This Looks Fun

My good friend, Terryl, just sent me this and asked to spread the word. Looks like it could be lots of fun.

https://www.facebook.com/events/452193294886894/

Burnin for You

The title is a Blue Oyster Cult song title. It sounded appropriate for the image. This painting was done for Imagine FX and is in the most recent issue. Since the magazine is now out I can post a bit larger version. Hope you like it.

Little Devil

Another small watercolor/pencil drawing. Right around 5 x 7 inches.

Decided to sell this one. If you are interested here is the link.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131032437726?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Cat in a Hat Vampire

Small watercolor drawing mix. About 5 x 7 inches.

Vampire on a Binge

A triple S day. Sometimes it just goes like that.

Day 24: Another oil painting demonstration

This is a second oil painting demonstration done same day as the first but in another class section. It is also about 6 x 9 inches and painted in around 90 minutes.

Day 25: Oil Painting Demo

This small oil painting was done as a demonstration for one of my classes last week. It is about 6 x 9 inches and was done in about 90 minutes.

Day 26: Bad Dog Costume

Is the costume bad or is the dog bad? Maybe both are bad. Maybe my mind is bad.

Wolfman

Just found this old photo of yours truly as the wolfman.  I think I was in the forth or fifth grade. I actually remember doing the Halloween parade around the school.

In the spirit of the month?

Halloween or just horrible? I didn't write the text but lifted the article from here:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929360.100-deadly-lake-turns-animals-into-statues.html#.Uks9LHx3gyD

There's a deceptively still body of water in Tanzania with a deadly secret—it turns any animal it touches to stone. The rare phenomenon is caused by the chemical makeup of the lake, but the petrified creatures it leaves behind are straight out of a horror film.

Photographed by Nick Brandt in his new book, Across the Ravaged Land, petrified creatures pepper the area around the lake due to its constant pH of 9 to 10.5—an extremely basic alkalinity that preserves these creatures for eternity. According to Brandt:

"I unexpectedly found the creatures - all manner of birds and bats - washed up along the shoreline of Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania. No-one knows for certain exactly how they die, but it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake’s surface confuses them, and like birds crashing into plate glass windows, they crash into the lake. The water has an extremely high soda and salt content, so high that it would strip the ink off my Kodak film boxes within a few seconds. The soda and salt causes the creatures to calcify, perfectly preserved, as they dry.

I took these creatures as I found them on the shoreline, and then placed them in ‘living’ positions, bringing them back to ‘life’, as it were. Reanimated, alive again in death."

The rest of the haunting images follow and they feature in Brandt's book, available here.

http://www.amazon.com/Across-Ravaged-Land-Nick-Brandt/dp/1419709453?tag=gizmodoamzn-20&ascsubtag=[type|link[postId|1436606506[asin|1419709453[authorId|5791762745826392378

Or, you could go and visit for yourself—but keep a safe distance from the water, please.

Day 27: Telepathic post

It is late and I am tired. Tonight I am posting something telepathically.... So, if you think of something scary....that was me!

I will make up with an extra sketch tomorrow.

Day 27: Be careful where you Trick-or-Treat

Needless to say, Halloween can be a time filled with dangers. Be careful where you go.

Day 28: Halloween Children

Where do they come from and where do they go?

Day 29 Chicken Costume

All you have to do is learn to lay an egg.....

Day 30 A Little Bit of that Voodoo

A little bit of that voodoo can do wonders for a relationship.

Day 31

Gotta love October. The only month you can draw and paint really strange stuff without your wife, kids, grandkids, and dog giving you furtive and anxious glances. So I am going to do it again and post a Halloween(kinda) based painting, drawing, or sketch each day of the month.

Tonight it is a hemogoblin. I painted this for a presentation during the summer at the Association of Medical Illustrators annual conference. Done in Painter 12.

Frankie's Girl

Getting close to Halloween. Can't Wait! Just a preview.

I'm so happy I could just ..........................

Just a sketch. Black and white prismacolor pencil.

It has been really busy getting ready for school to start. I don't really know why. I like classes I teach. I like the students ....... mostly. Maybe it is because the finest advisor in the department, whom I have worked with for the last four years, is gone. She was a fantastic asset to the students and made my job easier. It will ultimately create a lot more work for myself and more importantly, confusion for my students.

A Lion

Just another strange animal. This time a lion.....kinda.

Some really quick doodles

I am working with some friends on a sketching app. These are really quick doodles just trying some of the features. The app is still at pre-alpha but blazing fast, intuitive, and quite fun to use. I will tell more as allowed.

Dinosaur

Just got back from 10 days of traveling around the Southwest with my wife and grandsons. My youngest grandson is really into dinosaurs. Here is one I sketched one night while he was busily playing Minecraft.

An Exotic Bird

My best intentions have gone by the wayside. The first block of Summer term swallowed me whole and is about ready to spit me out.

Here is a sketch I actually had the time to do last weekend. It started as a scribble and ended up as an exotic bird of some kind. Maybe a toucan/hornbill hybrid.....

A Happy Dog

Just one of those nonsense sketches.

Dogs and Their Owners

It is said that dogs resemble some of the physical characteristics of their owners. I don't know if that is true or not.

Alien Dog

OK, maybe it is stretching things a bit but there must be alien dogs out there somewhere with all those little green men.

Couple of Paintings

Here are a couple of paintings that were done for Imagine FX this issue. One, Gregory, was in the magazine. The second was not used because of space issues. I do have a bit of recorded material for the second character in the stocks. Possibly I will get that posted at some time.

Hope you enjoy these.

Awh.... a puppy!

Everyone loves puppies.... especially when cooked just right. :)

Tonight's Dog

Last couple days of school. Too tired to write anything. :)
Black and white prismacolor pencils.

Three Dog Day

Didn't have a chance to post any dogs over the weekend so I am making up for it today and posting three. Hope you like them.

This first sketch is a real quick one of my son's dog. Done from life in about five minutes. He kept having dreams and moving.

Second sketch is just a grouchy dog.

Third sketch is another dog from life. This dog was my son's fifth birthday present. He was a mix of Malamute and St. Bernard. At his prime he weighed 205 pounds, shoulders were just shy of 30 inches, and he could run or swim all day long. He was a gentle giant in every sense of the word. I loved this dog.

His name was Butch and he lived 14 years at which time I had to make the decision to put him down. How do you know when it is the right time to do such a thing? My son and I buried him in the middle of an aspen grove on the backside of a nearby mountain. I miss him terribly.

This drawing was done sometime the last year of his life.

Poodles

Sometimes I feel sorry for poodles......

Forgot to mention that most of these doodles are drawn with black Prismacolor pencils. In this particular case, black and white Prismacolor pencil.

I like these pencils because they do not smear. You can not erase them easily either.

I avoid erasing almost always when drawing in my sketchbooks. Erasing is not about drawing and is a distraction. Erasing is about making something look pretty. Drawing is about something else completely.

Before anyone might want to tell me that I don't have a clue about what I am talking about; that erasing is indeed about drawing. I want to assure you that I have and do use erasers occasionally depending on what I am working on. However, drawing is about making marks and erasing is about correcting and eliminating  things you might think are mistakes with your marks. Why waste precious drawing time doing that in a sketchbook?

One last admission .... yes there are drawing techniques that use erasers to make the mark and I have occasionally used those methods.

No more ranting....this is about the dog. :)

The Family Mutt

Statistically speaking, most human remains discovered in the great outdoors, are found by the family pooch. Out on his daily field trip Spot finds a small and tasty treat which he brings home to enjoy on the front lawn. While Spot may relish his discovery, most dog owners are not so enthusiastic.

Imagine FX Article

I had the honor and pleasure of appearing in the Imagine FX magazine this month. I have not seen the actual article yet but here is a link to the online tutorial that was posted.

http://beta.imaginefx.com/create-elaborate-picture-frame-66419

Here is an image that was originally done for the tutorial but did not make it in the final. Hope you enjoy this. I will post another in a couple days.

Here is a close up of the full size image so you can see the texture in the painting. I think that the subtle use of textures can take an average piece of art to a higher level of quality.

Another one of those days.

The Cat had one of those days.
Dog sketch number three.

Today's Dog

You ever have one of those days.

Dawg-a-Day

One of my students is engaged in a very worthy project. Here is the link and one of her paintings.
http://dawgart.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to go have a look at her work.
I am very proud to say that I had the honor and pleasure or working with her while she was in school.

She has inspired me. I am going to post a Dawg-a-Day. Mine will be no where as good as hers and are culled from my sketchbooks. Here is the first dawg. Hope you enjoy the variety and kinds that inhabit my world. Cheers!

Something I have been working on

Been absent for awhile. Had a bunch of projects with fast approaching deadlines. A blessing and a curse. Good to stay busy but does take away from a lot of other things .... like actively posting.

Well, here is a crop from one of the projects as well as a piece of the original sketch. Really can't post the whole image or say much more about it. Hope you enjoy looking.

High Res Cute Puppy Movie

Finally got around to posting a higher res version of the cute puppy movie. Here is the link.

Cute Puppy Movie

Hope you enjoy it. :)

Finished Cave Critter

Well, now it is a new year and I will post more regularly. Kind of just melted down into the sofa with my sketchbook and watched lots of football. Well, took a few naps too.

School starts tomorrow so life ramps up again.

Here is the final version of the cave critter I started a few weeks ago. I should say that it is final for the moment. After a month or so I will look at it again and no doubt make additional adjustments.