Jan 23, 2009 - While waiting for my wife to get back from Roller Derby (how awesome is that?) I decided to do a little doodling.
Jan 22, 2009 - Finally and at last I'm finished my latest piece - a design for a table at the Freehouse. It's at the printers right now, hopefully I'll have it by Monday when I can apply it to the table. Below's the image (the final piece is 23" x 23")
Jan 6, 2009 - I hope everyone had a great New Year's and fun Holiday Season. I decided to step away from the art for a week and just relax (and clean my house). Before that, I took a detour from illustration and re-entered the world of black velvet painting. I got an e-mail suggesting that I submit a piece to The Dirty Show, an annual erotic art show that takes place in Detroit. I was familiar with it, so I thought I'd give it a stab. While I love the ladies and have wanted to see what I could do in the field of erotic art, i've never had a good enough reason. Here it was. So, I mulled over subject matter and final arrived at an Orion, the seductive race of green-skinned people from Star Trek. Below's the result.
Sadly, my losing streak is intact as the piece wasn't selected by the jury. I'm not heart broken. I've seen the quality of work that ends up on the walls of the Dirty Show, so I know I was beaten by good work. Plus, a buddy of mine is buying the piece. I've already scheduled some time to work on a piece for the 2010 Dirty Show. I'm too dumb to stay down.
I've also discovered, thanks to Google Alerts, that the film I made in 1995 (The Tale Of The Steamin' Green Log) has been popping up occasionally. It was shown recently in Quebec City, and the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-op is showing it along with some other Quickdraw Animation films on January 19th. If you're in Halifax, check it out.
Nov 23, 2008 - It's been a while since I've posted an update, mainly because I haven't finished anything recently. Not to say I haven't been working - I've been busting my hump, but the projects are kinda big. That said, here's a sneak peek at the latest think I'm working on.
It's not really near finished, and I may have to take a small break from it to start something else. Sorry I'm so vague. Next update I'll be totally forthcoming. Uncomfortably so. I apologize in advance.
Oct 8, 2008 - Finally put together my promo postcards. I've sent a bunch to hireandillustrator.com, and the rest I'm going to send out indiviually to potential clients. Take a look:
I'm now working on a couple of other projects, including painting a table for a local establishment, fleshing out my portfolio and possibly putting together a website for my Dad.
Sept 10, 2008 - I bit the bullet and joined hireandillustrator.com. It's about $7 a month - we'll see if it leads to any work. Fingers are crossed. One thing about HAI that attracted me is that they send out mailers targeted to potential clients that they think would find your art appealing. This has me working on a new postcard, and a new self-portrait. Here's the result:
I'm pretty happy with it. It's my first 100% Wacom piece - the sketch was done on the Wacom, too. No scanning. For sketching in Photoshop, I just use a plain pen at 10% flow. Seems to work. Anyhoo, I like this image of me better than the one I was using before (though it still has a rough, chunky charm).
I've also received a call from theispot.com, checking to see if I'm interested in their services. I am, but I may need to save up a bit before I sign up.
Just because I feel like rambling, here's what I've been listening to a lot while drawing:
I recommend you check out any or all of the above. They're all Canadian, and I'm crazy about indie Cancon. Let me know if you dig it.
Aug 31, 2008 - Have you seen my ass? It was kicked so hard in the Threadless design competition, I seem to have lost it. I thought I saw it sail into the neighbour's yard, but it's not there. Wow, what a beating I took. I found out the hard way that they pull your design after 24 hours if it's in the bottom 30 percentile. Mine were. It's discouraging, but I'll give it another go in a while, after I have rump reattachment surgery.
Aug 28, 2008 - I have a new illustration: Frog In A Bog. It's another recoloured image from my kid's book. I'm even happier with the way it turned out than the Emperor Penguin. Speaking of which, a version of it (along with a couple of my other designs) are in the running over at threadless.com. Click on a link below to help me out by voting. Thanks.
July 30, 2008 - One of my closest friends (see the samurai with and erection below) recently asked me to illustrate a poem of his. This thrilled me, as he's a fantastic wordsmith and we share the same sense of humour. The result is Unrepentant. Click here to read the poem and see the full image. Below is a detail.
July 21, 2008 - I've decided to pull the trigger on posting one of my recent illustrations. It's called "Respect Your Neighbour's Privacy". Here's the image:
It was a lot of fun to do, and stemmed from a quote that I'll now misquote, "Inspiration is for art students. Just fucking draw." I also forget who I'm quoting. Anyhoo, I decided to just sit and draw and see what happened. I'm sure some wish I hadn't.
I'm also currently re-colouring the pages of my kid's book "Is There Such A Thing As...?" using photoshop and my Wacom. I was never completely happy with the original pencil crayon job. I've completed the Emperor Penguin page. Here's the before:
... and here's the after:
I'm waaaaaaay happier with the new version. I used to consider photoshop kinda cheating, but I've come to accept it now as just another effective tool. Just like me.
You still have a few days to vote on my card over at Custom 52. It would really make my day if I won.
July 10, 2008 - Voting has begun over at Custom 52. Please take a minute to vote for my card. It's been a busy month and a bit. I've finished up another illustration, but I can't post it just yet. It's frustrating, because I'm really proud of it. It involves a violent BM, a violent storm and a ghost. I'll post it as soon as I can.
May 19, 2008 - The design I put together for a local Ultimate Flying Disc tournament is up in my Illustration section. I've also just finished up a pretty fun piece called Respect Your Neighbours' Privacy, but I haven't decided yet if I want to post it now, or put up a bunch of new stuff at once. I'll mull.
April 21, 2008 - I've again updated my music playlist. I should have some more illustrations up soon, too. I've been a busy boy, but most of the stuff that's been keeping me busy is simple stuff that I don't think really belongs on this site. I'm back to work on the goos stuff, though, so expect some new goodies soon.
Feb 19, 2008 - At long last, I have content on my animation page. I've uploaded an ad I pitched to Big Rock and a short called The Troop - Call Of The Wild that was chosen for and then mysteriously rejected by the CBC animation competition show, Maple Shorts. I still got some dough, though. The main character is voiced brilliantly by my Dad. Take a minute and take a look.
Jan 26, 2008 - I've put up a new playlist on my music page. Dig it.
Jan 23, 2008 - For Christmas, my beautiful and thoughtful wife and parents bought for me a Wacom 9" x 12" Intuous tablet. I love it like a long lost incredibly useful brother. The first thing I've completed with it is a piece I've submitted to the site Custom 52. Soon you'll be able to vote on whether or not my piece makes the deck. Until then, here it is.
I've also recenty added some character design work to the the illustration section of this site. Take a look at Uncle Zanzibar and Dmitri Szmirkus.
Dec 24, 2007 - I was pretty happy to find a submission chosen to be featured on one of my favourite web pages today. The Little Chimp Society is a fantastic illustration portal that I visit probably too regularly. The quality of the work there is a bit intimidating, but in the spirit of the season, I grew some jingle balls and submitted my Mele Kalikimaka Christmas card image. It found it's was into the Editor's Choice section, which was a thrill. To see the page, click here. If you're too lazy to click, the image is below. Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Dec 9, 2007 - Christmas is creeping up. Scared. Decided to fiddle with my music page rather than face it.
Nov 24 , 2007 -
For nearly (if not more than) a year, my computer’s been giving me grief. After running for a while, an error message would pop up, after which my sound and ftp capabilities suddenly left me. I tried in vain to find an online solution. Nothing. Finally, I decided to wipe and then re-install windows. The procrastination I put forth was mighty indeed. Well, it’s done, and I’ve now had a chance to update the site a bit. I’ve added a couple of paintings to the painting section: The Amazing Tristam and The Tsunami Canoe Crib Board. Below is a photo of the happy customer of the The Amazing Tristam.
I’ve also been busy working on a commissioned piece for a friend. He’s always wanted a portrait of himself as a samurai surrounded by the corpses of ninjas. Oh, and he wanted an erection. He originally wanted the erection to be open to the air, but there are some boundaries, even considering our close friendship, I’m unwilling to cross. His wife commissioned me to put it together for him for his birthday. She must really love him. Below is the result.
Here's a detail picture:
I've also been keeping myself busy redesigning Vic Cicansky's website, working my day job, an experiencing life as the father of a zombie child.
Oct 10, 2007 - NEW MUSIC PLAYER! I've added a page (that for now you can only reach through the NEWS page) that has an embedded music player. I plan to change up the playlist every month, so keep an eye open. I hope you dig it. If you missed the first link click here to go listen.
Oct 09, 2007 - I've finally added some items to my store page. You can now purchase your own copies of my limited edition silk screened posters. They were both runs of fifty, and I've sold a few already, so if you're interested, please don't dawdle. Remember. Christmas 2010 is only 807 days away! Thanks.
Sept 09, 2007 - I'm working on a piece I'm really excited about, but it's not really near the finishing stages yet. In the meantime, I thought I'd throw some snapshots of a few things I don't have online right now. Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, with the huge flash reflection. I'm thinking of getting some professional photos taken of these to add to the Illustration section. Any feedback as to whether you think they're worth being posted to the main galleries would be nice.
This is a crib board I made for my Dad. We canoe every summer (that we can) in a sweet ride my Dad built by hand. It's a thing of beauty. We occasionally make some poor decisions regarding the saftey of the lake. This is to commemorate the times we didn't drown and maybe should've. It's acrylic on wood with some pen and ink used to a definition.
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I made these drink coasters for my Mom. The flash from my camera somewhat obscures the word balloons on the first coaster. They read, "The monkey... has matches." For these, I pasted paper to wood and then applied watercolour and ink. My Mom likes them. At least, she says she does and since she's my Mom, she kind of has to.
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Here are some quick pencil sketches of nudes. As a young man, I shied away from drawing women because I thought people would think I was a pervert. Now I don't mind people knowing I'm a pervert, so I'm trying to make up for lost time.
May 27, 2007 - I've added a link to my wife's Cafe Press store. Buy some fun knitting related apparel and stuff at Mojo's Bad Ass Knitting.
May 24, 2007- Feeling happy that I've updated the website, including a new self portrait on the bio page. I spent some time on the weekend working on a few projects for money. That's a rare nice feeling. I'll post some of the work once it's finished. I also have a few ideas for paintings that need attention.
