WIP:1 Venezia


My current piece is this, what will eventually be an inked and watercolored (mayhaps some color pencil) illustration of a random place in Venice (using as a reference a photo I took during a visit years ago). I plan on giving this piece to my fiance Dave's mother for Christmas this year.

There is a bit of a story behind my reasons for doing a piece on Venice. Apparently, Dave's dad did a watercolor for friends of theirs years ago, and his mom requested one for herself... unfortunately he passed away before he was able to make it for her. =( So hopefully it wont be considered inappropriate for me to do this for her... but I've heard her mention it more than once.. and Dave thinks it is a good idea. All one can do is hope she agrees. =)

I'll post more as this one progresses!

A Critique from Trollsmyth....


I am insanely flattered at the moment. I had made up my mind to set up some links to this blog of other blogs I found inspiring. Artists mostly... save one which is Trollsmyth (cool name eh?). I placed him as a link simply because its not just other people's art that inspires me... but the wonderous worlds that spring from RPG games. People who know me know I am a total MMO dork... and that prior to that I even did some geeking out to pen and paper D&D. They always spawned some of my most inspired doodles. Trollsmyth seemed to me a blogger very on top of the RPG industry.. something admitedly I wouldnt have a clue where to start outside of the small circle of MMO's I am involved in now.

So where am I going with this?? Well if you take a gander at his most current post he has done perhaps the most thorough critique of my art and myself as an artist I've had in my entire life. And I have to admit, he mentions things about my style I had never even noticed before.. for instance the fact that I work from the bottom up. I pondered my most current illustration (I'll post a WIP tonight)... and realized that indeed, the bottom is almost complete... the top, hardly touched.

Thanks Trollsmyth. =) It means alot to receive such a wonderful crit from someone who so closely follows and world and genre that is created and imagined by artists and dreamers that are leagues ahead of me in skill. You could have posted a scathing crit if you'd wanted! ;-)

Sketchbook - PG1

Gonna try to make it a point to keep on top of my sketchbook and post my doodlings here.

So... PG1

First off.. let me point out Bailey.. our cat... being a complete supermodel.

We've been on a painting rampage pretty much non-stop for the last week or so in the new house. I'd planned on simply sponging two accent walls in the master bedroom, but about halfway through the first wall, I decided I didnt want to cover the entire second wall.. it would be too dark... but how could I only cover part, without it looking rediculous? It wasnt much longer before I was struck with inspiration. Trying to describe my idea to Dave felt like I was speaking alien.. so I resorted to cave-man communication and busted out the sketchbook. ;-) Within the next two hours the wall was complete... from just a simple brain-fart.

Detail:




Laying in the bath tonight... I was staring at the walls around me... and now of course, in my head, those walls look completely different.