some stuff from the desktop, part 3

Here's a little (blurry) view of a piece that has been sitting on my drawing board, untouched for a month or more until just two days ago, when I finally picked up the pencil again.


I have stared at this section for more hours than I want to recall, while slowly filling in, erasing, filling in, erasing, filling in, erasing, filling in,
you get the idea.

Among the audio books that helped pass the time were "The Thin Man" (Dashiel Hammet) "Every Living Thing" (James Herriot) "The Lord of the Rings" (Tolkien, BBC version.)

So, like I said, hours.
But once you've used a 2B pencil on Stonehenge paper, it's all worth it. MMmmmm, velvety.

some stuff from the desktop, part 2

Here we have Serious mouse people. Two of them really don't want to share that cheese. The third is a bit more light hearted.

Made these while trying out some new acrylic & drawing combinations. And liking them. Too bad I haven't touched my acrylics in over a month since!

Acrylic (lots and lots of acrylic) & pencil on matboard

some stuff from the desktop, part one

Since I haven't left myself much time for painting lately, I prepped a bunch of mini watercolor canvas and have been messing about with gouache. Also you might see some pen & ink in the background there.

The watercolor paintings are about 3"x3" at their biggest. A bit jumbly right now, but I think they'll clean up nice once I get them in mats.

A first!

Finally, the very first image directly uploaded from my camera to the blog. Thank you Picassa for simplicity, thank you Arkonbey for solving the great hardware crisis.

Pictured at left is a family of bears that resides in the window of a hopping ice cream shop in Northampton MA. They are huge and pleasantly shaped, and they've been there quite a while (a bit of sun-fading, which gives character.) They are dieting bears, so the vinyl ice cream is rather cruel, don't you think.

Snapped while on an art 'outing' with Karen, which included a full day of visiting the Carle. (That's the Carl Museum of Picture Book Art. Heaven.) Sadly, no pictures from there, as just about everything on display is copyright protected. We closed 'em down though... I think they suffer us staying late because we buy stuff in the bookshop :)

Well, more pics later, now that I've got this technology under my belt. For now, BED.

Other people's creatures

Here's an amazing artist Arkonbey just reminded me about: Patricia Piccinini

You should check her out. Specifically her "The Long Awaited, Foundling" series, it's fabulously creepy and sweet all at the same time. You'll see why I'm attracted to it.

Arkonbey wants me to 'flesh out' some of my creatures this way, or at least in a life-sized drawing. Well.... it would be fun.

Laaaaaaap toppppp

Arkonbey held true to his promise (thanks, buster!) and we purchased a new laptop for yours truly today. We went pc, which is a first in the last twelve years or more at this house. Still, it's half the price of going mac. Even a refurbished mac! I mean, come on Apple, we knew you were elitist, but geez.

Well, the ol' Miketop will hang around for awhile longer, until I'm sure I'm satisfied with this new slick box. The difference in speed is certainly nice. I have managed to get Pandora going in it's own little application, so this has happy consequences for the studio.

But Pandora, you're playing some really whacked stuff today.

Maybe it's just me.