Fishey Start

This is a study/underpainting for a simple merman picture I just got inspired to do. It has no direction at present, so who knows what I will end up with when it is done? "Towards the Surface", 6 x 16 Acrylic on Canson board. 

Theme Song For Glen Beck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtWLGscIKuM

Bingo Bango Bongo

Looking for a good animal to go with a good pose, I discovered the Bongo, a type of antelope with cool markings. So here is my anthro version of a Bongo. I am not sure about how the background came out so any comments saying it works or does not work will be appreciated. "Bongo, Warriors Dance", 10 x 16, Acrylic, Prisma Color and Pro White on Canson board. Original and prints for sale. Picture 25. 

Old Beastie Pic

I hope I have not posted this one before. It is an early anthro type back before I knew there was a whole fandom for that sort of thing. Done I think originally for Paper Phantasies a collaboration artists fanzine. I like almost everything about this picture, I really should do a colored version! "Howling Wynd", 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 if I remember right, marker on Bristol. Prints available (original may still be around someplace if anyone is interested).

History You Should Know!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/stonewall/player/

Good News Bad News

RUSH was amazing and gave a great concert and a great show! That was the good news. The Bad news is that the Baltimore Arena is CRAP! The acoustics were very bad and made an otherwise great concert less than perfect! Distortion and other sound problems made it sound like listening to a badly tuned radio at times! I will never attend another concert at that venue! The seats were small and tight and uncomfortable and the lack of any space to get past people in your row made it very dangerous in the balcony seats. So maybe someday I will get to see RUSH again, in a REAL auditorium with decent sound!

The Walters demo was wonderful and many people learned more about illumination and how they did certain arts in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The bad news is that I got very very little sleep between the concert and the demo, maybe 4 hours at best. The good news is, there was so much positive energy at the concert, that I was still fully charged for the full day at the demo! 

On a Serious Art Note

This Saturday, April 23rd, I will be at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore  http://thewalters.org/eventscalendar/eventdetails.aspx?e=1910 I will be demonstrating manuscript painting and will show how painted art was done on pages in medieval books. My name will be in the program and everything :). I hope it is lots of fun and I am not to dead from seeing RUSH the night before!

Bad Pun Porn Bunny

Well here I am doing another anthro "porn" picture. This time it is because I had a terrible pun/thought come into my head and had to do it. Just a small picture that I started this afternoon and just finished. maybe 3 or 4 hours work give or take. "Jacking Jackalope", 5 x 9 Acrylic, watercolor colored pencil and Pro White on Canson board. Original and prints available. Picture 24.

Goodbye Sarah Jane Smith : (

Elisabeth Sladen, known to most as Sarah Jane Smith from Dr Who and the Sarah Jane Adventures passed yesterday, she will be missed!

Kinda Cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw&feature=share

Animal Porn

Well, I have given in and tried my hand at doing some anthro porn. Normally my work is viewed as porn just cause I do nudes, I am sorry but a nude is NOT porn! This is sexual and graphic (but tame by most standards). I am happy with it. It is not JUST porn, it is art and I hope it is popular enough to spawn some sales! I am not sure about the name, but for now I am calling it "Turnabout", 10 x 13, Acrylic on Canon board. Original and prints for sale. Picture 23.

 Angola
 Ambrosia (puerta-pack)

I was living in angola,
Reading in the paper
’bout the new depression
Got the states upset

Still, I just can’t see
How only one tv
And two slightly used cars
Causes such regrets

In this country such as ours,
If we had these things,
We would either be european
Or descend from kings

Oh! sometimes, you know,
I hunger for more than food,
For more than the shelter
From the cold monsoons
I’d like swimmin’ pools
And refrigerated air
And an extra room to spare
(no more ten to a room),
And a thinking color set
With a close-up zoom

But in this country such as ours,
If we had these things,
We’d be a u.n. delegation
Or a visiting queen

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And you remember well
The day when old wall street fell
And do you fear it again?
Still there is one major difference
In just how we see some things
What you call poor we call prosperity

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ooh! sometimes, you know,
I hunger for more than food,
For more than the shelter
From the cold monsoons
I’d like swimmin’ pools
And refrigerated air
And an extra room to spare
(no more ten to a room),
And a thinking color set
With a close-up zoom

But in this country such as ours,
If we had these things,
We’d be a u.n. delegation
Or a visiting queen

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh living in angola ...

I Wana Know

I Wanna Know
Ambrosia (Puerta - Pack)

Sometimes I feel
That we've been herded like sheep
We've been led out like lambs to the slaughter
And empty souls
Have kept the downtrodden down
And took the best and left us the fodder

Still in my heart
I feel such purpose
A reason for being alive
And I want to know,
I want to know

Sometimes it seems
There was meant to be more
Than this rush and this battle to living
And there's the times
We've all tasted the space
That you know when we feel that we're giving

So take some time
to think about this
I'm blinded now, I'd like to see
And I want to know,
I want to know

I want to see through all the barriers
That were created before I was born
Were they put out there just to guide me
Or keep the weak from becoming strong

I want to know,
I want to know

Still in my heart
I feel such purpose
A reason for being alive
And I want to know

Sometimes I fear
That all men are asleep
Must we shout to awake those that slumber?

(I wish there was a vidio for this, it is a great song and it seems so fitting for today.)

Old Faerie

No, not me, this is a painting I did back in college. He was originally circumcised but people kept saying "I didn't know Faeries were Jewish". So I did the first uncircumcision and gave him his foreskin back! His expression and the leaves are my favourite parts. "Leaf Fall", 24 x 36 Acrylic on canvas. Original and prints for sale.

Scroll, Now Wih Words

Here is the finished scroll (it is a commission backlog so no need for it to be secret), it has the calligraphy and capital now. I hate calligraphy and this is far from great...but it is what I can do. The illuminated capital is mostly made up as I could not find a good example from the right time and place. The calligraphy is done with oak gall ink and the capital is gold leaf and egg tempera.

Teachers, Good or Bad?

http://www.stonekettle.com/2011/04/teacher-bashing-101.html?spref=fb

This is a well written, on target article that I agree with about as much as is humanly possible! I have many friends who are teachers or are going into teaching. I fear for them all!

Double Trouble Scroll

Here is the illumination part of the latest SCA scroll I am doing. This is a combination Award of Arms and Silver Osprey. The circle with the birds and sword abouve the kings head is the Silver Osprey (a fighting award) and the sheild with the 3 frogs is the Arms of the person this is for. This is based pretty directly from "The Book of Kings" also known as the Morgan picture Bible. It is from the 13th century and is a very extensively illuminated book. This is based on Folio 46 verso and is 8 1/2 x 11, done in egg tempera and gold leaf on velum (the hide not the paper). I did cheat a bit and had to use some micron pen and som Acrylic, but 99% of this is authenticaly correct for it's period. Calligraphy is yet to be added. I HATE gold leaf! Picture 22.

Sinus Issues and Gold Leafing

Well I would be posting a new picture, a scroll I am doing for the SCA. But I have been sick with sinus problems for the past few days and now I am trying to do real gold leafing on this scroll. I HATE gold leafing! It is a pain and a half! So maybe, sinus's and gold leafing cooperating, I will have something new to post tomorrow!

Bad News

Well, my sons mother has cancer. She just had surgery and they don't seem to think it was all gotten. They don't know for sure yet, but she is not doing well and it is very serious. Of course the fact that our son is NOT in touch with us and has no idea about his mother does not help her any! I know exactly how she feels since I went through my cancer and surgery without him knowing about it!

If anyone in the world who happens to see this knows my son, Joe Gravelle and has ANY way to contact him, please tell him he really needs to contact his mom!

Finished Fight

I hope the person who commissioned this likes it, if he does, it is done. I never thought I would ever need to paint a dumpster and garbage, but I did for this. I am happy with how it came out and it is good for an artist to be stretched to do things they have not or would not normally do. All these fight pictures should make me a better artist for many reasons. If you are tired of these pictures, commission something yourself and I will do what you want to see. "Alley Fight", 8 1/2 x 11, Acrylic on Canson board. Prints available. Picture 21.

Very Cool Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_CzD0GBD-4&feature=player_embedded

One of my "adopted sons" posted this on Facebook with the title "Mind = Blown" and it is very impressive and cool!

Fighting Again

Here is the black and white study for the next fight picture. They will be in an alley (I just have not worked out the background details yet).  8 1/2 x 11 Acrylic on Canson board.

I Hate Tree Sex!

Well with warm weather comes trees and other plants having sex and putting polen in the air! So I am sneezing my head off and can't breath and have watery eyes etc! Not fun at all! This usualy goes on for the first couple of weeks of Spring and then again the first couple weeks of Fall. But with the weather getting warm, then cold, then warm again, I am having extra episodes and more time to sneeze myself sick! ICK!

Something Fishy

I got some new books and was inspired to do this little picture (while waiting on the OK for the preleminary sketch for the next fight picture). Done with almost no reference for the figure and using some overall markings like I never realy have before, this is much nicer than I expected. I did use reference for the background, though it is a mix of 3 different underwater pictures. I may do some decoration on the corners (the black areas) but I am not sure. This is getting a somewhat large frame because I have an oval frame with a domed glass that I think this will look realy nice in. "Guppy", 7 1/2 x 11, Acrylic, Micron marker, watercolor colored pencil and Prisma Color. Original and prints for sale. Picture 20.