Grayson

About a year ago, I met Andrea in Prospect Park while we were walking our dogs. We got to talking and the subject came around to art. When I mentioned I paint, she became interested and so I handed her my postcard. She started telling me about how she'd always wanted to have a more unconventional portrait of her son, Grayson, done with a sort of sci-fi setting and my style fit the bill. After several conversations, she hired me to do the portrait as a gift for her husband. I was a little nervous, having never painted anyone under 18 before. Luckily Grayson was a real character and kept us smiling during the photoshoot:



I'd done a few sketches for composition - Andrea liked the idea of Grayson in front of a window looking out on a otherworldly landscape, but she didn't want it too over the top. The image on the right was closest but she was looking for something simpler.



Then during the photoshoot we had one of those happy accidents where on a break, Grayson threw his hand over the back of the chair and I took some shots. It ended up being just the right pose for his personality and Andrea agreed this would be a great image to work around. She even wanted to keep the watch in. I created the drawing:



And after approval, the painting:



It's no secret that I love painting portraits, and getting the opportunity to bring portraiture and my affinity for fiction together made this a great job. We all ended up happy with how this one turned out- and no doubt it will be the most memorable Christmas present this year!

Realms of Fantasy

Realms of Fantasy has been a great outlet for new artists for as long as I can remember . I have a lot of friends who have produced some turning point pieces for the magazine- largely because they gave you the sort of creative freedom that is pretty much extinct nowadays. I've wanted to work for them ever since I became interested in fantasy illustration ,so when Doug Cohen asked me to do a piece for the December Issue- it was a no-brainer. He even wrote a lovely blog post about how he first saw my work:
http://www.rofmag.com/2010/08/06/rof-art-department-latest-artist/

Unfortunately not long after turning in the art we were sent the sad news that the December Issue was to be the last, and would not make it to paper print. The final issue has been placed on the RoF website for free download here:

http://www.rofmag.com/rof-dec-2010-free-issue.pdf

Where you can read the story this piece was done for and see the rest of the magazine, including a fantastic piece by David Palumbo and lovely feature on Terese Nielsen.



So long Realms of Fantasy. You will certainly be missed.

"I Aten't Dead"

To quote my favorite Discworld character. I just moved to Boston. And while times the NYC withdrawl gets to feeling a bit much, I just look out my REAL STUDIO window to my LAWN and somehow I think I can go on.

So I've been lax, I admit. The lead up to the move, the move itself (happening quite suddenly a month before schedule) and getting adjusted... sure I've been making art- just not sharing. Only some of it due to contractual constraints. That ends now. I've got a decent backlog waiting to see daylight and it's time to get back onto communicating with the rest of the world.

The above self portrait was done in a little over an hour one morning when I looked at a still-wet palette from another piece and figured I shouldn't let all that paint go to waste. I call it "You're Coffee's Getting Cold."

Tattoo!

So a few months back my friend Vanessa hired me to design a tattoo for her. The concept was an original version of Yggdrasil, the World tree out of Nordic myth. It was a little intimidating...this work of art would be on someone for the rest of her life. I didn't want to slack off on this one. After a good amount of research and sketches I finally came out with this.



I felt pretty confident with it. I think it gave her a good design while still looking very 'me'. And clearly she liked it because she went out the same week to have the first pass done!







Thanks Nessa for giving me the hugest compliment of all!

Painted Ladies

Lana Crooks has done it again! She's curated another great show out in Chicago and I am really excited about being involved in this one. 'Painted Ladies', an exhibit focused on the art of the female form is a new group exhibit with an all-star line-up. I'm joining such awesome artists as Dave Palumbo and Craig Elliott on the walls of OhNo! Doom's gallery. In addition to sending my Eve drawing, I created three new pieces in charcoal for this show:







Painted Ladies
Opening reception: June 5th 2010, 6-10pm

Exhibit Closes: July 3rd

Painted Ladies is a group exhibit that celebrates the art of the female form. All new lady-themed work by painters, illustrators, designers and animators:

Shannon Bonatakis
Chucho
Kristina Carroll
Craig Elliott
Stephanie Inagaki
Jeremiah Ketner
Steph Laberis
Netherland
Vince Newkirk
Dave Palumbo
Jason Rudolph Pena
David Rettker
Arkady Roytman
Scott Tolleson
Alex Willan


A portion of the art sales will be donated to the Avon Breast Cancer Walk (taking place June 5-6th).

Directly after the opening reception all unsold artworks will be available to view and purchase thru our online store: http://www.enstore.com/ohnodoom/

OhNo!Doom Gallery
1800 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago, IL 60647

Gandalf

Back in January I posted the oil sketch for this piece. I've been finished with it for a while, with the occasional tweak here and there and finally decided that it was time to share.



There's something about painting old men with white hair that really appeals to me for some reason. I think it's the challenge of whispy hair against old, leathery skin. Wrinkles are so much fun! And big, bushy eyebrows.

Replanting the Garden

Replanting the Garden brings together the work of 40 artists who were simply given the directive to make a piece in response to H. Bosch's GARDEN of EARTHLY DELIGHTS.



I ended up choosing something a little different: Eve Taming the Snake. Eve gets a bad rap when all she did was choose to accept awareness and knowledge of the world. Without Eve there is no art, no words no pain, no love, no beauty. Without Eve, we would not be able to delight in the earth, so I decided to paint a portrait that illustrates the respect I feel for her. She has cast off her forced role of the weak-willed woman, shaved her head and made that snake her own. My Eve isn't the tempted, she is the hunter. Next she will go rescue Prometheus.

Replanting the Garden, curated by Richard Saja, opened last week in Indianapolis' Big Car Gallery space. This is a wonderfully eclectic show and I was very happy to be included. You can see all the images at http://replantingthegarden.blogspot.com/ and purchase them through the Gallery or http://www.etsy.com/shop/BigCarGallery.