Nothing Like

It is now Spring in Vermont, finally and I feel safe putting this one up, something I made a month ago.  This was from a picture I took up Mount Mansfield on New Year's Day.

I am fascinated by history and like recreating it either as skin-on-frame kayaks, viking clothing, medieval scabbards or whatever else interests me, but despite my urge to romanticize the past, I also can't help but keep in mind some very important advances that make our life a lot easier.

Nothing is better than snowshoeing a hard place then coming home to take a hot shower, turn up the heat and make a quick meal.

Evolve Different

It is amazing what one can do in photoshop.  Personally I am an atheist so evolution speaks to me hence this but it always bugged me the Apple Think Different campaign.  It is Think Differently.  That is correct English.  Of course this is me speaking with all my spelling and grammar errors but...

All the Fishes in the Sea

 I am prone to make strange creature in my art.  At some point I will post the sequence of strange creatures I painted for Dr. Goodspeed.  This one was not related to that project but more the product of a Sunday afternoon.  It is about 4 feet long and 10" wide, watercolor and ink.

The full piece.  I did a similar style piece that likewise I will post at another point but has the same water and ground concept.  As a kid whenever we went to the local pool I would put on flipper and a mask and spent all my time underwater, so I think this vantage just appeals to me.

Fake Instagrams

One would think that with my adoration of the archaic and anachronistic world I would have been onboard with the whole instragram craze a while ago but truth is I added it to my iPhone and forgot.  However, at work they put up a wall of everyone's instagrams and there was no way I could walk away from artistic expression without a fight so I faked the instagram effect on some of my favorite pictures with Photoshop instead.   

 For some reason these ferns were already white.  It was an odd thing to see.

 Advanced Music building believe it or not.  Looks more at home in my old Pittsburgh neighborhood.

 Mount Mansfield on New Years Day.  The whole snowshoe trip and other truly amazing pictures can be seen here.

 This was at Crane Lake in the Pharaoh wilderness.  One pot rusted, the other fresh from cooking bacon.

 Also from the same trip, we found in our wanderings a lean-to without a roof.

My faithful companion Sal on Hurricane Mountain.  While the winds there are strong one of his ears always curls over his head.  It is his way.

Water, water everywhere...

Oddly this is something a little new to me, I usually use Photoshop to paint or draw, not take a picture of mine and add to it like this digitally.

 This is a photo from a run in Little River State Park in Vermont where I live.  In the summer this is a little beach, however in April it is still  frozen solid (hence the caption).

Detail without the text.  There are some really neat brushes in Photoshop and these seemed to harken to pastels in a pleasing way.  A fun exercise

Friends Don't Let Friend Drink and Belay

From a conversation with friends.  I think it is sound advice.  This was a fairly quick creation, drew out the cliff and climbers then started adding layers with the rope and funnel so I could tweak them without messing up anything else.

I actually ended up with two versions, one with the final word "belay" and the other with "sherpa."  Here are the two side by side:

Let me know what you think is the better of the two.

Acumen: A Robot's Tale

Acumen is a story I wrote, illustrated and self published for the hell of it.  It is about the journey of a robot who has faced and fought in the revolution of robot's rights and then is left haunted by what was done.  To see more go here.

Punk with Stiches

 Believe it or not my parents have an old singer like this that they still use.  It is a peice of art, the engraving and detail  is quite remarkable.  It seems like a good way to memorialize it in a t-shirt design.

I think I am one of the few guys I know who actually can sew and owns a sewing machine.  It is a pity, with that tool you can create so much.  Punk through stitches.

Mr. Monster

These were always the way I would imagine monsters.  How could you not?  Towering over you, smelling of sulfur and brimstone and yet, so polite.

Wild Turkey

A quick design I did for a local bowling team.  It ended up winning the contest for the bowling league which was gratifying.  I tried a white on black version below but there person who requested the design agreed the original above was far better.

Patent Pending

I originally made this as a t-shirt design for Threadless but I like it in its own right.  I can easily get fixated on design the specifics of things that will never exist, airships, spaceships, boats, etc. but it is nice to occasionally put it down on "paper."

Not to say that we soon won't have a death ray, they are working on energy weapons right now that far exceed the Star Wars program of Reagan but we are not quite there yet.

Polaris over the World

A single illustration from my short story Aegir's Epic: Fog of Kronos.  Aegir is an adventurous maverick making legends where ever he goes with his airship Polaris. The Fog of Kronos leads him into a dangerous fog bank from which he barely escapes with his life.

At least the birds seemed happy...

A single page from a larger story yet to be completed in the film nior vein.  It follows a dark tale with twists and turns in a different and harder time...2014 perhaps...

Row upon Row

The Shadow King

An illustration for a story I was working on, the Shadow King was a twisted creature who stole peoples shadows and thereby ate their souls.  Since the invention of the electric light he and his people had been forced out of their normal hunting ground.  The story follows a child who, once told of the existence of the Shadow King by his grandfather, has to face the beast alone when the power fails.  

The Summit

A quick project I did for foldycomics.  It is a cool project of a friend from college Kenan Rubenstein who is making it as a illustrator and designer.

Smoker

I originally created this graphic short in January 2012 but it seemed like a good thing to add to this blog.  This really based on a smoker that sat in the backyard of the house next to mine.  It was such an odd shape and seemed to almost have a character unto itself.