Great Romanian Personalities: Eminescu

An additional submission to the "Great Romanian Personalities" exhibit, here is Mihai Eminescu.

Great Romanian Personalities: Caragiale

Sometimes you forget how big the internet is until someone gets in touch with you from halfway across the globe. Ms. Ana Lugijana of a Romanian cartoonists association reached out and asked if I would partake in an upcoming exhibit, "Great Romanian Personalities". She gave a list of about ten individuals, but mentioned their particular interest was in having Ion Luca Caragiale and Mihai Eminescu, so I went with the former. (These three are the same man, but at different ages; the top being the youngest and the bottom being the oldest.) Though I won't have the pleasure of visiting and seeing the artwork in person, I'll receive a catalog, as will all the artists who likewise submitted work.

The cartoonists association I mentioned before has a site, which can be found here. Unfortunately, it is currently down for reconstruction.

Makiev commission

Another digitally-colored portrait I finished not so long ago, here's the Soviet assassin Makiev, an original character designed and commissioned by Matt K. I took a great deal of pleasure hammering out this one, as I find the World War II era rather interesting in of itself. For those of you familiar with Mike Mignola's Hellboy, you'll likely notice the similarity of Makiev's mask to Karl Ruprecht Kroenen's. The design of that particular accessory was indeed inspired heavily by it. On another side note, the eyes may seem off. That is due to his left eye, which is slightly clouded over.

Commander Deth commission

A little while back, I created a digitally-colored portrait of mech pilot Commander Ian Benjamin Deth, an original character designed and commissioned by Julie D. She loved it, so much so that she even had it framed, along with a print of my Fast Food Mafia piece that she purchased. Julie sent me a picture of the framed prints today, so I wanted to share it.

Perryfest and art classes

A few weeks ago, I've been going down to the Edna Bentley Memorial Library in my hometown to help out. With a book sale coming up it was good timing, as they needed someone to sort through old and donated books. And as luck would have it, the head librarian Pat Brown offered me a free space to set up a table during the Saturday sale, which was happening during Perryfest. Now, Perryfest is an annual, weekend-long town festival that started up some years back. Between those folks interested in the book sale and just wandering between other town events, it was a good spot to be. Unfortunately, I could only stay for the morning, since I had to fill in that afternoon for an art instructor. Business was slow, as you would expect for the morning. But I did enjoy the neighboring folks, who likewise had tables set up. Plus, I did have one caricature commission, so it wasn't a total loss.


Later that afternoon, I taught a pair of children's art classes on painting landscapes in watercolor. Like the caricature classes I've previously taught, I gave a little demonstration to help them understand how to break down their reference pictures and start their paintings.


My first class of three started with practice paintings on smaller-cut sheets of watercolor paper. However, the girls got so involved with them that we decided to keep going for the duration of the class. They were quite pleased with their work, as you can tell.


My second class of three did some practice painting, but quickly took to the larger-cut sheets of watercolor paper. Unfortunately, their interest in painting petered out a bit early, but they are kids after all so I couldn't blame them. Landscapes can be just as tedious to adults. But all in all, both classes were pleasant and the kids were good.

Neverwhere sketches

Just finished reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and I was itching to sketch the characters, especially after I took a look at the 1996 TV miniseries which was, frankly, rather disappointing. So this is more or less how I would envision them.

Burgies Awards night

Though I couldn't join in on the festivities of Burger Beast's 'The Burgies' it certainly looks like the night went without a hitch, attracting well over one hundred attendees. You can read more about the evening of food and fun at his blog, but I wanted to show a couple of pictures taken that featured my artwork.

John Martin's Irish Pub door with Burgies Awards poster

El Mago, winner of "Best Frita", with son and daughter