Somber

I was feelin' kinda blue on the day that my poisonpencil assembled this young lady. I'm not sure what caused her dark mood, but I'm hopin' that she eats some Butter Pecan Ice Cream ( like I did ) and watches 'whos line is it anyway' on tv. That usually makes me feel better, that or a nice long nap with 2002 'WINGS' playing in the cd player. Boo hoo ing isn't always an option for me, I've gotta be the calm eye of the hurricane and there's not a lotta room for breakdowns fer me. Luckily I have a massive alternate existence in my storylines. Venting and adventuring and general naughtyness are rampant there. :-D

Pricing

I was recently asked a very good question by Nine-ah ,who said-
Thank you! I went to your blog, great work. I had been to it before when I was checking out all of the EDM links. Answer me this, what is the industry standard rate? Just curious...
And I said-
It's fluidic. But roughly $100 to several hundred for sketches. About $500 - $1000 for finished inked work. And $1000 to $3000 for photoshop color finished art. All this can vary based on difficulty, revisions, and length of time spent. Some clients make gulping noises when they hear this, but some just go "OK, so how soon can you get it done ?" Crazy, huh ?

I hope this can be of help to all the curious artists out there who are unsure how much to charge clients for graphic art and fine art. I'm glad Nine ah brought this to my attention, and I hope she doesn't get mad at me for printing this. Some of the rules in art are murky, this should brighten things up a bit.
Thanx Nine ah !

SnakeArm

If you could have a second head, where would it be ? And what would it look like ? Not only that, what kind of personality would it have ? To those lurkers here reading this just take a moment to ponder this question. Yes, I am odd. But would my second head be any worse ?
As for me, the only second head I would put up with would be a significant other, whose residence has to be located on her own body. Selfish, I know. But I tend to spend a lotta time drawing and I know most people would get awfully bored watching me put down a line, erase it, draw another line, erase that one, draw three lines, erase two of those...etc.
Oh, just in case. If you wanna cheat by saying that your second head is an amoeba located on the inner lining of your lower intestine. You suck. You suck bad. Shluuuuuuurrrrrrk ! Slukluklukluk !
No pressure.

The Devil's Dictionary

ABILITY, n. The natural equipment to accomplish some small part of the meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In the last analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity. Perhaps, how-ever, this impressive quality is rightly appraised; it is no easy task to be solemn.

AMBROSE BIERCE, page 1
:-)

New Link

A new link has been added to the Summoning list. Everbody give a hearty welcome to Kymberlee ! Give her a click and make her day :-)

Uh...

That sums up my expression perfectly whenever I'm confronted with new technology that I don't understand. Like when I first tried to comprehend html a while back. Or when I got my first Mac and I wanted to go online. Or, or, or when I had to deal with dating and I couldn't understand why women wanted horrifying jerks. That's why I'm alone, right ? Uh...

Hydroloth

This is one of the first color images that I did in photoshop years ago. Another in my Dungeons & Dragons series, this creepy dude is from the Yugoloth outer-plane species of Fiend. I know you probably can't see it due to low jpg upload quality, but I'm rather proud of the eyes. I used multiple spheres of yellow paint touched up with the filter 'paint daubs'. The effect was a honeybee type eye. Kymberlee, James Mathias, and Janey have been dropping hints for me to post more of my junk, so I'm pulling this up for display of what not to do when you work in photoshop. I made a lot of mistakes with this buddy boy. It looks allright but my own critical eye always points out my screwups.
This was long before I started working with layers and filters were still kinda mysterious and new to me. Fun and naughty. ;-)

Art Nouveau 3

This is the third installment of my Art Nouveau series. I went kinda silly for this just to grab peoples attention. My friend Kevin saw this and loved the hanging grapes. If you like what you see and you want to hire me just drop me an email, my rates are industry standard. I can do many styles of art as you can see on this blog, and I am quite easy to get-alog with. :-)

Illustration Friday ' CROWDED '

This weeks Illustration Friday word is ' Crowded '. I had a lil' trouble coming up with a good idea until I thought about what everyone else would be doing for this concept. BAM ! I does get kinda crowded here in Illo Fri with all the hundreds ( thousands ? ) of artists who are jockeying for an original idea. I hope no one else has grabbed this position...
Gotta hurry ! :-)

Stylin'

Another phone doodle. She looks a lil' like Lufy from Gall Force. I like the outfit, I wanted something cute for her to wear. She's good lookin' and she knows it. That's why she is playing up her pose. :-)

Rock&Rule Comic

Pretty cool, huh ! I sure wish I still had my copy of this ! Maybe I'll get lucky and Marvel Comics will re-issue copies when the DVD is released ( my luck isn't that good ).

---

This is the cover for the Rock&Rule Marvel comic book. I downloaded it from the Unearthed Films group dedicated to it. There's a lot more stuff there as well, like character scans and music downloads. :-)

Cerebus The Aardvark

The title of this installment of 'explain the links' is sorta misleading. What I mean to say is that Cerebus The Aardvark is not the name of the artist. Rather it is the name of his masterwork. Dave Sim is the character artist and Gerhard does the backgrounds. Dave Sim started these stories decades ago and has wowed us with incredible stories filled with twists and turns. I've been a fan for almost 2 decades and he has filled those pages with high drama, outragous adventure, human weakness, and a wit so sharp that it could cut marble. I have sat down, read a comic book chapter, and laughed my b*lls off. You can actually see his artistic style develop as each graphic novel appears. He really hits his stride in 'High Society' and 'Church and State vol 1'.
Dave Sims partner in crime, Mr. Gerhard, is an amazing architect and landscape artist. Gerhard ( whose first name I have never found in the graphic novels ) has done amazing things with tech pen cross hatching that I can only attempt when I'm full of ego. Even then, my work is only a pale imitation of Gerhards.
My real hope now, since the series has reached a conclusion, is that one day an animation studio ( maybe linked to CartoonNetwork AdultSwim ) will spend a billion dollars to produce a high quality animated tv series based on every single issue. I suggest Al Lubell ( a commedian ) to be the voice of Cerebus himself.
Click on the link if you don't believe me, prove me wrong...

Grimace ?

Not much I can add to this. The image speaks for itself...

Comments for EVERYONE ! :-)

OK, time for me to apologize. This was all my fault. When I started this blog I was swinging my arms around in the dark, hoping I was doing everything right.
OOPS ! That didn't happen.
It seems that James Mathias pointed out something to me that was really important. I had accidently clicked 'blogger members only' in the comments section of my settings. I just fixed that so now James can tell me directly what a bone-head I am. Everyone and anyone can now post comments. It's easy, even lurkers can do it now ! I'm sorry to any visitors who stopped by, saw or read something, and wanted to vent only to find that I screwed up your chance to be 'one of us' 'one of us' 'gooble gobble' 'one of us' (obscure reference). :-/

ShyLook

Sometimes when I'm on the phone and someone or something puts me on hold or tells me wait ( for whatever reason ) I'll grab a piece of paper and pencil so that I can doodle. This young lady is one of those doodles. She looks like she could be a character from that Inuyasha show on CartoonNetwork. Sit Boy ! Aaaaagh ! :-)

James Mathias

This is the second installment of 'explain the links'. James Mathias was and is the first person to ever link up to my blog ( to whom I will always be grateful ). He has a beard and a wicked sense of humor. I always get a chuckle when I check out his latest offbeat take on reality through art. His text posts are very fun and he tends to respond to comments in a timely manner ( read: sometimes within seconds :-o !) I found out about him when I started participating in Illustration Friday. For those of you who are lurking here and don't want to post a comment, do him a good turn and click on his link- right next door- under the Summoning category. Post a comment on his blog if you feel unconfortable doing it here :-)
Right now he's probably blushing up a storm...or his ears are burning.
Too bad. LOL !

IllustrationFriday "Bloom"

I decided to do some heavy ink work for this entry in Illustraton Friday. It took some time but it was worth it. A lil' scary, a lil' lovely. Makes me think of halloween and spring all at once ! Nuff said.

K's Diseased Wits

This posting will the first (sorta) that addresses the links over on the side of this blog. K's Diseased Wits belongs to my friend Kevin. I've known Kev for over 17 years and like me, he also hasn't aged since high school. He is a versatile freelance artist who works in multimedia ( websites, vector, photoshop, photography, sketching, and various other skills ) and is a pretty cool person all around. His work is top notch and he has done work for some fairly large names in the advertising world. We've worked together both professionally and just for laughs.
He owns a cat and knows martial arts. I've seen him push his car off to the side of the road when the clutch burned out ( to get out of traffic ). I've never seen him wear a hat. And he owns a cool Gall Force poster (framed).
The only thing I will say now is that if he could be anything he really wanted, it would be a vampire. ( Anne Rice fan) At least for a week, I think he would miss eating junk food. :-)

WoodsLeap

This is the third installment for now that I'm gonna display of this project. I don't want all the lurkers out there to bored with the same theme just yet. I'm saving that for the online cartoon strip that I'm gearing up for. Dig the lil' hobgoblin down at the bottom of the sketch border, the message was ' dare to be ugly ', I think he fits right in. :-)

Janeys Journey

A new link has been added to the Summoning list. Janeys Journey. Give her Janey's Journey. a click and send her some luv. I'm sure she will welcome your lurking and will be pleased as punch if you leave comments. Nuff said.

WoodsFBI

Here's another portion of a page from the Katharsys pictures project. Kev and I had some fun once in a while during this job. A lot of "unseen" in-jokes and border sketches made the total project a 'one-up manship' game between the two of us. We should team up again for something new. Just for the hell of it !

Weather

Spring is slowly creeping up on Kalamazoo and the green is reappearing from under the snow. There is as usual a faint electricity in the air when we start to thaw out up here. That fever to create and build spreads around about this time ( cleaning too, sigh ! ). I'll be starting a lil' comic strip that will be posted around once a week. Hopefully I will draw a small following who will lurk around and read it. If I'm lucky some comments will appear to support this artistic endeavour. Hope springs eternal, and ear-wax grows exponentially. Enjoy !

WoodsTruck

This is a portion of a storyboard that Kev and I teamed up to do for Katharsys Pictures. It was used for making a monster movie here in Kalamazoo. Our styles are similiar enough that we can blend them pretty effectively. Look for him in my Summoning links.

IllustrationFriday "Fragile"

What could be more fragile than a kind heart ? I got all choked up over this concept. I hope she finds Boo soon. Sniff ! Sob !

! ATTENTION !

I finally got the links added to this blog. Millions are horrified ! You are witnesses. Nuff said.

UnSam2

This is the version Melinda liked, DragonSpiritComputing.com

Wired II

Check out the Wired II image on www.diseasedwits.com
I've known Kev for about 17 years and he still kicks my butt in the art department. In other news there is still no recent info about the long awaited Elfquest movie from Wendy Pini. Some of us are desperate for something, last update on this movie was posted back in 2002 ! The same goes for The Airtight Garage, I heard they changed the movie name. Moebius has been wanting this movie finished for a long time. I'm gonna shut up now and let you surf.

IllustrationFriday "Ancient"

Great Cthulhu, high priest of the Ancient Ones. I thought this would be a nice twist, and a decent plug for Lovecraft fans. Enjoy.

ROCK & RULE

Ok everybody, listen up ! Unearthed films has just announced the release date for the DVD for ROCK & RULE. June 7 is your wake up call to buy this movie. Save your pennies and purchase as many copies as possible ( after I buy my copies ). If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about then let someone who grew up during the 80's clue you in on one of the coolest animated films ever made. Great music, great characters, great animation. If you don't believe me, rent it when it becomes available ( watch it with a group of open-minded friends ) and see for yourself. I wish I still had my copy of Marvel comics adaptation of the film. A friend borrowed it and he broke the unspoken rule of "never let someone borrow something from you that you borrowed from someone else". He lost contact with that person when they moved and I'm out a very cool and favorite comic. It's childish I know, but the comic was irreplaceable and...I'll shut up now.

UnSam1

This was another job done for DragonSpiritComputing.com

Illustration Friday

If you have time and you like art check out :

http://www.illustrationfriday.com/

Lots of talent here. Give it a peek.

PuffySpaceColor

A quick color version of a previous post.

saxOphone

saxOphone