Strays part 2

Capturing not just likeness but the real spirit of someone is always important to me and was even more so in this piece. Which makes it harder when you haven't seen someone in seven years and have a couple of small photos from his funeral service brochure. I don't think I could ever truly convey how good a guy Raphael was to know even if this had exceeded my wildest dreams.

One last note, I really struggled with the idea of censoring the  cursing. I'm not big on the idea and I know Raphael wouldn't have been either. That said, I have a son that comes across my stuff often enough and wants to look at his puppets online here and, after he repeated one of these four letter based goodies that he picked up from another school mate at school (at his teacher no less), I caved. I figured those who already know could live with it. Sorry, Raphael.

Back to life with talk of the dead

I've been hard at various projects but posting is obviously not one of them.That said, it only makes good sense to tout good people who give you an opportunity to show your stuff.

Once again I have the pleasure of being part of Tweet Design's Day of the Dead show at the awesome Young Blood Gallery. This is the final show and so my beautiful wife, who also made a contribution, and I tried to go out on a high note.

If my hastily scanned promo card is not legible enough, the details are as follows:

Opening: Saturday November 3, 7- 10pm at the Young Blood Gallery

The show runs until November 25.

Below are the images from my wife's piece, "Butterfly Girl" . My piece is in the post just below.

Tweet final DoD showPart 2

"White Whale"

This is what I came up with for the show. I had a hard time coming up with something different than the ways I had already approached the past pieces until I was inspired by reading this:

"It's better to fail in originality

than succeed in imitation."

-Herman Melville

and the results kind of fell into place.

Worth Your Time

Busy writing and drawing. I did want to link to this before time slips by on me and I don't post about it. I've posted many a photo of paper bag puppets for my kids' benefit. This time I'm posting them for a real benefit.

I'm talking about the Bristol Regional Speech and Hearing Center's Princess and Pirate Tea Party . Not only is loaded with things to do and is for a very good cause but you will have the opportunity to see and, if you're lucky, purchase incredible art from super talents Greg Ruth and Charles Vess! The people behind this are good folks and there is some crossover with the brain trust behind the ever growing Out of Step Arts collective so you know it is guaranteed to have a lot of love and hard work built into it.

Plus you've got to love the poster for this thing below. Is that work by the talented Dustin Harbin on it? All signs point to yes.

So, if at all possible, do yourself a favor and check it out and if you've ever thought that making a paper bag puppet looked like fun there will be many kits on hand of these four guys I made up.

Into the Labyrinth

A little bit of absence, a little bit of family, and a little bit of comics.


This one was not one that I had planned. It came as a result of thinking about turning a very bad guy from Greek myth into a semi reformed protagonist in Legendary, wanting to use more heavy inky black and a desire to rework one of my first comics, Exit.

Exit was an attempt to reassert my frame of mind. It was my way of reclaiming the wealth around me in my family in the face of failure.

I was proud of Exit but it fell short in retrospect. This is a new swipe at some of the ideas in the piece. The focus shifts less on the strength of my family and more onto my own worst enemy. I've been writing a lot of characters with missing pieces mostly because I've never quite found my own place. Hopefully, the stories will continue to be stronger as I work at this. However, if this and any other story I write just seems like more of the same, allow me a little bit of grace. I'm trying and I'm going to keep trying.

The end results

Dialog 1- 20.25" x 55"


Dialog 2 - 20.25" x 42"

Dialog 3 - 20.25"x 55.5"

Here is what came of those painting fragments previously posted. Fingers crossed.

Another fragment

Couple of sketches

Fragments

Two paintings I've banged out recently that are pieces of the puzzles I'm currently working on.

A family affair

I just took a gander at my daily inspiration stop, MeatHaus and saw that the brain trust, Chris McD, posted the doodles my whole family did in his book, Sasquatch's Big Hairy Drawing Book. Not only that but he is giving away free copies right now and it's easy to put your name in the hat by replying to this post.

I have to say that the whole family has really enjoyed working in this one. Including a little boy who is only an occasional drawer and a wife who took a little arm twisting to contribute. It's good times for all and when your done McD and Sasquatch will post your work on the flickr collective page like they did for us. Who wouldn't want that? So if you're a regular here or coming from somewhere else, go check it out. If you've found yourself here because of that post, take a look around and drop a comment if you like.

*Edit* Despite having a link to the Sasquatch flickr page and having some images in the MeatHaus link. I've been given a hard time by certain close relations of mine to post some samples here. Hope said parties are satisfied with these four.

One from my littlest one.


One from my son.


One my beautiful wife and I did together.

A single from me.