It's most wonderful time of the year....

I cannot believe that I am preparing for St. Pats day already! I also can't believe that this will be my fourth annual St. Pats day brunch. I just finished the illustration for this years invite. Let the count down begin to the one day a year I drink a Guinness.

True Blood Montage

Sometimes you just have to leave a piece alone. I forgot that I can tweak something to death. I'm pretty happy with the end result.

True Blood- Sketch Phase

So I now have a website....which I haven't told anyone about yet. But I will soon! This is besides the point. While building the site I had plenty of time to repeatedly look at my portfolio and noticed some blaring holes. The list being as long as my arm. At the top of the list is MEN. I have two in my whole portfolio. Yeah. Not good.
Another hole I want fill is my pop culture illustration void. I like pop culture. I have a few pieces from the past but my caricature of Helena Bonham Carter holding puppets of Kenneth Brannagh and Tim Burton is more then a little dated at this point.
Oh and just for the hell of it I decided to throw in my past nemesis- the montage.
Here are my beginning sketches for my MONTAGE, involving LOTS OF MEN, and my newest POP CULTURE obsession, True Blood.
Oh and please allow me to geek out for a moment. I really wanted to do a Charlaine Harris book version of this but I thought sticking with the TV show would be more relevant. Thus Eric and Pam get put in the background. Which stinks because my portrait of Alexander Skarsgard came out pretty damn good.

By the way, Stephen Moyer... Really hard to draw! There's this whithered quality to his face that is driving me nuts trying to capture.

trying to embrace my natural inclinations

I've spent most of my artistic career fighting against my natural inclinations. Art teachers can be wonderful people in your life but they can knock you off your path too. I've spent years trying to be a "serious illustrator" my teachers loved. Norman Rockwell! NC Wyatt! Leynedecker! I don't know what I thought that meant but all I did was doubt every thing I did. I was starting to annoy myself. This week I spent kicking my own butt trying to figure out what I like and don't. My friends cat totally awed me last night. One, because I truly dislike cats ( if you make me sneeze, I don't like you) and two, because of his personality. As he looked down at my from his throne/ top of the refrigerator, he glared right into my eyes and crossed his legs. Thats it. I was sold.
The whole Alice thing is a little tired for me but you have to start somewhere. And this is the first piece this week where I think I might be getting somewhere.

And the finished product...

Pleased as punch with this one. I rediscovered "shading". It's amazing what we carry with us from our teachers. The bad as well as the good. The fact that I barely ever create values with pencil. It's a left over from my high school art teacher turning down her nose at my natural style of drawing. Never too late for some teenage rebellion! I'm looking forward to exploring it.

Christmas Card

I should just start calling this my Holiday Drawing Blog. Here's the new one in progress.

My version of giving back

Looking back, I think one thing that my year lacked was enough volunteerism. The economy took a dive, my concentration on pounding the pavement to compensate doubled and giving back to my community suffered.

I hope to be able to find a better balance in 09 ( yikes! 09 already).
But in the mean time I volunteered to do the program for my church, Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken, Christmas pageant. I have fond memories of my starring role as unnamed head angel at my childhood parish back in RI...and not so fond memories of being passed over as Mary not one but TWO years in a row.
I guess that's what happens when your mothers not in charge of the show.
I joke, I joke! Sort off. :)

Here's the program cover in progress.