Big Big Mess & A Book Cover

If you've been to my blog here recently you'll have noticed that you can't see pictures. That's partly fixed. I still have to upload all the old art going back to September. This may take a while. The server I use for this site burned out. Even my website was out of commission. Thanks to my brother-in-law it's fixed now. Thanks Sean.

In the meantime, rather than post some personal things I've been working on, here's an easy post of a book cover I did a few weeks ago. You may have seen the underpainting for this in an earlier post. This is the finish. It's for a book called "The Ring of Fire II" by Eric Flint. This book is part of a series that is quite popular.

Plein Air Cheat

Above: Oil, 10 X 15 inches.


Above: Oil, 9 X 11 inches.

I'd been having some problems blogging lately. It seems to be solved now. I switched from Safari to Firefox and everything is fine. All this would've gone up sooner had I not run into these problems and some others.

The pictures above were done last weekend a short walk from my house. There's a lot of nature out there and I find that area an inspirational place to walk through. These paintings were done by climbing down into a ravine where the brook flows. I've been meaning to paint something down there for a while. Last weekend was the perfect time to do it.

I don't paint from life much although I see its value. For the most part the ideas in my head keep me pretty busy. Lately I've been inspired by a number of plein air painting blogs to get me out painting (some of those blogs have just been added to my links on the right). I cheated a little on these paintings because I worked on both of them a little once I got back to the studio. That's why I titled this "Plein Air Cheat."

BRAND NEW BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Coming back from plein airing I saw something very cool. The animal in these pictures on my brand new blog -- Shutterbuggy Kidd -- that I thought might be sick, turned out to be a fledgling. There's a little story you can read about it there too.

And finally here's the updated Microvision painting I did (below):

True Wind

Above is the newest thing I’ve done. It’s here because I thought it was time to post something fresh off of the easel. I did this for the Microvisions Show that Irene Gallo (art director at Tor Books) and Dan Dos Santos is putting together for the Society of Illustrators’ auction to benefit student scholarships. The show runs from June 4th to June 22nd at the Society of Illustrators Gallery 3. There will be an eBay link coming. Irene is certain to have a list of the artists participating in this on her blog.

This painting is a tiny 5X7" oil on gessoed pressboard. It’s the smallest I’ve ever done and it gave me a neck ache in the process of painting it. I was honored when asked to be part of this and I continue to be so. My neck, however, has changed and is much better now.

In my previous post I put up a little sketch of what I thought I'd paint but I changed my mind so I did some sketches. See below.

I liked the basic idea of this but the gesture wasn't quite right (above).


Here I think that I've improved the gesture. She feels like she's balancing now as she leans forward to help propel the airship on its way.


I started this painting somewhat late in the day, around 6 pm. This represents a little over an hour of work before the dinner bell rang. There is no drawing underneath this. I like to work directly in paint.

Slap and Dash

Above: Just for entertainment, although it'll come into use one day.

I have a long thing about my kid slideshow I want to post but I must keep my nose to the grindstone today. Here are a few quick initial-type sketches because people wanted to see less finished work. I've got a bunch more I have to scan. Also coming up will be my demo painting I did at the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown, SCAN.

More importantly today I want to alert you to a friend of mine's blog, Sergio Martinez. Keep an eye on this blog because you're going to see a lot of beautiful work here. I can't say enough good things about Sergio. He's one of the best. Go to his blog and let him know what you think.


Above: Trying slightly different ways to draw something. I don't have any favorites here.


Above: This will likely be painted as my submission for Microvisions. It'll be auctioned off with other 5X7 paintings for scholarships given out by the Society of Illustrators.


Above: Several drawings for various things, all on the same page, without regard to their relationships.


Above: I have no idea why I drew this. Truth is I'm always finding drawings around here I have little memory of. Sometimes I wonder if someone else did them.