TEDDY GETAWAY!

Here is a cropped preview of a painting I recently finished for SPECTRUM submission. It is inspired in a way by one of our newest projects here at Moonbot. I'll post the entire painting soon... But I may want to tweak it a little bit and get it right. :)

More exciting stuff going on here at work, and I'll share it with you when I can.

2011

I hope everyone has no regrets, looks forward with optimism, and has a great new year.

I feel as ready as this little new baby Moonbot!:

Mural COMPLETE!

A local friend of MOONBOT is opening a new bar soon, which is promising to be a good time, and something artsy and new for the city... called CITY BAR. The design was consulted by my boss, my friend/coworker Adam and I. Adam and I designed and painted the mural at roughly 13' x 5', designed specifically for this space.


After a couple months and dozens of sessions pushing and pulling the colors, we are happy to say it is finished! You can check it out (if you're in the Shreveport area) this week, when CITY BAR opens its doors.


Also, drop in soon on a Wednesday night when they will be hosting an INDIE-NITE, with good indie rock and alt rock to dance to.

30 minute cool-down sketch

I didn't get a chance to do a warmup sketch this morning, so after work (before heading home) I decided to paint the birthday sketch subject over at the ISCA members forum, Neil Young.

This is a 30 minute digital sketch. Again, trying to get loose with brushes, edges, and color:

Illustratioin Friday: blur

The I.F. word this week is "blur" and that reminded me of softer edges, blurry edges, so I tried to spruce up my textures, edges and soft lights here with Photoshop in this 30 min. warmup painting.

You could also say that this is someone who moves in a blur... or at least he thinks he does.

ISCA convention

Every year I forget what an amazing group of people this is, and what an inspiring event the convention is... and then I go and am reminded in a big way. So many friends and so much inspiration. It's an injection that lasts 10 months, and this past week in Sandusky, OH was no exception. Over 250 people gathering, drawing thousands of caricatures and paintings, sculptures and other art. I cannot recommend this group gathering enough to an artist even remotely interested in art of the figure and face.

Here are a few of the pieces I completed over the course of 3 days. I don't have good photos of all the drawings, but I am most interested in painting, and these were sort of a milestone for me. The photos aren't all that great, and I'll get more of them soon:

(detail)

This is a cool cat Canadian who makes this face all the time (10"x10", acrylic).

Illustrator Ed Steckley is one of my best friends... and he wears these boots (10"x10", acrylic).

Friends Andy and Nate on one canvas

Marlo Meekins. Those that know her... well, I hope you see it (24"x18", acrylic).


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Busy busy, fun fun

We've been burning the midnight oil, between work and outside projects, and it's very exciting. I'll be posting more soon, but for now here's a shot of the 1/5 finished mural we're doing at this great new bar about to open, called CITY BAR. Shreveport has some great gems, and we'll be sharing more here soon as we discover it (by 'we' I mean a great community I'm finding here where we are all excited about arts and exploring the great unique places here in town).

Next, check out my buddy's new blog -- Brian Haimes is a great fabricator, puppeteer, modeler, sculptor, animator, birdwatcher, handyman and amazing at nearly anything else he tries. His blog showcases mostly his personal projects and interests, and his work is jaw-dropping and cool.

Here's a cute pic of the talented Volkertron, taking a break late one night in between designing books and storyboarding, with my guitar and little baby amp:

Finally... another video!

I've gotten around to editing the last video I recorded. Future videos will have sharper production quality as well as better audio, as I've ironed out a few errors since recording this one. But I hope you enjoy!

For the rest, visit my digital podcast blog or YouTube page.
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Back from Deutschland, Back in Action!

Okay, so a lot has gone on since my last update here (sorry to all the loyal readers), and I'll be updating on a lot of things in the coming days/weeks/months.

(photo of me by Ismael Roldan, looking down the hill from the hosting hotel)

First thing: I just returned back from the Sebastian Krüger portrait painting workshop in Hanover, Germany. This is Krüger's fourth annual workshop, and there were 20 artists in attendance.

(Sebastian and Jeff Redford: a little too buddy-buddy?)

(Hanover Museum)

During this trip we took a tour around Hanover, learned (perhaps too much) about paint brush manufacturing details, saw Sebastian paint an entire finished (very large) piece, and had the chance to work on our own pieces, with plenty of tips and feedback from the master.

(Stefan, otherwise known as "German Joe Bluhm")

In attendance were artists from Brazil, Korea, Holland, Germany, United States, and Canada! These great new friends are from all over the spectrum - some in their '60s and some in their '20s, some professionals working in movies, some not artists at all (one dentist!), but each were more kind, talented and wonderful than you could ask.

("JerT" - Jeremy Townsend being all "Euro-cool")

This workshop is very reminiscent, in a couple ways, of the annual convention held by the National Caricaturist Network (NCN). Not that we were focusing on caricature, but there was plenty of inspiration, artwork, partying and building friendships. I highly recommend both this workshop (see Sebastian's blog for 2009 workshop announcements) and the NCN convention, held this year from November 2-7 in Raleigh, NC.

(click for larger version)

Here is one of the two finished paintings I worked on in the 3 days we had to paint (sorry for the bad photo- it's in the mail, on its way home). I feel quite invigorated and prepared to continue painting very regularly. Keep an eye out here for traditional paintings on canvas, from time to time (as well as some gallery shows next year).

As for my current work, I'll be finishing an illustration, publishing two art books and working on a third through Art Squared Publishing, traveling to the NCN convention, starting some new paintings, and possibly traveling down south in late October to do a few days drawing theme park caricatures (more to come on that topic).

By the way, Germany is FULL of windmills! Rockin' place.

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