Commission from a father for his son's birthday, including family and their dog.  When I sent a rough drawing for his approval, he thought I made his son look too much like John Kerry, and the dog looked "generic"whatever that meant.  Am I the only one who thinks animals of the same breed all look alike?Somehow I'm supposed to capture personalities from 2D pictures and osmosis.  I think my original drawing of the son captured his likeness much better than the finish, and he actually does resemble a young J Kerry IMHO, but what do I know?  This was done in ink and prisma color.

As part of a birthday present for his girlfriend, my buddy Kenny brought over a 9"X 42" board he had painted a glossy black, with a request for me to paint a design upon the surface thereof.  Apparently there is a drinking game where shot glasses are attached to a board, filled with liquor, and participants must drink in unison as the plank is tipped toward open maws.  As you can see, for this particular device the drink of choice is Fireball, and four imbibers immortalized with nicknames in all their glory, lest confusion ensues upon inebriation.  

The Fireball and devil dude logo was scanned from an empty bottle Kenny supplied, then manipulated in Photoshop, printed and transferred to the board along with lettering for the phrases and names.  Both sides are completely hand painted with Sign Painters lettering enamel.  The challenges were myriad; eye strain, neck and back pain from hunching as I attempted to intrepidly lay down paint within the lines, yet facing the sad reality of shaking like a Richter 8 California trembler while simultaneously  getting high from oil based paint and brush cleaner fumes.  Despite the aches, pains, fussing and fretting  I was pleased with the results.  If you stand far enough away, the lines look straight and clean as a ruler, I think the font I chose complements the logo, and the colors really pop on that glossy black background.  Kenny seemed ecstatic and wasn't expecting such a "work of art".  Kind of a shame to mess it up with raucous alcoholic activities, but then again, everything looks better after a few shots of Fireball!!!  :)

Turning 21 is quite a milestone, as the age of adulthood has arrived at long last!  To commemorate this rite of passage, my daughter Kristi has expressed her desire to experience a more, umm, adult form of entertainment, so this year's card is a light hearted way for me to acknowledge a signifiant event in her young life.  Though Chippendales is not her venue of choice, they are most famous in the genre, and the cartoon chipmunks and their names fit right in with the fun I wanted to portray.  The medium is ink and watercolor.

My sister Karen and her family recently went on a vacation to Florida, and while there visited an aquarium where they were able to swim with the dolphins.  It was her favorite experience of the week, so of course that is what I incorporated for this years birthday card.  My brain struggled with a catch phrase to go along with the dolphin theme, but I came up blank.  Thus the trite, but still applicable flipper thing.  I usually do the cards in Prisma, but this one is watercolor.

Another project for my brother in-law, Randy.  He has a strange, confrontational relationship with an apparently cranky, mean, and down right abusive bank teller that goes by the name Bea.  He has no clue why she treats him so badly and she used to get under his skin, but after a while he decided to give as good as he was getting, and they have been throwing barbs back and forth at each other with reckless abandon whenever he does his banking.  I find it rather odd for Randy to give this nasty teller a Valentines gift, but he wanted a caricature as a kind of smack down, and this is the scene he described for me to draw and color which he will present to his nemesis on the 14th.  This is done in pen and Prismacolor.

My brother-in-law, Randy, has a friend that owns a trailer in the mountains near Idaho City, about 25 miles to the northeast of Boise.  Every year around mid May, a bunch of pals gather together for a weekend of male bonding; a kind of mountain man camp, no females allowed.  Lots of stories, drinking, cigars, and eating meat.  Randy asked me to do a painting commemorating the annual event, and I reluctantly agreed.  After A LOT of procrastination (two years worth) I finally kicked myself in the butt to finish so it could be framed and presented for this years camp.  The trailer is beat up and a boring, dirty white/ecru, so I added a bit of color to make it pop; and more interesting for me, since I didn't really want to do it in the first place.  The fire pit is actually farther off to the right, but I had to condense everything to incorporate all the elements he wanted in the painting.  The original is 9"X15" and done in watercolor.

My sister Karen recently had me paint a caricature for her boss, a gym owner whom we call Booty Brett.  Apparently it put an extremely unusual smile on his ever present sour mug, and he liked it so well, he decided to get a caricature done of his girlfriend for her birthday.  She has two miniature Pinschers, Ritter and Roo, so they were incorporated into the painting along with her love of wine and snowboarding.  This was done in watercolor.