Illustration Friday Challenge - Octopus, flying the coop

I really like the idea of flying mollusks.  I draw them quite a bit. The word for Illustration Friday, is Octopus. What a word for me! So this is the drawing I did over lunch breaks and such for this week, it's coming in a little it late sadly.

Illustration Friday - Shakespeare's Chimp

So the topic this week for Illustration Friday is Skull. I don't really have a reason for this image, other then the fact that it's a skull. That's being held by a chimpanzee. I thought of it while at church. Not that I think there is some connection between being in church and an ape holding a human skull. But I do think that my subconscious has a really good idea going here and it really wanted to get it out in the open. I don't have a meaning for it yet, but I would like to hear what you think, so leave a comment!

Cancer is back at it again.

Bad news everyone,
Our little rabbit, Hazel, is once again growing tumors on her belly. This time the tumor is over 6cm long. A smaller one can be felt just below the big one. She was jumping and playing around until a few weeks ago when I think the tumors just got to big to be comfortable. The surgery this time is going to be about $650 for x-rays and removal. The vet wants to see if there are more nasty things inside her before exploring around in her chest cavity. So, this time around, I'm going to be putting up the offer of a custom painting by me, as a fundraiser to help with the surgery. I know it seems like a lot of money for a little rabbit, but I really like her, she is our only rabbit that hasn't destroyed any of my expensive electronics. And she's messy like me. And she's really cute. So if you would like to help me keep her around for awhile longer and have a chance to get a painting of whatever you want (a value of $525 mind you) go to my wife's web site here: CLICK ON ME!  It will make everyone's day better. Thank you.

A new month is ahead of us.

Good news everyone! This is the first day of April. I was going to post a picture of me with a shaved head saying I've given up art to become a monk. But then I didn't. So instead of an April fool's prank, I figured I'd continue where my last post left off. Of course now that it's a new month, I'm going to post all my daily drawings from the last month including the ones I've already posted, because I think it would be fun to see them all together. The weird thing is that I started drawing, dare I say it, cute things toward the end of the month. I started with the word "Fresh" and drew a rat monster hanging fresh laundry up to dry. I ended the month with a bunny jumping for joy. Why the transition from monster to cute, I don't really know. It's baffling. Whatever the reason, it's been really fun to challenge myself to do a drawing a day and then share it. It's been enough fun that I am going to use Rhianna Wurman's list again for April. In May, I think I'll do my own list and maybe have a prize for someone who does a drawing EVERY day. We'll see about the prize, if you like the idea or hate it leave me a note in the comments. Without further ado and yammering, here are a months worth of doodles:

 Fresh

 

Light

 

Nature

 

Transportation

 

Favorite Letter, I picked "O"

 

Treasure

 

In the Woods

 

Someone who inspires you

 

Sign

 

Time

  

Hop

 

What I am listening too

 

Toy

 

Brave

 

Sweet

 

Door

 

Green

 

Kitchen

 

Calm (you need calm when working with Bloggers new way of layout, grrr)

 

Outdoors

 

A Friend

 

Dream

 

Vintage

 

Open

 

Building

 

Stars

 

Present (even Thor had awkward years...)

 

Heart

 

Couple

 

Start

 

Joy

Jeffery Catherine Jones update

I don't know if anyone remembers my painting, "Reaching for the Starman". I painted it and donated it to be part of an art book to help raise funds to get Better Things: the life and choices of Jeffery Catherine Jones, the documentary of his life into production and distributed. I found out very recently that my painting made the cut and will be part of the book! I'm very honored to be among so many fantastic artists helping out with the important movie. Last May I saw a screening of the near completed movie and it was amazing. I still think about it. The impact Jeff Jones had on the fantasy art world and illustration was impressive. His story needs to be told. The link will take you to the Indiegogo fundraiser page. The only way to get a copy of the art book by some very serious talent with new works inspired by Jones is to help with the movie. If all you can do is share the link, please spread all across the interwebs, let's get this movie distributed. Here's the link: www.indiegogo.com/betterthings

Somethings that are in the works

Good news everyone! I'm ready and am now making a new posting for your viewing and reading pleasure. I've been lax in my postings lately. This time though, it's not been because of any visual distractions (for awhile I was catching up on the last 5 seasons of Lost...I sort of spaced out for a couple of months) or recent family reunions. I haven't posted because I've actually been working on artwork! Am I amazing or what? The projects undertaken have been for both fun and profit. The fun stuff is what I'm going to show off. Now, I'm not done with any of them, these are works in progress, so be kind.

The first one I'm doing as fan art for the series of podiobooks called Heaven, written and narrated by Mur Lafferty. She's an awesome author and has many many podcasts to be found at her site. Heaven is about a couple of friends that end up kicking the bucket and travel through the different parts of the after life. I've taken the liberty to illustrate one of the cities from season 5, Lathe. It's full of tinkerers and madmen.

The second image is an idea I've had for awile and is totally my own self promotion for self promotion's sake. Now that you know what I'm working on, feel free to bug me about seeing the final projects.

Oh, I forgot one other thing, I've started a flickr art page, check it out be clicking here.

Tango with this!

Good news everyone, a demon mated with the tee fury bird and had a hideous offspring. The implications on cross dimension relations with the demon dimension are positive. Also, I might get it printed on the 1st birthday anniversary tee-shirt for the company. I'm posting both pictures of the beast, one is the original and the other is the modified version for the tee-shirt. Just so you know, the one on the left is the original and the other is the changed version for the shirt company. Until next time, up up and away!

Mixed feelings

I have news everyone! Well, as some may know and some may not, tonight was Bregelle's and my time in a small spotlight. I mentioned before that we were having a "meet the Artist" showing at the local coffee shop, Diva's. Our art has been hanging up for about 3 weeks or so, no calls about buying it. But tonight was the night to meet us and I sold a small (8"x10") painting, there were jewelry sales, and I even sold an Altoids tin (I'll post some pics to show you what they look like). As the title of this posting says, I have feelings that are mixed, stirred about inside my soul...for I am actually parting with an original. I haven't sold an original painting since I was like, 17 I think. And I've only sold 4 originals in my lifetime; I mostly sell prints. The first original I sold was to a professor at Montgomery Community College, the same college bought a collaged self-portrait, the third was purchased by a citizen of my childhood community, and the fourth tonight. I'm not really to stressed out though, it went to a good home. I take it as a huge compliment that someone liked my work enough to purchase it. There's only a little bit of me that is posseive of my painting. Thankfully, that is also why I have a scanner. In the end, my news tonight is good news.

Fun in the Sundance

Good news everyone! There has finally been a sale at the gallery Bregelle shows in. There's a guy who was having a one day show and we went to go see it and there was the coveted red dot on one of her pieces! Whee! In case you were wondering, it was "Breakfast at Tiffany's" that sold. It was a whirlwind of excitement. We weren't sure that we were going to head out to Park City tonight, but it was a good thing that we did. While we were there Bregelle had the opportunity to talk with some collectors and other people interested in her work.

Ok, let me write about the show today, it was crazy. Very crazy. The artist showing is named Keith Bryce. He's a fashion designer and a former contestant on Project: Runway (which means he's a minor celebrity of sorts). Nice guy, cool ideas, styling glasses. As part of his show he dressed up some really funky looking models. I'll put in some pics of what one of them looked like. There was skin showing, antlers poking out of places, tall heels, and glitter I think...anyways, the cool thing about his shin-dig happened before we got there. The BBC and CNN along with a few other news networks had some camera crews in the gallery. So that's exciting. The pics in this post are some of the model, one of the walls with Bregelle's work, and a close up on the one that sold.

My new shoes

Good news everyone, I have painted my own shoes. They are now much more fun to look at then the plain white fabric they were when I took them from the store. It took a month or two to figure out what I wanted them to look like, but they now look back at me nicely.