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. 

Visit from the Dark Angel

This is one of the interior illustrations from the book I'm working on. I think I want to say it's finished but I can't guarantee that I won't paint in the foreground figure some more. 

"Shadow of the Dark Angel"

This is the cover for a the book I mentioned I was doing, I'll post the interior illustrations as I finish them up. It's sort of a psychological exploration of the main characters damaged inner world. I think most of us who have spent too much time inside of our own heads, can relate to how messy things can get in there. 

Posted new/old work on my website

A few years ago I started messing around in Maya, which I really enjoyed, and thought I might be able to pursue a position in, somewhere? But after a few interviews with some studios, I realized that having no real experience, and little training was not going to get me very far. By that Time I had already gotten the bug to pursue my other work Pen & Ink drawings and Sculpture. I did enjoy working in Maya to come up with designs for a story of my own, something I hope one day to stop and return to finish. If your interested in seeing some more of this stuff, I've posted some of it on my website here 3-D Modeling

I also posted some visual development work I did back at Disney for a small side project that died one day because of production demands. The story took place on a wall and was told by the animated cave drawings that lived there, the story was base on the story of "King Lair". This is a panel of thumbnails I did to get some idea of the wall layout, and color. See more here  Cave Art

A little over a year ago I spent some time working with a good friend of mine, here in Orlando. Xin Lin, pronounced "shinyee", a former background painter at Disney who grew up in China. Xin has many stories of what it was like to grow up in Communist China under Mao and the communist party. I'm glad I took sometime to get back to the basics with Xin, and would like to make sometime to do more work with him. Anyhow you can see more drawings and some other stuff here. Drawing & Painting

I've also posted some examples of my digital illustration,which has been off and on work for me, but at the present moment is on. I'll be posting some new work pretty soon after I finish it up for an up coming book title "Shadow of the Dark Angel" written by Gene O'Neill and is being published By Roy Robbins at Bad Moon Books

You can see more illustration work here Digital Illustration

The Devil from within emerges

I was going thru some old archived files the yesterday and came across this portrait with horns. Since Halloween is coming up on us soon, I thought I would post it. It's just some digital photography tinkered with in photoshop. Happy Halloween- Boo

Life & Death in the back yard

I was out doing some yard work this week, and this is what I have to show you, the last pineapple of the season, possibly the last bloom of the season, and a poor little squirrel skull I found under the wood shack. 

Blessing

Yin crushes Yang?

I think this one is pretty good. Something about the tinted paper, I'm liking on these last few. Art to me is about enjoying the ride, if I struggle with something 9 out of 10 times I won't like it after I finish it. When you tense up and struggle with your drawing you loose the rhythm, and even if can mange to finish it up successfully, there will be less unity in the piece. Your head can be as much a hindrance as it can help you make the right decisions. These days I'm trying to ride that fine line of using my brain but not abusing my art with it. 

Growing together

I like this one

Pen & Ink

I've been a little busy with some book illustrations and some other stuff. But I finally sat down to scribble out a drawing. 

RIP

Right after Gerry Garcia died, which was I guess back in 1995, an old friend of mine called me with an idea. He said that since the Grateful dead was in deed now dead, that a new group would soon take it's place. This new band was Phish, and the one thing fish didn't have was artwork to peddle. That's what he came to me for. Well anyway, we didn't get very far into our master plan, whatever that was. But I did do this funky drawing for what back then was one of their most popular songs, "Run like an antelope" 

Ego 3

Brain Sucker

I think this was a little drawing I did after I realized that all my ideas that usually swirl around in my brain in abundance, were disappearing from time to time. I was convinced that something was cyphering them from my head. 

What?

This is an old ink drawing with water color that was sitting around in a box of many other old drawings just collecting dust. I like the energy and tone of what ever it was I was doing here. 

pen & Ink

Ego2

Pen & Ink

Ego 

"Then Came Shimmie"

This will bore most everyone!

This is a movie I made in protest to the time when my wife Jacque decided we needed Another little mouth to feed. We already had two doggies, but she wanted her little Pomerianian, and me being Mr. Sappy went along with it. There's some really fun video on here with Dunkin and Shimmie playing, something they don't do anymore. I know, it's a home movie.

Pen & Ink

I just like ink. It doesn't even have to be a good drawing, I just like the way it looks, and I like making the marks. Take these two doodles for instance, they stink, but I still sort of like them:)

Made symmetrical

This is that same painter illustration from before, with much more work done on it, cut in half and book matched to make two. For some reason I like doing this.

Two

I was cute!

Magic Eye?

Something from painter, with a little help from photoshop.

Colors I found in the back yard