three panel #6

I have inherited the job of official house toy repair expert from my father. I challenge myself every time to make the evidence that the toy was ever broken as subtle as possible. Dad came up with some brilliant uses for screws but he also had a go to favorite that was a bit less... subtle. It was an epoxy strip that was blue and yellow and was activated when the two colors were mixed to make a heavy green putty. My kids still play with a Luke Skywalker that I managed to both decapitate and amputate an arm off of. He now sports a thick green hoodie and shoulder sleeve. That glue makes an appearence as a nod to you, Dad. Thanks for all of the repairs (I know your pain now). The rest should speak for itself.

three panel #5

three panel #4

A bit of an attempt to boil down my old comic, Copperhead Blues, to three panels.

three panel #3

Count them

I really liked the experiment of trying to live up to Warren Ellis' three panel challenge  (check out some great examples at the link) and thought I might do more. It's a great way to play with ideas, approaches and storytelling without investing the time a longer form story takes. In this case, I decided to just paint this thing.

It's important for all involved to remember how lucky you are even in ... ahem... less than flattering situtations. Hopefully, these three feel the same in one of the many instances when I'm not at my best.

Big Top

A three panel attempt. Featuring the triumphant return of Mr. Winkles!

Strays part 1

Even with life's little interruptions this one took longer than it should have. It's mostly due to how important to me it was to get it right and how unsure I was that I was doing just that. I've fussed with it all I can and it's time to let it go. If it misses the mark... I can only hope I came close and I'll keep trying to build upon what I've got.

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.