After the brief tour of the city we returned to his shop where he was eager to show me the concept drawing for my project and the initial painted outlines that I would watch evolve over the next week.


Blake’s studio is not a sprawling production facility but a compact highly functional space. There is a design table and two major work areas, one with a hood for solvent based paints and another area for waterborne paints. His workshop is surrounded by his various cre- ations (some still in various stages of development) as well as paintings of the artists that inspire him. A large collection of reference books surrounds the shop and are organized into various themes including classical artists, anatomy reference, various animal references, fantasy art and digital artists.


He encouraged me to use his shop to its fullest potential during my visit allowing me open access to his studio. In addition, I was given an exposure to his day to day business operations and his daily juggling act of painting, handling phone calls, meeting clients and numerous unannounced visits from friends, family and former clients that show up randomly throughout the day.


A unique device I encountered while in his studio was his mobile com- puting center. When working from high resolution digital images sent from his clients or when using the internet for reference material, he has adopted and modified a wheeled cart to hold a laptop computer and oversized monitor that he can easily move around his shop. I refer to this clever contraption as the COW or Computer On Wheels.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32