The Mental Blue

Got some more art for ya!

My rendition of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland!

A little Anatomy practice, I recently borrowed my friend’s anatomy book and Ive been going through drawing the various muscular structures of various areas of the body!  It’s been really helpful along with George Bridgman’s Life Drawing books!

Also and Africa Lion on a 3″x3″ canvas!

Well it’s been a while since I last posted, a bit over a month!!
You’ll be happy to know though I’ve not been up to nothing and I do have something worth writing about!
Since my birthday I’ve been pretty inspired by the little Avatar canvas painting I did so I’ve done quite a few since then!  I’ve got several lined up and a few already finished!  I’d like to get a chance to show them perhaps at a con before I decide to sell them, if or whenever I do.  So without further to do here are the ones I have so far!  They are 3″x3″ Acrylic on a Mini Canvas.

And here’s one in the sketch stage before I paint it.
Ahsoka Tano from Star War the Clone Wars.

I’ve got some other fun things lined up art wise but I’ll save those for another post!
For now enjoy and happy drawing!!

Thought I’d share this with you all!  Since about the end of summer of last year, a friend of mine invited me to an event called an Art Jam which is held at Krypton Comics in Omaha, Nebraska.  Ever since then I’ve been going faithfully, the third Saturday of every month.  About 3 art jams ago There was a photographer from the Omaha World Herald there who was taking pictures for the paper as well as the website.  An art jam later an interviewer named Josefina Loza came by and was talking to various artists including myself about our work processes and how we came to know about the art jam.  A few weeks later they published the article in the Omaha World Herald which can be viewed in the paper or online under the Living Section.
(hint hint there’s a photo of me in the “more photos” tab next to the article’s banner image)

22 years ago, this day, I was pushed out of my collective uterus and into the world where I began to live!!

It’s really weird that I’m 22 now, I’m pretty sure i’m still 16 mentally though.  Being young at heart is great!
Today I’m gonna go out for sushi and see Avatar!  This will be my third time seeing Avatar, it’s such an amazing and inspiring movie!  I think it’s my new favorite movie, and sorry to say Square Enix, as much as I LOVE Advent Children Complete, I think you’ve been schooled by James Cameron, who I think if he keeps this up he’ll be the next George Lucas!  In a way he kind of already is, since he’s revolutionized 3D technology in such an incredible way.

I couldn’t really sleep last night, but felt much too creative to not do anything,  so I made this little birthday present for myself.  Not that I’m not getting any gifts but I felt rather inspired to make something.  And of course I’d like to share it with all of you!

This past Sunday I completed my work for Author and Publisher Scott Appleton, for a novella written by P. M. M. Green called the “Fairy’s Ruby Cage”!   I thought you all would be interested in seeing my work!  I hope you enjoy it!  Feel free to tell me what you think!

A little something that spawned from my imagination was this guy here.  I was kinda thinking elephant, walrus, lion, alien creature, and then I suppose a little inspirational flare from Avatar,  By the way is an incredibly amazing movie!   First I’ll show you the pic then I’ll give you my thoughts on Avatar.

Ok, so back to my thoughts on Avatar, jaw dropping, stunning, revolutionary, beautiful!
This is definitely one movie that I could watch over and over there’s so much to see and such amazing detail!  There wont be any spoilers here just to let you know first off if you haven’t seen it.

I’m a CGI kind of guy and I really appreciate the work that goes into making these characters and creating everything from scratch as I took a 3D modeling class a couple years ago.  So I’ll sit there and observe every little bit of a film analyzing it for the technical things like the way something is animated or how the lighting is or how a performance carries out.   Let me tell you, Bolt for example, a kid’s film right?  People get excited over the cute doggie, I get excited over the transparency of the skin of Bolt’s ear and how the light shines through it.   I appreciate the little things like that.  So this movie, Avatar was just amazing for me, I got this sense of pure character from Jake Sully in his Na’vi form and from the Na’vi themselves.  I didn’t sit there and think “oh this is a CGI character”  I thought Wow this IS Jake Sully, this is Dr. Augustine, this is Neytiri.  It’s amazing how much animation went into these characters for pure performance and the visuals definitely backed it up.  I must say I love how they modeled Jake’s Na’vi face, his expressions to me are priceless especially the scenes where he’s first trying out his new body.  The way his face looks when he says “this is great!”  and when he bites into the fruit and the juices leak and drip down his face, it’s incredible and looks like its something very delicious and flavorful!!  I must admit I think it makes my own mouth water.  I loved the way they animated the tails of the Na’vi as well.  Very expressive and perfect to the emotions presented by the characters.  One of my favorite scenes would be when Jake goes to claim his Banshee and the flight scenes after wards, those were incredible!  And I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it!  There definitely wasn’t a dull moment in the film.   I ended up seeing it in both 2D and 3D!  I’d highly recommend seeing it in 3D if you can!  the added depth and hi-def experience is incredible!!   I could go on but it would probably end up writing a novella.  Definitely a must see movie of the year.  However while it’s PG-13, I’d leave the kiddies at home for this one due to some of the language, a brief sex scene, and if tribal near-nudity really bothers you.  This one’s definitely a buyer in the future, I’m already looking forward to the bluray release and all the amazing hours of special features!”

Well till next time enjoy the art and happy drawing!

Well I did mean to put up a post for Christmas but unfortunately I didn’t get around to it.
It’s been a crazy Christmas weather wise this year!  We got tons of snow, probably a foot and then some! Personally I can’t stand the cold so it’s really no fun for me, but visually it can be quite nice from time to time.  The feeling of silence, the cold air, large snow flakes floating softly to the ground, your warm breath penetrating the air making small cloudy puffs, being bundled up under layers of coats and scarves and extra layers of clothes. It can be pretty serene at times yes.  I suppose you could say I enjoy winter in my own private way like that.

As for the holiday aspect of Christmas my grandparents came up from Alabama and spent a few days with us, unfortunately because of the storm they had to leave early to escape the storm.  I was able to see my uncle again after many years of him doing missions work in the Philippines.  Tuesday he’s due to ship out to Peru so in order to hopefully get there in time, they needed to beat the storm.  Christmas eve we decided to open presents of  which I got several movies on bluray, art supplies, and I had gotten some of them early such as a new TV and PS3 so I could watch all my bluray movies!  Definitely exciting!  I also got the complete Farscape series on dvd which I burned through in a couple weeks.  Totally cool!!  I’m a big Farscape fan, definitely a great series.  I wouldn’t say it’s a family kind of series since there’s some risque content from time to time, the only downside of the series but other than that it’s great humor, great characters and acting, epic encounters and just an over all great series!  The Jim Henson workshop worked on the creatures, sets, and make up so you know it’s gotta be good!

Christmas day, I went with my cousin out to his parent’s house where we spent the afternoon and most of the evening. We opened gifts, had dinner, and enjoyed each other’s company.  A big surprise that occurred was my friend Anna who is my cousin’s sister was proposed to by my friend Daniel!  So that was quite the excitement of the evening!  What do you know, She gets a husband and he gets a wife for Christmas!  It was a fairly simple proposal, but that doesn’t make it any less a proposal.  Marriage is definitely cool!  Can’t say I see myself getting married any time soon, but I’m very happy for my friends!

Something I can’t forget to say is Christmas is a great reminder of the gift God has given to us, that being His Son.  It’s unfortunate that it’s taken for granted all too often and seen as some religious whatever, but it’s not just that.  Christ came so that He could die for our sins and allow us salvation and everlasting life if we repent of our sin and turn to Christ and give ourselves to Him.  The Ultimate Gift He could ever give.  In terms of gift giving, that should be a reflection of Christ’s generosity and giving towards us.  It’s too bad though that we can’t be just as giving or willing to give to others all year around.  Doesn’t mean we have to give gifts all the time but just being in the spirit of giving and willing to give instead of being selfish and only wanting to gain.
So may you have a blessed Christmas season and a Happy Holiday as you reflect on the past year and consider the things to change and the new resolutions to be made and make for 2010!

On an artistic note, it’s been a pretty inspirational year for me!  Right now I’m finishing up work for a novel being published by Scott Appleton’s publishing company called Flaming Pen Press, the novel being “The Fairy’s Ruby Cage” by author P. M. M. Green.  I’m really excited and grateful to participate in this project.  The book’s release will be in the spring of 2010!

I’m definitely going to try to make it a point to create several new pieces this year on my own.  it’s difficult sometimes with classes going on but I know I can do it.  Things like holidays are good motivators for me, especially if I want to give hand made gifts for people.  Which I think I will do primarily from now on. Or at least a major part of what I will do for the many Christmases and birthdays to come for friends and family.
So to start off, here’s a portrait I did of my friend’s pet Titus, a siberian husky.  It’s a 3″x3″ mini canvas, painted with Acrylics.

Well I got to do something super cool this past Tuesday!!

Anyone want to take a guess?  Has to do with the title of this entry.
I got the outstanding privilege to attend Star Wars In Concert!!

It was a BLAST! Myself and Lindsay got VIP tickets which granted us early access to the museum where they displayed official movie props and costumes that were used IN THE FILMS!  along with some conceptual art work.  The tickets also allowed us line free access to the merchandise kiosks so we could load up on Star Wars in Concert memorabilia without all the pushing and shoving of crowds or any waiting.  We were also entreated to refreshments before the show as well as during the intermission which was quite the treat since the show started around dinner time.   Getting there wasn’t too difficult but it had just snowed and quite a bit to where schools and colleges were canceled that day and all the snow ploughs were out clearing the streets and highways.   Lindsay and I took my car to the concert and thankfully traversed the snowy roadscapes of  ”OmaHoth” as a fellow fan put it on Face Book.  We arrived a bit early but better early than late and there were no late admissions either.  I personally had to get into the spirit of it all so i wore my black Sith costume to the show.  How could I not?

When we arrived we had to wait a while since everything hadn’t quite opened up just yet.  There were a few other that had also arrived a little before us and at the same time.  During that time it was really nice because we were able to strike up a conversation with them.  That’s one of the perks I think there is about being a Star Wars fan.  A majority of the fans are really kind spirited and are willing to socialize and talk Star Wars and about life in general. I’d say you can see yourself making a lot of friends and connections.  I think since it’s very family oriented and there are no perverse or overly violent themes in Star Wars it’s something everyone can enjoy without any shame.  Definitely something I appreciate about the Star Wars fandom.

The museum display was spectacular!  The entire even was held at the Quest Center so the museum display was spread out around the upper floor of the arena in which the concert was performed.  For myself and Lindsay you could say we were kids in a candy store!  I think we both had the biggest grins out of everyone there checking out the incredible props and costumes.  They had some of the classics there such as Darth Vader,  Chewbaca, C3-PO, some Ewoks and Han Solo in Carbonite!  Some of the newer displays included Queen Amidala’s Senate gown worn in Episode 1 along with some of her handmaidens, Palpatine’s costume when he’s captured by General Grievous in Episode 3, and a Nemoidian Mustafar Guard.   It was definitely cool seeing these things in person and knowing they were the actual things used in the movies!

After oogling our eyes out over all the Star Wars props and costumes we headed downstairs for refreshments which were served in a really nice buffet style in a small lounge/dressing room area.  We joked that it might be some closet with a table of snacks but it was a very nice setup with round tables with red cloth that reminded us of the fabric used on Queen Amidala’s Sentate Gown, little R2 D2 and Yoda Christmas lights and a plush Yoda.  the food was fancy, kind of like what you’d expect to find at an art gallery.  Shrimp shooters, crackers with cheese and jam, chicken skewered on little sticks, thai noodles, veggie plates, brownies and massive cookies were all offered as well as a refrigerator full of various softdrinks, water, etc.

The 501st made an appearance as well, along with a few members of the Rebel Legion.  That was great fun and for sure the kids LOVED it! well everyone really.  A few friends of mine are part of the 501st, Rebel Legion and the R2 Builders.  It’s definitely neat having some connections and good friends like that!

The performance of the concert itself was absolutely AMAZING!  Something else we were able to enjoy with our VIP passes was we had incredible seats!  Second Row seats 23 and 24 which was nearly dead center!  The set up was incredible and very vibrant.  They also had some amazing super Hi-Def cameras on cranes that would hover over the stage and show the orchestra on this massive Hi-Def LCD screen.  It made me really want one of those cameras!

The amazing Anthony Daniels, the voice, performer, and soul of C3-PO was the narrator for the show and it was so neat only being in about 10 feet from him!  Before each song he would come out on stage and give a brief summary of the events of Star Wars and some brief commentaries on characters like Anakin, Padme, Luke and Leia.  During each song they would play edited segments of the scenes spanning all 6 movies and it really was quite seamless!  It was almost hard to concentrate on one thing,  Also with the massive screen It was hard to tell you were listening to a LIVE orchestra, I had to tear my eyes away from the screen and watch the orchestra from time to time, but that was also the brilliant idea in using the cameras that would hover over the performers letting us know they were also just as much part of the show.   During some of the songs there were lazers and even flames that were synched up with the music at parts that played along beautifully with the rest of the performance!   It was really a blast when the flames shot up during “Battle of the Heroes”  you could feel the heat and it was quite intense!!  it was definitely a surprise!  There were some kids in front of us and I think the little girl got scared when the fire shot up.  It was pretty close and for sure you could feel the heat.  It happened with a few songs, and I think after the first round, she and her mother decided to sit a little further back.  I wouldn’t blame her really.

The show was spectacular, and it really was a great night, at the end Anthony Daniels and the conductor came back out, and said “You’re not ready to go back out into the snow just yet are you, how about one more!” and the conductor took his place at he podium for an encore of “The Imperial March/Darth Vader’s Theme”

The only downer about it all would have been the weather, since unfortunately some fans weren’t able to attend due to the weather and weren’t able to get refunds for the show.  Rules are rules.  But I’m thankfully the show wasn’t canceled due to the show.  Even if they would have only had 5 people or 100 they’d still go on with it since it took them 3 days to set it all up and they’re on tour still which means they have a schedule to keep and can’t afford to delay a show.  So if you’re next on the list, and to see if you are check out the Star Wars In Concert Official Site.  I think Indiana is next up!

Here is a link to my Face Book album of the Star Wars in Concert event!
Hopefully that works out ok.

In other words, I’ve been finishing up work for Scott Appleton

Also you might enjoy some sketch cards I’ve done recently.

In other news I’m on the road to recovery due to a small hole that didn’t heal from my wisdom teeth removal.  So I went in yesterday to get it sewn back up.  So looks like i’ll be out of it for a  little while, not long I hope.  But the doc wants me to stay indoors for the time being to avoid catching a cold or infection that could hinder or interrupt the healing process.  Which isn’t too bad this time around, thankfully I can still work on art projects!

Anyhow, that’s all for now, till next time!

Very original title as you can see!  I’m at a bit of a loss for a title name right now.

Sorry I’ve neglected to update in a while.  I’m sure many of you or those of you who actually do check out my blog are wondering where in the world did he go?!  No worries. I’m still here.  Just been semi busy and haven’t really set aside the time to put up a new post.  So here it is!  So last I left off with Where the Wild things are, not bad but not great sadly.

My exhibition at Blick Art Materials went great!  I didn’t get any business that i know from it but just showing made me quite content!  For the month of November I finished up a class I was taking called Flash II which involves action script and coding,  Which after taking the class I found I really don’t want to do that sort of thing, just not for me  and my mind doesn’t quite work that way.  It’s not bad, it’s great stuff but I can’t wrap my mind around it, I’m an artist not a mathematic person.   I did make some very cool projects though of which I am fairly happy with.  I ended up getting an A in the class which was an added bonus after wracking my brain on how to do anything.  It’s like a whole new language to me and I just don’t understand it.  I may dip into action script in  the future but not any time soon.

I don’t think I mentioned earlier but in October I was offered a job to work on a cover art and inside illustrations for a novel called “The Ruby Cage of Fairy Rae”  written by P. M. M. Green which is to be published by Scott Appleton’s company called Flaming Pen Press.  I was hired by Scott through recommendation via Eric Reinhold author of the Ryann Watters series whom I’ve done work for previously!
So this is a great honor!  Also something exciting is a favorite artist of mine Amber Hill has worked with Scott Appleton so it’s exciting know she’s working on a project for him as well.

Earlier this month I attended a convention called Anime Nebraskon which is an Anime convention.
This year it was conveniently MUCH closer than it was in past years.  It was at a holiday in close to where I live.  It was much easier for me to travel this year to the con rather than all the way out to lincoln.
Being one who loves costuming there were a TON of people in costume this year and a great variety too!  What was also cool was that there were cosplayers from different generes of main stream culture movies, games or series.  For example Batman and the Cookie monster made an appearance, as well as some rather special guests the Darth Vader’s 501st Legion of storm troopers of which this garrison included a few Stormtroopers, Scout Troopers, a couple Jedi, and R2-D2 and Patches who was also an R2 unit.   As for myself I wore a sith costume that I had made a long time ago for Star Wars Celebration II which was, 6 years ago! Wow! However for this con I added some extra straps of fabric to make it  look more sithy and I do believe I succeeded!  I also got a new lightsaber to go along with it which was Darth Maul’s battle damaged lightsaber, which is one half of his double blade.  Not long ago I ordered the other half.  I ended up hanging out with the 501st most of the time, as well as a couple furries who had some great fursuits! One who goes by Snap E Tiger wore a white tiger suit with colored stripes, another named Foxplay who wore Kiv the Cheetah and Bowtie who wore a Cougar.  It was quite fun bunch.  And no nothing disturbing happened.

Still continuing the con talk, it was a bit disorganized this year, I think in part because it was a new facility.  They seemed to start all the events late which was a bugger.  They did cosplay chess again this year which was great and they had more than one round and anyone could join in which was great.  Sorry Ouran Highschool Club no more hogging the board this time.  I went to a few panels, a couple in particular were on how to create a web comic and one by a friend of mine Kim of AppleBunny Studios who did How Not To Create A Web Comic which was highly entertaining and good info.

I saw several artists I met from either the Art Jam or from Nuke con as well at the convention. Also ran into some old classmates and friends from my time at Metro and even from junior high!  It was quite a nice surprise and I handed out business cards here and there so that was good!

While there I bought a few things as I always like to do,  a couple pieces of artwork by Abi who is the daughter of Jeff and Jean Campbell of Ragin’ Images who made the decal of my logo for the back of my car. Some origami crane earrings for a friend, an Aerith Gainsborough Play Arts figure, and some sort of tiger hat thing, it’s rather odd.  They had a cosplay contest at the con as well which was ok…it was poorly set up and they put us behind some very large and unused speakers.  So most of the time we couldn’t see a thing unless they moved to one side of the stage or the other.  So it was a real bummer, and also they must have had some guy who didn’t know what he was doing hanging out next to the stage’s curtain controls. During the contest the curtains opened and closed unintentionally, either that or someone was having fun, perhaps letting their kid push buttons. who knows really.  but it was rather unfortunate.  Overall though I had a great time strutting around in my costume with my lightsaber!

Some other good news is I recently got a new entertainment center, rather large scale flat screen samsung tv, and a new PS3.  By the way I’m not a gamer by any means, it’s actually my new Blu Ray player!  I’m quite happy with it all because now I can finally watch Advent Children Complete when ever I like without freezing to death in the den!  I also got some new bedding which is quite comfortable and  it’s hard to want to get up in the morning I will confess.  So yeah it’s a big adjustment rearranging things and so on.    I picked up Star Trek the other day but I’ll leave that for another post!

Also went to this month’s Artist Jam and had a really good time! I was meaning to work on my projects but ended up giving art lessons to some fellow artists there but itw as quite enjoyable actually and I had a great time teaching!    A fun note about that was there was a photographer there from the Omaha World Herald who was taking a ton of pictures, and most of them happened to me of me and another artist.  So hopefully expect to see me in the Omaha World Herald sometime this December!

Well I would love to go one but I can imagine you’re feeling like you’re reading a novel so I’ll spare you the next chapter for next time!  Oh yes and hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!  My apologies for not saying so ON Thanksgiving.  As far as I know, no one was killed this year during Black Friday.  I stayed home as I usually do and let the lionesses go out and collect their kill.

Jared Over and Out till next post, which will be very soon!!  You can expect to hear my thoughts on the new Star Trek BluRay, more things I’ve collected, and perhaps the latest movies if I see any, which I’m sure I will.

A tiger seems to have left this little guy behind. As they say for Poops and Giggles, you can have your very own little tiger turd occupying your desk! No smell, no mess, just a crap load of cuteness!
http://www.patchtogether.com/designs/designs/view/id/1877

What you need to do if you would like to have one of your own is create an account on Patch Together, Vote or my design, then once it goes into On Demand status you will have to preorder it if you want one and I think it needs quite a lot to go into production.  I want to say 50 or so. Perhaps less or a smaller design.  Also this little guy I imagine wont cost too much being that it’s very simple.
Please vote for my design!