Horses Playing Drums

Here is another piece in my animals playing musical instruments concentration.  This one is of horses playing drums.

Birds Singing and Morphing

Here is another piece in my animals playing musical instruments concentration.  This one is on Birds Singing and morphing.  The original was done on board with acrylic.

Collage Pen and Ink

This is a collage done in pen and ink.  I compiled images from some of my favorite things, which are: Citizen Kane, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Rolling Stone's Tattoo You, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton.

How Eye Learned To See

Front cover

Click to Enlarge Picture

It is hard to see clearly at the bottom of a waterfall.

This is a story about a man named Leaumas Rednew, but everyone called him Red for short. He had a red Mohawk, wore glasses, and loved to play guitar. He lived in a city called Lazy River.

Red played in a rock n’ roll band. Rock n’ roll was Lazy River’s past time. Everyone played an instrument of some kind. It was how people found peace and serenity.

The greatest musician from Lazy River was a man named Ace Weller. He revolutionized music with his guitar skills and brilliant song writing abilities. He was everyone’s hero.

Ace was last seen in Lazy River 321 years ago. One day he just disappeared. The people of Lazy River built a monument to Ace. They were all waiting for the day he would return.

There was a boat that floated down Lazy River everyday. The boat provided a day of rest, but not everyone rested. A lot of people played games and had fun too. People gathered in this sheltered boat to escape the problems of a stormy world.

One of the many activities the boat provided was Tramp Ramp Ball. Tramp Ramp Ball was very similar to basketball. The only differences were: the ball was black with one large white stripe, the hoops were twenty feet high, and people had to jump on trampolines to get to the rim. Red was a great Tramp Ramp Ball player. He played every Thursday with his friends on the activities boat.

Only ramped up tramps played this game!

One day while Red was playing Tramp Ramp Ball he blocked a shot from one of the other players. The ball flew out of the boat and into the river.

All of the players watched as the ball floated away. Red offered to rescue the ball because it was his fault that the river carried it away.

Red got into a canoe and paddled down the calm river in pursuit of the ball.

When Red found the ball he was in rapid water. He used a lot of caution because beyond the rapids was a very dangerous waterfall.

Red got the ball, but then he noticed something. There was a beautiful woman standing on a rock at the edge of the waterfall. He was so hypnotized that he forgot what he was doing and dropped the ball.

The woman appeared beautiful at first, but then she transformed into an evil witch. It was a trap and Red was very scared.

The witch pulled him out of the river

He started to shake and shiver

She was choking Red

With her hand on his neck

The witch held Red over the edge of the waterfall and then she let go. She cackled a high-pitched laugh.

Red fell down 401.37 meters.

Red finally fell into the water at the bottom of the waterfall. His glasses came off. It seemed he was doomed.

Red survived the fall, but he had to keep going. He swam down a dirty river to eventually get to land.

When Red got to shore he saw his glasses. They were shattered.

With his limited vision, Red noticed a frightening city named Kant Town. He also noticed a very sad man who was fishing for weird fishes.


The sad man’s name was Zoey Joey. He had unhealthy green skin and dirty cloths.

Zoey Joey and Red became friends, and they walked into Kant Town together. Kant Town had a lot of eyecantinas.

Eyecantinas were places that sold eyecantequila and other hard drinks.

Zoey Joey got very excited, because he loved eyecantequila. He was an addict.

Zoey Joey persuaded Red to go into the eyecantina. Inside a lot of people seemed happy, but the rest were depressed.

Zoey Joey drank 9.0004 gallons of eyecantequilia. This made him happy for a while, but in a couple hours he would feel terribad.

Some women were dancing on a stage. Zoey Joey thought they were gorgeous. Red thought they were ugly and inappropriate.

After 27.43 seconds of watching the new friends went back outside.

When the friends got outside they saw a horrible scene.

Innocent people were hanging dead like laundry out to dry.

Red opened his eyes to a world that was killing everything beautiful and pure.

Red continued to walk around Kant Town and noticed a large crowd of people. They had assembled together to listen to their leader.

The leader of the people in Kant Town looked very scary. He had horns and no eyes. Without eyes people can’t see.

The leader tried to lead his people to higher ground, but he actually led them down a canyon of despair.

That is what happens when the blind lead the blind.

Red started to miss Lazy River because he knew it was a better place than Kant Town.

Red told Zoey Joey about Lazy River and how everyone was happy and kind.

Zoey Joey wasn’t sure if he wanted to go because they had to climb a very tall mountain to get there, but Zoey Joey promised Red he would go because they were friends.

Red and Zoey Joey were just little specks compared to the dark cold mountain that stood before them.

The friends strapped on harnesses and got ready to climb the mountain.

A lot of people thought they were crazy for trying to climb the mountain. Some pointed and laughed while others gave lectures saying they couldn’t do it.

Red was positive they could do it, but Zoey Joey wasn’t so sure.

Red and Zoey Joey began their climb up the mountain. With a lot of hard work they started making progress.

When they got a couple feet from the top of the mountain Red’s rope snapped. The friends started to fall. Zoey Joey held onto Red’s legs. He was relying on his friend. After all they could do, it still wasn’t enough.

When everything seemed hopeless someone’s hand grabbed Red by the arm.

Red looked up and saw that it was Ace Weller, the iconic hero of Lazy River. Nobody had seen Ace for 321 years, but he had returned to save Zoey Joey and Red.

When Red got back to Lazy River he received a warm welcome. He washed off all of the mud from Kant Town until he was sparkling clean.

After Red changed his cloths, Ace Weller gave him a new pair of glasses. They were stylish.

Ace asked Red what it was like in Kant Town. Red told him it was hard to see clearly at the bottom of a waterfall.

Ace Weller then asked Red to play guitar with him. This was a great honor so Red couldn’t say no. Zoey Joey also got to play with his friends. He played the sitar, which made him look better, and act more positive.

Now stay cool!

Working from life and painting with oils

My color palette consists of seven colors (including black and white). The colors from the top left corner and going clockwise are: titanium white, ultramarine blue, ivory black (or mars black), alizarin crimson, cadmium red, yellow ocher, and cadmium yellow light. I have two yellows and two reds. Yellow ochre is used when I mix flesh tones, while cadmium yellow is usually used for greens and light yellows. Alizarin crimson is cooler than cadmium red. I will mix either cadmium red or aliziran crimson depending on the lighting. For example, while painting a human face the light can make the flesh tones very warmer (use cadmium red) or cooler (use alizarin crimson). I mix blues and blacks with my yellows to get my green colors.

I don't need to have yellow ocher on my palette because I can just mix that color, but it makes much easier to have ready to go. I use yellow ocher in many flesh tones. To mix browns such as burnt sienna and burnt umber I mix different amounts of cadmium yellow, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue.

Value is color. In other words yellow already has a value with it.

I painted with my Grandma back in April. She wanted to paint the way I do, so she payed me for some lessons. We painted my brother, Andrew. It was great that he was willing to pose for us.

Above is the end result. My painting is the one on the right and her's is the one on the left. She has worked on her painting since and it looks a lot better. I was emotionally done with my painting after this day. I looked at it more as a sketch and not an official painting.

Above is a picture of when I painted with my friend and mentor Mitch Baird in West Linn, Oregon. He has a brilliant website at: http://www.mitchbaird.com/. I have learned so much from him. The above picture was a head painting session that took three or four hours. We painted my friend Jennifer. She was so awesome about it! She posed for free. My painting is the one on the left and Mitch's is the one on the right. This piece I was working on seeing the main shapes and then add detail later.