Curse the Pre-Raphaelites!

For being so inspirational. I had planned on doing this as a pen and ink. A pen and ink, I tell you! And then I started reading about the PRB again and it turned into a painting. Not exactly a Pre-Raphaelite painting, true, but the fact that I went the watercolor route is entirely due to seeing really good artwork.

11

An 11th anniversary card I drew for my wife.

ARRR!!!

Some days, you just need to paint a pirate.

The Jungle Explorers - the book

I finished this book a while ago, and always wanted to put the whole thing up. And now I can! The blog won't let me post a multiple-page PDF, but another site, called Dribbble, will. Here is the book in its entirety! Just click on the attachment below the picture.

The Evil Queen (Once Upon a Time)

Done done donnnnnne! My goal was to get it finished before the show got to how the Queen actually prepares the apple. I'd have hated to have come this far, and then find out I'd totally gotten it wrong. But as long as they haven't shown it, I still had the excuse to go classic like this.

The Evil Queen

Got to ink it in at last! Here she is, the Evil Queen, in this particular instance inspired by the self-same villain from ABC's "Once Upon a Time."

Ultimately, I want to add color, but I'm not averse to line art fairy tale illustrations. Like those by H. J. Ford, who did the drawings for Andrew Lang's Fairy Tale books. H. J. is a big inspiration to me. As is Franklin Booth, who may not have done fairy tale art but is just plain incredibly amazing.

Leprechaun

A cover illustration for the program of a Saint Patrick's Day auction.

Work in Progress: the Gingerbread Thark

Another fairy-tale inspired piece of art, but this time with Edgar Rice Burroughs thrown in as well. What with John Carter coming out in theaters, I thought I'd put this up today instead of waiting to finish the whole piece.

Tharks are 4-armed green men from Burroughs' Martian series (and the best part about the movie being made. While I hope like the movie is good, as long as I see these guys big screen I'll be happy). They're horrible creatures that consider cruelty the height of hilarity, but are awfully fun to read about in their cheesy pulp-fiction form.

They're so warlike and hyper-violent, that somehow I wondered what Martian fairy tales would be like (don't ask, I don't remember what prompted that connection either). Then my free-associating brain came up with the Gingerbread Thark. No "run run run" for him - Tharks don't run from anything. Ultimately he will go on to conquer the bakers, along with everyone else, and establish himself as king. If this were a real fairy tale, that is, but at least it's fun to draw.

Up next are the bakers that he's attacking, along with some text. And taking it into PhotoShop for some texture. But in the meantime - hey, Andrew Stanton, if you need a movie tie-in for the kids too little to see the movie, I got some Martian fairy tales for ya...

Valentine's Day 2012

A picture of me singing is infinitely preferable to me actually singing.

Father/Daughter Basketball