creep

Here is a super creepy nightmare man with the cold stare of a soul swallower. Drawn with a micron pen, and painted with watercolors.

Obsidian Carvings

Here are a few obsidian carvings I did recently, using a dental quality hand drill. Obsidian, or as some folks call it, Apache tears, is volcanic black glass that looks opaque, but if you hold it up against a light, it's translucent in a most spectacular way. Not the easiest material to grind on, as it tends to chip, but the end results are worth it.

eagle

rattlesnake

wolf skull

Bridge Boy

Here is the latest painting Ive done for my friend and coworker Maria. This is from a photo of one of her sons crossing a wooden bridge in Mexico. This is a 16" x 20" acrylic on canvas, and one of the more realistic paintings Ive done, as far as lighting goes. I think this is commission number five that Ive done for her, and I do not mind... hope to do a lot more. In fact, Im working on number six for her right now. Its a big watercolor of a burnt and stabbed winged woman floating in a storm over mud, skulls and flower petals...a fun one;) She has some crazy (but good) ideas.

The Shut-Eye Series

These odd and colorful watercolor paintings belong to a series I did a couple of months ago I called the Shut-Eye Series. Each one was drawn in about two minutes with a micron pen, and with my eyes completely shut. Then I would paint them (with my eyes open) with watercolor paints. I really loved doing these, and was surprised how much control I had on the drawing part, what with not looking and all. I would like to do another series of these, maybe one with animals, famous people, sailor's kneecaps or something like that.






Here are three of the pre-painted drawings, just to show you the ridiculousness I was giving myself to work with.

Brixey

This is a cat.

His name is Brixey.

He'll have the fish.

Canvas Stickers

Here are a couple of acrylic paintings I did on 4" x 4" canvas stickers. I still have these two, but most of the other stickers I made were stuck around town. The brown titi monkey here was stuck in a phone booth for a couple months, but I went and took it back after I saw it had been ripped. If you look closely at that one you can see an angelic Jesus type character and a little R2D2 hidden in the picture. Needless to say I had fun with these.

Br' er Rabbid

Here's a lovely pen and ink drawing/painting of a terrifying nightmare rabbit. I love using ink, sometimes more than watercolor. The colors tend to really stand out, adds a lot of depth. The brand of ink I use is Higgins, and they haven't let me down yet.

Fire Water Pissing Contest

 Acrylic on panel board
12" x 12"

Butterfly Boy

 This is the fourth commission I've done for Maria. It's acrylic on canvas, 11"x 14", and painted from a picture she took in Mexico where she used to live. The boy surrounded by the yellow butterflies is one of her four (soon to be five) sons.

I like how this one turned out a lot. I was trying out kind of an impasto style painting, putting down a thick layer of gesso with a palette knife to begin with, and then adding lots of heavy body acrylics atop that, resulting in nice thick textures and depth.

Gnomenclature

 

So I've always had an obsession for gnomes, elves, and the whole mythical fairy realm in general. I thought maybe I!'d grow out of by the time I was 30, and Im 32 now, so I guess I'm in it for the long haul. I blame movies like Labyrinth, Legend, and the Dark Crystal. Brian Froud is one of my all time favorite artists alive today.

Anyways, I drew this little pipe smoking gnome at work on a post-it note, and then drew a much bigger version on cardboard with a sharpie. Maybe next I'll recreate him in paint, or clay...I don't know, I just really like him!

Mini Canvas Green Man

This 2"x 2" acrylic on canvas green man type character is one of my son's favorites right now. Since I painted it the other day, he has been carrying it around the house and making it talk to his lego guys and mario toys. I showed him how to put varnish on the painting so it will have a layer of protection from scratches, scrapes, and anything else dealt by the hands of an imaginative 8 year old. I plan on showing him everything I know about art, little by little, step by step. I hope he learns to love it as much as I have. There really is so much joy and pleasure in creating art, whether it be an intricate painting that takes over a year to finish (see last post) or a doodle on a post-it note (see next post). I would truly love to be able to pass it on to him.

Sixteen Canvas

 
 

This is sixteen 6"x 6" canvases that all go together to make one big grandiose acrylic painting of some kind of strange and surreal universe where all creatures, big and small, beautiful and hideous, strange and...stranger, can get along and perform random acts of instinct and insanity without any fear of judgement or harassment....or something along those lines haha.

Two golden boys ride and control the mountainous, magma-eyed buffalo who tries to warn the octopus king away from the cephalopod-like san pedro cactus with its mighty, drooling tongue.

A mischievous elf-rat converses with a narwhal who, with its elongated horn, is puncturing one of the pinkish powder clouds blown by the purple sasquatch to dissipate the smokey wrath of the old man in the volcano.

Okay, that pretty much covers it.

Love Liza

Love Liza   marker on paper  2007

Jack Kehler holding my drawing of
of Philip Seymour Hoffman and himself from
the movie Love Liza

This is a marker drawing of a scene from the 2002 film Love Liza, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, and the man in the picture holding the drawing, Jack Kehler!

Mr. Kehler's daughter-in-law found the picture on this blog (I'm guessing through google) and contacted me through email the day Mr. Hoffman died (feb 2), inquiring about buying the piece for Jack. We agreed on a price and I happily mailed it to her.

Jack Kehler himself emailed me asking about the piece as well, it was funny because I couldn't mention that Id already sold it to his daughter-in-law, as she had told me it would be for his birthday. So I just told him all about the drawing and mentioned that he was in a few of my favorite movies (lost highway, the big lebowski, pineapple express).

After I received the pic of him holding the piece, I got another email from Jack. He was very happy to get the drawing, told me it meant a lot to him, as working with Philip Seymour Hoffman was a major highlight of his career. Its funny because this was definitely a highlight in my art life as well.

The whole thing was just so surreal. I loved it. Its not everyday I get contacted by famous actors about my art. Oh, and lastly, it was really strange...they came across my drawing on the day before Philip Seymour Hoffman died. Kind of eerie and sad.

Crytchel the Hobgoblin

Here's Crytchel. He's a hobgoblin.

Speed Drawing- two handed charcoal drawing

Two handed charcoal drawing of a devilish demon of sorts, sped up for your pleasure. Finally got a decent video editing app, although Im still not completely satisfied with the quality of video my phone gives me (haha, what a whiner I am:"The movies that my telephone records are not good enough for me, wahhh!") I just need a good camera, not to mention a new computer, then these will turn out much better. And maybe I could try turning my damn iphone sideways haha

Circular Watercolor Animals...Bam!

Here's a couple of late night/early morning watercolors of a Japanese macaque (or snow monkey) and a desert tortoise (or dirt turtle :-). after painting them I decided they needed to be more circular, so I cut them in such a manner as that. I plan on doing many more of these circle animals, but you know how that goes. We will see.

Campsite in the Rain

My latest commission piece for friend Maria. She's titled it Peace within the Storm. Had a lot of fun painting this one. She gave me a list of things she wanted in the campsite, like the type of truck (a blue '91 chevy), the three dogs (two boxers and an american bulldog), and the half eaten hot dog and nun chucks. I got to add whatever else I wanted. The raindrops, which I anticipated to be the hardest part, ended up only taking about 20 minutes and being pretty fun once I got the hand movement down. Its acrylic on canvas, 14" x 18".

Chalk Again

Some more back patio chalk drawings...

Chalk

A few chalk and charcoal drawings I've been doing lately before it gets too hot outside. Its already hit  over 100 this year here in AZ,while in Alaska its still snowing (as of yesterday)! I miss the great white north. But I guess you can't really draw with chalk on the snow, so I guess Im okay for right now.