Quickly...

I know it's not much but there is big news coming from Paintmonkey Studios very soon. I can't divulge much but it does involve this little guy from the last post.



I've also figured out how to clean up a little in Photoshop and Illustrator. More to come soon!

It's A Planning Stages Kind of Month...

So I've got LOTS of sketches but not much finished product. Here's a couple of practice pages I did from my trip tot he zoo in preparation for my upcoming children's book project...





And here's a little guy I designed for work...(even though I know I will not be paid for this one in any way)...



Sometimes you just have to keep giving YOURSELF work to keep the old art chops up.

Art Collecting

Yet again, I did not get anything finished for my update. The distractions of a full time job...oh well. HOWEVER...I get to discuss one of my favorite things today which is collecting of the art.

Our lesson today is always be on the lookout for art. Keep an eye open just in case. You never know when something may pop up. On Friday, I had to go to Franklin, NC to attend a gem and mineral wholesale show for work. Most of the day is full of schlepping rocks and fossils from their tent to our van. The latter part of the day is the rest of our party going through all the jewelry vendors. This is NOT the part for me, so I kind of wandered from table to table looking for anything that caught my eye. Lo and behold, there WAS something.

At this one guy's table were a collection of old prints and lithographs. As I am sifting through them, he says "oh, those that are all stuck in that bag are 4 dollars apiece". I grabbed the bag and opened it and I came out with a handful of mostly uninspiring prints of the old book illustrating variety. Not really my cup of tea. But I found a few that I really did like. And for 4 bucks a pop, why not?

This one was my least favorite but I still found something intangibly appealing.




I liked how detailed the hair and the figure are contrasted with the slap-dash nature of the alms bowl.




Who WOULDN'T like an engraved musketeer? (Or whatever this next guy is.) He does have the only name I recognize readily though. At the bottom it states this is a Franz Hals print.




I enjoyed this next one because of the looseness of the engraving style but also because it is A) a really neat example of the artist starting with one idea and changing his mind mid-engraving or B) a haunted print. Look on the wall behind the figure and you can see ghostly images start to come out of the lines. Super creepy and I love it!



And finally here is my favorite one. I wonder why?




My main point today is this: go out and find yourself some art. Old or new. Prints, painting, sculptures. Don't buy something because you think it will be "valuable" one day. The only way art is valuable is if it speaks to your soul and sensibilities. Otherwise it's just crap on the wall. Enjoy!

Words and Pictures...

Today's installment has two cartoons...there are things I like about each and things I do NOT like about each. Let's start with the first one I did this week.




This one is based on a flawed premise. It is from an article about President Obama wanting foods aimed at kids to stop using cartoons to market their wares if that food is considered "unhealthy". I made it into where he is altering the usage of the cartoons. I did like the art in this one more though. In particular, I liked the ink wash, which is the first time I've really used it in a cartoon (that I can remember anyways).

I get what the president is trying to do but leave it alone. Cartoon marketing is just a symptom of the problem. As usual the solution lies in education. In this case, education about healthy eating. Leave my Chester Cheetah alone!

So here's the next one I did this week which is NOT based on a flawed premise...



Now this one I like the premise more but I do NOT care for my art in it as much. I did it in color because that wedding just had to be drawn in color. It was too bright not to. However, I think I overthought the wording for the Donald AND the priest. I do still think that overbearing jackass would try and crash it if he thought he wouldn't be shot. Which I most certainly hope he would have been...*sigh* perchance to dream.

And this last thing is just for Mark...I like giving him little updates on our project and see what I've been up to periodically.




See you next time!

A Peek Behind the Curtain...

I know this doesn't count as a true post since I didn't actually finish a piece for blogification. However, I DID get a lot done this week. It's just all preliminary sketch work and character design type stuff which I don't feel is worth showing or I am just keeping super hush hush.

So I thought I would go with my next favorite thing when I read other artists blogs. I like to see their work space. It is interesting to me because I like to see how they arrange for convenience and mostly I like to know they are just as messy as me.

You can see my beat up little easel in the corner here. Behind that is an old display unit for toys that I salvaged from work. It works darn well as a catch all art supply storage unit.





As you can see I am big into research. Reference books, National Geographics, art books, and a lot of comics everywhere. (Comics count as research materials, don't they?}




And then here's a better shot of where I do most of my work these days, my work desk. I traded a college buddy for this thing years and years ago and I thought about exchanging it for a newer model but I just can't bring myself to ditch it. It works too well for me.




I hope today's installment has been slightly interesting for you. Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to have something more post-worthy from an art perspective.

Westerns Are In My Blood...

Really and truly. My grandfather used to go to the bookstore and buy as many as fifteen or twenty of the little cheap-o western paperbacks every couple of weeks. He would read through them and as I was really the only grandson who read as much as him, he would give them to me. I had an entire giant toy box filled to the brim with Louis L'Amour's, Zane Grey's, and any number of other lesser (and sometimes, although rarely MORE) talented writers. Combine this with a love of rodeo and well, you have the makings for a lifelong affair right there.

So fast forward to now. As a voracious consumer of westerns AND comic books it seems only logical that I should try to come up with a comic book western story. So I was talking with my good friend Cap'n Tony (a writer of soon to be renown) and we came upon the idea of doing a Jonah Hex short story and then submitting it to DC Comics. Even if we don't get in, it'll be really cool just to do one. So, while the good Cap'n bangs out the literary side and I await my duty of illustration, here's a quick drawing out of the old sketchbook that I did to get used to the character.



Maybe a little inspiration for the Cap'n, as well.

A Good Title Makes All the Difference...

Two posts in one week! I'm on fire!

Anyway...so I finished the baseball ink/watercolor. I'm very excited about this piece. I really enjoyed working on it and I think it shows.




"Hitter's Count". Ink and watercolor, 9"x12" on watercolor paper. It can be yours for $125. Just get in touch with me if you are interested.