Don't come here anymore...Go there.

Since blogger isn't good enough to make me happy, I've moved to Wordpress.
Click here to visit the new site.

WTF Blogger!

You call yourself real blogging tool? Pah! You're nothing but a cheap-rate, two-bit piece of crap that does nothing for my artstic soul! In fact, if I were to draw on a napkin, eat it then crap it out - that crap would be more artistic than blog spot.

To sum up - You suck blogger. I'll see you in hell. And Wordpress.

Vampire Hunter B

Today I did some work on the Thomas Blackhall picture. JRD is hoping to post the story on his site soon so I have to kick it into gear. I will definitely post a link to his site again when he publishes the story. I'm pretty excited about reading it, too.



So I took the original Blackhall sketch and I did a second draft. It's been changed a bit to suit what I feel the character would be like. It's a little less cowboy-y and a little more...well...I dunno. I can't explain. This draft says to me "I am here to slay your vampires". I don't know if that's really what Thomas Blackhall's into, but it's certainly a good look for him.

Practice Targets and Pedro The Cowboy

It's getting late and it's been a long day. I'm pretty tired, but before I get to bed, let me share with you my not-so-artistic-but-creative project of the day - practice targets!

JRD got himself a new toy to play with and he asked me if I could conjure him up some targets. I thought our son might enjoy painting with me, so I employed his help on the project, too. He's been watching his dad play some video games recently and he drew some of the enemies from said game for us to practice shooting. I drew a few bullseyes and, just to change it up, a person-shaped target. With the person-shaped target I got our son to lie down on the board and I traced around him. Then I made all the porportions a little bigger 'cause I felt kinda bad about making a child-sized target. Initially I was just going to paint the person black, but JRD asked me to put a mean face on it, so I figured if I was putting a face on it I had to make the rest of it look like a person, too.

Then I decided it would be a cowboy. Named Pedro.

What's Behind Door #1?

Click on it to find out!
I was searching the intertubes for things of interest this morning and I found that image at POE [photographers of etsy]. I only just found this site a while ago but I'm *really* enjoying the photography posted on the site so far. In fact, I think I'd like to work on my own photography sometime in the near future. I haven't worked with this medium in quite a long time - or at least, not with any artistic aspirations - so it should be fun.

Aside from just thinking it's a nice photo, though - this is the kind of image that makes me want to learn how to use Flash. Doesn't that knob look like you could just reach out and turn it? What if you could open that door to somewhere else entirely? JRD insists on crushing my dreams and tells me that Flash can't really do the job I'm hoping for. But maybe there's a better program out there? Maybe one day you'll come back here and find a door to somewhere else just waiting to be opened...

Yeah, they migrate here in the early spring...

Okay, so here's the deal. I know that this picture isn't exactly the greatest work of art ever. I just took one image and pasted onto another. Here's why it's cool - don't tell anyone...but I've never done this before. Shhhh! So I'm allowed to have a little pride in learning a new technical skill, right?

Besides, I think our yard looks nice with tropical birds. It really detracts from the barren, snow-covered waste look. Thankfully we have some green here now...but there was a time...shudder

As an extra I'd like to leave you with a link to one of my favourite sites - How Stuff Works. It's an article the oh-so-aptly-named Marshall Brain wrote about how Adobe is planning on adding some new tools to help dumb down Photoshop for us stupid-folk. ;p

Workin' On A Theme

I haven't put anything on paper today, but I've been poking about for some inspiration for my site. Like I mentioned before, I haven't found a nice theme yet, so I've been planning on using some of my own artwork as a banner and maybe making up some kind of background image. I'm going to have to start with pencil (as always), but I'd like to finish it with acrylic paint or maybe watercolor (or both?).




I found some images on google to start me off. I always find it easier to have a starting image to adapt. I'm not exactly sure of what the composition will look like when it's done, so I've gotten images in various poses. I don't really know the basic body structure of a bird, so it helps to have pictures when trying to judge on whether or not the scale is correct. I especially like the picture of the plumage and how it shows the wide array of color in the seemingly white feather. I'm excited about trying to duplicate that look. We'll see how it goes...

Also, as a side note, I found this picture while searching the google. Maybe not the best fit for my theme, but it's adorable and I love it so.