Personally Helpful

Sometimes what I do comes in handy for personal reasons.  The other day I got a card from my alma mater advertising Alumni Day at a Braves game.  I wanted to know if any of my friends and family were going so I whipped up this...

...to ask them on Facebook if they were going.  It's a mountain lion (our mascot) in a Braves uniform.  A little more fun than just asking everyone, I think.

Taking a While...

It's been too long!  I am working but I am falling down on my posting duties.  Apologies.  I've had this one done for awhile but I was holding it until I submitted it to my favorite dino themed magazine publication, Prehistoric Times.  This one is a bit special as it is one of the dinosaurs featured in my museum, Giganotosaurus.

I drew him (her?  I'm not supposed to engender them at work) with feathers as more and more discoveries seem to support this possibility.

Still not sure about "Thunder Chickens"...

Dusty

Watching a concert film of ZZ Top this morning I felt the need to grab the old sketchbook and whip out a quick sketch of Dusty Hill. And here it is...

Lawd, I do love that "Little Ol' Band from Texas"!

Dark Shadows contest

So in the course of trying to find more of an audience for my art, I finally looked into the deviantArt website. I'm still feeling out that whole process and have only been a part of it for a month or so, so I can't even truly give a complete critique of the experience yet. More to come on that later...

However one of the things they do have is a slew of contests. Differing themes and such and it seems to be a fun way to get people to do art. I'm always for that. But this one came up a few days ago that intrigued me. The upcoming film version of the old television show Dark Shadows seems to be sponsoring a contest to do a portrait of Barnabas Collins, the soap opera vampire. An old friend (the Cap'n from previous posts, to be exact) had introduced me to the character years ago. As I recall, it was a very odd, campy thing but it also didn't seem like that was the mood they were shooting for. It just kind of happened. Sets falling over during a shot and the director apparently saying "ah, to heck with it. THAT'S A WRAP!" and just leaving in the footage of the falling sets. However there seems to be a lot of folks who are not happy at all with the intentional comedic twist director Tim Burton seems to have given this current incarnation. Ah well, to each his own. I myself, think it looks kind of funny but I also don't have childhood remembrances tied up in it.

 So I came up with an idea for a Barnabas portrait and here it is...

The niftiest thing is that the finalists are to be judged by Tim Burton himself. (Okay, so the NIFTIEST part is the Hollywood prize monies offered, but still...Tim Burton looking at your stuff would be pretty cool, too.)

Mid Week Update

I promised more boxing pen and ink goodness and here it is...





These were also taken from sketches and photographs from the tournament I attended with friends last year.

Enjoy!

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.