This is one of my favorite fairies from this group. I'll eventually rotate it in to the PRINTS section. A friend in Ithaca has the original.

I haven't been in a writing mood this past month. Fortunately that isn't what I do for a living!  Please check out the "PRINTS" page and pick up two or more prints for yourself or someone you think would like some fairies on their wall. I've been cutting loose with color and exploring compositions with this imagery. In other words: having a blast with color! I was keeping my colors muted for a long time and this latest illustration job, a kid's book for National Geographic seemed to call for bright colors everywhere.  Fifty illustrations plus a cover the fairies seemed to be an appropriate subject to bust out the color bombs!

Here are two more I'll be adding to the Prints page. Don't forget to include the title to be clear about which image you want.

I know I just posted this last post but there are a few tweaks I added.

Out of my color zone. Forcing myself to deal with more yellows than I normally use. Not finished yet, but I'm not sure which way to go next.

Bob's Burgers show is up at Gallery 1988 in LA if anyone reading this is out there!

Sign up for my news letter on my other website here!

Computer art is interesting. I usually don't like it due to how slick everything can get. In a way that is probably what people are reacting to when they say they don't like it. It usually lacks appropriate texture. It's tricky because you can't use a technique just to use it. An artist needs to recognize when it's the right time to push it or reel it in.

I'm using the computer to work out the colors, but if I was to do computer art as a final I would try to find what techniques the computer tools are stronger for. It's a different medium that mimics traditional medium as a starting point. It allows people who haven't developed traditional drawing and painting techniques to put out something in their head in an efficient manner. I think a lot of accomplished artists with traditional techniques resent people who have figured out how to get the computer to do what they want because it seems like a "cheat".

In a lot of cases it is do to it's inherent ability to look like polished art in half to a tenth of the time of traditional (physical) art takes. There are people who try and take that medium past merely copying what traditional art and those are the true pioneers pushing boundaries. I like seeing something pushed farther.

My approach to using the computer is as a sketch. I learn a little more each time I do these and maybe in the future I'll begin to push the computer techniques. But for now...

Two paintings will be going out to Gallery 1988 very soon. I'm sitting on this one for the moment to see if anything else needs resolved that I'm not seeing right now. It's gouache on heavy watercolor paper. There are a few in-jokes. I remember when the X-Files started getting more absurd and humorous at times. One o the surprising episodes was the alien  in the Hawaiian shirt that would talk to Mulder when he would be in a somewhat dreamlike state. Up to that point the aliens had been treated in a realistic manner that was a threat or an unknown thing we should be serious about for many seasons. Then one time this alien appears and I think he's introduced as "Bob" or something. I think it was a reference to an abductee's tale that was making the rounds of the UFO junkies in the mid 90's. I don't know if "UFO Junkie" is the official name of that group. Maybe UFO enthusiasts? Regardless, it made an impression on me when I saw it.

The title of this image is, "It's Yours"... For the moment. I sort of want to reference the idea that most alien abduction stories tend to involve magically winding up on a cold metal table (on a space ship?), aliens with scary medical looking tools bending over them, telekinesis calming their minds as they are afraid over the fact they are paralyzed and confused. Later, they realize they are missing time and the pieces they remember are scary and involved some unwanted surgery or pregnancy.

I was playing on the idea that to them, humans all look the same. Much like we would probably say the same about the aliens. So of course when they operate on humans they might mix up a head or two when putting them back on the body.

Molly, my GF, had a great 2015 and topped it off with a successful book launch and tour of her book "Drawing Blood" from Harper Collins... no relation. In her mind she thought she was very difficult to live with this last year as she wrote her book and planned all the details around it to be a success. Truth, she wasn't any harder to live with than any other time! Well I wasn't going to argue as she wanted to treat me to a three day get-away to New Orleans... Come to think of it I guess she was a bitch!... and you made a mess in the studio! Is that worth at least a trip to Pittsburgh? HA!

We spent all three days going from food, to coffee shop, to more food, to a hookah lounge, to roaming all over the Bywater, French Quarter, and the Garden District. This was one of the doodles in my sketchpad at a coffee shop. We had the best time and I would even go so far as saying it was perfect. I love that girl!

I played around with it in Photo Shop a bit. I think it'll make a nice painting eventually.