Victory!

Last year, a friend and his son took me to an amateur boxing tournament. I had never been and I'm always up for something new. It was fun and I had posted some sketches I made at the tournament.

Well, my friend's son won his first boxing match last week and in honor of that feat I pulled out some sketches and cobbled together a little pen and ink. I kind of like it, but I may do some more. This was fun.



I forget how much I like black and white sometimes.

No Separation

Some of the greatest art in the world has been created out of moral outrage. Picasso's "Guernica" and Goya's "The 5th of May" spring readily to mind. I try to keep my moral outrage in check on here. I try to keep to the "art" side of things but occasionally something slips through and hits that part of my brain where everything goes red and something needs to be done.

The other day my friend Mel posted a link to an article that you can read here. It's about...you know what? Just go read it. I'll wait.

SEE? So I did this...



Nice to know that we can't afford our public officials.

A Happy St. Paddy's from the Paintmonkey

Faith an' begorrah! Erin go bragh! Bangers and mash! Whatever other Gaelic or reasonable facsimile thereof you wish to insert. A happy and safe St. Patrick's day to all of you from the Paintmonkey.



Mostly, don't be dumb tonight. Designate a driver or get a cab. It just makes good sense.

Weird Dinosaurs...

Sometimes dinosaurs are not the terrifying monsters of nightmare or the gentle giants of herbivoredom (pretty sure that's a word, right?). No, sometimes dinosaurs are strange looking creatures who can not be taken seriously.

The latest submission for Prehistoric Times magazine calls for the corythosaurus. A plant eating theropod beast, it's most notable feature is a large crest on it's head. While doodling the creature one day, the only drawing I came up with was the one that ended up being the one in the drawing I submitted...



He's just so GOOFY looking...

Art Is...Tests and Playing

So I've been a little preoccupied with personal stuff the last couple of weeks but I want to try and keep working as much as possible. So my postings may be a little erratic but we will press on...

The back story: a couple of decades ago a group of young, exuberant and devilishly good looking students entered their first color theory class. Our teacher was...sadistic. Is that the word I'm looking for? Is there a HARSHER word for it? Anyways, the color theory class was the usual with the making of color charts (white to black, blue to red, etc.). That was not what was horrible. The horrible-ness came when we discovered what we would be doing it in...gouache.

Gouache is basically opaque watercolor. In my research I have also learned that gouache is used in illustration and graphic design a lot. What we all learned 20 years ago is that gouache does NOT dry the same color as the color you mixed. As I recall it would sometimes dry darker, sometimes lighter. But always such that you had to COMPLETELY re-do the color chart you were working on. Therefore leading us to hate this expensive little paint (and me not touching the stuff for a VERY long time).

But in my present day form I have been giving things a chance again. I picked up regular watercolors again and they seem to work okay. Heck, I'm going to try sushi again on Tuesday after many many years and one horrible incident in Washington D.C. So I thought I would give gouache another shot. But I needed a test subject...

Here is a submission for Prehistoric Times I did last year.



And here is the same work after I've "enhanced" it with gouache...



So basically that has been my week. Playing and testing out a new way of painting. We will see.

He Was...

He was a Southern boy. He liked unsweet tea and pecan pies baked by Southern girls.

He loved football. Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket fan through and through (and I never held that against him). He cussed the Falcons constantly (although he ALWAYS knew the score and the highlights of exactly how they "had blown the damn game").

He was a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who still had nightmares of it nearly 40 years on. Some things aren't that easily forgotten.

He loved his family. He loved his kids and his grandkids and they loved him. He loved my dog and my dog loved him and my dog has never been wrong about people.



Nearly 3 years ago he walked down the aisle of a small country church and gave to me that which was most precious and important to him. For that I will always be indebted and grateful.



My father in law lost his battle with leukemia Saturday morning with my wife and her brother at his side. We would have done anything for his pain to end but we would do just as much to still have him here with us. And we will all miss him terribly every day.

Goodbye Papa Greer.

Olifant Sunday! (And a contest!)

Years ago, when I was fortunate enough to take a trip to Africa, we went to Kruger National Park. One of our stops inside the park was Olifants Rest Camp. It had lodging and a gift shop, but most importantly a stunningly broad overlook of the Olifants River. It was here we learned that "olifant" is just the Afrikaan word for "elephant". Ever since I have loved that word. Anyways...

Last summer, my wife and I made a visit to Zoo Atlanta for a day of fun and a day of reference photo taking. I made posts from that trip last year here and here.

Here's the latest offering...



This is one of the zoo's big girl elephants. I cannot for the life of me remember their names right now, but I highly recommend visiting them. They are so much fun to watch. (As well as everything else down there.)

And here is the second and most important part of my post today. The contest portion! I've been hinting and promising something for a few weeks now and here it is. The first view of the (potential) cover of the children's book I've been working on!



Let me know what you think! Would you pick up a book with that cover on it? It will NOT have the Paintmonkey Studios watermark on the bottom right corner but for legal reasons I need to protect this one a little more.

So here is the contest: The first person to answer CORRECTLY in the comments below wins. I want the name of the artist AND the name of the artwork that inspired this cover art of mine and you will receive a piece of Paintmonkey art! (A 6"x8" pen & ink/watercolor. Your choice of subjects.) The contest will run until NEXT Sunday, February 19th at noon Eastern Standard time. Unfortunately I cannot ship anything outside of the U.S. as that is just too expensive for this little contest.

Good luck, everybody!