Quickie Dino Fix

Just a quick one tonight.  I've got many things coming but this will have to do for now.  My latest submission to Prehistoric Times.  Baryonyx is the dinosaur.  I call this "Morning Fishing".

Enjoy!

Fact Toons!

I told you I'm going to be more positive with my Tuesday Toonsdays and I meant it.

But first a re-introduction.  I am the Paintmonkey.  This is me...

...pretty much.

So as the helmsman of this venture, I introduce to you:

This Week In History With The Paintmonkey!!!  I will choose a day of the upcoming week and find a fact that I want to illustrate and present it to you.  I will also make cameos.

I chose this week's date because I just really wanted to draw Babe Ruth's tubby self smacking a home-run.  (Seriously, my sketch of this had the ol' Babe looking like Chris Farley was playing him in the movie.)   HOWEVER...just 42 years after that momentous feat, the Paintmonkey's little brother was born!  Coincidence?!?!  Well..of course.  But still, it leads into me telling my little brother happy birthday!  (See what I did there?)

Enjoy knowledge!  Brain stuff is fun.

St. Simons Island Trip (cont...)

There actually was much more to the evening AFTER the Jack Davis event.  Robby and I were guest "geeks" on a podcast I have mentioned here before called Dinner 4 Geeks.  We had a ball doing it but it deserves it's own blog post so I will get to that later.  I think the episode will air somewhere around August 18th.

The next day, the art gallery was having a slide presentation about Jack Davis which I tried to RSVP to, but I did it too late.  I went over just on the off chance I could sneak in but at worst I got to see the Jack Davis drawings again in a much less crowded atmosphere.  Again...if you have the chance to ever see his work in person, just go.  His sense of humor is contagious and you can NOT leave without a smile on your face.

HOWEVER...I had waited too long so the presentation was full.  But I did get to see Mr. Davis again.  So I looked around a little more and then headed out to paint.

I literally just walked across the parking lot to the St. Simons Island lighthouse area and set up my little rig.  I got my little portable folding chair and set up my paints.

I actually had my first people come up and see what I was doing.  It wasn't nearly as weird or uncomfortable as I thought it would be.

So I got this one done and I wanted to paint a little more.  So I started wandering around the area.  There was a nice road scene that had live oaks forming an interlacing canopy which I really liked.  However, I kind of had to sit in the road and then the mosquitoes showed up.  Nope.

Back to the pier in front of the lighthouse.  There was a cluster of trees and there was this one beautiful REALLY old live oak off by itself.

I was fighting this one originally.  I drew it out in pencil and then started the watercolors.  It wasn't working.  It irritated me to the point that I just grabbed an ink pen and started scribbling over it.  And then magically it got better.  Once that happened, I put more watercolor on and it felt much better to me.

I was really pleased at how well my little painting rig worked and it was pretty light to carry around and I felt comfortable working on it.  I look forward to doing more.

Plein Air Practice

I've been working more on my plein air painting/sketching. For those that don't know that term, it means "paintin' outside". Which is usually what I call it. Anyhoo...

So I had today off as a co-worker is having her wisdom teeth out this week and I'm working the weekend for her. I thought I would take advantage of being off on a day I normally am not and try to go outside on one of the (semi) drier days we've had in a while. (As I type this the thunder is rolling in followed by what I presume to be another 8-10 inches of dampness.)

So I have seen this section of shops every day as I go to work and one day a few months ago, I thought to myself "you should paint those". So today I did.

As I sat there ALMOST done, A Clarkston police officer pulled a woman over for running a red light. Naturally she pulled over right in front of me so the police car was directly in front of what I was working on.

This next one is from last week. We took my Dad to dinner (belatedly) for his birthday. As we waited I got out the kit and the wife waited in the car, every now and then telling me I was going to get sun poisoning because I forgot a hat. (I didn't.) Here's what I got out of that one.

I'm still getting used to painting on my lap and the general hotness of it. I can't just confine my painting to those four days a year where the weather is perfect. But it's getting there.

New Contest...

...and NO voting on this one!  Hooray!  It's a contest sponsored by deviantArt and The Truth...that group that makes the commercials about what happens when you smoke, what the companies put in cigarettes, etc. etc.  The rules were a bit odd and I was sort of confused by them but I think I got what they wanted.  It's called the "Make Ugly" contest and you were supposed to use one of four factoids as inspiration for your monster.  You can read the rules and the factoids here.  Perhaps it will make a little more sense then...

Looking through the entries I assume it is filled entirely with people who sort of understood the concept or (and I think this more likely) stupid children who saw the term "monster" and went nuts.

So I came up with an idea with an overall theme and concept.  I went with the "mutant" factoid.

I decided to use a 50's horror movie poster as the basis for my idea.  Many big thanks to my lovely wife for helping with (okay...DOING) the digital wording on the poster.  I really don't expect to win as according to many there is a large "digital art" preference on the deviantArt site.  I'm not sure but we will see in a day or two.  That's the other great part.  I waited until the last day so I won't have months and months of waiting on this one!

Poe Quotations (Poe-tations?)

A few weeks ago, a co-worker asked if I would donate something for a yearly fund raiser at work. I said sure, if I have time. I thought about what I wanted to do and I found an Edgar Allan Poe quote that I liked and thought was fit for a funny illustration. This is what I came up with...

They seemed happy with it so we'll see how much money it brings in. It funds educational programs for the museum so if you want to be involved here is the event that I donated this piece to. Get involved and make some kids smarter!

Another Sneak Peek...

Here is a quick look at a page from the book I am currently working on.  Thoughts or criticisms? Aren't you just DYING to know what's going on? Find out soon!

Let me know what you think! 

And A Happy New Year...(Finally)

I know, I know...I'm a terrible poster but I have been very busy. I'm several finished pages into the book I'm working on and I have my new submission for Prehistoric Times magazine. I've discovered I really enjoy putting these prehistoric animals into more realistic and less dramatic poses. (More on that in a later post...)

First the sketch...

And now the final version...

Now to be fair, I like both. But I feel like the sketch gets across the itching on the tree better. The head is further down and gives it a more active look. But again, I'm pretty happy with both.

I do have a favor to ask of my blog readers new and old. If you have a moment, how about you go over to this website and vote for my entry "Dawg Sports"? It only takes a second and you don't have to register for anything. I really would like to win mostly for the possibility of meeting my hero Jack Davis on a more personal level than the book signing I got to go to a few months ago. Really, the thought of him seeing my work is overwhelming and makes me a little giddy. Thanks in advance for your support!

Christmas Commission

A few weeks ago I got a request from a co-worker about a gift for her boyfriend.  She wanted a cartoon portrait of their "children" to give to him.  This annoyed me greatly...because it had never occurred to me.

The three dogs and the cat are theirs...they just really like goats so I added one to their menagerie. I can upload it now because I saw her today and it was rousing success (and there's no possibility of ruining the surprise now).n

Vacation Via Sketchbook: Pt I

So we took a little vacation this week. Nashville! (With a quick stopover in Washington D.C. beforehand.) Normally we take lots of photos but as we get older, we spend less and less time photographing stuff and more and more time enjoying stuff. This does not mean we do not want tangible evidence of our trips however. And after my recent inspirations, I decided I was going to make more of an effort to sketch while we were out and about. Here are the results.

Our stopover in D.C. included a quick run in at the Smithsonian Museums of American History and Natural History. Weird, right? Me going into museums, particularly ones of the natural history variety? Anyways, in the great hall of the Museum of Natural History is a full grown taxidermied bull African elephant. He is a monster. It is also the only place in that joint where you can find a small corner to yourself and sit and work without being trampled. Here is my first effort in pencil.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you. I took along my watercolors for the first time. However, my on-site watercolor skills SUCK. So, when we got to Nashville I found an art supply store and got some gouache. Then I fixed this thing. Still rough but as you will see, I may be getting the hang of it.

So after the museums, we went to eat. "The Flying Fish" restaurant was not first on our list but it was first as to which we came to. (Do NOT listen to people in Alexandria, Va. when they say "It's about a mile away". They have NO idea what a mile is. Especially if you are walking.) So we sat down to enjoy dinner.

This little guy was swimming around by our table as we waited on our server.

Seated at the table next to us were four middle aged folks who were enjoying their conversation. This gentlemen seemed PARTICULARLY fond of the future of electric cars. He was quite animated about it.

Tomorrow: Nashville. More to come...

A Tribute Too Soon...

...and if you watched the NL Wild Card playoff game you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you didn't, well, I'm not going to explain the infield fly rule because I'm not entirely sure I can. However, I did get the final stats of Chipper's career put on my tribute poster. I'm not putting it on here because I don't have it watermarked, but it looks like this...

...only with his correct career stats. If you would like one, feel free to get in touch. Same deal as the Bulldogs calendar. 10 dollars for the poster, 4 dollars for shipping and handling.