Original 1

It's been a while since I've posted, sorry for the delay. I've been busy and I've managed to start 4 or 5 new paintings without finishing any of them. Hopefully it won't be another 2 months between postings.

This is the first painting of what I hope is a 6 piece series. I wanted to paint the NHL's original 6 franchises as you would have seen them on cards from the mid-fifties. Those old cards usually had a splash background in some ugly colour, with a cut-out action pose from the player.

The player is not a specific person, I just wanted to capture a 50's Brylcreem look with some of that great old leather equipment. This piece is 12" X 16" and the white border is measured in such a way to give the interior painting the exact dimensions of a hockey card. This was my first painting on Canvas Board, and it is acrylic paint. I'm about 2/3rds done the next one in this series (Boston Bruins), and I hope I have enough steam to do all 6 teams. I'm a little intimidated by the Chicago Blackhawks logo, and the Toronto Maple Leafs logo from the 50's as well. This one took about 45 hours in total.

The Night Game

This piece took a long time to realise as I found myself very busy with some series work. I was sketching bats for a children's book concept and I was struck by the visual absurdity of setting their entire world upside down. I drew these two 'fruit' bats in various poses and outfits but in the end I really liked them just having a mundane game of 21 or H.O.R.S.E. Going with my upside down world creates a few mechanical issues for basketball, but these bats are young earth creationists so they don't let the theory of gravity get in the way of their fun.

I really like how the tree bark detail turned out, I put a lot of effort into it. I also like the transparency to the wings. The signature is upside down on purpose in keeping with my topsy-turvy theme, and I realize it's not a 'night' scene but my title 'The Night Game' is for the bats... because to them daytime is nighttime. This painting is 12"x36", acrylic on canvas and it was probably 50 hours all together (though it has been hard to track as this piece was started about a month ago).

Street Scene

This is another digital development piece for the same project I posted for earlier. I am quickly realizing that my favorite colour is green. This was painted in photoshop, but the B&W art work was hand drawn in inks and scanned. It's dark and moody, which is what I was going for. It's not particularly artful in style but it got the job done.

Zombies come in Threes!

This painting was inspired by some doodles I was sketching during a confluence of morbid events. Michael Jackson had just died, so I was being nailed by all the creepy autopsy death talk as well as inundated by images from the Thriller video. At the same time a few other celebrities had died and I was being bludgeoned by the ridiculous and recurring myth that celebrity deaths come in three's... obviously if death comes in three's than zombies would also logically follow this apparently natural numerology. On top of that I was reading Mary Roach's excellent book entitled 'Stiff - The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers' which deals with decomposition, willing your body to science, and the human history of how we deal with our dead. Suffice it to say I couldn't really stop drawing zombies and skulls, and this painting is the end result. The piece is acrylic on canvas, 12" X 12", and it took me about 22 hours total.

Development Painting

This is a digital piece I did for a development project. It was painted in Photoshop, after all the hand drawn ink layers were scanned in to the computer. I really concentrated on the mood and the time of day. I wanted it to appear misty or hazy so close to the river, and I wanted to peg the time at about 3:00 am. The bridge was referenced from some very old stock photos of New York City.

Johnny's Wedding

This is the first painting I ever painted where I had the intention to give it away when I was done. This was difficult for me for some reason, as a lot of time and energy go into these things, and I'm enjoying their company so much. I have no desire to sell any of these pieces, so giving something away is somehow even more abstract(I've really learned to put a price on my artwork and time, being a professional artist will do that I guess). The target for this painting is someone really special to me, and I was going to be unable to go to his wedding (him getting married is the equivalent to witnessing a religous miracle, an alien spacecraft, and Bigfoot all at the same time... it was previously believed to be impossible, so missing his wedding is pure craziness). I painted this for Johnny Dimartile, a colleague and a friend, almost a brother, and a very very special guy. Obviously the concept is hell freezing over, which is appropriate in celebrating Johnny's wedding, but the double joke in there is that Johnny is a Catholic (An Italian Catholic, ash on the forehead, Pope is infallible, Italian Catholic), AND a loyal friend so he will undoubtedly feel obligated to hang this somewhere in his house... and I love the idea of a serious Catholic having a picture of the Devil up somewhere in his house. This painting is 12" X 12" acrylic on canvas, and is full of drybrush technique with the snow and ice everywhere. This piece took about 40 hours even though it's the smallest piece I've done, a lot of small details and a lot of drybrushing. Congratulations on your marriage Johnny!

Nero

This painting is of my favorite kitty. I had to put her down because of some serious behavioral issues, and in my last week with her I chose to paint a little homage. This piece is 18" X 14" acrylic on canvas, and I was definitely trying for a classic 'Golden Book' style of painting. Those little Golden Books (The Poky Little Puppy, The Little Red Hen, and of course The Saggy Baggy Elephant) had an awful lot of amazingly diverse artists working on them, and a lot of the artwork had an undertone of creepiness. The paintings were detailed, and usually very rendered, and I tried hard to treat Nero's fur with that textural brushy approach... she was a very fuzzy cat. This piece took about 30 hours, and it was actually emotionally difficult, but probably cathartic. I loved my Nero.