The Creature from the Brackish Pool - Part 2

I rounded up my nephew and nieces and bribed them to color my mask. No, that's not true–I didn't have to bribe them. They were more than happy to bring the mask to life and they all did an outstanding job.

Watching a child color my creation is thrilling, enlightening and a bit humbling. They picked colors that were completely unexpected and wonderful. I'm not nearly as bold with my color – I can learn something from these kids!

The Creature from the Brackish Pool

The Portsmouth Halloween Parade is creative, chaotic and totally awesome. 

Anyone with a costume is invited to lurch, shimmy or crawl through the streets of Portsmouth–hundreds march and thousands watch. The parade brings out the imaginative best in the community–it's fun, festive and family-friendly (well, more or less family-friendly).

The organization is run by volunteers. Money is raised through t-shirt sales, bake sales, rock shows, and new this year, MASK-ARADE, a paper mask coloring book! 16 local artists (including yours truly) were invited to create a design. I was thrilled to be involved and loved creating my mask/coloring book page.

And a big thanks to Nick for coloring my mask and modeling it below. Great job, Nick – you look scary!

Have you colored my mask? Know someone who has? Send me a picture and I'll post it here on my blog!

Welcome Back Capt. Chamberlain Part 2

I used my less-than-stellar Tracer projector to project my sketch onto a piece of 4' x 4' canvas. After tracing the image onto the canvas, I started blocking in the color. Luckily, the acrylic didn't completely obscure the pencil and I could still see my drawing. I started painting in highlights then details. Painting on non-stretched canvas was more difficult than I remembered, but overall I'm happy with the results! The banner next gets hung in the window of a local business to greet the returning Captain Chamberlain.

Welcome Back Capt. Chamberlain

Back in the day, I painted humorous advertisements in the window of a local computer repair shop. I was surprised (and happy) to get a call from the shop owner's daughter requesting that I come back (after all these years) and paint another window. This window would be a little different – she wanted a welcome back painting for her boyfriend who was returning from Afghanistan.  I'm honored to have a small part in welcoming home Captain Chamberlain.

I offered to paint a banner that could then be kept as a souvenir rather than paint a window that would eventually have to cleaned. Above is a sketch of the painting. Below, Jessica is helping out by hemming the canvas. More to come...

That Just-Printed Smell!

Here's my most recent postcard, fresh off the UPS truck. Love that just-printed smell! I used online printer Modern Postcard and was really impressed with their nearly foolproof - yet thorough - ordering system. Want a card? Send me your address!

And here's what's on the back of the card:

Frankenstein's Monster

I decided recently that my portfolio needs more monsters.  Here's one you might recognize. I originally named this post Frankenstein, but my sister-in-law set me straight. In the original Mary Shelley novel, the big guy is referred to as "monster," "fiend" and my favorite, "wretched devil," but NOT Frankenstein--that's the name of his creator. I won't make that mistake again!

100th Post, New Website & New Look

You're reading my 100th post! This milestone coincides with the launch of my new and improved website - check it out here. The blog has also been given a modest makeover to compliment the new site.

This blog started March 2, 2007 with an awkward post entitled "My First Blog Entry". Early on, I half expected I might loose interest in blogging. But as the months and years passed, the posts began to accumulate and the blog took on a life of its own. These 100 posts chronicle my evolution as an artist.

Example: when the blog started, I worked almost exclusively in acrylic. Today, I mostly work digitally; the blog documents my shift from traditional to digital illustration.

Looking through these 100 posts was fun. A couple stood out as particularly amusing...

Here's a photo of a window I painted for Halloween when I was a kid.

Here I revisit a drawing from grade school. This post was inspired by the Illustration Friday topic "Then and Now"

Here I explore the theory that birds are really dinosaurs.

Here are a couple photos of my wife and me with a T. Rex. The photos were taken approximately 20 years apart!