Gadsden vs. the Capitol

Another pic of Gadsden in action I found on the internet. It looks like Gadsden is going to eat the Capitol.

Gadsden says: DON'T TREAD ON ME

For the past few weeks I've been busy cooking up a new puppet creation. After receiving a suggestion from a friend of mine and reading about Bread and Puppet theater and the political messages of their puppets, I was inspired to create a puppet that would mix it up in the political arena. The message was simple: DON'T TREAD ON ME. So what better to convey this message than the rattlesnake from the Gadsden flag?

I did a few sketches based on the flag and then began on the armature.

Here's the head, a foam sculpture made with high density foam and contact cement.And here's the body. There is a tube of insulation foam connecting the many pieces of the body. I found that studying the actual anatomy of a snake went a long way in developing my foam armature.

And here is Gadsden! Unfortunately I was so busy I forgot to take more pictures of the process. I used taxidermy snake eyes for the eyes, antipill fleece for the skin, a plastic placemat for the tongue and model magic for the teeth.

And special thanks goes out to my darling little Objectivist Karly. She made the word banner on Gadsden.
Gadsden in action. The tail was made out of gatorade bottles filled with popcorn kernels. They produced a pretty good rattling sound. The crowd really loved the rattle. I believe I heard quite a few "Shake it baby"s as we walked by. This may have made Karly feel a bit uncomfortable since she controlled the tail.
And after a day of striking cuddly fear into the hearts of young children and small dogs, Gadsden and I settle down near the pool for a break. Check out the shirt on the guy behind me. It gives 3 wolf moon a run for its money.

Wedding bells are ringing.... loudly

Here is the front cover to my wedding invitation I created. Ink, ink wash, and water color. I used a brush and some microns for the line work.

AHHHHH! Ice Cream Trolls!

I haven't blogged in a while since I've been quite busy with teaching. Over the summer I created an acrylic piece to use with the class I was teaching. I developed it as a way to illustrate my process to my students. The one thing I forgot was how LONG acrylic paintings take me to finish.

The subjects of this piece were common household ice cream trolls. The task I gave my students was to create a painting retelling an event in their life as a metaphor. For my example I did the same. The ice cream trolls represent a certain phenomenon that occurs in my apartment. Somebody (who will remain nameless) likes to go downstairs at night and gobble up the ice cream. This person does this discreetly enough not to alert the other person that lives here of their presence. When confronted about the disappearance of large amounts of ice cream, this person is quick to suggest the possibility of an ice cream troll infestation.



And here is an ice cream troll. Fat from eating all the ice cream. Feet like snow shoes to traverse the soft creamy landscape. Hands like scoops for effective ice cream consumption. And long tongues to lick large amounts of ice cream at a time. They also have cork screw tails; it is unknown as to why these tails are shaped this way and what purpose they may serve. It has been suggested that ice cream trolls may also drink wine....


Here is the rough sketch of my illustration. Bic pen and colored pencil.


Photo reference used for the composition.


Pencil sketch on illustration board done prior to beginning painting.


First step of painting process. Basic acrylic wash is applied to major color areas.


Next step of process- filling in the base colors. From here it's a lot of hard work, patience, and coffee. Developing the blending, details, and rendering takes a lot of time.


and a lot of paint.



And several days later we are done! Yay. From start to finish it took roughly 20 hours.... maybe more. I NEED to get faster. Any suggestions?

Lost in the woods....

This project pretty much has been lost in the woods for quite a while. I have been working on this TOP SECRET children's book project for a while (started summer 2004) and I thought I would share a snippet of some new beginnings. This is a scene where the main character becomes lost in the woods. I actually did this during last semester as the heavy work load of graduate school gnawed away at my sanity and confidence. But out of that stressful time came this piece and a renewed interest in this story. I basically rewrote the entire thing in rhyming verse and tried to rework the characters and give them a little more depth.

Here it is and hopefully I will have more to share soon. This piece was done using ink and ink wash on watercolor paper. My goal is to get a submission package ready by the end of next summer. Fingers crossed.

Happy Father's Day

Wishing all you fathers out there a happy (belated) Father's Day. Being a father is probably the most important role a man can have and I was blessed with a dad that really understood that. So for my great dad I created a homemade card using his favorite genre- the western.

I feel like this may have been a bit of a break through piece for me in that I experimented with a very limited color palette and some new inking techniques. I was trying to evoke that sepia-toned western atmosphere. The card was created on cold press watercolor paper using higgins black magic ink, pelican sepia drawing ink, and an assortment of brushes. I scored the fold using an exacto knife to get it to fold properly.

I hope one day my broke ass will be able to give my dad more than just a card, but for now, this will have to do.

I love you Dad! Thank you for everything!

Card cover

Card inside

Bartleby the Dragon

I just finished the first of what I hope will be a series of sock puppets. My hope is that I may be able to sell them at some point. I used a sock that I dyed green for the body and the features were mostly created out of fabric and poly-fil. The fins on the side of the neck have wire sandwiched between two pieces of extra thick interfacing so they are very posable. The next batch will probably use pingpong balls for eyes instead of styrofoam. Not that styrofoam is bad, but I am curious to see the difference between the two. And so without further ado, say hello to Bartleby the Dragon!