May the 4th!

Model sketching

I sketch from the model regularly.  I thought I'd post a few of my costumed favorites.

Ebert & Siskel

I did this piece 15 years ago, with some guidance from instructors at the Illustration Academy (Mark English & Sterling Hundley). Ebert died today-- a man who claimed Champaign, IL as much as I do.  I did this piece, synchronistically, the week Siskel started calling in sick--just months before he died.

Potter Commission

Watering Hole

Character designs

The Spinster Aunts

Drop by Gallery Nucleus this weekend to see this inherited portrait of the Spinster Aunts.  It's part of a group show celebrating Mike Yamada & Victoria Ying's new book Curiosities.

Leather Pig

It's okay for pork to wear bovine, yes?

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Recently I've been exploring some digital work, and with the the help of Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying at the CDA, I brought up visual exploration of the Ray Bradbury story, Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I was trying to push the creature aspect of the carnival.

Gallows Song

The Two Donkeys

A gloomy donkey, tir'd of life
one day addressed his wedded wife:

"I am so dumb, you are so dumb,
let's go and die together, come!"

But as befalls, time and again,
they lived on happily, the twain.

--Morgenstern

The third in a series of Gallows Songs I've been working on.

Dandy Lion

I'm continuing with my formal animal portraits.  This isn't *actually* the cowardly lion, but I do love that line from the movie...I'm afraid there's no denyin'.  I'm just a dandy-lion.  I've had it in my head for a while now.  A fate I don't deserve?

My Backyard

I've left the poem as it fits in the original illustration for Highlights Magazine.   The poem was written by Lynda Hawkins.