Peace

I think I may have posted this before, but it fits this weeks Illustration Friday theme, PEACE. The sign she is doing means peace. This was a fun piece to do, the background is copper leaf and the image is mostly colored pencil, with some acrylic. Anyway, Peace....

Christmas Show Set Design

For the last few years I've done the set for the stage at our church's Christmas Show. Usually I do "city" scene with a tree, like Christmas in the city. This year I thought I'd try something else, so I got this idea and went with it. Anyway, here are pictures of the stage, the band area, and the exit doors. The pictures are sort of blurry, did my best to tighten them up, but it's hard to get a shot without tons of people in it! If you check my website you'll see a similar design (which is what I used to base the stage design from). Everybody seemed to liked it this year and want to use it again next year, but I already have another idea!

Mask, Illustration Friday

Ivan the Terrible, but behind the mask just a child putting on a show...

MIGHT, Illo. Friday

A very mighty sight, strongman and the sidekicks ready to take a bite! Don't forget to check out the Christmas stuff and pick up your cards and prints!

It's time for Christmas!

I just love Christmastime, everything seems cheery, it's cold, there's sparkling lights everywhere, people give you cookies, and it just seems like life is special. I know many people could care less, and others actually loathe the Christmas spirit and holiday's, but for me it's always been that time of year when everything is going to be okay, and you know soon you won't have to go to bed early because school will be out, no more "school nights" for a couple weeks!

So I usually do one or two Christmas themed pictures each year, whether it be santa and the elves, Jesus and the Nativity, or an homage to the Christmas gastronomic traditions. So check out my website for Christmas paintings and you can even buy cards and prints of them! I'm now offering prints of my work in 3 sizes, as well as 5x7 cards, so check them out and get those Christmas cards sent out before January if possible! Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's!

Let's make things CLEAR!!

This is where I AM sitting! Tiki monster for Illustration Friday.

african drums

I just finished this picture for a friends album cover and I thought it turned out pretty well, so here it is. I thought it also felt a little "autumn-ish". Anyway, it was a lot of fun to do, plus I love drawing big head masks on little people!

Illustration Friday, wind...

A picture I did awhile ago and thought it would fit. Just two dudes blowin' some wind (well, one is blowing)!

"smitten" i.f...

Seduced by the nut, or nutty from the bump!

Trouble Cat

For Illo. Friday, "trouble". My two black cats Sammy and Theodore inspire me in many ways, but perhaps most by their curiosity, which inevitably leads to trouble. Trouble for them and often trouble for me (one place they love to sit is wherever you are trying to work, usually on the drawing table!). So here is my tribute to black cats and October, the recipe for trouble!

A Quiet cup of Coffee...

...or tea, whatever you fancy! I think this guy may be drinking chai tea. Anyway, sshhhhh! Listen to it steam!

EL-tryptophan

So this last week my friend Jason and I made turkey burgers at work on the foreman grill (yes, I love my job!). But about an hour after lunch I was sorry I did, the big Thanksgiving turkey sleep started in. Then I started thinking, "I hate l-tryptophan, or is it tryptophan?" So when I got home I checked it out, it's l-tryptophan, and I thought it would cool to draw a picture of "EL-tryptophan"! So here he is, the guy with the mustache, putting me to sleep after my turkey burger. He could also be seen as keeping this child "safe" in a cloud of unconcious fairy dust, although how safe is he with that glove pointing at him!?

New Work

Well hopefully there are still people reading this since I haven't posted in a month! Been busy, but I have been painting. I'm posting two new pieces, one a pattern with a beetle at the center (why the scarab? your guess is as good as mine...) and the other a picture for my church's new series (without the title). This weekend was very "green" for me, also I hate to waste paint so when I have a color mixed up everything gets painted! I've also been into vintage / retro stuff lately, patterns and guys with mustaches (come back next week to see the mustache). Ronald Colman has one of the best! Enjoy...

Bear Munny...

Well, I started out with the intention to paint a bear on this munny, but I realized half way through that what makes a bear a bear is the ears farther up on the head. And a monkey is too obvious. So I ended up with a tired/drunk/lazy bear/monkey/thing. I'm pretty happy with it though, especially the vest. Now it's off to Colorado with both the munny's for the summer of munny show!

Strongman munny

I just finished painting my munny for the summer of munny contest and here are some pictures. I'll probably do another, but just wanted to see how this one went. I'm pretty happy with it. For those who don't know, a munny is a plastic toy that comes blank so you can paint it. They also come painted by artists. Anyway, now I'm trying to think of a name for him. Here's what I have so far: 1-Finchly 2-Gomez 3-Jacir Henrique 4 -Felipe. Let me know what you think and how you like him!

Illo Friday, Jungle

Having fun with jungle animals!

Feather Frame

Here is the newest frame I've done, the feather frame. Pictures above are frome carving the raw moulding to gesso and clay, to the finished gilded and toned frame with a rare Gould bird print. Actually the frame was created to go with the piece, which is why the long feather reaches down on the long sides. I appologize for the fabric rolls sticking out into the full shot, this is where we were hanging it while the print "settled". All in all it was fun and went well, much smoother than my first two! Now I'm working on three more!

ill. friday, portrait

Well, I love drawing faces, so I'm posting several. The first one I've posted on the blog before, the painting of Thelonious Monk. The rest are just drawings from my sketchbook. I've also just created a book of my sketches called "faces", available for sale ($5) tonight from 6-9 in San Jose (Anno Domini's street mrkt at 366 South First Street, San Jose, CA {map}) if anyone is in that area!
Anyway, also above is Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago, news reporter Keith Morrison, Humphrey Bogart, and Ted Koppel.

Ill. Friday, cake & sorry

This week is a double feature! I didn't finish the sorry picture until Friday and I really liked how it turned out, so here it is. Also is this weeks illo friday, CAKE! Birthday cake to be specific...

Ill. Friday, angels and devils

I didn't have much time this week to do a full blown illo, but here is a quick sketch. Angel and Devil fighting...

Ill. Friday, fat

A little late in the weeek, I haven't had time to do a new one. But here is a fat pig pushing out a loud note.

Ill. Friday, under the sea

The sea captain in the his submarine I did a week ago, how perfect that this weeks Illo. Friday is "under the sea"! I did the fish to try out some new watercolor colors and illustration board. Turned out okay, but don't think I'll be using the new board, stick to the tried and true Bainbridge 2200! You can also buy stuff with the sea captain on it at my cafe press store here.

Illustration Friday, robot!

So here is "chef-bot", modeled after a certain late-night-knife-selling-chef. This one was lots of fun, I also did a "mixer-bot" sketch which I may post. What a good word, robot...!

new lino

I've been having so much fun doing linocuts, and I think I'm starting to get into the groove as far as one block printing goes. It takes a different way of thinking about the image and how it will have greater impact using only one color or block. So this one is two colors, printed from one block.

Illustration Friday, spotted

I know, obvious, but I've been doing a lot of linocut lately and had a good idea for this cow. So here he is, spotted cow. Also is a portrait of Thelonious Monk I did. I should have new stuff up on my website soon (some portraits and linocuts), so check back in the next few days.

A portrait of Death Cab For Cutie, and a crusty sailor in a frame I refinished.

my first "trophy" frame!

So I'm almost complete with my first completely hand made, carved and water gilded frame (2 of them actually). I thought I'd share pictures for those interested. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the frame being carved or gessoed, but this first one is of the frame after it was clayed, ready to be water gilded.

This next picture is of the frame in the process of water gilding. The left half is before the gold leaf is applied, just wetted with water. The right side has a piece of gold just applied.

The third picture is the corner of the gilded frame.

Another picture of the corner design.

A picture of one frame gilded (in the back) and one clayed, ungilded.

And finally, the 2 gilded and burnished frames hanging on the wall. BLING!
And just for kicks, here is a water gilded frame that I did "sgrafitto" on in the black panel.
...Finally, another one (gold metal leaf, fake gold) with a painted design in the corner.