Three Wolves Card

This was one of our Christmas cards for 2006. Because of Vista Prints card size (which they have since shrunk and I am not happy about it) and my miscalculation on proportions, the picture had to be cropped and lost a bit of the body of the wolves at the bottom. While I like some of this, it just did not come out as well as I had hoped. Acrylic on Canson board.

Well Deserved

I just went to an SCA event where I delivered a scroll to the King and Queen so they could award someone for their accomplishments in the arts. The Pearl is the kingdom of Atlantia's Arts award. My apprentice, Amie Sparrow, was the recipient. I did the scroll and that is what is posted here. She does amazing costuming and research/documentation, nothing I taught her, so while I am proud, I can take no credit. I also passed on my Pearl medallion, which had belong to 2 other men before me. This was approximately 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, done in Acrylics on Velum (animal skin not paper), the ink is Oak Gall ink (and the really bad calligraphy is also by me). This is my 63rd picture of the year.

Another Old Card

I did this in 2006 and it was inspired by children's book illustrations I really like. The concept is to have Jack Frost writing on a window. ( "Seasons Greetings" was added in a frosted lettering style by computer for our card.) The trees etc as seen through the frosted glass are pretty abstract but I like the way it came out. When I first did this I had his doublet all blue, but I had in the back of my mind the idea of having snow flakes on it. I scanned the picture with the doublet as all blue and then added the snow flakes and scanned it again. I definitely prefer the one with the snow flakes so that is what we used. "Little Jack Frost", roughly 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, Acrylic, watercolor colored pencil and Pro White on illustration board.

Facebook test

I now have a Facebook page, sorta. I have no idea how to do anything on it and have tried a few things but they didn't seem to work. I have invited a few people to be on my friends list. We will see if I keep it for long.

Ghosts of Christmas Cards Past

Since I started this Weble just this year, I think I will post some of the Christmas card designs I have done in the past few years. This was one of the designs for last years cards. It is based on a Medieval stained glass window. This was around 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 on tracing paper (bad idea but I was trying to get the stained glass look and knew other artists who had worked on this for certain effects.) Micron marker and Acrylic.

To Facebook or NOT to Facebook

OK, I hate "social networking" by computer, it's not really social and I am not a fan of computers. I made the effort/concession to have this Weble at the start of the year and it has been ok. It has at least let me get a little feedback on my work and keep track of what I have done during the year art wise.
Now I have been asked by several people to get on Facebook. I really dislike Facebook and some part of me sees it as a plot to keep tabs on us all and get information for not the best purposes!
What do any of you think? Should I cave to "peer pressure" and follow the crowd and be a computer sheep and get on Facebook?

TV Inspired

Back in the early 90's there was a TV show called "Beauty and the Beast". I enjoyed it as did our roommate at the time, Karen. So one year, for her Birthday I did a picture of Vincent from the show as her gift. I did this while she was in the small 2 bedroom apartment we shared and managed to work on it with her in the apartment and she never saw it or knew it was being done until I gave it to her. It was not an easy task. The background was inspired by a tarot deck called "the Stained Glass Tarot" and while the art wasn't real stained glass looking, it was very striking and well designed. I think it is smaller than 8 1/2 x 11 (but I can't recall exactly). "St Vincent of the Rose", Acrylic on Bristol paper.