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!

Busy busy busy...

...which is no excuse. Unfortunately, lots of things are coming at me so postings may be even farther in between. But follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. I get stuff on those pretty regular. And this page will be undergoing a MAJOR transformation sometime soon...stay tuned.

But quickly here are some things I've had going...

Firstly a record sale worthy of the history books:

My friend Travis asked for an ad. That is what I came up with.

Secondly, the internet auction for the Art Gone Wild work that didn't find homes at the reception will be over on July 31st. Bid now! Follow this link.

And lastly, I did this to get people to donate to a worthy cause. Follow this link to see details.

Enjoy and keep watching!

Alumni Weekend and Plein Air Practice

This weekend was alumni weekend at Young Harris College which is my spiritual home. I needed to get in some plein air practice for an upcoming event (details to be revealed very soon) so what better place and time than to go see old friends at my very favorite enchanted valley.

I got there right around 10ish so I parked and grabbed my gear and set out for the patio in front of one of the dorms.  I love the Susan B. Harris chapel but everyone always paints it from the same couple of places.  I wanted a different view so I chose the one that most people know but I don't feel they think of as often.

Here's the photo from where I set up...

And here's the painting I got from this vantage point...

So after this, I met up with a couple of friends and we headed over to the gym where we were being served lunch.  Had a lovely time chatting with friends and talking to some students about school and then it was back out into the sun for more painting!

I crawled up the back of campus (holy crap, I am not as young OR in shape as I used to be) and found what everyone pretty much said was the best view of the valley and campus.  After finally wheezing my way up there, I am inclined to agree.

The view...

And what I took from it...

So once again, I had a great time at my alma mater and got some pretty decent pictures out of it.  Not bad for someone who used to be TERRIFIED of landscapes.

First Plein Air of the New Year!

Thanks to the psychotic weather this year we are a little over a week out from being snowed in last week and today it was 70 degrees out.  So I took advantage to get in the first outdoor painting of the year!

There is a tree next to where I park at work that I am obsessed with.  It is a gnarly, bent, kudzu covered old thing that is just fascinating.  This isn't the first time I've painted it and it probably won't be the last (perhaps a nice pen & ink?).

So I did that this afternoon. 

Savannah Sketching

The wife and I went down to Savannah this week for a little vacation.  (This is why there was no Tuesday Toonsday this week.  Sorry!)  We ate a lot of seafood and walked around enjoying the town.  And I mean WALKING.  So much walking.  Take our advice.  Don't walk that much.  Jump on one of those trolley tours.  Hijack it if you have to.

We started out by walking down to River street and checking out some shops.  At the end of the street we took a rest and I sketched the waving girl for a few minutes.

We got some tips about stuff to see from my friend Robby.  As the wife and I love old cemeteries, Bonaventure seemed a wonderful place to go.

Tattnall Way running down the length of the cemetery draped on both sides by live oaks and moss...

And here is one of the better carvings on one of the graves...

This week was a big learning experience for me in regards to creating art in the wild.  You might notice that both of these sketches seem a little hurried and unfinished.  This is because...THEY...found me.  "They" are these little insects.  Not the mosquitos.  Those I could tell because they were as big as fruit bats.  No..."they" were these tiny little bugs which took a chunk out of you like a bear trap.  So on both occasions I started working and the little beggars found me and I got up and ran away.

I also learned in Bonaventure that I need to cut down the size of my painting gear when walking around that much.  It gets HEAVY.

And my last sketch is of our hotel, the Thunderbird Inn.

This one got hurried a little, as well.  The sky was a lovely blue when I started but in the course of about 20 minutes started getting more and more grey.  I had to run back into the room before everything got rained on.

We had a fantastic time and absolutely will be going back.  There's just too much down there to see.

The Paintmonkey's Greatest Fear!

And here it is...



Seriously...I've had nightmares about being accidentally shaved.  I just don't like the way I look with no facial hair.

Pomp(adour) and Circumstance

Fairly straightforward This Week in History with the Paintmonkey.

And pop culture was never the same.

A Glimmer in the Sky

Today's Tuesday Toonsday doesn't have a "funny" bit per se...only the fact that I found interesting this week.  I'm playing more with the size of the work and what I can get away with inside the confines of each of those different dimensions.  For instance, this week I wanted to put a powdered wig on the Paintmonkey.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the room for it after getting all the information in.  It's a work in progress...

And without further adieu...

I had fun drawing Halley though.  Just seems like an uncomfortable way to dress for science.

Game Day Saturday in the South

There are holidays that MUST be acknowledged.  Christmas, Thanksgiving, Arbor Day.  (Seriously, you don't like Arbor Day?  Quit breathing.  That air belongs to the people who care about Arbor Day!)

But here in the South there is a day that combines the excitement of all of those with the summer gluttony of eating wings and for some, drinking copious amounts of beer.

This...

Other parts of the country may celebrate it as much as we do, but I am not from those places.  I am from the South and this is what I know.  Happy Game Day, boys!

Twister Toon

Just thought this was interesting...

I am having fun looking through all the websites with facts on them.  If I do this long enough I will be a bar trivia GOD!

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.

It's Tuesday...Again!?!?!

Seriously...wasn't it just Tuesday last week?  Anyways, this week's Tuesday Toonsday is another from my "Creatures I Have Seen" line.  I know it's a been a little negative (most stories from the world o' retail are.)  So in an effort to be better, I am working on something new and positive for next week.  That's not to say negative won't slip back in.  Far from it.  I still find horrible things funny so in they will go.  But I will TRY to be more positive.

This week's entry:

Now I am not saying that single dads who go out with their kids are awful.  I know many single dads who are incredible parents and love their children very much.  I am pointing and laughing at the ones who pay NO attention to their offspring and then throw a credit card at them in order to maintain the familial "love".

BONUS!
I am throwing in the mountain lion mascot I've been working with.  I did this sketch a while back.

And then I finished it up as this...

Worked out okay...

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.

True Story...

Full disclosure:  This week's Tuesday Toonsday is NOT something I have actually seen with my own two eyes.  It IS something one of my co-workers sees at least once a week.  He steps out of his office (which is hidden away in one of the permanent exhibits) and catches them doing this.  ALL.  THE.  TIME.

Seriously.  Riding the damned thing.

Patience is a Virtue...

...but some days it is darned hard to maintain.  This is the next in my Tuesday Toonsday line of museum cartoons:

Creatures I Have Seen

Seriously...they just stomp on stuff that's on the floor.

Tuesday Toonsday! (For now...)

I'm gonna try this to make myself do something that will keep up the interest of YOU, the reader, on at least a weekly basis.  I am going to try to give you a new cartoon every Tuesday.  Hence Tuesday Toonsday. 

There has a been a vigorous (and sometimes anarchic) debate on the Facebook about what it should be called.  I wanted alliterative.  I wanted to let people know it was on Tuesday.  And about 'toons.  Lots of opinions but for now we are going with Tuesday Toonsday.  Although I did hit on "Paintmonkey Toon Sessions" which is about as rock n' roll a thing as ever I've done, so maybe I will re-visit soon.

Much thanks to my buddy Jeff, of Dinner 4 Geeks fame for his tweaking of the name.  (If you like Geek culture, go give the boys a listen.  You won't be disappointed!)

On to the toons!

I have worked in the museum world for over 13 years now.  I love it very much and is quite a rewarding way to make a living but you see...things.  The other day I came across some old sketches that I had done in the wild.  With that in mind, I introduce:

I have many more of these planned.

And as a bonus for my first Tuesday Toonsday, I share a quick thing I did last night.  The Best Western Denver Southwest facebook page.  They are turning their hotel into a dinosaur themed world o'fun.  And it was a fun idea.  Draw a dinosaur as an old timey gentleman (or lady).

I think he's fun.

I hope you've enjoyed your first Tuesday Toonsday and come back for more!  Tell your friends!

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.

Life and Loss

I'm going chronologically with this week's entry.

I have been lucky enough to have two women in my life who know WAY more about computers than I ever will and are both nice enough not to yell at me TOO much about my computer related catastrophes.  One is my beautiful wife and the other is our IT wizard at work.  A month or two back, my co-worker came to me and asked if I would do a cartoon portrait of her and her newly grown family.  I said sure and got all the needed pictures and reference materials.  A couple of weeks after that she announced that she would be leaving in July for San Francisco where her husband had gotten a job in software or something (seriously, I truly don't get computers).  And she wanted the drawing done for his first Father's day as a father.

I liked it and she did, too.  So happy (late) father's day!  All of us at work will miss you guys!

Secondly, my grandmother passed away last week.  I won't dwell on it except to say that it actually led to a nice day overall (all things considered).  My wife and I got to hang out with my family and I forget how much I like seeing them.  We went back to my aunt and uncle's house afterwards and while the kids ran around, and the adults talked about old times and new, and we all ate our fill of fine Southern grief-food, I sat out back and drew my uncle's dog Luger.  Luger was a hyperactive pointer who was just SO happy to see everyone.  And sniff them.  And point his large squarish head between your legs, genital comfort be damned!

I managed (quickly) to sketch this one while he momentarily took a break from running around and checking out everything.  There's about five other beginning sketches underneath this one.  He was a sweet dog though and actually pointed at a rabbit in the yard!

Appreciate the things you care about while you can!

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!

Plein Air Coincidences

I went to see my parents yesterday, mostly so I could see my mother for her birthday today (happy birthday again, Mom!) but also to support their fire department's fund raising barbeque.  While on my way I was going over in my mind what I wanted to try and paint.  There's a great giant old tree by their house that I want to document as one enormous limb after another keep falling off.  I thought I might paint the firefighters sitting around the barbeque pit.  Finally though I decided to paint the old chicken house that I grew up working in.

I got to the house and spent an hour or so talking to my mother and brother.  At one point my mom asked me if I "knew what I was doing 35 years ago today?"  I did not.  I was 7.  I barely know what I was doing last week.  "We were waiting on our first batch of chickens."  Weird...did I subconsciously remember what the date was and THAT was why I had decided to paint the chicken house?

No, it's probably just a coincidence.

Also...I got some pencils I ordered in the mail.

So, I sketched one of our dogs while we watched a movie. A good day for art practice.