A Year and a Day

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of me opening this blog, and I had wanted to post something to commemorate the moment, but I just couldn't decide what to share. I have many projects scattered about various corners of the house, more than one sketch pad in my backpack, multiple images captured on my camera phone, the beginnings of entirely new digital art pieces on my hard drive, but it's still not easy figuring out what to put on here and when. Some people carry journals around to write down their thoughts on the day well my sketchbook is more like a journal. The images in my head come from various encounters, dreams, random thoughts, the what ifs all tied into one journal entry. Some might wonder where the image of a man in armor fighting stone reptiles: Man It's What's for Dinner comes from or where a rose with petals shaped like skulls: Roses are Red may come from but that can be simply answered by the statement of, I see things differently. Man It's What's for Dinner started out from a Google image search, that's right I Google images, I had noticed that most of my artwork was beginning to focus on the female form and I didn't have enough male form based artwork so I searched for body builders. When I found a pose I liked I printed off the black and white image and used it as reference, instead of the body builder having the tight spandex briefs, that in the reference photo was obviously giving him a wedgie, I turned him into a gladiator. Roses are Red began as a what if I could turn a skull into a rose thought, so I found an image of a skull and used Photoshop to skew the skull into positions that would replicate the petals of a rose to serve as a template for me to use as reference. Once I got the sketch completed I got it into the computer and used Photoshop once again to airbrush the colors in.

What mostly matters is that inspiration comes in all forms and from anywhere and it is important to continue to pursue new sources and create what comes to mind. In one year and one day I have posted 48 entries and have gained an audience that continues to come back for more. I thank you for joining me on my journey and continuing to return as I continue to be inspired and learn new techniques. While I work on more sketches and pursue new reference materials I will share these photos: