Background Development

This is an unfinished portion and yes, my forearm is in the FOREground for a reason :) I planned on having a more calm, neutral background but things changed. The beauty of art, it's flexible. Several days ago I was sad to know that Frank Frazetta passed on. I really wanted to meet him. After looking at some of his work again I thought an orange background could be nice so I followed my instincts. The flames developed out of spontaneity, inspiration and just plain anger. Loads of fun in painting fire. Try it! This is for you Frank!

The Mermaid Sale & Illuxcon 2010

I'm very happy to announce that I recently sold "The Mermaid" to Pat Wilshire, one of the founders of Illuxcon. http://www.illuxcon.com/frontpage Pat and his wife, Jeannie, are internationally recognized collectors. They began Illuxcon a couple years back in their hometown of Altoona, PA and it is a success. Donato Giancola, Boris Vallejo, Michael Whelan, John Jude Palencar and my good friend Eric Fortune are just a few of the extremely talented artists that are planning to attend this years event. I was overwhelmed with excitement when I received an email from Pat inquiring about the mermaid and encouraging me to display my work with a showcase table at Illuxcon in November. I'm currently in the process of creating several pieces for the show which I hear is a great experience. I'm looking forward to meeting Pat, Jeannie and everyone! Pat, I can't thank you enough for the purchase and for leading me into such an amazing opportunity! Pat also runs a cool website called The Illustration Exchange. http://www.munchkinpress.com/IndexOLD.html I suggest you check it out along with the Illuxcon website!

I made a box for the mermaid before shipping it out to PA. Packed it pretty tight between layers of cardboard, shredded paper and foam. Luckily, it arrived unharmed and Pat and Jeannie were pleased with the piece. Thanks again to the both of you!

"Mad Fox" Time Lapse Youtube Video

I thought it would be cool to create a short time lapse video of me finishing up the "Mad Fox" piece. I also decided to spend a couple days writing and recording a song for it. I began jamming and recording with the bass, added 4 different guitar parts and drums. Had to do a lot of editing with the video but everything seems to fit alright. Lots of work for 1min. & 30seconds but loads of fun! Turn up your speakers!

Mindless Strokes

This is me attempting to look dramatic while throwing the first layer of paint down. I'm a horrible actor! :) Just a couple raw colors, some wet on wet, mindless strokes. Good times!

From Sketch to Fixatif

I decided to take my second 5.5" x 8.5" sketch further. After researching panther images, taking reference photos of my friend, building some crude maquettes and finishing the final drawing on canvas, I applied a couple layers of Krylon Wokable Fixatif in my garage. The piece is 24" x 36" and I'll be using the crazy oils.

"Unification" Framed!

Finally had this framed! This is my breast cancer donation piece I finished on Feb. 1st. http://beautifulgrim.org/info.html It will be an online auction. I bought a custom frame and had it assembled at Michaels. No glass though, too risky. Had to wait a few days for it to arrive before I took my artwork in but it took only a half hour and they do a good job. All I have to do is either find a box to buy or make my own before shipping it out to California tomorrow, in one piece :)

"Mad Fox" oil 22" X 28"

Finally finished! Almost 1 am. and I'm wide awake. It's hard to move on from my paintings. Every time I look at them, I want to adjust something. I'm actually doing it right now! Time to climb the next mountain though. This is a low res photo but I wanted to share the piece.
After receiving some feedback from my friend Eric. I sharpened up the face so it wasn't conflicting with the crisp edges of the fox. Made sense! Had some blurry reference photos. Don't be a slave to your reference. It's always nice to have other eyes looking at your piece when all you're doing is staring at it forever.

To give you a sense of scale, here's a photo of me sitting behind the piece with a zippo lighter on the bottom right.