The Tinder Box Workshop goes live.

If anyone is interested, my Etsy shop is now live. There are a few art prints for sale as of right now. I hope to expand and have a few more available in a few days.

Christmas is just around the corner and who doesn't love a gift of art. Please like and share and buy some stuff.

Tinder Box Workshop

Showing Off New Art.

Cosmo Nut Yuri Gagarian The First Man In Space. 24x36 acrylic on canvas. 

On April 12th 1961 Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space when he launched into orbit on the Vostok 3KA-3 spacecraft.

Contemplative Buddha. 11x14 watercolor and ink on paper. 

The Hypnotist (Lon Chaney, London After Midnight 1927) Watercolor & ink on watercolor paper. 11x14. 

Enter Freely & Of Your Own Free Will (Bella Lugosi, Dracula 1931). Watercolor & ink on watercolor paper 11x14.

The Invisible Man Revealed (Claude Rains, The Invisible Man 1933). Watercolor & ink on watercolor paper 11x14.

The Penetrating Eyes of Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie). Watercolor & ink on watercolor paper 11x14

Breaking Borders: Spellbound

I have a piece in an Art show this weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/470051123174043/

It's Been Some Time Since I've Made An Update.

So it's been a little awhile since I posted anything here. There's been a lot of changes in my life. Moved back to Michigan, got my own house now, working on a few projects. I built a work shop in my garage and have been working on some woodworking. I'll post some pictures of that soon.

In the meantime here is some new art I've worked on since last time.

Here is a portrait of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster titled Portrait of a Modern Prometheus. 

The painting is 36" x 24" acrylic on Canvas.

Here we have an image of Herbert Phillips Lovecraft titled Philodendral.

14" x 11" water color and ink on paper.

Continuing the literary theme we have a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe titled His Words Like Birds In Violet.

14" x 11" water color and ink on paper.

This image I call Dark Heart was inspired by old medical drawings of the human heart.

14" x 11" water color and ink on paper. 

For a short time I had been doing some pieces that went together the heart and the brain always seem at odds with each other and from that came this image called Synaptic Emanations In Blue.

14" x 11" water color and ink on paper.

I submitted these to the Damned show here in Detroit. Hopefully some (if not all) may be accepted and on display in October. More to come later on that.

Thor Review & My Best to Worst of Marvel Movies.

3 words…Thor. Was. Awesome!!! That’s the short of it right there no more need to be said but I will anyway. Now I wouldn’t say it was 5 out of 5 stars (maybe 4) nor would I give it 2 thumbs way up or any of that jazz (but pretty close), but as the Marvel movies go, Iron Man being the top of the top and Ghost Rider being the one to forget I’d say Thor would be right there between Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2.

To give a bit of perspective here is my list of Marvel movies (that I’ve seen at least and as of right now). From Best to worst and not including any of the animated features, other Marvel imprints and made for T.V. movies.

Iron Man (2008)
Thor (2011)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
X-Men (2000)
X-Men 2 (2003)
Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Blade (1998)
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
X-Men 3 (2006)
Howard the Duck (1998)
The Punisher (1986)
Blade 2 (2002)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
The Punisher (2004)
Fantastic 4 (2005)
Hulk (2003)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Daredevil (2003)
Ghost Rider (2007)

Aaaaand there you have it my thoughts on Thor and my list of Marvel films from my favorite to my very least favorite…at least till Captain America: the First Avenger (which looks AMAZING!!!) which opens this year in July I think and the Avengers film which is supposed to be out in 20012 will change the top 10 I‘m sure maybe even the top 5.

My Problems With Brightest Day.

No matter what you do, unless you didn’t read it, you will be comparing the Brightest Day event in the DC comics Universe to Blackest Night, another event that happened just before…and that comparison will never be favorable for Brightest Day. Blackest Night, in my opinion, had some of the most compelling story telling to come out of the DCU in years. I can honestly say I got very sick of the multiple crisis that have been going on for the last few years & I just couldn’t care about 52 and all the whatever’s that surrounded that. Then there comes Blackest Night, characters back from the grave for a reason not just to inhabit the body of Jean Gray (sorry Marvel joke in a DCU rant), but actually having a reason to live again, some as Zombies that steal hearts…SWEEEEET!

But then, almost in an instant, to push aside all of this to the wayside in Brightest Day was almost a slight slap in the face. Now I’m not saying there wasn’t some wonderful gems here and there and some fun stuff going on in the DCU, I mean JLI Generation Lost was awesome, and I didn’t want it to end luckily we get an on going series out of this, but the rest of just kind of felt like a let down.

I’m telling you go back and reread Blackest Night and compare it to Brightest Day and see how very different they are in style, tone and pace and it just dose not compare. In Blackest Night I seriously anticipated each issue with fevered boyish glee . I found myself excited to see who lived and who died and who came back, I cared for characters I hadn’t felt anything for in years (cough cough Flash cough cough). I ended up though, not caring anymore for those same characters in Brightest Day, except for the redemption of Dead Man, Boston Brand. In Boston I found a well rounded character fulfilling a grand arch starting from his creation in 1967 and completely redeeming himself as a person on multiple levels and even finding love in the arms of Dove. In the end being put back right where he started from making his arch and redemption almost meaningless. Talk about a raw deal, I actually found myself getting really mad about that part., I mean here was this character who besides his appearance in Kingdom Come I really didn’t know too much about and in Blackest Night I started to wonder who this guy was and I did some research…turns out this guy was a real dick back in the day, much like a real person and then Brightest Day comes around and BAMM!!! See yeah later Boston Brand welcome back Dead Man…LAME!!!!

I kind of wax and wane on Green Arrow most of the time I could give a damn about him but in Brightest Day I didn’t care for Green Arrow at all. He seems compelling when surrounded by his “family”, Black Canary especially…to be honest I really didn’t care about anyone other then Dead Man, and maybe a little bit about Martian Manhunter, but then to suddenly introduce, seemingly out of nowhere, Swamp Thing? Really? Really? Why? I mean I get that Swamp Thing is connected to the Earth and supposedly the Earth is really important in the universe and all but isn’t the White Light of Life supposed to be important to all life in the universe and beyond, not just the Earth? It has to do with all of creation right? Which is a point I think was sorely missed here, and kind of glossed over in the Green Lantern titles (but there not done with that yet so maybe that’ll change).

I am looking forward to what’s on the horizon for the DCU and as I usually do I sort of teeter totter back & forth from Marvel to DC and in the last few years I’ve moved more and more into the DCU but with the end of Brightest Day, they have a lot to make up for if they want to keep me around. Who am I kidding I’m in for all of the Green Lantern titles, and JLI will be coming out soon…but John Constantine in the regular DCU? What is that all about?

Christmas Gifts & a Happy New Year.

Hey all, I just wanted to wish everyone a happy New Year and a joyous Non-Denominational Non-Religion Specific Gift Giving Holiday of your choice.

Now I'd like to show off some artwork I made for some family and friends.

This first one I did for my friend Susan. It's a print of the 10th Doctor (her favorite) from the BBC Television show Doctor Who, played by David Tenant from 2005 - 2010.

Next up is of the 4th doctor from 1974 - 1981 played by Tom Baker. I made this one for my Brother and Sister-in -law. The text is because this was my first Doctor Who that my brother introduced me to.

This print I did for my mom. She’s very much into angels so I made this one especially for her. It started out from a photo by Marcus J. Ranum and I just went from there.

Been a while...have some new art.

I've been working on a series of pieces based on some of my ideas and some of the classic Universal Horror Movie Monsters. I'm thinking of turning them into paintings once they're done.

These where all hand drawn then inked and colored in Illustrator and Photoshop.

I call this one Doctor Mysterious.
He's a character I created for a comic idea I had a while back


This one is called Portrait of a Count


This one is titled Portrait of a Monster

As an extra added bonus here are 2 more pieces I've been working on unrelated to the earlier series of images but I thought you might like them.

This one is called There's That Smile


And last but not least I call this one 'Lill Joker.
This one is based on art by Lee Bremejo


Other then the new art and working on some other projects I'm sad to report that I am no longer in the band Silent Noise. All I'm going to say is that the singer/guitarist and I had a...difference of opinion on a few subjects pertaining to the band and so I stepped out to pursue my own endeavors. Other then that things have been going quite well and when I have more to report or more art to post I shall.

Talk to you soon.

making some changes here

If you look to your right you'll notice I've added my twitter feed into my blog so I can update here all the time. My plan is to update at the moment on my iPhone from Comic Con in July. My dad also pointed out that I said I was going to post more with my new computer but I haven't so this will help that out a bit. On the art front I have a few new projects in the works and I will be posting pics soon I promise. I've been working on a comic book with my friend Nick and it's really coming along nicely, I have the cover and pages 1-4 penciled and will post them up here to get them "published" so I can have pros at Con look over them.

GOT THE NEW BASS!!!

So about a month ago I put a brand new Ernie Ball Music Man Sterling 4 string Bass on layaway at Guitar Center in Pasadena, this is probably one of the most perfect basses you can get for the price I paid (I'm not saying how much but I couldn't beet the price anywhere and lucked out cus it went back up a few hundred bucks after I got it). I finally have a piece of pro gear I can be truly proud of, and the sound is awesome I can't wait to hear it with the rest of the band. I only wish I hadn't laid out the bass tracks on the new album (which is almost done), but next time.

Any who I hope to have some art up soon...I've kinda been procrastinating a bit (a lot) and have been real lazy...no other excuse. But yeah soon I swear.