San Diego Bound!

Tomorrow I jump on a plane headed for San Diego for my first ever visit to the International Comic-Con for what looks like a baptism of fire. I will be trying to conjure up some illustration work with the help and guidance of illustrator Matt Busch, so keep your fingers crossed. It will be a learning experience, for sure, and I'm really looking forward to the experience of it all. Plus, I hope to meet many fellow artists and just have a damn good time.

Homer Davenport Days

This here cartoon is my inclusion to the Homer Davenport International Cartoon Contest. It's all part of a festival that is held every year in Silverton, Oregon honoring the life and works of the early 1900's political cartoonist Homer Davenport. The festival will run from August 3rd to the 5th. To find out more about the frolicking festivities go to their website at www.davenportdays.com

I aimed this cartoon at our fun loving president and his total lack of said dignity, but it could really apply to a lot of people.

Oh, and my apologies to the illustrator who originally did the I WANT YOU spot for the Army. His name escapes me at the moment. This cartoon could not have been done without him.

Tattooed Sky - my website

Finally, my website is up and running. I think it needs a few tweaks, but all in all, my buddy Darin who put it all together for me did a great job. So, by all means use the link in the right hand column and tell me what you think. The name of the website is the same as this here blog, Tattooed Sky (www.tattooed-sky.com). We're all travelling under a tattooed sky these days. Just perfect for us illustrators.

Head Study #14

I haven't put up anything sketchwise in a while, so I thought that I would. About a year ago, I started to do some head studies to practice doing facial structure and all that good stuff. All were and are done with reference, of course, and I started with some celebrities, such as David Lynch, but mostly they were done after paintings and sculptures that interested me. I haven't done as many as I would have liked, like one a day or something, not one a month like I've been doing.

This one was done after Gianlorenzo Bernini's The Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, 1671-1674, marble. I've always found it interesting how artists of the past depicted eroticism through religious ecstacy. I know Michelangelo had a few tricks up his sleeve on the matter. When we were in Italy, I got my introduction to Bernini's sculptures, as they were everywhere. The Baroque master quickly became one of my favorite artists, as some of the works that he did for some of the Popes tombs in St. Peters are just amazing. And the way the he handled fabric and draping cloth is mind boggling

The Regime Changer

This here is my latest published cartoon. It will appear in the July/August issue of The Bulletin Of Atomic Scientists. They are the people who moniter the threats around the world that could affect our future as a species, such as nuclear and/or terrorist. They are the ones that keep the Doomsday Clock up and running. I think it's five to midnight.

I did this cartoon a few years ago and although I feel it's not one of my best ones, I'm still happy, of course, that it will be published (although it won't appear with my signature, I sent it off without signing it-duh.). This is one where the joke is better than the drawing, I think.

This was inspired by the whole Iraq/Hussein dabacle.

Rita

I've had the shit kicked out of me over the weekend and thought a time or two about posting about it, whether I should or not. But, I will anyways. We lost one of our dogs over the weekend. Her name was Rita ( I named her after Rita Hayworth because I was reading a biography about her at the time we got Rita as a puppy) and she was a lab/husky mix and she was 15 years old. Yes, she had a good long life (sometimes, it was hard for her), but that is never really a comfort. I won't go into details, but she suffered on her last day. That day will be burned into my mind for a long time.

Anyways, Rita was great. As any pet owner would attest to, she had a unique personality. Years ago, when we had our cat, those two were a trip. They were like Tom and Jerry, constantly messing with one another, but at the end of the day they were usually found laying next to each other.

She would love to lay in the leaves in the fall, so when I was raking I always piled them up by the gate under the lilac bush and that's where she would always plop down. The picture on top is from last fall before there was a huge pile of leaves and since this is an art related blog, I did a sketch of her from an older photo.

She was cool and she took care of us for 15 years.

I'm a wuss about these things.

Treehouse 6x6

I have just been informed that I have another show this summer. All three of my treehouse paintings that I had shown in a past posting have been accepted into the Treehouse 6x6 juried show which will be held on Martha's Vineyard in West Tisbury, Massachusetts from August 5th through the 31st. As the title states, all of the works of art will measure 6x6 inches. And since I have already posted the finished product back in May, I thought that I would show the process that led me there. The top images are the initial sketches that I did and you can see that I omitted one of them. then, I did colored pencil versions to work out some of the kinks, although I didn't do one for The Arboreal Temple, which was a bit weak, I thought. But hey, they liked it anyways.

The gallery is called Treehouse Studios and the reason for this is because there is a very old oak tree right next to the building and is somewhat of a landmark. I thought that that was kind of cool. For the show they are printing up a booklet of all the artwork in the show and will be selling them at the show and the profits will benefit local affordable housing funds.