A new commission is done, Sweeney Todd in watercolor. Also another pic of Gene Simmons. This time it’s a bit clearer, I used my camera. Still don’t have my scanner, I’m going to wait before I ship these out so I can scan them for my records. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow (hopefully), so stuff will be sent out by Wednesday! Promise!

Anyone see the Oscars? I saw a little… kind of boring. It made me really want to see the Hurt Locker though.

Ugh, sorry about the lame ass quality of this pic, I forgot to bring my scanner to my new place. I’m going back to San Diego this weekend to pick it up. I’ll post a better image as soon as I can scan it. Trust me, this one looks a lot better than this picture shows.

Commissions are progressing once again, I’m in the midst of unpacking, commissions, and contract work, so it’s moving a tad bit slowly (isn’t that always the case?).

My airbrush is not working as smoothly as I’d like. I didn’t realize what a tremendous difference it would be to move from a large garage area to a small apartment corner. I’m so paranoid that the downstairs neighbors can hear it… those thoughts are preventing me from really getting it set up nicely. What a dilemma, I might just have to buy a quieter compressor. Anyone have any recommendations?

And I have internet again!!! Hurray! Shoot someone with that lightning bolt Percy Jackson! Man what an ordeal this past week has been. I am sorry I couldn’t update sooner, but things have been crazy to say the least. What I thought would be a relatively easy transition has turned into a topsy turvy stress snowball rolling down the mountain of impending deadlines. Did that make sense? Oh well… anyway I was supposed to have internet up and running this past Monday, but since my landlord decided to write the wrong apartment number on our contract, all of the utilities and internet were scheduled to be set up incorrectly. My wonderful girlfriend, who has kept me grounded and calm these past few days, and I had to cancel all the appointments and re-schedule them for later in the week. On top of that I rented the smallest moving truck there is, and we had a heck of time fitting all our crap in it. It took me and my dad 3 hours just to get the fridge in the darn truck! It was like Tetris minus the fun.

The cherry on the top was when my Paypal account got hacked in the middle of everything and depleted my bank funds so that moving would be as stressful as possible. What a nightmare. I do have to say that the people at Paypal are very friendly and have remedied the problem, it just took 6 days of me having no money when I could have really used it.

Now, on to the positives! Our new place (while still covered in boxes), is great! Our neighbors are SUPER friendly, and our neighborhood is incredible! We have a 50’s diner that serves malts, an old fashion barbershop, my bank, and the post office all in a block’s radius! I don’t have to drive anywhere! I’m still unpacking my art supplies, but I’m determined to put pencil to paper by this afternoon, so expect the daily updates and fresh artwork from me ASAP!

The picture is just because we saw the movie last night (at a theatre we can walk to!), and it was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the books, but it has potential. Hopefully they continue to make the rest of them.

To everyone who has ordered from me, or is waiting on something, I’ll be contacting you soon!

Man I’m tired of packing… Sorry I don’t have any artwork to show today, just packing boxes, so I thought I’d finally show off my custom made box for my air compressor. If you keep up on my blog you’ll remember that I was looking for a way to keep my airbrushing quiet for the new apartment. Well this is what I came up with. Sure it’s not perfect, but it works for me. The insulation really helps and when the box is closed the compressor’s rumble is reduced by a dramatic amount, if I had to guess I’d say it’s at least 80% quieter.

There are a couple of problems with the box, first of all I only drilled a hole for the brush hose, not the outlet cable, so the lid won’t close all the way when it’s plugged in. Also, it gets hot fast inside this little box, but luckily I only use the compressor for 10 -15 minute intervals, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m excited to get it all set up at the new apartment, and I’ll keep everyone posted on the outcome.

Thanks to everyone for being patient with me these past few days… I’m hoping to get on my feet and moving by Monday or Tuesday, so I probably won’t be updating the site until then. Have a good weekend everyone!

Wow, never thought I’d finish this one. After getting 80% done with it the first time, then making a huge mistake and having to trash the whole thing, it took a lot of motivation to start all the way over. Anyway, I’m happy with the results, and I hope the person is happy who receives this. Another one down…

I made a list last night of things I need to get done today, and out of the 13 things on the list, I’ve only checked off 4… and it’s about 6pm.

This move is going to set me back work wise a bit more than I had anticipated. I’m losing about a weeks worth of time on the new Star Wars sketch cards I got, so I might have to start focusing on those soon… I still want to knock out a few more commissions though. I’ll definitely be done with Sweeney Todd and Gene Simmons before I finally pack up all my art supplies on Saturday. Then I say it’ll probably be around Monday evening before I get them all unpacked and ready to use again.

Not much to post today, working on redoing my Oz and Willow piece because I completely butchered the first one. This one is coming along better, should be finished (finally) tomorrow! Yay!

Things left to do before the move: finish packing, reserve moving truck, donations, donations, donations.

This Namor piece is for Jeff, he’s been an amazing person to deal with, and he’s commissioned me for a lot of stuff, and has bought a lot of stuff from me as well… so thanks Jeff! Annnnnd… that’s all I got for today. Cya tomorrow!

Still packing packing packing! Man there’s a lot involved in moving. I finished another commission but things are going a bit slowly right now, and I just got my Empire Strikes Back cards in the mail! Stressful stuff.

I wanted to share this amazing book I picked up last week called Strength Training & Anatomy, which is illustrated by a very talented artist named Frederic Delavier. In my work I’m always on the lookout for good reference, especially the muscles and structure of the human body. Most of the books out there that talk about muscle anatomy are medical reference books, and you’ll be lucky to find 5 pages out of 50 page book with muscle diagrams. I stumbled into this book at Borders and fell in love with it! “More than 400 full-color illustrations.” These are great illustrations too! They show you what the muscles look like in a ton of different poses, and the artist is masterful at his approach. Cut aways and color highlights let you see which muscles are being flexed, I can’t say enough just check it out. Click the pic to be taken to Amazon where you can see the first few pages a lot bigger. I highly recommend buying the book, it’s got a retail of $21 but you could probably get it cheaper online.

I finished Leia last night, she now resides on eBay:link.

I also have a blank Spider-Man Archives AP up on eBay here:link.

All proceeds go to help me pay for the moving truck next weekend!

Thanks to everyone who has watched and continues to watch my website, and my work. For those of you waiting for commissions, I plan on knocking out a huge portion this week. After next Sunday it may take me a couple days to get situated, but the rest will be finished shortly after.

Time to really start packing as well… it’s kind of nice to see all of my possessions and belongings wrapped up neatly into little boxes, makes me feel… comfortable.

A Sunday update?! You bet… just felt like typing. Here is a piece that I’m excited about, a Slave Leia 4″ x 5″ that will probably end up on eBay tomorrow. I decided to take the weekend to pack and work on this piece because I’m reasonably far with commissions, and I could use a little extra cash for the move next week (eek!). I’ll probably be posting my Spider-Man Archives AP on eBay with a low starting bid to guarantee a sale.

I’ve wanted to put together sketch book for a while now, but not sure about how to get it self published. Seems like a lot of work, and it also seems difficult to turn a profit. If anyone has any ideas, I’m definitely open for them.

I finished the lid for my custom soundproof compressor box yesterday, just need to finish it up with some insulation on the top and then I’ll shoot the pics. It turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself.

Ack! I missed the update yesterday! I can’t believe it… sometimes the days just meld into one giant mushy thing in my brain. I honestly thought I updated yesterday! Oh well… here’s a rare Saturday update! This piece is one that I had on my list, but I couldn’t advertise because it was a Valentine’s Day gift for my girlfriend and she is my most loyal viewer… so it had to remain a secret. Anyway, it’s Snow and Bigby from the awesome graphic novel Fables by Bill Willingham. I have been told since I finished this piece that Snow’s eyes are in fact blue and not brown like I made them… so that will need to be fixed!

To everyone who ordered the more expensive pieces from me, I have now started using SIGNATURE confirmation. It costs me a bit more, and you have to be there to sign when it’s delivered, bit it’s the only way that Paypal protects sellers. If a terrible situation ever arises where a package is lost, or received by someone else, it just makes it easier to figure out what happened. So, if you order something from me that costs $100 or more, expect to have to sign when it arrives. I’m sorry but I won’t budge on this one, I’m only watching out for potential problems, please understand.

Update to my compressor problems. Quick overview if you don’t know already - I’ve been looking for an airbrush compressor that is quiet enough to run in an apartment, with little to no luck and very little time left. A friend of mine (Todd) told me that I should just make a soundproof box, which I had considered briefly before, but really started thinking about after we talked. So yesterday I bought the materials and crafted a makeshift box that comfortably fits my compressor. I lined the box with carpet and foam insulation. All I need now is to cut a piece of wood to make the lid. The test runs have been a great success! The noise is cut by a HUGE amount. I’ll post pics and keep everyone updated as I get closer to moving! Thanks!