Gone Fishin'....

Well, sort of. Took a bit of a break for the Christmas holidays after a totally manic December!! So, sorry if it was a long break. A bit of nervous exhaustion caught up with me, while body parts heal(like my ankle).

I will get back to the paintings soon, many are planned. In fact I have a co-exhibit at Springbull Gallery in Newport, coming up over the next few months so, I have to get cracking.

Soon....

Digital meets Traditional...

Okay...here's a TEST shot of the ongoing foray I am making into digital art. The dinosaur was done, traditionally. It didn't take long, maybe an hour or so. It is combined with the stock photo picked to use for the scenario for this children's book. This is a rough insert of the art onto a low rez photo(high rez coming) to see if the technique will work. Ostensibly, it's a quick way of doing something that normally can take months and months. I'll be working with Cortney Skinner, who will be doing the composites on the book and integrating my watercolor paintings into the photos with some really high end programs and equipment he has on hand. He'll adjust lighting and do touch ups. It's alot faster than having to paint digitally from the ground up. The result, will look pretty amazing, we all think so far anyway. Stay tuned...this is going to be a big book..

Farmer Karma....

Well, thanks to a synchroncity of thoughtfulness and, events, Bette and Phillip Jose Farmer are the owners of this very cover painting I did. I'm really pleased and proud to be involved in this book-it's pretty cool when the author and his wife want to own the painting I did. Also, the book got a starred review from Publisher's Weekly-this is no easy task. Here's the final cover design by Gail Cross, designer extrordinaire!!! It'll be a sell-out book, so go http://www.subterraneanpress.com/ and order one...

In the meantime-December is just a bad month for medical stuff-I accidently misstepped on a stair coming down from the studio and sprained my right ankle! Ouch! I'm keeping it elevated and, have it wrapped up and put ice on it. It feels better already, and should be fine soon!

Trailer Park!

Here's another plug for Norman England's film THE iDOL which I worked on with some concept and matte work. You can see two matte shots of mine in the trailer...and one of them is on the header page. I think this is just an amazing piece of work done on a budget you could buy a car on...but half of the fun is knowing and finding how to do things on the cheap and make them look terrific, so enjoy the trailer!

http://www.theidol-movie.com:80/trailer.htm

A YEAR!!

It just dawned on me this blog of mine has gone on a year...wow. Where'd THAT go? What a year. Alot of paintings, alot of travelling and alot of fun.

Don't worry, I have more small works coming. Just back from Dallas and seeing some friends, and starting some work on a dinosaur look that will meld traditional techniques with digital, but on the whole, things are less "crazy" busy which is how I like it.

I can't get into Christmas either for some reason.

My finger infection resolved nicely, I'm a bit drained from some powerful anti-biotics that ran through my system and affected my digestive area in not so fun ways. But, it's better and that's what counts. The idea of an infection that potentially results in limbs being removed was more frightening than some of the gastric side effects of Ceftin.

Anyway, what a year. More pictures soon!

Heinleiners....

New cover to RAH's THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON. Larger piece, in oils. And I got an opportunity to do a Heinleiner Rocket. YES!!! Lots of fun to do. I did this more as symbolism than anything in the book. Sometimes the best ones work that way when you go with emotion. Check out the sketch of this painting, back from July, and compare. One of the things I wanted to do was recall,in the image, the days of old "graphic" covers that had that great minimalist feel of the 40's war propanda posters and such. The other problem, if you will, with any cover, is that alot of space has to be left up top for type design. I tend to leave the space somewhat open...on personal works, I don't.

I'm really physically exhausted after doing so many paintings(five) and a short time(just under four weeks)...so I am off to Dallas for a break.

I'll be back to smaller paintings, soon. I got alot done here, over a month and don't anticipate that happening in such a crunch again, in the foreseeable future.

Solaris...

This is for Stanislaw Lem's classic book SOLARIS about a living "brain" planet that manifests images and memories on the space station in orbit about it. The 1972 movie from Russia was three hours long...and the 2002 remake with George Clooney was 90mins BUT FELT LIKE THREE HOURS!!! I did this in oils and wanted a more "sexy" approach to a space image....

Newsflash: Take Care of Those Small Cuts!!

A bit of a newsflash here. And some advice to artists or anyone who works too hard and ignores their health. Last week, I was so damn busy and "pre-occupied", I got a rather harmless hangnail caught on something and it ripped away a tiny piece of the side cuticle of the nail of my left forefinger. Ordinarily, I would immediately wash this and sterilize it with some peroxide and then cover with a bandaid for a few days. Dunno why I didn't. I was...busy actually. About 24 hours or so later, I began to realize this finger was getting painful and inflamed. On Friday morning it was hard to take and, a red "thing" was running down my knuckles toward my hand!!!!
Immediately, I got to the hospital. I have pretty good health insurance so why not use it? It's good I did. The medical advisor(sort of a high end male nurse) in the ER Express unit immediately put me on an IV of a potent anti-biotic. I also recieved a Tetanus shot. He then told me that I had in fact a life-threatening condition-what was suspected as a Staph infection. Now, with all the talk of untreatable Staph going around, I really was paying attention. He explained people often die from this, and that often they let it go too long and wind up hospitalized and/or very sick as it penetrates major organs. But all was to be okay with me as we got it in time. I was given a powerful pill to take and sent home. Now, it's really much better. Whew. I was really weighed down with some deadlines, and I just said "that's it!" I take the day off and slow up a bit. Had a relaxing evening with friends and then another night at two fun parties on Saturday.

The moral of the story is that you have to take care of your health. At all costs. Never, never ignore symptoms and signs if they are genuine. No good health, and no good artwork. Okay, rant over.

More Venus Reflections

The painting I did, a few days ago has generated some of the kindest and nicest email I have ever recieved. Most especially nice were words from Bette and Phillip Jose Farmer who really love the piece and want to own it.
And another comment was gotten from someone who doesn't really like Sci Fi/Fantasy art, and her response was amazing, and made me feel like I was really doing, from time to time, something that mattered and stood on it's own. I had another person email me a copy of some painting I did-one of those gawdawful airbrush things I used to do-and the comparison was amazing and, stark. I've realized since dropping the airbrush over 10 years ago, my health has improved and, my work has improved into the stratosphere. I like work that LOOKS like a painting, not a glitzy photo! That's what the paintings a day have done. I also got the same kin of comments on two Mike Resnick paintings I did-one for his IVORY book.

Paintings like VENUS ON THE HALF SHELL are pretty much turning points for me. It came out exactly as I 'imagined' it would. And people liked it who don't necessarily like Sci Fi. It doesn't get better than that. Not that I really consider the book VENUS ON THE HALF SHELL, "solidly" science fiction. Has the trappings, the visuals...but it's far far more. It's a search for the meaning of life, as I saw it. That needs something more than tentacled creatures.

As can be evidenced by the below works for Lumley, I'm turning somewhat darker. I get asked why I have this predilection for horror and am even turning alot of Sci Fi pieces into something dark. We live in a dark, largely unhappy world. That's how I see it anyway, if people can convince me differently, let them try. My feelings and work reflect this darkness and horror that I see. That's also a mission of art, not to show you what you will see as a happy thing but sometimes, the frightening reality-at least it's a metaphor for that. If someone wants "sweetness and light" then go look at them Kinkades...