The complete gallery contains extensive documentation with process pictures in a pretty visual format. Read here, but don't forget to visit over there.

2009

Tutorial Paintings—These were part of a larger quest of mine that had two purposes. I hadn’t painted digitally in several years and needed to relearn a bunch of software and techniques. I also wanted to conquer my irrational fear of realistic painting.

2010

Electrical Pirate Coat-When somebody invites you to attend a Space Pirate BBQ half-way across the country, the question has to be, what does one wear? I have a particular love for bright and sparkly things and after looking around for ideas, they just kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally, it seemed the best thing to do was just make an experiment of out it and see if a wearable, battery powered, LED lighted pirate’s coat might do the trick. With a matching EL wire hat of course.

My First Realistic Portrait— This painting was a very important one for me personally. It’s the first major piece of work using the Cintiq. And the first painting I ever did to this level of realism that wasn’t a tutorial copy. This piece has been exhibited in the local library for six months.

2011

Tiny Books—Jane Fancher, who is a lovely, lovely person, fantastic illustrator, and talented author of fiction, gave me a set of her rare, out of print now novels as a gift. It was a complete surprise. I wanted to make something extra special for Jane when her birthday came around, so I fashioned these tiny charms out of polymer clay that are exact replicas of the books she gave me. Good for wine charms or earrings or a bracelet perhaps.

Art Journal—I started seriously writing fiction in 2009. In 2010, the redirection of creative energy began to show itself with a decrease in painting. In 2011, however it was so low that I panicked. I had no desire to paint. Or draw. I was perfectly content to write and yet had nothing to show for it, outside of several drafts of a novel that I was afraid wasn’t going to go anywhere.

In an effort to jump start my painting I picked up on a trend that I’d seen in a magazine, called an art journal. It seemed a good solution in that it combined journaling, which I do every day—with art. It worked almost immediately. I rediscovered the joy of watercolor, of painting, and I could do a page in an afternoon. Better yet, I didn’t even have to draw, as I have thousands of sketches of little elements that I could simply redraw and then paint.

I decided one page a week would suffice, though some artists do one page a day as a daily practice. Mine were finished pieces for the most part. And I couldn’t keep up with it. Was it because I didn’t have time? No. Perfectionism. I wouldn’t paint if I couldn’t make it perfect and beautiful. I still take it out with me, but it’s a whim now, not a practice—and that’s not what I needed.

2012

Tangelina— After finishing Tangelina the story, I wanted to make Tangelina the painting. This the mock up for it—that I haven’t touched in months. I was hoping that this project--which is important to finish--would break me out of my two year painting drought. No luck. So far.

Book Project—I’d long decided that I wanted to make a hardback book. I use enough of them as journals that I thought I could learn to make one, especially after making a few simple ones. The problem was that my perfectionism was getting in the way yet again. I didn’t just want to make a book, I wanted to have written one too.

After much deliberation I took my completed, if not perfected, small works and made them into this 80 page book. Surely imperfect on the writing side, but couldn't be nicer in terms of construction, layout and design.

I hope to make a few more this year.

A Token of Affection—I have my hopes that this is the project that eases me back into painting. It's a gift. A little sketch, to be finished in a Manga style. Character design really, from a yet to be published book by someone I like very much. This is the first project for which I have actually turned on the Cintiq. I'm digitally inking--though this snap shot is of the pencils I did.