The *real* reason I don't post very much art on this "art" blog....

  I don't know if anybody but my mom still visits this blog (or any blog for that matter), but just in case there are other people out there who still drop by I figured I should explain why I'm such a slacker when it comes to posting updates.

  Back in early 2008 I purchased a video game called Rockband, and it completely changed my life. I started banging away at those cheap, plastic, piece-of-crap "drums" that came with the game and I couldn't stop. I was completely obsessed with playing the drums on Rockband. Of course I was terrible at first, having never played the drums or any other musical instrument; I was barely able to make it through the songs on "easy" without failing. But, eventually I made it through all the songs on "easy", then on "medium", and then on "hard", and pretty soon, I was making it through most of the songs on "expert". I was even able to get gold stars on some of them (hooray!). Then, at some point, I had the opportunity to sit down at a real drum kit, and it turns out that Rockband drum skills actually translate into real (sort of) drum skills! Long story short, I bought a real drum kit, took a year-and-a-half of real lessons, and for the last two years I have been playing the drums in a real band with a bunch of high school friends. I'm having a total blast!

  Now, in a couple of days my band, Intra-Venus & the Cosmonauts, will be heading into the studio to record a proper album, and in a crazy and surreal turn of events, we have managed to secure David J, legendary bassist of the amazing and hugely influential post-punk/goth bands Bauhaus and Love and Rockets to be our producer! Seven years ago, if you had told me that I would end up playing the drums in a rock 'n roll band I would have thought that you were completely crazy! Seven years ago, if you had told me that I would be playing the drums in a rock 'n roll band and would be recording an album with David J as producer, I would have thought it more likely that I would grow wings and fly myself to the moon! I should point out here that I have always been a huge fan of music and am very passionate about the music I listen to. I have also always thought it would be fun to play the drums but was sure that you needed to possess supernatural powers to do so, and I knew that I was definitely lacking in these powers. So as you can imagine, I'm incredibly excited about this amazing opportunity!....and terrified! I mean, let's face it, I've only been playing the drums for about 4 years (almost 7 if you count my time playing Rockband) and I'm definitely not the worlds greatest drummer. Heck, I would describe my drumming as barely adequate. So I'm doing my best not to freak out and crawl into a hole because I'm terrified of failing in spectacular fashion in the studio....with David J! *freakout*

  I would also like to mention that my band is running a kickstarter campaign to raise the money to record, manufacture, and distribute this album. So if you feel so inclined, a donation would be greatly appreciated!

  So now you know why I'm terrible at updating my blog: I have a new hobby that takes up most of my create-artwork-for-my-blog time. I guess you can also blame some of it on this, but in the end the *real* reason is that my heart is no longer in my art, it's in my drums!

Don't worry, I'll post some more art eventually.

Fan Art...

  Missing Method is an amazing rock band  that features my lil' bro on lead vocals and rythm guitar. They put out a music video a few months ago which inspired the above digital painting.  You can check out the music video below.

If all that isn't enough to completely blow your mind, you can also go to their band page and download their new CD for freeeeeeee!!!.....for a limited time.  I highly recommend checking it out.

....seriously. Go listen to "The Escape Artist" and "Twisted Constructs".  Even if those songs hadn't been written and performed by my brother's band I would still highly recomend them.  I can't stop listening to them!

Some Cute Kids....

I finally got around to finishing these portraits of my kids. They're much cuter in real life. I'm not completely happy with the way these turned out, but I don't hate them so much that I won't let my wife hang them in our house....speaking of the drawings, of course, and not my actual kids!

Back to normal....

More drawings from the weekly Avalanche life drawing session. As always, these are 1.5-hour drawings using black compressed charcoal on 18"x24" paper.

Finally!!! Something new!!!

This is a digital painting I did for the Spaceman topic on the Avalanche art blog.  I've never really done a charicature like this before, so it was definitely a learning experience for me.  I think I still have a lot to learn.

A few more drawings from last year...

Time to clean out the fridge again....

These were starting to get moldy. I've got another large stack of drawings waiting to get photographed and posted. I've also got a few digital paintings in the works. Hopefully, I can get them done before the next century.

Friday Figure Drawing

There are some things going on in this one that I kind of like. Again, this is a 1.5 hour drawing done from life using charcoal on paper.

More of the same....

I was really tempted to go into photoshop (well, painter actually) and clean up some of the line work on this one, especially on her arm. I mean, what's up with the heavy black lines. I really need to ease up a bit sometimes.... ok... most of the time.

Another one from the archive...

This is a 1.5 hour life-drawing using charcoal on paper.

Yes, I'm still alive...

Here's another figure drawing from a few months ago. I actually have several drawings that are all photographed and ready to post, but I figured that this time I would hang on to them and post one every few weeks rather than all at once. This way I can post on a more regular basis even if I'm being a slacker and not producing anything new for my blog.

Once again this drawing is from the weekly drawing session at Avalanche. It's a 1.5 hour drawing using charcoal on paper and, as always, I could have used more time.

A Small Taste...

Here's a portion of a painting that I started several months ago for the Avalanche Art Blog that I haven't had a chance to finish yet. The theme was 1920's Gangster. Maybe when crunch time here at work is over I'll get around to finishing it. In the meantime, as I sit here waiting for the latest build of our game to download onto my machine, I thought I'd post this little teaser.

By the way... I don't advocate smoking in any form. Smoking is bad for your health, so don't do it kids.

Surprise!!! Another Figure Drawing

I had been putting off posting any new figure drawings because I've been working on a painting that I wanted to post first, but alas, work is really busy right now and I still don't have the painting finished. Maybe at the end of the summer when "crunch time" is over I'll be able to finish the painting. Until then, you'll just have to make due with another figure drawing.

Figure Drawing... Again

I said it would never happen again, yet here we are, another drawing posted on the day it was made. There's some weirdness going on in a few places in this drawing, but on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I really would have liked another hour to spend on this drawing... heck, another half-hour probably would have been enough.

Happy Leap Year Everyone!

Today's Drawing...

Check it out... I actually did a drawing and posted it on the same day! It'll probably never happen again.

Another Friday Life Drawing...

I tried to post a second drawing along with this one but for some reason I kept getting an error. Oh well, this was the better of the two anyway. Maybe I'll try again with the other drawing some other time.

Life Drawing Dump 4

Well, here's another batch of drawings from the friday morning life drawing sessions at Avalanche. The last drawing is one of my co-workers, Bryan Lefler. The model didn't show up that day so Bryan stepped in like a champ and sat for us. Unfortunately my poor drawing doesn't capture his amazing beauty. ;) I'd have to say that the second drawing from the top is the only one in the bunch that I'm really pleased with. Maybe the new color I used (on accident) has secret powers that enhance the abilities of it's user... or maybe I just got lucky.

The Happiest Place On Earth

It's funny how much screaming and crying and fits of utter despair take place at Disneyland, the so-called "happiest place on earth". I'd hate to see what the saddest place on earth is like. As I'm sure you've guessed, I took my family to Disneyland a few weeks ago. November turned out to be a great time of the year to go. The lines were short and the weather was beautiful! The top picture is a picture of me, my daughter, my screaming son, and my nephew in front of the Haunted Mansion. My son is screaming because he REALLY doesn't want to have his picture taken. I'm not sure why, but sometimes on this trip he would act shy and throw a fit if we tried to take his picture. At other times he would be really cute and ham it up for the camera. I guess it's a three-year-old thing. We spent three days at Disneyland and at about six o'clock on the first and second days, my son would stop, look up at me and announce, "I'm done walking, dad". So I'd carry him arround the park until it closed at 8:30 or so, and then carry him back to our hotel room. As soon as we got outside the park, he would fall asleep in my arms, or, as is the case in the above picture, while sitting on my shoulders. On the third day I decided my back, and arms, and neck, and pretty much the rest of my body, couldn't handle lugging my 45 pound son back to the hotel again, so we brought the stroller along. Anyway, it ended up being a great trip. We all had fun and the kids are already looking forward to next year.

As for an art update?... Well, for the past couple of months I've been in the process of finishing my basement. I've contracted most of the work out, but some of it my wife and I have been doing ourselves, and unfortunately, the parts that I've been doing have taken F O R E V E R. I've been spending every spare minute for the last few months hanging doors and putting up baseboard and crown moulding, so I haven't had a lot of time left over for working on any art for my blog. The good news is that I'm almost done with the basement. The really good news is that I'm putting an art studio in my basement where I'll be able to draw and paint to my hearts delight! The bad news is that I'm lazy and probably still won't update my blog very often. Ah well, at the very least I'll post some more life drawings soon.... if I ever remember to bring my camera to work.

More Drawrings...

I even threw in a gesture this time... just for kicks.