Vader

As the year comes to a close, it will go out with Star Wars and come in as Star Wars, so here is a little bit o' Vader (or what's left of him) to celebrate the new year.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope no one gets shot.

A Michigan To Texas Birthday Wish 2015

Each year my friend Sandra collects photos from her internet friends for her birthday. Here is a pic of a cheetah from a visit to the Toledo Zoo last March. This guy was so relaxed. I made a few clicking sound and he slowly turned my way and waited until I took the picture before going back to daydreaming or whatever it is that cheetahs do on chilly March days.

Happy Birthday, Sandra!

How We Built A Weathervane, Part Three

In the last section we left off at the formation of the tail fin in clay. Now on to some details.

Next up, we added the details to the tail fin.

The facial features were added at this point, including gills.

At this stage, the fins were carved out of foam using a hot wire sculpting tool and added in place to see how it would all come together. The electric eel was also started at this point and can be seen at the lower left of the pic.

The fins were then sculpted in clay to get the details.

Season's Greetings 2015

No matter how you celebrate, do it well, do it with joy and do it safely. All the best to you and yours!

Star Wars Hi Tek Sketch Cards

Since everything is Star Wars right now, here's some more of that goodness. These are a few of the 43 sketch cards that I did for the SW Hi Tek set recently put out by Topps. These cards are smaller than the usual kind, but are placed into a frame and then inserted into the packs. On this set I chose to focus of the animated series Rebels, since I have never drawn them before now. 

Star Wars At The Edge

Tomorrow, starting at noon and going until five, join me along with Bill Pulkovski, Tony Miello and John Marroquin at the River's Edge Gallery in Wyandotte, MI for the Star Wars at the Edge event to celebrate the release of the new film. We have all worked on official Star Wars properties, so the gallery has brought us in to sell our works with Star Wars in mind. We will have originals, prints, sketch cards and will be doing commissions of your favorite Star Wars characters.

Then, after that join us for the Motor City Sketch official Holiday Party. Bring your sketch books or bring yourselves and have some fun rewinding after a day of shopping and visiting.

How We Built A Weathervane, Part Two

In the last post about the making of the Belle Isle Aquarium weathervane, we left off with the basic form of the gar taking shape. Now, on to the next steps....

Here, we have the basic shape of the gar now with most of the fins made out of foam.

Since we took a sculptural approach instead of a metalsmith one, I needed to sculpt the gar.  So, after the foam was done I began adding clay to further push the gar into fruition.

Here the gar is completely covered with clay.

Each night we had to wrap the clay in water soaked clothes to prevent drying.

Here the tail fin is beginning to take shape.

Captain Scarlet Sketch Cards

These are the cards that I did for the very soon to be released Captain Scarlet set by Unstoppable Cards. I believe that they can be available for purchase on the 14th. Check out the site for more details.

Captain Scarlet was one of the creations of Gerry Anderson, who also did the Thunderbirds tv show.

Some Recent Commissions

Some recent sketch card commissions of Columbo (well, my version of him, anyways) and pin-up type card.

How We Built A Weathervane, Part One

The Belle Isle Aquarium weathervane is finished and it is up, so I've decided to do a series of posts showing how it was all put together.

It all started with a design. This was the image that I sent my proposal with for the design competition that was held by the belle Isle Conservancy and the Butzel Long law firm, which has a long time relationship with the aquarium.

After working out some details with Venus Bronze Works, the company selected to manufacture the weathervane, I glued together some foam blocks to the overall size of the gar. This step would be to find the basic shape before all the detail would be put in.

The carving of the foam was done in my backyard in October of 2014. I laid an enlarged copy of the gar over the foam as my guideline.

Using hot wire sculpting tools, the basic shape began to emerge.

Refining some basic shape, such as the tail and adding the nose.

This is the basic shape of the gar portion of the weathervane. The fins would be added next.

Visigoths

And there's this guy. Unfortunately, I have to live across the street from him. He is one of those ex-convict, anti-government (so, he can commit more crimes), anti-nature (offended by it, actually), racist ( he usually has a confederate flag flying in between his red bow Christmas decorations), redneck(shoot everything and everybody) type of loser. His mugshot is entertaining. He usually acts up when I'm not around, but my wife has no tolerance for this guy and gives him shit when he deserves it. So, a few weeks ago he is blowing the leaves on his lawn across the street to our side because we have a big tree with lots of leaves. When my wife confronts him, he says 'they aren't his leaves.' Awesome. And being the type that he is, intelligence is a strong skill with him. The leaves on his lawn probably weren't ours to begin with, because the wind usually blows from west to east, not north to south.

When I see him next )of course, he is never around when I'm home), I'll be sure to tell him that the cigarette butts that he flicks on my lawn aren't mine when I flick them back.

If you are wondering what that is behind his head, that's a rat's nest he calls hair. Or what's left of it.