Yet another tease!

Here's an update, a cropped section of the final painting. When I have permission, I'll share the full and final piece.

Sneak Peak!

A teaser for what's to come . . . only a small part of a larger piece!

Dragon Sketch for New Imaginism Studios Book, Dragon Sketches!

Here is a fun little sketch that I did as a contribution for Imaginism Studios new book, Dragon Sketches. I was very honored to have a page in the book. I believe this is the eighth Imaginism Studios book put out by Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera. The book is filled with TONS of awesome sketches and drawings, just amazing work by Bobby and Kei . . . also, there are some great sketches and drawings by a handful of great guest artists. This book is a must have if you're interested in drawing and sketching, especially if you're interested in character design. If interested in purchasing the book click here.

Mitt Romney for the Standard!

This is a piece I did this last week for The Weekly Standard. Same thing happened this week as with last weeks Henry Hyde piece. I first started on Wednesday with another portrait of a Senator (thumnail sketch shown below Mitt paintings). But that story was canned late that afternoon. Most of Thursday I spent doing a few sketches of Mitt Romney knowing he was who I was going to draw instead, but I didn't know yet what was wanted as far as pose or story. Honestly it took me a bit to get him right, he seems to look different in almost every reference photo that I have of him. But after seeing videos of him it didn't take long to get him right. Around 10:00 a.m. Friday morning, I was given the final idea for the piece . . . we wanted to show him standing cool, with the Mormon Temple in the background. Problem for me was that I only had one day to paint this, so the temple is a photo that I layered into the painting, absolutely no time to draw or paint that, took me all day to paint Mitt.

Done with the same technique as before, painted in grayscale, and then when fully rendered, I layer color on top of my values.

Currently on the drawing board is a full page illustration of Axl Rose for REVOLVER magazine.

70 Year Old Bad Guy!

This is weird, but true. The top three floors of my apartment building are senior citizen apartments it's a senior's program that my church runs to help seniors who can't afford much, in fact some of them would be living on the streets if it weren't for my church. Anyways, around Thanksgiving this man who is 70 years of age was arrested by the FBI for robbing banks. No Joke. Everytime I saw him, he was in a wheelchair and had an oxygen tank.

From what I heard, the FBI agents asked a number of questions about his whereabouts on the day after Thanksgiving Day. He had some alibi but they then produced a photo from a surveilliance camera taken of a bank robber from a bank located in downtown Chicago. The robber was not wearing a mask and you won't believe it but it was this frail 70 year old who lives in my building! Finally, after more interrogation he admitted to robbing the bank and getting away with about $1000.

It turns out that he had robbed six banks in his lifetime and had fled from a minimum security prison approximately two years ago, thus the warrant for his arrest.

The FBI agents only found about $150 in his apartment, gathered some of his clothing and then hauled him off to federal prison. His oxygen tank and wheelchair were part of his act.

Crazy eh? So as you can guess, I had to do a sketch of him.

Fairwell Henry Hyde

This is a new illustration that I did for this week's issue of The Weekly Standard. I was originally going to paint John Bolton, and had started to block in his face early Thursday. The day was nearly finished when I got the call that Henry Hyde had passed away and they needed an illustration of him instead. Well, let's just say I was busy enough and couldn't work on the Henry Hyde piece that night, so I had to start Friday morning, and have it finished by late Friday afternoon. This is by far the the quickest turn around as of yet, for a painting anyways. I started at 7:00 a.m. and finished around 7:00 p.m. I first painted the entire piece in black and white and then layered color into it. There are some bits about it that I'm not 100% happy with, but for the crunch I was under, I'm pleased with the end result. I now know how to do it better and faster next time around!