A.D. Art

Behold the Colossal Glory of Willy!

2011-09-30T12:15:00.000-04:00

Here's the little beast, clocking in at a big 50lbs, all muscle and he's only 3 and a half months old. The breeders told us he was an alpha male and holy shit were they right. Thankfully we've got experience with large breed dogs. Our great dane, back in the 90's, ate the christmas tree lights off the christmas tree and came out fine. This little guy at least hasn't done anything that major...yet. We still need to decorate for halloween, i can see Willy kidnapping a ghost and eating it lol.

Crazy Dog!

2011-09-25T12:48:00.000-04:00

My puppy is nuttier than a damn fruitcake. The little beast is everywhere all the time! Art is an impossibility right now as i must watch this puppy 24/7 to keep him from getting himself into serious pickles. Being a Saint Bernard, he's huge right now. He's only 3 months but is roughly the size of an adult Norwegian Elkhound and man can he use his size to his advantage. Yesterday he stole a loaf of bread off the table and ran through the house with it. Our little William is quite fond of shoes, stuffed animals, and the cat. When we first got Willy he played nice with the kitty, now he grabs the poor cat by the neck and drags him across the room. He does not do this out of hate or wanting to murder the cat, he's just a very large puppy playing like puppies do (only on a very large scale). There were a couple of squirrel skeletons in the yard (where they came from is still somewhat of a mystery) and Willy decided he wanted to eat their skulls, which was both grody and dangerous because we didn't know what they died from and their teeth wouldn't digest good for him. He's gone through 3 compressed rawhide chew bones, lost 2 front teeth and has new teeth coming in.
Willy is a sassy puppy but is very very intelligent. He uses his intelligence against us. We tell him no, he barks at us. It will go back and forth like that for a while; "No!" Bark "No!" Bark, etc. Eventually he stops barking back and just snaps his mouth shut. He's extremely adept at finding things he's not supposed to touch. Despite all his crazy antics, he sits on command, lays down on command, and is housebroken. He enjoys playing tug (though we cannot allow him to win because he's already very alpha in a lot of ways and him winning would make it worse). The vacuum is something he loves, he barks at it and chases it. The hose attachment is his favourite, we kind of sword fight with it. I poke it at him and he bites at it.
On walks Willy is great and can navigate like no other dog. He stops every so often to map out where we are and uses his mental navigation to lead us back to the car or the house without our help. He's afraid of and baffled by strangers and enjoys sitting and staring at them until they pass when we go for walks. When new people come in the house he hides behind the chair (he used to hide behind the couch but can't fit back there anymore). Other dogs don't give him issues, he likes most of them and most of them like him. He did get a beat down from a German Shepherd/Elkhound mix, but he jumped on her which instigated it. He came out fine but she gave herself a boo boo in her own mouth. Both were fine with each other after that. Hopefully the next visit with her goes better.
I love this puppy, he's fantastic. A hell of a lot of work but a great dog :D
I'll post pics and maybe some art here in the next couple weeks. I was only able to get this post in because he's sleeping in the chair right now. Well, until later, may you all have long days and pleasant nights. :D

Saint Bernard Puppy!

2011-08-17T11:15:00.000-04:00

I Love This Puppy SOOOOOOOO MUCH! We went to pick up the little lad last night and i took this picture a couple hours later. He's adjusting quite well and just loves the cat. Thankfully the cat loves him too. They hit it off immediately. We named this little bundle of fantasticness William aka Willy/Billy/Mr. Sassy Puppy (because he bites your finger when you point and say "no" to him). He's a great little guy and full of beans. So far he's only pissed on the floor once, but that was ok. A little pee never hurt anything :D
He does prefer going poo and pee outside and it works out quite nicely. He also seems to enjoy chewing soft things like couch cushions and chairs. So far he's pulled a rug into the living room and is well into his rawhide Dingo Bone. Ah, i must be off, the little fella will be waking soon.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

2011-07-19T16:03:00.000-04:00

The Wind That Shakes the Barley 'twas inspired by the Irish ballad of the same name. 'Tis a sad but lovely song. Dead Can Dance do a fantastic rendition of it. So yeah, i got this idea in my head because of the song and went to work on it immediately. Drawn, painted and completed today. Painted on cardboard with acrylics. The song really is quite lovely and i recommend a listen if ya ever get to playlist.com

Porn Referrals

2011-06-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

Guess what fuckin happened to me today...I was checking the stats for this blog and it said one of the referring sites was "rokettube.me". I go to the referring sites to see what they are and shit, and well i'll be damned this one turned out to be a porn site. Haha, roket tube...i get it now, but i didn't before i clicked it. I'm anticipating a spyware invasion on the computer now...anywhoo... No art posting lately. I've done two pieces but both are rather mundane, a cartoon puppy face and a bob ross landscape done in pastel. Just practice things more or less. I may post them eventually, i may not.

I've been too busy with this bloody Intex pool set up to do more art lately. Had to level the ground for the pool, which is brutally unlevel. Had to lay the uprooted sod in a new area...more or less relandscape the backyard completely. I reckon i'll get back to art in a few weeks here. Until then, may you have long days and pleasant nights.

Apocalypse BITCHES!!!

2011-05-21T16:18:00.000-04:00

Hells yeah, it's apocalypse time!
So anyone else hear about the second coming of the Australian Jesus (and his wife Mary Magdalene)? Well if you heard about that you probably heard how a big group of frightened christers thinks the apocalypse is going to happen today at 6pm. Now for the biggie, guess what my loyal legions? I am the Anti-christ. Hasatan and i have been plotting the downfall of humans for a good long time and he decided it was time for me to break out and just scream it to the world that i was here to harvest all your souls. So who wants to have a nice large mansion on the shores of the lake of fire? I can hook up a bunch of people. There will be fire-skiing, fire-tubing, and best of all, you don't have to wear life vests for any of this because you'll already be dead. Join hasatan and i today and enjoy a nice relaxing eternity long vacation from all the goody two shoes.

Buford the Magic Grave Dragon

2011-05-14T01:39:00.000-04:00

Oh old art, how i do love thee, yet how i do loathe thee as well. Well, this was a jolly little piece from 2006 or 2007. It's got a Grave Dragon named Buford, a grim reaper, a death fairy, a ghost, and Hoo Kitties. I created this when my mum was in getting surgery for... i think it was for her eyelids (nothin serious, they were just getting progressively droopy). All that was in the waiting room was the usual set of magazines and my sister decided she'd read instead of talk to me so i opted to draw something and that's how i got Buford. This had been in the sketchbook for a long time and was starting to yellow so i figured i should get it scanned. If i had it to do over again i'd remove that damn fairy and grim reaper, oh well. Pen on 9x12 paper, scanned with IrfanView.

Unfinished Business

2011-05-14T01:25:00.000-04:00

This could possibly be the result of too much Hellraiser. I think this is another from 2007, maybe 2008. He's got a nice open skull, some scary teeth, a tiny nose, and some fucking crazy eyes. Someday i may finish it, someday. Pencil on 9x12 paper.

When You Stand They Fall

2011-05-14T01:17:00.000-04:00

This guy here has a bit of a Lurchish quality about him. He was supposed to be Roland Deschain, from (of course) the Dark Tower series. But he came out looking like he could be a brother of Peter Steele (may he rest in peace) from the band Type O Negative. The eyes have a kind of...eh let's call it a bit of a doped out mixed with apathy look. My mum did that with her drawings back in the day and so did my dad (of course my father was nuttier than a damn fruitcake so...yeah); it was a popular thing to do in the 60's and 70's i suppose, to make drawings with doped out eyes. Anywhoo, i reckon i get that styling from my parents. Roland Deschain was supposed to have bombardier eyes. Oh well, shit happens and here we are. This is old, i must say i have improved since 2007 but i still like this. He was drawn in pencil on notebook paper and scanned in using IrfanView (that program is fucking fantastic!!!)

A Lonley Road

2011-04-29T09:57:00.000-04:00

Across a field of orchids there stands on a hill a Witchus tower. It rises 100 feet into the sky so it can look out on the world from it's stained glass eye. It is living, for it is a Witchus tower, some long forgotten combination of magic and science brought it to life. In the room at the top of the tower there is a door of unknown material and behind that door is a worm hole capable of bending time, matter, and all manner of physic law.

A lone man has come to the Witchus tower to seek the room at the top. He knows of the dangers but he hates the world and he hates himself; death is almost a joyous idea. Far has he traveled and just a bit further still he must go. Loneliness has followed him for eons; all his friends are dead, his lover is long decayed, and he is jaded, destroyed. The tower may be a hope for change, a hope for redemption, a hope of maybes.

--about the mediums used to create this--
extra long computer paper, pen, coloured pens, spit (for the sky), and a pain in the bum scanner that made this far too light so the pink doesn't show for beans on the hills and the brown on the tree is green, even after program fixes.

June

2011-04-21T01:10:00.000-04:00

Ah June, the official month of summer. Our little punk girl here embodies the feel of the month of June. She's donning summery leaf green clothes, refreshing water coloured shoes, belt, and hair and her very name just makes one think...hell yeah where the fuck is summer right now? Weird as this is going to sound i got the idea for this girl from RuPaul's Drag Race. Yeah, i know, how did that come about? Well on that show there's this one contestant named Raja, he/she is gifted in outfitting, hair dressing, and clothing making. Well for one contest Raja dressed him/herself up as a punk rocker and had hair quite a bit like June's and his skirt and leggings were similar too. And me, who now watches this show faithfully (and lord do i get picked on by my family for it) decided i could create a real female punk using some of the same elements. Since i happen to live in Michigan, it's been damn cold and unspring-like lately and all i want is for summer to get it's ass here. June there is donning a shit load of green because of that sentiment. Spring, where the hell have you been?

The Body

2011-04-21T01:01:00.000-04:00

Experiments in top view...We have a murder victim, a coyote, and an idea of what's about to happen to the murder victim. Mmm, nothin tastier that good ol' fashioned rotting human flesh, oh joy!

The Murder, Revenge is Sweet

2011-04-21T00:59:00.001-04:00

Yay, death! Hmm, well this started as a practice in male form and then turned into something else. It's a damn pity the body at the bottom was cut off by the scanner but when the paper is too big what the hell can ya do. We'll call the guy dropping the gun Jeremy and we'll call the person he killed...hmm...i don't know, what's a good name for a blonde dude?

EDIT: Travis is the name of blondie there now thanks to a fantastic name suggestion by Vincent from Vincent's Hand Made Art, check his blog out there's a link to it in the "artists of supreme excellence" tab at the top of the page.

Dust in the Wind

2011-04-11T08:16:00.000-04:00

Quite literally Dust in the Wind. Yeah yeah he looks like he's groping himself but he's not. Anywhoo, I drew this back in, i think, 2007, can't remember for beans when but it was drawn in pen and i just finished colouring it in GIMP. I couldn't see the bloody thing too well because the sun is shining on the computer screen but i'm pretty sure it came out looking alright. Like maybe he's out in the desert on the ever so rare cloudy day.

A long long time ago, i can still remember how i thought maybe this could be a comic book. But i knew it wouldn't get anywhere as the plot line was shaky and largely based on a foundation of Dark Tower mythos. But yeah, i have some time on my hands here so i'll give ya the idea to it.

His name...i can't remember for shit what it was but we'll call him Vick for now for lack of something better. So yeah, Vick had this girlfriend and they lived together, however, Vick liked to be a bit of a man trollop and one evening his girlfriend caught him fucking some other chick. This new chick wasn't ordinary though, she's in fact a vampire. She fucks the men, kills and eats the women and goes about her merry way. Well, Vick here didn't really know he was screwing her as he was in a weird trance like state. The girlfriend walks in and sees the whole thing, much to the delight of the vampire chick. She notices the girlfriend, kills her, drinks her blood and eats, oh let's say a kidney or two and leaves the apartment. Vick comes out of the trance a couple hours later to discover his dead girlfriend on the floor. Boohoo, sad sad, he cries like a bitch, yada yada, long story short he vows vengeance. He can remember bits and pieces of the vampire encounter and thinks he can find her and annihilate her existence. This ties in to the Dark Tower because Vick has to travel through hidden doors (they house small worm holes) that will take him to various alter-ego earths. The one he's on right now in this picture is The Gunslinger's version of earth, he doesn't stay here long though. The vampires can travel through the doors as easily as Vick can, so finding the vampire chick was going to be a real pain in the ass.

And that's as far as i got as far as plot goes. The idea did spawn a different story i wrote over a year ago, called The Lowman's Watching. It's going to be a trilogy of short stories. In the last story the Lowman is going to find a path to redemption through a hidden door in the year 3001. In that story the earth is becoming barren, so, 500 years prior to 3001 extraterrestrials very similar to humans had started gathering all the animals and other creatures and a few plants to transport to a new planet. Starting in 2990 all the humans started being evacuated and by 3001 a few stragglers are being rounded up for the long journey to the new planet. The Lowman though, he encounters a problem for he is not allowed to go to. From there the story thickens. I can't reveal the whole thing for fear that some douche out there will steal the idea and get it written before me. But yeah, i'm rambling on and on this morning...time to quit.

Roger the Alien

2011-03-25T14:26:00.002-04:00

Ever watch American Dad the cartoon by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane? Well, that's where Roger is from. I got a bit bored the other night and went all willy nilly with drawing shapes and said hey, let's make this shape Roger. He's a great extraterrestrial with a love for wigs and dressing up as both male and female characters when he leaves the house. I spruced him up a tad and gave him a bit of a musculature cause in the cartoon he's just this twiggy armed, short legged, fat alien. I do believe i made him a bit effeminate, but that's alright, it makes him a bit "cute". Anywhoo, he's coloured pencil and black Pilot pen.

Not Art but an Important Note

2011-03-17T03:15:00.002-04:00

Alrighty, there's this piece of shit site called trafficfaker.com that could possibly be the meanest thing in the blogger universe. Traffic Faker is something people pay for that sends out a business's/person's url to be listed under another person's statistics for their website. What makes this mean, is that no one reads or acknowledges anything on your blog/site, it's just a fake hit that can force you to go to the other business/person's website because their URL is listed in your stats and human curiosity makes one want to see who's viewing their blog/site. You go to their site, which generates a REAL hit for them, while the hit on your site was completely fake and doesn't count because no body read your shit. The asshole who thought that up needs to be paddled with a holey wooden boat oar. So if you see "trafficfaker.com" under your stats, don't click that shit. And be wary of other hits in your stats that seem to come from weird sources.

Dark Tower Wallpaper For Ya

2011-03-15T02:06:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling generous today and would like anyone who likes the Dark Tower books or just dark pictures to snatch this up if they want. I made it with GIMP and a whole crap load of patience. If you click the image you can get the full size version of it, which is 1440 x 1080. Feel free to use it as your desktop wallpaper or as your website background, but if you use on your website you must credit me and inform me that you've used it there.

Legal Mumbo Jumbo: This is also copyrighted as mine and is not to be used to make money in any way. I also can't make money from it as i used brushes made by others that had specific stipulations regarding profits.

The Legal information in other languages is below; i used Google Translate, so they may be extremely inaccurate. I'm sorry in advance about the bad translating. I do feel that my overseas viewers deserve the opportunity to see the legal info, so there are no complications arising from copyright issues :) I like the fact that people from other countries view my work :D

In German: Dies ist auch als meine urheberrechtlich geschützt und darf nicht verwendet werden, um Geld in irgendeiner Weise zu machen. Ich kann auch nicht damit Geld verdienen, wie ich Bürsten von anderen, dass spezifische Bestimmungen über Gewinne gemacht werden.

In Russian: Это также защищенные авторскими правами, как у меня и не будет использоваться, чтобы делать деньги в любом случае. Я также не могу делать деньги от этого, как я использовал кисти, сделанные другими, которые имеют особые положения, касающиеся прибыли.

In French: Ceci est également protégé que le mien et ne doit pas être utilisé pour faire de l'argent en aucune façon. Je ne peux pas gagner d'argent que j'ai utilisé des brosses faites par d'autres qui avaient stipulations précises concernant les bénéfices.

Autumn Wolf

2011-03-10T23:56:00.002-05:00

Continuing my studies in animals, i decided to work on the canines (as they are infinitely easier to draw than felines). This was taken from a photo reference from some calender i had from 2000. Wolves are beautiful critters and i love them...I suppose that's a bit due to the fact i have a smidgen of Native American in me. I feel a connection to the furry things in a way. They're symbolic of such mystery and intrigue. It sucks how over the centuries they've been vilified and therefore slaughtered by a mass amount of idiots and ignorant people. And it's a bloody pity that in the state of Michigan, they may once again be slaughtered due to a mass of idiots who refuse to build fences to save their precious sheep. Fucking stupid people, how i'd like to be the end of them. Anywhoo, getting a bit angry here. This was another piece in coloured pencil and soft pastel. I'm out for now, until next time...

To the Tower

2011-02-22T09:07:00.005-05:00

"To the Tower the Reaper would take the dead children, their fates to there be re-decided." Pen and red pen, oh the joys of sleeplessness and scribbly lines. My mum found this to be a disturbing picture because "he's leading children". But my mum finds most of what i draw a tad disturbing, though why i don't know; most of what i draw is quite mundane considering what it could be...anywhoo...

As I Die For You colour

2011-02-19T08:37:00.003-05:00

A nice update of a previous pencil sketch. The colours remind me of Easter...yeah not a whole lot to say right now. It was inspired a bit by Candlebox's song "You". Coloured in GIMP, like all the rest of my digi-rends.

2011-02-14T04:19:00.003-05:00

Lots of boredom this month led me to colour some things just lazying about in the computer. We have a merman, because mermaids have to reproduce somehow, i highly doubt they're hermaphroditic and capable of asexual reproduction. Yes, it's a merman, he vaguely reminds me of Maynard James Keenan, with his impressive baldness and probably brutally high sex drive. After all he probably sees mermaid tits all day, seeing as how they always go about without tit coverings (except in Disney films of course). And then... what the hell else have i uploaded?...oh yeah, the coloured version of the strong, stern faced Russian chick. Not my best colouring work but i frankly didn't give a damn as she wasn't something i really wanted to colour anyway...so yeah, lets thank the gods for the brilliance of GIMP, it lets me make something out of mediocrity and works that are as mundane as Hitler landscapes.

The Random: Of Will and Wind

2011-01-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

A work in progress that could take anywhere from a couple days to a few years, this here is part of a collection called "The Random". This piece is called "The Random: Of Will and Wind" and was preceded by "The Random: Doctor Heal Thyself" some years ago. Symbolism is everywhere in here, all of the items contained in the picture have something to do with nature (of wind), the mythical realms (of wind again) and the internal and external influences on the human psyche (of will). There may be a few suggested phallic ideas, but they weren't entirely intentional. So yeah, i reckon this may be completed sometime this year then i'll get it coloured and post the finished product. I also want anyone viewing this to make special note of the foot by the fingers, yes that is a fantastic foot, it is to date the best foot i have ever drawn and i am most proud of it. Feet are usually such a pain in the ass for me but that one flowed out like artistic gold.

Gollum and Sam Coloured

2011-01-13T07:29:00.003-05:00

Two bloody hours of holding down the mouse button while using GIMP's paintbrush tool set to multiply. I'm elated though, i love the colour. If ya blow Gollum up there you can see his veins under his skin. GIMP is god, who needs photoshop? Not i, not i!

Nice Bagginses!

2011-01-10T09:06:00.003-05:00

Due to lack of sleep, this was produced and i am quite pleased with it. I was experimenting with the manga style of drawing and wanted to created a scene from The Lord of the Rings books, so i started drawing Gollum and Sam and everything just flowed like artistic gold from my hand. Such a rarity. Gollum looks great with his demented little smile directed at Frodo and Sam looks simply wonderful with his rope in hand pulling gollum along. Unfortunately these pieces of fantasticness are always on notebook paper. It never fails, i think what i'm working on will suck so i draw it on lined paper and damn it always comes out decent. But does that happen when i use nice blank expensive paper? No. Oh well. Created with pen, pencil, and that cursed lined paper.

Lord Neo King of the Douchebags

2011-01-06T06:29:00.005-05:00

Neo, my Matrix kitty. He's a lovely little guy in a lot of ways but in a lot of others he's a real asshole. For a while we thought he was mentally challenged aka slow, but no, it appears he's just a douchebag. He does obnoxious things to get into trouble because it gets attention and he doesn't care that we spray him or ground him to the bathroom for a few hours. Despite his remarkable douchebaggery, he is a very pretty cat. Excellent coat, cute face, and lean body structure add up to a fine cat. Before we had him neutered female cats would come by the house and compete for his attention, which, oddly enough, he didn't give to any of them. In fact he doesn't seem to acknowledge other cats at all. Being raised with dogs, we believe he may think he is a dog. There was a time when we had our Georgie (dog) that he'd drink and eat from her bowls and to this day still drinks from the water bowl she had. Quite an odd little thing he is but we love him and he makes for bloody good picture taking when he stays still.

Adrienne

2011-01-06T03:57:00.005-05:00

"Hey Adrienne" According to those closest to me, Adrienne looks like "one of those strong Russian women", and i do agree. She's a bit stern faced and looked only a tad softer in features before scanning. Pencil was used to create her and she was a random thought that came into the brain. I can just pop faces out like mad, i can picture a person and bam, there they are on the paper. It probably has something to do with being forced to use the "grid system" back in high school. In the grid system one must calculate the size of the magazine/picture reference then calculate the size of the blank paper and do some math to make a grid for both the reference and then the blank paper. Crazy shit it was, i usually cheated and just made half inch increments on the reference and then did full 1 inch increments on the paper. Anyway, in that way we had to draw exact to each square the reference which for me was usually someone's face/body, so by way of constant practice i got damn good at faces and can now do frontal view with absolutely no visual help what so ever. They do come out looking like mugshots or autopsy photos though...haha.

Note: my scanner made her shading more harsh and grainy...damn that scanner!

Odds n Ends

2011-01-06T03:43:00.007-05:00

I'm gonna be honest, animals usually elude me. If i have no picture reference they come out looking like wacked out space aliens. For "Horse of Course" here i had picture reference and he came out good. Now, cats, there's something that i can never draw for beans, with or without picture reference; their faces are just so odd and smashed that my brain can't compute them into line and shading. I do give it a good try though, anywhoo...next...

Martin the Dragon was a practice sketch i did back in 2006. Now i'll show you the coloured version, which makes me laugh because he looks damn flitty with his adorable rainbow scales.

Come on Eileen

2010-12-29T01:47:00.004-05:00

Last night i got a bit bored, so i decided to go about colouring this pencil sketch i had stashed in the computer files. Well, she came out alright, though i have some errors here. Arcsoft 5.5 hates me and i hate it equally or vica versa if you wish. Being that there is such hate between us, program and i, this came out a bit wrong. Eileen there may appear orange on some people's monitor screens and there are uncoloured spots hiding about. She was a random thought created one night while listening to Dexy's Midnight Runner's hit song "Come on Eileen". Looking a bit boring in just black and white with shades of grey, i touched her up last night and gave her a bit more meaning by adding blood to the scene. All in all, i'm reasonably pleased with it, though it certainly isn't my best work.

Tribute to My Best Friend

2010-11-29T03:41:00.005-05:00

On November 22nd my sweet little miss sun muffin passed away due to some brutal nasal problem that is still a bit of a mystery but it couldn't be treated (we tried pills, nasal spray, everything the vet suggested and she just got worse). For a good week and a half possibly two weeks the dog got pretty much no sleep, she quit eating 4 days prior to death and quit drinking 2 days before passing away. Her tongue dried up and cracked and she started to lose her sense of place (she'd go to corners and bark at the walls and would just trample down the furniture instead of going around). Her real name was Georgie but i called her miss sun muffin and my mum called her little honey all the time. She was my best friend (quite literally) and was just so full of love and happiness, even when she started not feeling good. Her favourite toys were rawhide bones and most of all tennis balls. No matter how tired she'd get she'd still chase a ball around the yard no matter how many times you threw it. My mum wants to get another dog because the loss of Georgie's left such a void, the house is so empty even though there's 3 people living here and even though we love the cat (his name's Neo), he's just not the same as a dog. No one can replace George though. She gave us 8 (almost 9, her birthday was Dec. 24th) wonderful years. We didn't understand her illness and the vet was optimistic that she'd come out of it but she continued to get worse and cancer was the biggest suspect (she had various tumours all over her body, some seeming malignant, some not). A month before losing Georgie, my sister's dog Shanny (Georgie's littermate) passed away quite suddenly on her kitchen floor. We now believe that an 8 year life span was in their genes, which doesn't comfort us any but at least we come closer to understanding their deaths. My sister buried her Shanny in their yard and i buried my Georgie in mine. In the spring i'm going to plant sunflowers around her grave site and phlox on my cat Sam's grave (he passed away in 2009 at age 15 after a long illness). Both the dog and cat are buried by the rose bush and hopefully both are at peace now.

Pumpkin SACRIFICE!!!!

2010-11-03T01:18:00.002-04:00

The giant monster pumpkin laughs as he's about to eat the minny pumpkin tied to the stick. On-looker minny pumpkins watch with sad and disgusted faces. This lovely picture of pumpkin death was created with 3 minny pumpkins and one regular sized pumpkin. Wood carving tools were used to make their faces and tea lights lit up the insides of the big guy and the doomed little guy. The other two wouldn't fit a tea light.

Oi!

2010-09-28T03:43:00.004-04:00

Encountering an act of idiocy, this dragon sighs an exasperated "Oi!" as he covers his face with his claws.

In the Ossuary

2010-09-06T17:13:00.004-04:00

The boy in the ossuary has just killed someone. A hand from the dead body sticks up out of the water in the background.
Completed with coloured pencil and pastel on 9x12 paper. The ossuary here was inspired by the one from Dellamorte Dellamore the movie; dark and watery and full of bones and old tombstones we have the ultimate place to stash a murder victim's body. Now my scanner is a real bitch so this may look either too bright or too dark depending on your monitor screen, it may also appear brutally grainy.

A Quiet Journey Through Jackson

2010-08-20T14:06:00.003-04:00

All the Alice Eggs

2010-08-20T00:30:00.007-04:00

Alrighty, i know a few months ago i told everyone i was going to post up pictures of my Alice in Wonderland egg collection i made for Easter. Well, life got in the way so i didn't get to it. Oh well, here we are now, the whole group of eggs.
Each egg was handcrafted out of real eggs (innards removed--ancient family secret--), felt, sequins, hot glue (burnt my bloody finger a few times), pipe cleaners, sharpie markers, feathers, and for Alice and the Hatter clay was used to make their shoes. They took a couple days to finish but all came out fine. If you click the picture you can see the larger version of it. From left to right are The March Hare, Alice, The Mad Hatter, and The White Rabbit.

Miss Morta Fairy of Sleep (complete)

2010-06-20T23:22:00.003-04:00

A fairy of sleep, Morta is in charge of placing the dust in the eyes of the sleeping and transporting the souls of those who die in their sleep. The name Morta was the goddess of death in Roman mythology (equal to Atropos in Greek mythology), just a tad of history there for ya. She's a bit of coloured pencil work with touches of pen and graphite here and there. My scanner hates all things pencil and pastel, so this scanned in extremely light and grainy. After a few adjustments with a program though, she came out looking pretty good. The original sketch was drawn in 2008 but i had put it away for 2 years for fear of messing up with colouring it. Despite my fears though i took it out the other day and finished it. It's rather dirty looking in a way due to much erasing with the sketch but i can always redraw her and perhaps try different colouring mediums. ::Next Posting:: Soon to come hopefully in a few days is an angry young lad who seems quite fond of wandering through a cemetery ossuary with a knife. That picture should be different.

Paint With All the Colours of the Wind

2010-04-18T04:21:00.004-04:00

Wicked wicked pretty skies. Took this the other day after a good deal of scary cloudiness. 'Twas near sunset and holy crap were the clouds awesome looking. So dark and lovely, i just had to take a picture. The title up there came from that one Pocahontas movie ditty; Seemed fitting enough.

A Random Blue Moment

2010-04-03T20:00:00.003-04:00

Instead of a long explaination of what the hell this is, i offer a quote: "Criticism is easy, art is difficult."-Destouches (Phillippe Nericault)

Mr. Canadian Goose

2010-04-01T22:24:00.004-04:00

Mr. Goose here (i do think it's male, but i'm not 100% sure as i know little about Canadian Geese) let me get quite close to him and his friend. I slowly inched my way toward the two geese and he kept looking at me like he might charge, however, it wasn't until i turned to walk back to the path that he decided to make a move. That silly goose hissed at me when i turned my back so i turned around and walked toward him real fast which freaked him out a bit so he backed off. Haha goose, i won. Anywhoo...This is another taken this spring at Cascades Park.

Deer in the Distance

2010-04-01T22:19:00.003-04:00

Big fuzzy brown friends eating off in the distance. This photo was taken at Cascades Park close to dusk. I wanted to get closer to the deer but i thought i'd either scare them off or they'd beat me up, the former most likely to happen rather than the latter. After getting the pictures into the computer i spruced em up a bit and now i recommend clicking on the picture to see the full version.

The Eggman: Hatter

2010-03-26T17:04:00.003-04:00

Though i'm not a religious person i still like the spring festivities surrounding Easter, so this year i decided to get crafty and decorate eggs. Seeing as how Alice in Wonderland is ever so popular this year, i opted to create "Alice" characters for a miniature tea party that is to be displayed in the bookcase in our living room. Thus far i have completed all the clay mushrooms, the Mad Hatter, Alice and half of the White Rabbit. When i get ahold of more glue for the hot glue gun, i will finish the White Rabbit and work on the March Hare. The egg-people are blown out eggshells (if you want, i'll tell you how to make them, just ask) with felt clothing and Sharpie faces. Other things are added to them as well, like feathers, ribbon and thread. I encourage anyone reading this to give this a go, it's a good fun craft and you can create whatever kind of character you want.

--When i complete the rest of the set, i will put up the pics of the finished Tea Party.

Lighthouse Pastel Experiment

2010-02-18T18:41:00.004-05:00

Ah, the joys of pastel. This here was completed in a couple hours last night. I quite like it, though in a lot of ways it's as mediocre and as mundane as a Hitler painting. Before i branch out and do fantastical fantasy landscapes in pastel, i'm experimenting with reality. This lighthouse pleasantly graced the front of the Maine tourism guide i received yesterday in the mail. The lighthouse itself was changed in my picture as were a few of the natural elements. One should never completely rip off a photographer's photo. Oh the horrors of the plagiarism suit if you were to be caught making any money because you sold your painting/drawing and it looked just like the photo. I will sometime, in another post, inform you all of how to skirt the plagiarism laws when working from photo references.
I don't have too much to say about this one other than it's of course pastel, the lighthouse and buildings are coloured pencil and the reference photo comes from a free tourism guide you can get at the Maine state website.

Dark Tower (Super Colour)

2010-02-07T19:58:00.005-05:00

The Dark Tower is a character and place in Stephen King's Dark Tower series of novels. It sits in the middle of a field of blood red roses at the edge of Endworld past the white lands of Empathica. Soot grey and over 600 feet tall it is the ultimate picture of power. Slit windows spiral up the edifice and at the top there is a beautiful oriel window which contains glass the colour of the entire Wizard's Rainbow. In the center of the oriel window is the last colour, the colour of Black Thirteen. The deepest onyx orb completes the window to make it appear like an eye staring out at the world. This building holds together all worlds of the multiverse. It is a magic being, a magical place and it is in grave danger of collapsing. One man is on a mission to see the Tower but on his way he acquires friends and together they learn they must also save it.
--I highly recommend Stephen King's Dark Tower series to everyone who loves a good story of fantasy with reality thrown in. The series starts with "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger" and ends with a 7th book called "The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower". Book 2 is a strenuous journey to get through but it is necessary for the series, so if you get discouraged and bored while reading book two, try keep on going, it's worth it.
-------The Dark Tower (Super Colour) was created using watercolour and watered down acrylic paint. A minute bit of coloured pencil was added to the road. The super colouring was adjusted using GIMP and Arcsoft 5.5. My tower varies from the one in the book. The scan cut off the roses on the bottom, which is a damn pity because they came out great. Oh well, the picture was too big for the scanner and there's not a whole hell of a lot i can do about that.

Eileen

2010-02-07T19:45:00.003-05:00

Eileen was created one night a couple months ago while I was listening to "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners. She's a simple little practice sketch done on notebook paper, nothing fantastic. She kind of looks vaguely elfish. Hmm... The eybrows are huge; if the craig's list douchebag were to stop by the blog, he'd say they're anatomically incorrect. Well mr. craig's list douchbag, kiss my pastey pale ass. My style deals in the obtuse and the exaggerated. Any comments are gladly accepted, as always.

Self Portaiture...

2010-02-02T01:54:00.006-05:00

Ah the horror of me. Well, here we have what i call "quick bathroom portraiture". It's called that because the pictures are taken in the bathroom infront of the shower curtain, which seems to serve as a fantastic backdrop. I can't call either of these very artsy...they really aren't. However, i like myself (as do most people) and enjoy taking pictures of my scary androgenous mug.
Now, a question; Would you be able to guess my gender by this picture alone? I wouldn't be able to either if you answered no to that. Sad but true, from certain angles i change gender. I popped out of the womb female and am apparently still female, however, pictures like this make people wonder. My sister once mistook a picture of me for one of my boyfriend. Yes, very sad. Then when i told her it was a picture of me, she laughed. There are those out there that try real hard to be androgynous looking and then there are people like me who have that natural ability. It sucks at times. My boyfriend and i were called Jay and Silent Bob once when we were walking down the street at night. Someone yelled out of their car "JAY AND SILENT BOB!!!!". That was a funny and very sad moment, he's not fat and i'm not a dude. Then there's times it comes in handy i suppose, when walking late at night you're less likely to be attacked because people think you're a strange little dude. But for the most part, it's just weird. Rambling...

The Chapel of Shrapnel and Nighttime Still

2010-01-29T14:32:00.005-05:00

Once, a good long time ago, I created the first Chapel of Shrapnel. There's upteen some odd variations of The Chapel of Shrapnel, but i think i'm most fond of this one here. I produced it last night with pastel and other than the fact the scanner (yet again) obliterated some of the shading, i must say it came out pretty interesting. The sky has a collection of different shades of blue and the ground is a lovely aray of greens. The other picture, Nighttime Still came out equally well. I've never really worked with pastels so to have these come out this good (and look the way i intended them to look) is quite a surprise. The flecks of light reflected from the birds, the ground, tombstones and tree are what makes this complete. Without those reflections this picture would be as dead as the things the crows eat.For some reason, the scanner scanned this one in a little darker than the other. I then toned it up a bit so the colour would come through better. It's a pretty mundane scene but it has a calming effect if you stare at it long enough. Nothing is more calming than a graveyard at night, just after the leaves have fallen but before the brutal cold of winter moves in. All the world around you at that point is dead and the silence that it brings is golden.

As I Die For You

2010-01-25T05:18:00.003-05:00

Swaying softly in the breeze a lovely not yet decayed body waits to be found. The country grass moves along uncaring with the wind. No one knows he's dead. No one cares. He waits for the person he died for to find him; will she ever? The tree stands casting its shadow tall along side his, the sun is setting and no one's around.
--Pencil on paper. Scanner obliterated some of the shading. This is the work i produce when listening to Candlebox...so unhappy looking stuff. Oh well, who the hell needs happy?

Crucify the Angel

2009-10-23T15:46:00.004-04:00

Crucify the Angel was created in late 2003 or early 2004, can't remember which. She was created with pen on notebook paper, the colour came later and was added using photoshop 5. She's the ideal angel, speechless, dead, incapable. There's symbolism added here but i can't remember for beans what it was...the missing hand, the crucifixion itself, even the colour...it all had meaning at one point. Oh well, the brain gives up for now. I had a few of these in a series, all angels being shown in different forms of execution. I may post those, but i wasn't nearly as happy with the way those came out as i was with this one. Forgive the anatomy here, there was a time i was all willy nilly with things like that.

Seven's Crow

2009-10-23T15:19:00.004-04:00

Seven's Crow (concept 1) is an early sketch i worked on for my boyfriend's band Seven's Crow. Originally done in pencil, it may eventually be painted if he still wants to use the image. I gave this one a sepia tone but the painted version would be in blue tones. There's a few flaws here but i'm generally pleased with the idea. The tree came out fan-tas-diddly-astic as did the rocks and road in the foreground. The continuation of the road needs work but that's why one produces concept sketches before doing a final; to see what needs to be done or corrected. The frame is just from part of a computer program and isn't anything spiffy. The lettering is also part of the program and probably won't be used for the cd booklet. Off in the distance at the end of the road, there is a little town, it may or may not be visible in this scan, but if you click the picture, an enlarged version will pop up in another window and then all the details can be viewed (if they scanned right). When my boyfriend gets his music up on Myspace, i'll post the link. It's dark and lovely stuff.

Tutorial: Creating A Pool Wallpaper with GIMP

2009-09-08T15:24:00.016-04:00

Creating a bright and interesting wallpaper can be quite easy. The first step to creating wallpapers is to have a good image editing/creating program. In this tutorial, i'll be using GIMP which can be downloaded for free at GIMP.ORG. After downloading GIMP, open the program. Now we begin the fun stuff. The first thing you'll want to do is go to the "File" menu and then to the "New" option. A screen should appear requesting what size you want the image to be. It should be preset to pixel measurement, but if it isn't, change it to that. Now type in the resolution of your computer screen into the boxes. (Example: My screen resolution is 1440x900 so for Width i'd type in 1440 and for Height i'd type 900.) Once you've chosen the size, click the "ok" button. You should now have a big white square/rectangle in the middle of the GIMP screen, much like the image shown here.

Step Two: The Gradient Tool
Now that you have a blank canvas, you need to add some colour. In the Toolbox, click on the Gradient tool (a little box that fades from black to white). Once you have selected the gradient tool, then you'll need to pick a couple colours. Click on one of the large boxes below all the tools in the Toolbox. Select what colour you want from the menu that pops up. Now do the same for the other box. (Hint: For more depth, try one colour being black and the other being a brighter colour, such as bright red or orange.)
Once your colours are chosen you'll need to configure the Gradient tool options. For optimal results, under the Gradient tool's "Shape" option, choose Radial. For "Mode", opt for Normal, for "Opacity" 100.0 is best, "Offset" should be set to 0.0, "Dithering" can be selected but it's not completely necessary, "Repeat" should be set to None and "Adaptive Supersampling" should not be selected.
So that the darker colour is in the center of the pool, in the Gradient tool options, where the fade colour box is, click the little two pointed arrow until the darker colour is on the left side of the box. Now take the mouse pointer to the center of your white canvas. Click, hold, and drag the line all the way to the edge of the canvas (to either right or left side, or even top or bottom, whatever works for you). Let go of the mouse button and colour should appear. Your gradient should look somewhat like mine in the image here. Darkest colour in the center, lightest on the outside.

Step Three: Adding Funky Little Details
This is the time when you get to play around and figure out what looks best to you. Now you get to add little details, such as Fade Out Brush strokes. Here, i did a simple Fade Out Brush stroke using a brighter orange colour. I selected the Paint Brush tool, opted for size 11 circle brush with a Scale of 1.0, Opacity of 100.0, and a Fade out length of 100 px. I clicked down on the canvas, held the button and dragged the pointer so that the fading areas were toward the dark center and the solid areas toward the bright outside. You can do that, or you can choose to do something different. If you make a mistake, you can always go to "Edit" in the top bar of the GIMP program and click Undo.

Step Four: Ripple and Waves
Now we do the step that makes the image start to look like water. Under the Filter menu in the top bar, go down to Distorts and then choose Ripple. In the Ripple options, Antialiasing should be selected, Orientation can be horizontal or vertical, which ever looks best to you, the Edges should Wrap, and the Wave Type can be Sine or Sawtooth (Sine does look smoother though). Now the Period, Amplitude and Phase Shift can be adjusted accordingly and whatever you think looks best you can go with.
Now we have the final step, in which the picture looks most like something liquid. Again, go to Filters, Distort, and then down to Waves. In the Waves options there is an area called Mode, i strongly recommend choosing Smear instead of Blacken. And i also recommend not using the Reflective option, but again, whatever looks best to you, feel free to experiment, there's a Preview Window for a reason. Now you can play around with the Phase, Amplitude, and Wavelength options like you did with the Rippling. Once you feel you're done, save your image as a JPEG or JPG file. Then you can go to your PC or Mac's personalization options and add the picture to your desktop. You could also post the picture to the internet for other's to use as well, like i've done with the image we saw in the Tutorial.
Feel free to click the image and set it as your background. This one is only 800x600 though.

Deadly Living: Hell's Asylum

2009-07-22T00:28:00.003-04:00

The ever present horrors of hell are portrayed here in vivid colour. A completely coloured pencil work, this is to date one of my better small coloured pencil pieces. Hints of "Hellbound: Hellraiser" the movie can be seen here. The character is damned to the insanity asylum of hell. There, he is tortured both physically and mentally. The third eye in his forhead is forever opened to the air, which in time, will dry it out and make all his instinct and intuition non-existent. His mouth is held open so he cannot explain his problems or whisper for help. The asylum itself is brightly coloured to mislead incoming "patients". On the walls you can find remnants of past horrors. Urine, feces, blood and grafitti decorate the doors, walls, and floors. Our friend here is in for the long haul.

Aside from the scanner first making this horribly bright and then the computer program making it appear brutally dark on some monitor screens, this came out quite good. It's got a cartoony feel to it which i like. As with most of my art, i can pick out a few things i'd change if i had to do it over again, but overall it looks pretty good. Comments are appreciated (no douchebaggery!).

Isis and Osiris Finished

2009-07-21T14:39:00.006-04:00

Finally, i got around to colouring Isis and Osiris. Isis here was a joy to colour, she came out nicely considering the fact she's a bit off in places regarding her anatomy. However, i managed to use her misconstrued body to aid in the creation of Osiris, who is also misconstrued proportionately. I believed by making both look odd, it would make them more interesting and would lend to the style i wanted them to be. I had the unfortunate problem of encountering a "Craigslist forum douchebag" not to long after posting the finished versions of these two. He did not care for them and viciously ripped most of my art apart. It was not constructive criticism, it was assholishness. Anywhoo, that's a whole other story. Osiris gave me issues with his pants. Coloured pencil black, when using Crayola, can make pictures look as if you've done them in crayon. Overall i was pleased with how he came out. Of all the parts of the picture, i am most fond of his wings. His black background wasn't computer coloured very well because it was a temporary idea, where with Isis, her background is very closely edged and well done. I have a second Osiris version without the black background and that's the one i prefer for most postings. Black just fit this blog better. Comments are appreciated, CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms are appreciated as well. I'm always looking to improve for the next picture.

GIMP Colouring

2009-06-11T15:36:00.005-04:00

Recently I happened upon this lovely program called GIMP. In many ways it rivals Photoshop (except for the fact it lacks a line making tool). With the magic wand tool you can colour anything. Of course the magic wand takes a hell of a lot of getting used to. The upper picture here is a pen drawing i did a while back and scanned into the computer. While the perspective is interesting, it left a bit to be desired. With the help of the GIMP program, i was able to put the picture into colour, giving it a little more depth and interest. GIMP is difficult to get used to at first but once you've learned it, it does great work. This image was the first i coloured using the program. There's some flaws but overall i was pleased with the job. If you wish to download GIMP (it's completely free!) you can get it at
GIMP.ORG

For those wondering, the picture has a few elements of The Crow comic/movie as well as a bit of a reference to The Dark Tower series (the little purple wizard's glass on the floor). I used the magic wand tool, the paint bucket, and the round brush tools for this piece.

New Little Brown Friend

2009-05-16T03:30:00.004-04:00

Cappytan Squirrell showed up today to eat some pumpkin seeds from the moldy left over Halloween pumpkins on my balcony. He made for a fine little art victim. He didn't seem to care that i was staring at him and taking pictures. A few times he left to chase away other little squirrels. He was quite a greedy lil bastard, but that didn't seem to bother him at all. Cappytan Squirrell just kept on eating those seeds.

A Bit of Manipulation

2009-05-09T04:19:00.005-04:00

Just rendered these yesterday. A couple self portraits turned into photo manips. Used Arcsoft 5.5 threshold effect. Made for a neat graphic/comic book effect.

Morta

2009-04-28T14:50:00.005-04:00

This here is the lovely miss Morta. She's named after the Roman goddess of sleep. Morta is a fairy of high ranking with the ability to do good as well as evil. Eventually she'll be coloured. I'm having decision issues with her hair. Blonde would be nice, but red could also be fitting. Anywhoo, when i finally colour her, i'll post that. I hope it comes out well. Coloured pencil can be such a bitch but there's no possible way to paint this piece.

Devils Wear Sandals Angels Wear Boots

2009-04-15T09:41:00.007-04:00

Devils Wear Sandals. She is Isis, best friend of Osiris (Angels Wear Boots). Isis is a bit on the demonic side, but overall pretty friendly. Unfortunately she's Hades daughter and that presents a lot of problems for her and Osiris. Despite the fact her father can be a bit poopy about things, she still manages to hang out with Osiris. Her occupation is to bring the vagrant dead (unaware ghosts) to the Plutonian shores where they await entrance into the land of the dead.

Angels Wear Boots. Osiris is his name and he's a head angel whose father is the mighty Zeus. Isis doesn't know it (or so she leads us to believe), but Osiris is very much in love with her. He stifles his emotions because he fears their fathers would not be pleased with such a relationship. By day he works gathering the knowledgable dead from the Reaper to send them to the Plutonian shores. At night he likes to spend his time with Isis and also likes to hang out with various daemons and mythies.

----©2008 Aquilus Domini----I hope to do more with these little characters, perhaps make a comic book or something of the like. I may do a whole little writing thing on their back stories..hmm...thinking...weeee

My GIF Animations

2009-04-14T05:57:00.005-04:00

These were all produced frame by frame. The best one is called Drinking Diarrhea. You will know that one by how it looks. Wrong? Yes, but fun to make. Then there's the stripping stick figure...all i can say for that is "I was very bored". I have more, but for some reason it's difficult to get them to post without endlessly uploading over and over again. Very odd that Blogspot does that to GIF animations...

Little Character Practices

2009-04-14T05:41:00.006-04:00

This here is a good example of how to add shoes to your people. Shoes hate me and i hate shoes equally. These are perhaps the best shoes i've drawn on a person character. As for the clothes, well, i prefer drawing my people nude and above the ankles, that's why the clothing looks so simple and so shittacular. I went with grunge style because it greatly reduced the need for analness and detail. As for the skateboard, i had no intention of making it look good, it's just there for the hell of it. Now the lettering, that i do like.

I call this dude Dale. He came out pretty decent. A bit feminine looking, but that lends to his youth a bit i suppose. Remarkably, his feet are right. I about shit my pants and rolled over backwards when they just appeared nice and neat at the bottom of the pants. Anywhoo, the rest of his clothes are alright too. I went for simple again because i'm lazy. Very plain clothes and simple lined facial features and hair.

Shoe Tutorial

2009-04-13T03:46:00.011-04:00

Feet, they are the scourge of many an artist. Difficult to determine size and even more difficult to render into some form of three dimensional look, feet are definitely the hardest part of human anatomy. While feet may be a royal pain, shoes can be even worse.
I'm going to be honest, feet and shoes elude me. My brain and hand tell me they can't create them for beans.
Notice the two large shoes in the picture. They aren't the greatest things in the world but with them i will offer a small tutorial on how to start drawing shoes.

For the picture i went with my black Vans. YOU will need to pick a shoe that you like. Now go grab the shoe, a pencil, an eraser and the paper. Go on, i'll wait for ya. ... ... ...
You've got the shoe and everything else? Good then. Let's get started. Set the shoe down on something that is nearly eye level. Yes, i'll wait again... ... ...

Alrighty then, have the front of the shoe facing directly towards you so that the sides are horribly distorted and look very short. In this exercise you will learn fore-shortening aka an artist's pain in the ass. Firmly grasp your pencil in your drawing hand.

This is the front top of the shoe. Your starting point.

Now, examine carefully, without moving the shoe, the top front part. You should draw first the tiny sides on the left and right of the tongue. Alrighty then...i'll give you a moment. Feel free to erase. Now observe the tongue. Make the rough shape of it (the shape will come together better after shading). Remember the tiny sides? Bring the lines down a bit according to what you see. Also work your way part way down the tongue where the laces are (but don't draw the laces in yet!).

For now concentrate on the toe area.

Do you see where the rounded corner triangle is on the top of the toe area? This is your next step. Sketch in (i do hope you did choose a tennis/athletic shoe for this project) the little triangular part. Most athletic shoes have these triangular areas. Not to sound obscene, but this far you should have the tongue/lace area and the triangle looking somewhat like a penis shaped mushroom. Be sure you've got the angles on the sides of the triangle just so, because that can throw off the entire shoe.

The Sides are Essential!

Now for the trickiest part of all, THE SIDES and SOLE. This part is strictly based on observation. Roughly outline the sides and the sole. Shading is essential now. So we must begin the shading process!

Like the lining part, you should go in sections. The sides should go first, because they determine how you should shade the front of the shoe. Notice the forshortening effect shading gives the real shoe in front of you. You don't have to be anal about how you shade and it's not necessary to add the Nike swish or the Vans V. It helps to add other defining features though, such as lines where the leather/fabric are stitched together. Make careful note of their angles. The sole should be last. You have it lined in, now shade. Because the sole is a different material than the rest of the shoe, you can make it darker or lighter than the leather/fabric parts, and because it's rubber, you can add a bit of shine by working from dark to light. You can also add shine by using your eraser in areas where light reflect.

In the end, your shoe should look like it's a right or left one. It should also look somewhat short and stubby because of the forshortening. You can go willy nilly with how the laces are tied if you want. They're the very last detail. How they criss cross is important though. In the picture at the top of the post, the shoe from the side view looks odd because i messed up the laces. So be mindful of the criss crossing!

Finished Shoe

Later i will give the 3/4 view shoe tutorial. That one will be somewhat easier. Keep practicing with that front view. If you can draw little people, see how the front view of shoes looks on them. Try to incorporate the front view shoe into some of your drawings. Until later... good luck with the shoe!

O&O Sigil

2009-04-11T04:06:00.005-04:00

Because of boredom and a big ego, i made a sigil to represent myself and my art. I never ended up using it unfortunately but i do hope to someday get it tattooed onto my back. It's filled with symbolism: The crow skull being a symbol of death and it's also my favourite bird, the purple ring around the skull contains two non-inverted pentagrams which symbolize luck and a love of the earth, the purple ring itself is a royal colour, the words inside the ring are Ominous and Omnipotent which means dark (or evil if you think of me in that way) and all powerful, the swords represent power and loyalty.

Still Waiting For You

2009-04-11T03:54:00.005-04:00

Still Waiting For You features, yet again, a Crow character. He is waiting in the cemetery for his lover to return to him from beyond the grave. The scan did a number on this and obliterated all shadows that had been behind the solid objects. This boils down to an experiment in clothing. The background was a quick thought and in some ways it shows. I used black water colour for the sky (which was a mistake with that kind of paper) and the rest is all Bic black pen. The title came from a lovely song, by the metal band Demon & Wizards, called Fiddler on the Green. The song is located in the playlist on the side of the page if you wish to listen to it.

Waiting for Revenge

2009-04-11T03:45:00.004-04:00

Waiting For Revenge features one of my favourite architectural aspects, the circular oriel window. The character is a variation of James O'Barr's Crow comic book hero. This piece was mostly about the room. The remnants of a lost life on the floor. A long perspective leading to the window is much like the long quest of the character; scattered with obstacles and distractions. Old photos and notes bring back the memories of forgotten happiness. A gun waits to be used on the evil that destroyed that once lovely life.
All black Bic pen for this. Spit and a finger were used to smudge the pen for the walls.

California Love

2009-04-11T03:38:00.006-04:00

Created with pen and rendered into colour with Photoshop, this piece is defined as California Love. Violent and bloody and reminiscent of a California gang story gone horribly wrong. Deviant Art currently hosts this picture as well as most of the others in my blogs.
OminousandOmnipotent at Deviant Art Feel free to check it out.

The Crow Halloween Contest Photos

2009-04-06T16:43:00.004-04:00

My boyfriend and I went contest picture taking at our local waste water treatment plant/duck park. Fun times. I won the contest by the way.

Digital Alterations

2009-04-06T16:38:00.002-04:00

Each of these was altered with either Photoshop or Arcsoft 5. Arcsoft=evil program. Anwyhoo, all are © mine. For more go to
O&O at Deviant Art

Deviancy (For the Door)--surrealism--

2009-04-06T14:49:00.006-04:00

His name is Deviancy. At one point words were supposed to end up on the door, however i opted against it. Following are the words. They are Deviancy.

----I need to watch things die, dreams of decimation. The universe is hostile, we all feed on tragedy. Puzzled and confused? Freewill. Choosing to kill over pieces of the ground. For a few sweet moments it seems to make me whole. Live for every moment, your time will come. Another tragedy to make someone complete. Surprisingly, there are times when i'm ashamed of it all. Shame can easily turn to apathy though. There are always shadows on the road ahead and shadows on the road behind. With perfect beauty death rises with grace. Everyone lambs and martyrs. The blow their own minds away. I love to watch the sheep follow eachother off the cliff. Tragedy sets you free. A disaster is just another falling star. I wish for corpses. Is there anything wrong with such a necro-erotic dream? Not when the dream belongs to everyone. Shine on malevolent fantasy. Dead is now the art of dreaming. Dreaming is now the art of death. Bad things come to those in all good time. Rapine and murder. Crawl into line and wait your turn. I pity the living. All for one, none for all. All the things that you know that are precious to you could be swept away. I'll be there to be sure it all comes crashing down.----

complete coloured pencil and pen. forgive the atrocious anatomy, the line drawing was ancient.
if you wish to know the meaning behind the symbolism of the various objects and surroundings, feel free to ask.

Faces

2009-04-06T14:42:00.006-04:00

in order from top:
"Peter Steele" singer and bass player for Type O Negative--acrylic paint
"Vampirism" (unstable title)---pencil
"My Shadow" ---pencil
"Shh" random art victim---permanent marker aka Sharpie
"Georgie"---colour film photography
"George"---black and white film photography
"Caged"---black and white film photography
"Mentality"---pencil

all images are © Aquilus Domini 2004-2009