, in turn one starts to travel though it, one is now have a conversation with the information or images. Statements are made, questions asked and things begin to unfold. It is this relationship that is the intent behind iconography. But if one already knows all that is with-in the information behind the symbolism , one is not able to reach this form of interaction with the information.

It is our own journey within the artwork that is the point , and where the most information is.