Working

Heres' something to look at: an etching plate I proofed this weekend, an Albino Frog out in the back yard, and me working on a sculpture that is nearly completed. Life is good.

The life and times of Timmy Fifel

The trick is not to get distracted, drawn in, don't be reactive. Just remain still and present without judgement. I know, it's hard, but try.

Blogging Blogs

Awhile back I posted some pics of a friend I worked back at Disney with,  Tom Thorspecken,when he came over to sketch me while I sculpted.  He started a blog in the beginning of the year with the goal of posting a new sketch every day. He's covered many interesting events here in Orlando over the past 6 months. His sketches are always impressive and his stories compliment them well. Right now I follow two blogs, one is his , and the other is Justin & Shels stop animation journey at Stop Motion Mission. They both inspire me with there dedication and love of what they do and also the work they produce because of this  passion & dedication. Tom posted the sketch he did of me that day here :)

It wasn't easy, but nothing is............

After finishing a sculpture I started many moons ago,I decided to have a little fun with it, colorful fun that is. Interesting thing about this sculpture; it is based on a pen and ink drawing I did awhile back "Growing Together" . My wife and I live a modest life in a modest house that is supplied with an arsenal of artistic weapons. It's our sanctuary, and we rarely seem to stray from it, at least for the last 5 years now. During that time we seem to have grown together, and made quite a content life for ourselves, both of us pursuing our art. I began drawing these man and woman themed pen and ink studies where the two were physically growing together. This 1st sculpture in a series I hope to do. It took some time to complete because of time issues and also a wandering mind that led me astray. When I did have time to sit and work on it my mind was not where it should have been and I veered off and added a bunch of design elements that had no real purpose and did not add to the story. I had a moment of clarity the other day and began lopping off the dead wood, so to speak. When I was done stripping it down, I found myself back at the original drawing. I think I have learned something from this, and if not I hopefully will be able to see more clearly when I am making poor design decisions:)

etching proof

Here's a look at an etching proof I ran tonight. I'm rather pleased with the direction that my etchings are headed in. I scribbled on this plate off and on for the last few weeks during my breaks at work, along with scribbling on quite a few pen and ink drawings I have not finished yet. This plate was a bit of an experiment to try and see the kind of detail in line I can get to hold up through the acid biting process, I think it faired pretty well, and I think I can take it much further. Once I get through these last few plates and start working in copper with ferric chloride I think I can take it still even further. The ferric chloride bites straight down, so there's less expansion of line during the biting, which equals more detail holding up:)

Infected

I know I'm supposed to be posting my first sculpture by now, but I just have not been able to finish it yet. I'm not sure that my schedule will allow me to produce my sculptures as quickly as I had hoped. But none the less, I still plan on doing a series of 12 sculptures, as you can see I'm continuing to explore the man & woman theme in my drawings. It's probably time to start tinkering with some etching plates along the same theme also. 

Kiss!

I think this will serve as inspiration for my next sculpture, speaking of that I'd better finish up the first sculpture. I think I'll be doing a series of let's say 12 sculptures, all with the man and woman theme. I guess that's what happens when you're happily married, it seeps into your work. 

Back to sculpting

A friend of mine, Tom Thorspecken asked if he could come over and sketch me while I was working on a sculpture. Tom is an extremely talented artist living here in Orlando Fl., and since the beginning of the year has been doing a sketch a day and posting them on his blog. While most of us may cringe at the thought of trying to tackle complicated and cluttered scenes, Tom revels in them and dives in with little trepidation. Along with a loose and carefree style of documenting all in his point of view, Tom has been writing the most wonderful, stories of his sketching adventures, that I find very entertaining and sometimes informative. You can see his sketchbook chronicles at his sketch blog here. 

I'd like to thank Tom for giving me the jolt I needed to make some time to get back to playing with clay, and also for finding me to be Sketch Blog worthy. 

I'll talk about the sculpture next weekend when I hope to have it finished up, Let's go for one sculpture a week, that shouldn't be too hard to manage? we'll see...... 

Pen & Ink continues

The plan is simple at this point in time. Just to continue on smiling. The end of the year seems as good a time as any to pick up my head and look to see where I am. Sometimes giving up control, and being more content and accepting can take you to places you may not have been able to get to had you taken control yourself. I hope to find my work has traveled to an extraordinary place when I pick up my head to look, sometime at the end of this year. 

Etching proof

I stole some time last week during my breaks at work to scribble on a plate, which I dipped and proofed this weekend when I was supposed to working on some freelance. This one is getting a little more busy than the last ones, which I like. I still have to take them further and spend more time on each plate. No fear though, a have a bunch of plates to get though, and I plan on living till I'm about 92, so that gives me plenty of time to do some really unique pieces. 

Pen & Ink

There is a story here, I promise you that. 

Pen & Ink

Life just seems to get easier when you stop fighting it, and just enjoy the ride. My new mind set of working seems to be paying off. I've wrested long enough with my artwork, I'm just going along for the ride these days, and it's pretty darn fun! 

proofs

Proofs

Proofing plates

I guess it's been at least three years now since I bought my self an etching press. But for a number of reasons I have not produced any etchings besides a christmas print the first year and an occasional failed attempt to recreate my drawing style on an etching plate. The one major reason for not producing plates was just a yellow streak that was running down my back, and now with my new found happy art making mode, the fear of bunking up an etching plate has been alleviated. Good bad or everything in between, from now on I'll be making prints. The fear is gone, at least for now. These are some pics of me proofing some plates I did this past week. 

Back in the saddle

I said yes to some freelance 2d animation work and then I remembered I had sold my animation desk last summer. So I had to throw together a box to draw on. Here's my 30 dollar animation box hung on a drafting table. Next can of worms to open is Zbrush, I got a demo yesterday from a friend at work, and I'm sold. Trust me there's a path here somewhere. 

Ease

Now it's not that I haven't been working that I haven't posted any new work. I have just been working on computer animation, yes Maya, the 21st century, I have finally arrived!! But lately I have been drawing, and enjoying myself I might say. I hope to soon be posting some etchings that I am currently working on . I'm sure all my loyal fans we be thrilled at what I have come up with. This drawing is titled "Ease" for the reason of my new demeanor have have taken with the approach to my work. No more struggles here mate, all smooth flowing lines of artistic bliss:)

Back to making masks

I know you may think I haven't been doing any work lately, but your wrong. 

On Display

I've got a number different ways that I would like to display the masks I've been making. this is one way, building display bases that hold them.

Beauty in death

Thanksgivings flowers may be dead, but I find them more beautiful that way anyhow. 

Buddha gets mounted

Well, it's been a hart warming story that continues on with Buddha moving to greener pastures. A dear friend of mine showed up at the show last week and loved my work:) So he decided to become a patron. He purchase one of my masks, then he saw Buddha and loved him so we decided that he should go and live with Sam, Claire, and the kitties too. I could not think of a better place for him to live. So like the title implies, I've mounted him and am getting him ready for his new home. Thanks Sammy, for your support, your confidence and also your friendship. 

Sculpture show

This thursday, Dec 4th I'll be out at the Orlando Museum of Art for a sculpture show. I'll be showing three of my pieces with a smile. I also thought I might put out some promo cards, to try and expand my fan base. Now I'm not saying that I don't appreciate my loyal fans that I already have, I just think the three of you might be lonely and thought you might like to have some company:)

Buddha at dinner

Well, some time ago, I posted a sculpture that was a over sized head with some arms that sprouted from beneath and with these he was walking on, also the back of his head was blown out and hollow. What was supposed to be inside of his empty head was this sculpture of buddha. Unfortunately, that large sculpture didn't survive the firing and came crashing down inside the kiln, which proceeded to take out a number of other pieces that were below it. Everyone but Buddha bit the big one that day, everything came crashing down around him, and I was lucky not to have any kiln damage and our little friend Buddha sat there untouched. Well that's something to give thanks for, so it seemed appropriate to have him join us for Thanksgiving dinner. I hope all my loyal blog readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving day, all three of you:)

More book art

Here's a look at two more illustrations from that book I was working on. These were all done in the application painter, I think I would like to start painting in oils for the next two books I do. I like working in painter but there's something that starts bothering me along the way and I'm not sure what it is, I just think I'd rather have a real painting in front of me to focus on. 

Chapter Cherubs

These are the drawings for the chapter headers on the book I'm working on. 

Signature page

This is a drawing for the book I'm working on, this will be the signature page. I call it "In the Shadow of the Dark Angel. It's for a book being published by Roy Robbins at Bad Moon Books  titled: "Shadow of the Dark Angel" by Gene O'Neill. I should be finished with all the artwork by the end of the month and will post more then. 

Dark Angel Slump

Well, I opened the kiln this morning and found that the Dark Angel sculpture slumped quite a bit during the glaze firing. I thought he might slump backwards, that's why he has those little feet coming off the bottom of his wings, to help give him support. I guess I've got another head scratcher on my hands, plenty of thoughts about why it happened that I won't bore you with. If you look at the sculpture unfired he has a bit of a backwards lean..... Oh well, I'm never quite sure what goes on inside of that kiln. 

Pen & Ink

Just exorcising some demons

Intestinal Disorder?

Or I guess we could call it Montezuma's revenge

Work in progress

I've recently discovered something while making my dough one day. It's a simple little thing, but it makes a big difference in the texture of the dough and also the bread after it is baked. Now you'll notice that I basically pour out the dough onto the table after I let it rise for an hour or so. You would think that I'm using too much water, but you get a better rise and a smoother texture in the dough this way. And when you bake it you get a nice crisp crust and a light fluffy inside. Now I had no cheese in the house to make my pizza tonight so I had to settle for just some diced tomatoes, and some spice. Let's call it Pizza Bruschetta. And remember always cook your pizzas at 500 deg. for that nice crispy crust! One day when I own my own gallery, I'll have my pizza oven in it, so I can cook pizzas for every show opening, hope to see you all there:)

Testing

This is a piece in progress, which like most of my work makes me stop and scratch my head from time to time. I had this really fun idea in my mind that this sculpture, "Unforeseen obstacle" would look great if I constructed this light box with a thick piece of plexiglass that came up out of it (the "Unforeseen Obstacle"). You would turn on the light and the whole piece of plexi would glow (illuminating the "Unforeseen Obstacle"). Well as you can see only the edges of the glass glow. Which in the top pic, in the light, hardly seem worth the trouble. So, now I'm back to scratching my head to figure out if I should do something else. 

Sculpture show

I took a little time and finished up the base for the "Burly man" which I have submitted along with 2 other sculptures, for a sculpture show at the Orlando Museum of art. I got a chance to use a piece of that granite I picked up awhile back. It was quite a task to figure out how to cut those miters to trim out the granite. The angle was more then the old miter saw can get to, so I had do some head hurting thinkin' to figure it out. The little piece of walnut on top is on a lazy susan so you can turn him around. If you want to read a little about the "Burly Man" you can read it at my website. The Other 2 are "The Struggle Forward" and "Looking Back". Wish me luck, I'm hoping this might get me started in the local art scene. 

Pen & ink

I think I'm getting in the mood to do a nice big complicated drawing, now if I'm just smart enough to make the time to do it. I think the secret is not to make a big complicated drawing in my head first. Too much premeditation in work makes you focus on the completed drawing and not the drawing of the drawing.