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Copyright 2010 - B. de Corbin and Splendid Fish Studio

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What's new, Bill? Last update 4/16/2010 Michigan Witches Ball 2010 I am very excited to be a sponsor for this great event! To find out more about one of Michigan's best parties, click the link above. All sales are now being handled through my Etsy shop: www.splendidfish.etsy.com Click on the link above to see what is currently available. Don't worry, friends, it's still me behind the scenes! I've added a new section called Gods, Heroes, and a Couple of Regular Guys: Corbin's Tall Tales When I create a new piece of design work, it often happens that they come, much like a baby with a silver spoon in it's mouth, bearing a story. Unfortunately, when I sell a piece, the story is sometimes lost with it. I've decided to collect these stories into a section all their own, for your enjoyment. Enjoy them! Don't forget to click on the BLUE WORDS anywhere on this site to enter new worlds of mythic imagination.

Acrylic Work in Progress

As a general rule, I strangle people who look at my work before I'm finished with it. That's why there are all those little mounds in the woods around my house. However, since you are not actually here for me to try to fathom your reaction by the look in your eyes, and since I am sure you are considerate enough not to email me with bad advice, I thought it might be fun to show you my current painting as it progresses.

If this experiment doesn't work out, I won't repeat it, but I'm the kind of guy who takes great big risks, just for kicks. So here goes -

The painting is three feet tall by four feet wide, and is titled 3 x 3, which, obviously, has nothing to do with its size. The title comes from an incident recorded about the life and experiences of a particular Norse god. Since this incident from his life so perfectly mirrors my life, I see it as a mythic (or metaphorical) explication of my own existence.

Wife and kids wonder if I'm suicidal. The answer is a big, fat, definite "no." Bill de Corbin is a unrepentent and dreadful sinner who eats life in great big handfuls and smiles just as ecstatically at the sweet taste of sadness as he does at the beefy taste of pleasure.

Youngest daughter says "it's creepy." At first glance, I suppose it seems a tad bit morbid, but, when you understand it, it magically transforms itself into something of tragically awesome beauty. Still, I don't suppose most people would care to hang it in the dinning room next to the framed photos of Aunt Ethel at the beach.

But then, if you were like most people, you wouldn't have made it this far, would you?

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To start with, here's a page from my notebook. Go ahead and try to read it if you want to, but I'm afraid I can't even understand what I was thinking when I wrote it anymore.

The idea behind the notebook is that, if you have "a moment," you will, unless you write it down quickly, forget it - just like those dreams you know you had but forget before breakfast (writing those down will also help you to remember them, if that matters to you). That's what a lot of people do wrong. They have these ideas, see, but they don't know how to grab hold of them.

This works.

At this time, I actually had four independent but linked visions (ok, by now you're wondering if good ol' Bill is nuts or not. Well, now you know I have visions. So is the answer yes?). This painting is the second one. The first is already done. The other two are coming soon to a canvas near you.

These pictures are some of my preliminary drawings and reference pictures. I like to do rough sketches before I go to the canvas, just to work out some of the basic layout problems - figure the proportions, composition, and so on. Some artists go as far as making up full-blown color drawings before they start painting. I prefer not too. Since I am working from a vision, all I have to do is close my eyes and look at what's there.

Sketching Out the Idea

The Initial Idea

Step Up to the Canvas

I didn't think of documenting the whole process until I had already started painting, so this is the first photo I have of the painting under construction. I've already got the sunrise in, the night sky is in, the runes are roughed in, and the celestial movement to and around the moon is in. Notice that this takes the form of the number "9"
(3 x 3 = 9. Nine days).