Return to Critter Island

 Here is the mostly finished progress of my latest sculpture. It is going to be submitted to Richard Boyd Pottery for Creatures and Critters III. It is going to be showing this summer and the theme is equine and avian. So I may be making a bird of some sort soon as well.

I hope you enjoy the progress shots of my horse, they include my uncleaned-up working space to add "charm." Well, something like that at least.

A horse!

A progress shot of my newest sculpture. That is all for now. :)

Better late than never?

Well, it's been over about, um... a *cough* year, *cough* since I started working on this bust of an old man. I've kept on meaning to put the last few touches on him for almost that whole time too, but always I have been flummoxed by my lack of a stand to put him on. The only stand I had bought was in use by my other bust, Orlina, and if I removed her from it she'd fall on, and smash her pretty face. Which just wouldn't do!

Anyhow, long story short, I was finally able to afford the materials to make a new stand for him. Yay! Directly related to that is EVEN BETTER news for my making of art, and those of you who like to stop by and see what I've been doing lately (which I must admit, these past months, hasn't been a lot). That news is that after I wrap up my Christmas shopping I'll FINALLY be able to allocate funds to the buying of the clay, sculpting tools and armature that I am currently lacking. This is big for me, because I've realized nothing engages me like the process of sculpting, and I desperately want to get back into it. There are so many things I want to do and they're all on the backburner right now.

I hope you enjoy the finished product. Now it's time to do one of the scary parts, which is baking my creation without it cracking. Wish me luck!

(confession: I upped the contrast on these photos so you can see the details better)

Fantasy Portraits

I'm starting a long series of fantasy portraits in 5x5" squares focusing on individuality, composition and costuming. They'll be broken up with other projects, but expect to see a lot of these on my blog in the near future.

Here are the first four. Enjoy!

A warrior on a long cold watch.

Drinking. Laughing. Singing.

Priestess of the One God.

The long ride to battle.

Class is in Session

So I discovered this awesome figure drawing website early last month that sets up little classes for you. What you do is select a class period from thirty minutes to six hours long and then you hit 'Get Drawing!' From there it sets up a figure class structure, cycling through stock photo albums from all over the web and giving you several gesture drawings to do before moving into longer and longer poses. Then at the end, like a real figure drawing class you get a long pose to paint. Then bam, you've completed a figure drawing class!

These are a couple of the longer poses from the first half of last month. Enjoy!

We are Warriors!

As you can see, warriors come in many shapes and sizes. There is something about warriors that inspires me, though I'm not certain what exactly that is. They appear more often than any other one thing in my drawings, and in Dungeons & Dragons I am constantly rolling up characters who live for the thrill of combat. They are so unlike me, as someone who believes that peace is the best answer. Yet something about them draws me. Perhaps it is the warriors uncompromising resolve in the face of adversity, the willingness to risk their lives for a cause or ideal. Maybe it's just the way that a warrior stands up where others can't or won't to do what needs to be done. Traits worthy of aspiring to. Whatever it is, here is a sketchdump of some warriors. I hope you enjoy them!

I love drawing the characters I play in Dungeons and Dragons. It makes them that much more real to me. This is Torbrandr Agnisson, my most recent character.

 This... is a bear.

Some warriors are even wee... 

Jack and the Island

Hello everyone! Tomorrow is the opening of the Creatures and Critters show at the Richard Boyd Gallery on Peaks Island, off the coast of Portland, Maine. My jackalope and Ulia the Blind Priestess will be exhibited alongside the works of Pam Cabanas, Judy O'Donnell, Tina-Marie Poulin and Jean Noon; every one of us an artist based out of Maine. There will be sculptures and paintings about animals and our connections to them. It's going to be a great show, if you want to find out more about it you can go to their gallery's press release here.

Please come out to the island, I will be there with some of my family after 5:00pm but the gallery will be open all day and the show will be up for the rest of the month. Here are some of the final pictures of the jackalope. I hope you enjoy them, and maybe I'll see some of you!

Ulia, Completion

She is baked and ready to go, just pictures today. Enjoy!

Ulia, the Blind Sea Witch

 I'm not going to really say anything tonight, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you're here for the pictures anyway. Aren't you?