New Stuff On The Way

I sincerely apologize to all of you for my lack of new work this year. As I mentioned previously, we've been busy with our other company and in between I've been pumping out plaque orders for Shanalogic and Art Star. I've made over a hundred in the past couple months and although I'm itching to get to painting again, I started another batch of new plaques just for you guys!

A small portion of what's on my desk:

The "Mr. McPrickles" and "No S'more" plaques are in the drying stage and they should be ready to go up for sale in my shop in a day or two. The rest will have to wait about a week or so since I've got another batch of work that's needs tending to.

So I'm off to work but keep your eyes peeled as new stuff is on the way!

Thanks for sticking around :D

Meth And Hot Dogs 2

I was so excited to be asked to participate in this show. Quite the diverse lineup of artists (click the image to see), too bad I can't make it out. It's being held at Lift Designer Toys and Gallery in Michigan on April 30th. I did want to show you what my contribution will be.

I've had these two swimming around in my brain for six months and thought the long presentation would work well for a gallery setting (since it's hard to get the full picture over the net)

Sketched out...

and then almost finished, they looked pretty in the morning light...

Enjoy :)

Taking A Break

Ed and I have been working feverishly on putting together and trying to learn our new computers and software for our animation/ink and paint business. It's been...let's say, trying. We know that it's going to be a great help for us but we have quite the learning curve ahead of us. We decided to take brain breaks and do our own artwork.

I doodled up this little guy...

and started painting him up yesterday afternoon...

I apologize that my work is not as morbid or complex as of late, but I needed something simple to work on :) I also found a few of these custom plaques that my dad had made and completely forgot about. I think the shape is working out well with Skunky.

Progress

I had a theme of 'tigers' for one of this month's Flash Magazine illustrations. After doing the initial sketch...

...I was inspired to actually paint him instead of continuing on in Photoshop for the final. I roughed in the colors, shading and textures in Photoshop...

...and then transferred that to a plaque and began painting yesterday afternoon:

Just a teeny bit nervous since this is my first painting in months, but then again, I was always nervous painting ;)

My Poor Meatball

While walking through B&N looking at magazines I noticed a cover that had a plate of spaghetti. 'Well, now why haven't I done a little meatball boy with a swirl of spaghetti on his head?' I know now. Spaghetti and meatballs are hard.

So I present a little sample of where I started, a video of my progress and where it all ended up. Enjoy :)

I wanted to get specific photo reference for this one so I made up a little batch of meatballs and spaghetti to play around with. A few toothpicks, some strategically placed sauce and about 30 photos later I came up with the first photo. Then on to Photoshop to get the details finalized along with an appropriate background and shadows.

With that done, I printed out a version that was sized to my plaque, traced it and then began to paint.

The finished piece, with some closeups below. The fat reflections on the top of his head are my favorite.

It always amazes me that I have no idea what I'm doing or how I go about painting - I hope for the best and it just happens. Thank goodness it worked out once again ;)

Something Before Your Meal?

I'm itching to get some new work to you and I really though I'd have those five new paintings scanned and back by now. But you can't rush these things and Dave at Archive Print does such a fantastic job I absolutely do not want to bother him.

But I still want to show you something new so here's a quick shot of what's lined up on my desk today: intial layout of what I'm calling "Boffo" for now, "Jelly" (edging over the line for Cuddly, but I still love the way it came out), peppermint doesn't have a name yet but coming along nicely, golf ball boy will be redone as this was a shitty panel to work with but I love the concept, "Fromage" (still needs some final touches) and "Coffee Break" all done.