Back in Action

Hey friends! It's been a while since I last posted, but I have a great excuse! For some of that time...
     I spent about three weeks (April 22 through May 15) in the U.K.! It was incredible! I went with the Brigham Young University Singers and we sang our way across most of Southern England and a little bit of Wales. If you're interested in reading up on what we did, you can check out the tour blog HERE.
      I will start posting things up more regularly now that I am back and getting back in the swing of things. Meanwhile, here are two paintings from the end of last semester to tide you over. Both are acrylic on masonite board.

A Classic Nursery Rhyme

Baa Baa Black Sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes Sir! Yes Sir!
Please don't shoot me sir!

That is how the nursery rhyme goes, right? I still can't figure out why no one else remembers Mr. Bigg and his lackeys, Catgut Jimmy and Red Al. You guys remember how Jimmy was known to carry an ACTUAL violin in his violin case? And the story about how Al, a reptile, came by his luxurious red locks? You remember right?
If you don't remember, I guess it's okay. My childhood was just cooler than yours.

Out of the Closet, In Color!

There just isn't much money in the labyrinth biz these days. I feel you buddy. Yeah, so I painted this in acrylics. I really need to learn how to get the color to scan better, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Here is something in a slightly different style for me. This is part of some concept work I'm doing for an upcoming BYU animation project.
That is all.

Out of the Closet

No. This is not an announcement, and I am still straight, single, and available (only ladies need apply). I'm talking about my little friends here. In this economy, it is almost impossible to work exclusively as a closet-monster any more. The union helped for a while, but there just isn't much money in scaring and emotionally scarring children. Besides, with the increasing realism and intensity of computer generated graphics and the rise of the zombie/horror thriller video game, kids are just harder to scare these days.
Hence, these gentlemen have come forth out of the closet and taken up secondary jobs to support themselves and their little monster families while they wait for their dreams of super-scaredom to come true.
I dreamed these guys up in response to a class assignment to paint a creature of some kind in a simple cityscape. I'm still fairly new to the idea of using a real brush and paint rather than their digital equivalents, but you will be seeing some updates as I work on one of these hard working fur balls.

Holdin' Out for This One

You ever sit down to work on a project and magic just seems to flow from your pencil and everything just comes out perfectly on the first pass? If so, post your name and address in the comments so I can come and hunt you down. It just doesn't happen like that for me. It took me three to six passes on each of these characters (not counting all of the wood-shopping just to figure out what I was doing) and I still sort of want do another pass, just to fix a couple of little problems I'm seeing.
Anywho. This is a character line-up for a story I'm calling Hero! until I think of a better title. I did this for Jake Parker's Character Design class. It was a great class and I look forward to taking a class in comic book design from him next year! I promise that I'll have something great to post for you before Christmas.

Jake Parker is my Art-Fu master

Jake Parker's CC and Benson

My poor attempt at same

I have been told that getting a degree in art is completely unnecessary. Maybe. But the cool thing about going to school for art is that you get to study with GREAT artists! One of my current teachers is Jake Parker, the creator of Missile Mouse and other great stuff. Check out his art. I especially like his latest awesomeness, CC & Benson.