Sunday, November 15, 2009

Cheers!


"Slàinte!" & "Cheers!"

Slàinte!- An croí folláin agus an srón fliuch!
Cheers!- Gin and tonic: keeping you malaria free since 1825.


"Skål!" & "Salud!" & "Na Pososhok!"

Skål!- Mein Skol, Dein Skol, Alle Vakkera Flikka Skol!
Salud!- Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos!
Na Pososhok!- "Do dna!"

Friday, September 11, 2009

Lions



"Relinquir" & "Battlescars"

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Evergreen



Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,

A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business.
~ The Thought-Fox, by Ted Hughes

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Coyote Who Couldn't Sing



From across the canyon,
A guitar plays,
Through an amplifier, along the lake,
It was an old melody, I recognized the song,
I had an amplifier too, so I played along.

I'm making some noise!
I'm still a working boy
At the top of my voice saying
Look at me mama, I'm making some noise!
~ Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, Makin' Some Noise

Nordguard Poster



This is a promo piece for the new comic I am working on, Across Thin Ice.
It will be the first book in the Nordguard Trilogy and will be a fully painted, color graphic novel with each volume coming in around 90 pages. Want to know more? Want to see a whole lot of art for it? Sure you do! Go see it at:



A lot of the development artwork is up, with more coming soon, and that's where finished pages will be.

ALSO, Sofawolf Press will be giving away 100% free 18x24 posters of this bad boy at AnthroCon in July. No purchase necessary, available while supplies last and you can pick one up from their dealer's island!

And, to add what Brer from Sofawolf Press clarified in his comment below:

"[Replying for Sofawolf] To expand on what Blotch mentioned above about the poster... What we will be doing is releasing a certain number (about 200 ish) each of the three days of the con, to be available when the doors to the Dealer's Room open in the AM. So, if you miss the first day you have an equal chance of getting one on Saturday or Sunday.

We'll be requesting folks abide by a "no more than two per person at a time" policy, to give everyone a fair shot while still allowing people to grab ONE for an absent friend.

We should be easy to find. We have a big, central island table this year and I think it is the first thing you should see as you go in the doors. We're not yet sure what the display will look like, but unless we fail miserably it should be obvious it is Sofawolf Press."

Friday, May 15, 2009

Ill Omens



Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
~ W.B. Yeats (excerpt from the Second Coming)

More spring cleaning! I found this tucked away in a pile of stuff. I guess I started it... yeesh, around last September. I couldn't remember why I abandoned it mid-painting, so I figured I'd put a couple more hours into it this afternoon and finish it up. The world could use some more baboons, anyway. ;]

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Desert Rose



Ever the wide world over, lass,
Ever the trail held true,
Over the world and under the world,
And back at the last to you.
~ Kipling

Another product of some spring cleaning--I actually started painting this back in December, I think, and have been slowly adding bits of paint to it when I have the time. Some parts I like, a few things I wish I could have done differently...but in the end its nice not to half have finished paintings cluttering up my workspace. :]

Sunday, May 10, 2009

DJ Pilot



I've been working on a large comic project that's kept me more-than-busy the last few months, though I have managed to do a couple of paintings on the side. During some spring hard-drive cleaning, I found a few and figured I'd post some.


I painted this as a gift for my brother's birthday a week ago. He happens to enjoy music as well as a good sci-fi reference or two, so it worked out well. ;]

Friday, March 6, 2009

Thanks for Staying & Cognac


"Thanks for Staying" & "Cognac"

Two colored pencil and marker pieces.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Endangered Ark Playing Cards



I had the chance to do several cards for the Endangered Ark Playing Card deck, which featured 52 different endangered animal species done by a variety of artists. A portion of the deck's proceeds were donated to charities dedicated to helping endangered wildlife.



"Cheetah" & "Condor - Number Nine"

I feel really lucky to have had the chance to paint the California condor for the Endangered Ark card deck.

I feel even more lucky to have had the chance to see them in the wild. But most of all, I feel luckiest that I was born in world where thanks to the dedicated efforts of a few determined individuals, I can still drive down the 1 in California and catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the coolest birds to ever grace the skies.

In 1987, there were only 22 Californian condors left in the world. The folks at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles zoo caught all of the remaining birds in an effort to conserve the species. Through their selective breeding and release program, they have risen the population to 327 birds, over half of which are in the wild today.



"Amur Tiger" & "African Wild Dog - Dust Dogs"

Siberian (aka Amur/Manchurian/Ussuri) tigers are a rare, critically endangered subspecies of tigers, found only in the Amur region of the far east.

Today, there are an estimated 400 to 500 Siberian tigers in the wild, and their population seems stable. While there is a very successful captive breeding program, there is little to zero chance of reintroducing captive bred tigers back into the wild. This makes it imperative to protect their natural habitat if Siberian tigers are to continue to exist outside of zoos and private collections.

--
The African Wild Dog is known by many names, including Cape Dogs, Hunting Dogs, Painted Wolves and Spotted Dogs. They are an extremely social pack hunting canine native to Africa.
At once point, there were 500,000 Wild Dogs in the wild, some ranging in packs of 100 animals. Now, there are only 3,000-2,500 left. They are endangered due mainly to hunting from ranchers and habitat loss, which forces them in direct competition with lions and hyenas. They are also very susceptible to introduced diseases such as distemper, parvovirus and rabies. Due to their extremely social nature, these diseases spread through their numbers like wildfire.


For the Endangered Ark Card Deck, I also did the two jokers--both of which are the opposite of endangered.

"Brown Rat" & "Red Fox"

It is a very adaptable and intelligent animal, and as a species, thrives in proximity to man. While they likely originated in the plains of Asia, China and Mongolia, the brown rat rapidly spread throughout the rest of the world in the Middle Ages by stowing away on boats and following human migration trails. The brown rat first appeared as early as 1553 in England, and today, it is speculated there is 81 million brown rats in the UK, making it 1.3 rats per person.

--

Taking second place to feral house cats, the red fox is one of Australia's most problematic invasive predator. They were originally brought over in 1855 from Europe for the purpose of recreational hunting. Since then, their numbers have exploded, estimated around 7 million animals. They are responsible for the decline of many small marsupials, including the numbat. The fox is a very adaptable, elusive and prolific animal, and as such, is nearly impossible to contain or control. It continues to decimate populations of native species and there is no foreseeable solution.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

True Blue, Fox and the Grapes, Bayshore Snapshot


"True Blue" & "Fox and the Grapes" & "Bayshore Snapshot"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Fly By



Kaialavu manasu kadal alavu kanavu.