Alchemist Studios

The Counterfet in The Graphic Canon

Michael — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:59:20 +0000

Were not just about stunning real estate photos and images for business. One of my pet projects, The Counterfet, is appearing in an anthology called The Graphic Canon, published by Seven Stories Press. I work with my long time friend and awesome painter, Eric Johnson, and the project is an adaptation of an obscure English Lit. classic called “The Faerie Queene.” This old gem is a massive piece of work to get through, and is characterized by particularly archaic spelling: “Counterfet,” as per our title is the spelling used in the text.

I have included a few pages from our upcoming appearance in the Graphic Canon (but keep in mind they are not sequential). Enjoy

The Witch's mechanical sprites work on the partially constructed False Florimell

The Devil inspects False Florimell in the Witch's workshop

The Witch and the Devil discuss False Florimell's construction

Product

Michael — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:05:48 +0000

Objects captured in great detail, and food that leaps off the page. Om nom nom nom!

“The Counterfet” first publication

Michael — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:46:02 +0000

Eric's paintings in progress

This post is about busy bees. Eric is very busy painting bees. That’s because he’s busting his back to get 9 special-edition pages of “The Counterfet” churned out by mid July for our segment in Seven Stories Press’ anthology: The Graphic Canon. The segment for this anthology will be from the beginning of the first chapter (but not the very beginning) and will depict the Witch in conversation with Archimage (the Devil) as they discuss the origins of False Flora (or False Florimell for the purists). As Eric is cranking out beautiful paintings (he informs me that he’s quite sick of painting bees, but almost done with them), I’m building version 3 of the Counterfet website. That means I get to do all kinds of fun stuff like figure out how to make my own WordPress theme. I’d love to show off more paintings, but don’t want to ruin the surprise. I don’t have a date for the anthology’s release, but I’m guessing it will be out late in 2011 / early 2012.

UBC Sust. Campus Conference

Michael — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:41:01 +0000

I packed up the hatchie with two other students from UNBC to attend the Sustainable Campuses Now conference in March at UBC. UBC has such a beautiful campus and some really great buildings. In fact, I’m back at UBC, chilling out in the C. K. Choi building as I’m writing this post! Go Beyond (the organizing group) used one of my incidental photos in a newsletter about the conference, which is pretty darn nifty.

Click here to view the photos as a Flickr set.

A Wine Party B-Day

Michael — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:18:44 +0000

Recently, it was our Wine Night host’s birthday, and we brought out the big guns, including Wild Goose and some chocolate blended wine from our expert at Ric’s Grill. As always, Eman Johnson was in fine form on the desert end. I will be adding more photos as I get a chance to process them, and you can
click here to view the pics as a Flickr set.

Beer Tasting Night!

Michael — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:50:04 +0000

My wine tasting group in Prince George strayed from the path of vino and did a beer tasting night. I’m not a big beer drinker, so while it was a fun night, it also reaffirmed my opinion Innis and Gunn is pure magic and most other beers are bleh! Also, beer bottles are fun to take pictures of, especially on our host’s rugged sexy table.

Click here to view the photos as a Flickr set.

Hittin the road

Michael — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:24:14 +0000

I travel in BC and Alberta quite a bit, and here’s a collection of some of my incidental shots around these two provinces. My common routes are Prince George to Edmonton, and Prince George to Vancouver. For people from PG, this is common imagery, but I try to find an angle or stunning weather condition to make the image worthwhile. Particularly, I like take pictures of roads; there’s something really novel about the lines of infrastructure and the texture of surrounding nature.

Click here to view my road trip shots in a Flickr set.

The Counterfet

Michael — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 09:35:37 +0000

An exciting new project: Alchemist studios is working with students at UNBC on The Counterfet (yes that is the intended spelling!). This project is a graphic adaptation of Edmund Spenser’s sixteenth century fantasy epic, The Faerie Queene. The images shown here use a blend of photography and digital painting.

Weddings

Michael — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 05:16:42 +0000

Traditional Ceremony? Couple of gals getting hitched in the forest? Kung-fu breakout session in the park? We’ve got it covered.

Cities and Buildings

Michael — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:59:18 +0000

Architectural photography is one of our specialties, with all of our work on PG Listings, which is a real estate showcase for the Prince George area.