Makin' Stuff (and stuff)

LoL Caricature Company

2011-08-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

Opened June 17, 2011, my little caricature booth is the only thing of it's kind in Denver, and it's hit! *LoL* Caricature Company is located on 16th St. Mall at Glenarm and employs only the most talented caricature artists around. We will be open through October Wednesday-Friday, 2-8 or Saturday-Sunday noon-8. Check out the Facebook page for tons more samples of work!

Gathering Place update

2011-06-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's DONE! Dedication TBD, but if you want to go see it, it's at Alameda Square: Alameda and Zuni in Denver.

Clam Daddy-at last!

2011-06-15T22:21:00.001-07:00

It's taken awhile to realize this piece in it's intended medium, but here it finally is in bronze!

Prairie Engine

2011-05-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago my sculpting partner Fred Lunger and I submitted a sculpture proposal for the new Adams County Government Center. Low and behold, we were 1 of 3 finalists out of over 200! These are photos of the maquette, one of which is superimposed onto the site to show scale and relationship. It would have been 24' in height, made of steel, wood, concrete and bronze. The walkway beneath was designed as an abstracted map of the county, and the windmill blades depict a train in bronze bas-relief, chugging along them with a bit of wind.

Face and body paint

2011-05-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Various face and body paint-jobs I've done in the past few months...the first 6 were for music festivals, the 6th is the girls posing in my studio doors before going to a String Cheese Incident "carnival". The bottom 3 are a collaboration between myself and Christine Dirkschneider Ballard: I designed and executed the paint, she did the photos. The last are Dia de los Muertos themed (obviously), in which I painted myself and company for a Bassnectar show.

Live digital caricatures

2011-05-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Finally tried drawing digitally at a gig-I used Sketchbook Pro. Here are my fav's!

Gathering Place

2011-01-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

Way back in 2010, my dear friend, Fred Lunger and I won a public art commission in the City of Denver at Alameda Square. It is ten slightly larger-than-life-sized bronze Canada Geese suspended over ("landing on") a retention pond. With the solo show and well, doing the commission, I never got around to posting about it here. "Gathering Place" has a dedicated Facebook page which is a thorough step-by-step if you want to see it all. These photos are just a hint until I have photos of the final piece, which is being installed now!

Work From "Flight of Fancy"

2010-11-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

In absolutely no order whatsoever, some highlights from the Show!

Flight of Fancy

2010-08-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just finishing up the last piece for the show on Friday! If you didn't get the email and would like to be on my mailing list, please drop me a line!

Denver Draw

2010-06-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

I host a figure drawing session on Sunday nights here in Denver...mostly with costumed models. Here are some sketches from that. Also posting as a quick Megan Fox caricature to spice it up a little.

Artist Inc.

2010-05-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Artist Inc. is 10-week course is designed to help visual artists of all types to improve and enhance their business and professional skills. I am extremely grateful to be a participating artist in this course, and have begun working toward a better understanding and implementation of healthy business practice. Melinda Laz, instructor, has a wealth of knowledge from her years as a visual artist and art administrator, and is writing a blog about our weekly topics:
http://theothersidearts.wordpress.com/ This is a great resource for the ins and outs of the art biz.

May and June Rockies magazine

2010-04-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Illustrations showing "In a pickle" and "squeeze bunt" plays.

More Dr. Sketchys

2010-02-25T11:23:00.001-08:00

Bringing the blog back to life with these sketches-a 5 minute and a 20 minute from Sunday's Dr. Sketchys session.

Portrait of Vivian Leigh

2009-09-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

For Fun. Charcoal and pastel.

Figure study

2009-09-15T16:22:00.001-07:00

Water based clay.

Rockies Magazine

2009-08-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Another assignment for the official Colorado Rockies magazine, coming out in September. These illustrations depict famous Pennant races of the past. Clockwise they are: Harvey's Wallbangers (the sad one left out is Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer: the ace who lost the game), Bucky "f*%king" Dent, Thompson (Shot heard around the world), the Dean brothers, and Matt Holliday's slide.

Untitled Art Show

2009-06-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight I will be a guest on www.UntitledArtShow.com at 8 PM mountain time. It will also be in the archives as a podcast for future listening.

Obama, again.

2009-06-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Reworked bust.

Pioneers

2009-06-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

This is a Cooper and Cunningham piece; sculpted by me, art directed by DiAnne Cooper.

Scottsman

2009-06-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

This is a Cooper and Cunningham piece. Sculpted be me, minus the faithful sidekick Scottie sculpted by DiAnne Cooper, who also did the art direction.

The MAXXI

2009-02-08T15:45:00.000-08:00

Cooper and Cunningham put together a proposal of what could be the coolest piece of public art ever for The MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy). The concept design was done by Brian Cooper. I sculpted the maquettes shown, and included the color sketch to show the whole composition. There are more maquettes done by Levi and Randy, and if you'd like to see them email me-they are ridiculously cool. The reason I am not including them in this post is that a lot of people only look at the photos(I'm often guilty of the same) and reasonably assume anything I put on here is my work. Anyway, wish us luck!

St. George's Cathedral

2009-01-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

We here at Cooper and Cunningham, submitted a sculpture proposal for St. George's Cathedral in Perth, Australia. It is an international competition, and you can vote for your favorite on their website until February 21st.
http://www.sculptureproject.org.au/
Ours is on the second page, and you can read more about it there. The dragon would be 12' tall in bronze, and spraying the shield of 8' tall bronze St. George with water, illuminated to look like fire.
For your viewing pleasure, here are photos of the maquette. The concept was done by Brian Cooper, I sculpted the Dragon, and DiAnne sculpted St. George. It is 1/10th scale.

Elka of Elko

2009-01-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

Update: Here she is in the museum!

This is the process of creating Elka the Elephant in bronze.
This a model of the internal armature.

The shape is bulked out with insulation material and covered in plaster bandages.

Clay is applied over the plaster and sculpted to it's final shape, then molded. I was primarily responsible for Elka's ears, some of the wrinkles, the bones on the ground, and the miner's (Sven) head and hands, but it's difficult to claim anything as my own as we all touched all parts of this piece (which is why it's fun!)

Moldmaking is messy! The aftermath...

This mold was about 30 pieces.

Wax is poured into the molds, creating a positive duplicate (this is one of her feet).

Another mold is made of ceramic, in which the bronze is poured.

The pieces are welded together and sandblasted.

A patina created using chemicals and heat is applied to give it the final color.

Currently, Elka is being mounted to her base and shipping to her new home at the California Trails Museum. The dedication is January 27, after which I will post the last photos.

Colorado Animules

2008-08-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

For the Show 'Paper or Plastic' at 910 Arts. A show during the DNC which encourages both artists and viewers to consider our small daily choices and their impact on our physical environment. Participating artists must discuss an aspect of the materials they use to create the art.

I drew all Colorado native animals on Colorado beetle-kill, or 'blue-stained' pine.

2008-07-21T12:46:00.000-07:00

Drawings from Dr. Sketchy's Anti-art school...I wish it was more than once a month!

From work today...

2008-07-19T00:27:00.000-07:00

Rockies mag

2008-07-19T00:25:00.001-07:00

This is a 2 page spread of some of the Rockies first draft picks, to be in the August 2008 issue. Verrry short deadline, I would have liked to do more, but there's a point when you gotta call it done!

Nocturnal Mockery and Metronome

2008-05-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Work for shows during the past 2 weekends...and UPDATE! Photo of the Lovely Rosemary and her new painting.

Ruby

2008-03-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

Relief on board.

Figure sketch

2008-02-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

2 hrs. Water-based clay.

Obama sculpt

2008-02-12T19:38:00.001-08:00

For comment, see title.

Obama

2008-02-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

Woodrow

2008-01-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

You might recognize this guy as part of my website interface. I modified him to fulfill the second part of a commissioned illustration, which was a fable of sorts involving a woodchuck and a opossum.

Reworks

2008-01-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

Repainted her

Based them

Me

2007-12-17T14:44:00.000-08:00

Self-caricature done in Photoshop on my new tablet PC (oh, boy!).

Funky jewelry-

2007-12-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

Downtowner

2007-12-17T14:32:00.001-08:00

Downtowner Magazine did an article about the artists in my building-here's my page!

Snow Goddess

2007-11-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

2007-11-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, a couple more. I love the first one-it's the first day of the con before the ballroom opened, so it started just outside the doors.

NCN Con 2007

2007-11-07T04:53:00.000-08:00

My work from the week.

Taste of Colorado

2007-09-11T01:14:00.001-07:00

These are from a festival I worked last weekend for 4 days. The booth...

...and the artwork...I took a few more pics, but these are my favorite-especially the top two here...

I also had my first 'pet gig' drawing dogs and whatever other animals people brought into the pet store. I drew 2 mice, a ferret, a bird, and lots of pooches. It's pretty hard to get a good sketch of a mouse when it's running around it's 6" plastic ball in case you ever wondered.

Last day at the park?

2007-08-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

Co-workers and a bad photo of a couple on a blind date. He tipped me $16. I told her to go out with him again.

Random stuff

2007-08-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

3 park sketches. The little blue-eyed boy caught my eye from across the midway-I went over and asked his dad to please let me draw a demo of him. He did, then bought it and tipped me 5 bucks. Nice. I just wanted to check out this kids eyelashes-this photo doesn't do him justice.

The baby is Sergi, my friend Alyssa's chubby boy. This is my first 2-d airbrush painting, in which I discovered how easy it is to overwork. I went back and forth with value more than I will share before finally accepting and ceasing.

As for the little girl witht he unicorn-she was too cute not to share. She couldn't put the mirror down when she saw it.

Makeup and chair work

2007-08-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Makeup I did for a photoshoot for my friend Lesley's apparel line http://www.brainchildapparel.com/

...And park sketches from recent days. I've only worked 2 days in the past 2 weeks and have had a hard time getting into the zone. I can see a lot of repetition and crutches in these pics, but that's why it's good to have them. Still, there is something in each that I like.

Claim to Fame

2007-07-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

I drew the actors that play Crabbe and Seamus Finnegan in the Harry Potter films. They were in town because they heard of the great caricatures down at Elitch's. They decided to do a little charity work while they were here, too. Very nice, fun guys. I told them to send Malfoy my way so I could have a 'chat' with him.

The other 2 are of non-famous, fun-to-look-at for very different reasons people. I didn't include a photo of the girl-she was truly this cute-you'll have to trust the drawing.

Don't hate.

2007-07-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

My camera is broken, so no pics of 2 new pieces. No hate mail, please. Don't be a hater. New park sketches from yesterday.

Update for Update's sake

2007-06-26T00:19:00.001-07:00

Well, Kids, I ain't been in the studio for over a week, and been caricaturing at gigs, so no time for pics. This is the best I can do 'til next week...but THEN! Then there will be new photos of at least 2 new pieces, so check back.

I painted a few faces for Pridefest...but I liked mine the best. I think I'm biased...And shiny! Hey, it was hot.

And a fun group of kids at the park a couple weeks ago.

2 sketches

2007-06-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

First day back in almost 2 weeks. I drew a bunch of garbage for a good portion of the day, then came back from lunch to draw a little less garbagey. Took 3 terrible camera phone photos, but got these 2 decent ones. Now I have to wait 3 more days to do it again, hopefully without so much of a crap-curve. But it was fun!

American Idol

2007-06-03T22:39:00.001-07:00

This is a Photoshop self promo piece that is done for now, maybe forever...

Body paint

2007-06-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Lesley called me at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon with the request that I do her hair and makeup for her first trunk show to promote her apparel line that evening. The theme was 'pink' and she wanted to have an anime influence. This is the outcome-I can't take credit for the outfit, unfortunately, that was all her...!

And a couple sketches from the park today...

First face paints

2007-05-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

The one photo I managed to take this weekend @ the park...I 'took' several of some sketches I was pretty happy with, but apparently I need to learn to hit the 'save' button.

Here are some first attempts at painting on actual faces...

...And as it got later, they got a little more ridiculous...

NYC!

2007-05-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just back from NYC. I love traveling more than anything. It's so surreal to be living for nothing but what I want to do, to realize new dreams, to evaluate old ones, and to attempt to tie it all into daily life when the trip is over. I did the first three, but it's that bridge between dreams and real life that's elusive.
Anyway, pictures! These are from a facepainting workshop I did with the Wolfe brothers...they are AMAZING artists and even nicer people. I'm tempted to ditch the sculpture gig to pursue special effects makeup...Okay, not really, but having just touched the tip of the iceberg, I am being drawn in...

At the worst bar ever (the one Coyote Ugly was based on) with Nate Grahm, Joe Bluhm, and Ed Steckley. We went after live jazz and figure drawing night at the Society of Illustrators-where I am in front of one of my favorite Cornwell paintings.

Cruise cake topper

2007-05-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Wedding cake topper for caricature artist Greg and his finacee, Tori. It's based around the fact that they met on the Harmony cruise ship.

Nacho

2007-05-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Cast paper

2007-05-06T23:16:00.001-07:00

Just finished this Friday. It's 24x36, cast paper. I'm still working out how to frame it-I'm definitely going to have to build something, as it's about 6 inches deep on the left side...anyway-this is it for now. There are little nooks and crannies where the paper is imperfect that house surprises of bright color, which you can't see in this photo. The next version will be a completely different color scheme, and a change of some compositional elements that I'm not crazy about-but I'm pretty happy with it for my first attempt in both relief and cast paper, and the second in airbrush. I can't believe I waited so long to use that tool-I owe you another thanks, Dion, if you read this...!

I leave next Sunday for 2 workshops in NY-face painting and licensing. Yeah, a little random-seeming, but they have their place somewhere. I hope-otherwise I'm blowing a lot of money, but at least I'll get to go see the TRL window! A dream come true... yeah. So to all of you faithfully checking my blog daily, know that I won't be answering emails, or tragically, updating my blog for a week. Has anyone even looked at this damn thing yet?!

Treble Clef Catz

2007-05-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

Finally...here is the (almost) finished piece...didn't get to take pictures of it with the base or in decent light before dropping it off for a show (where an un-named recipient promptly put his thumb into the small area of the base where I'd just told him it was wet). This my first resin. It's prompted me to continue doing resin, which I have fallen in love with. It's cost effective, easy to chase, light, and...paintable! It also prompted me to finally learn how to airbrush- fun, fun. It's SO much faster and I like the transparency of the paint. However, it does suck to drop the thing onto the same stand where the sculpture is (filled with black paint). I'm glad I could ruin a new shirt AND increase my wordload at the same time.

Burlesque sketches

2007-04-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

I just found a new figure drawing session that has costumed models once a month (too bas not every week). Last night we had a roller-derby/burlesque queen. I wouldn't mess with this girl, on rollerskates or in heels...

Ceramic model study

2007-04-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

This is a quick sketch I did from a model last night. It's in ceramic, which I've never used before-it's like using mud, but at least it tasted good. Mmm. Um, yeah. Took about 1.5 hours to make, 5 seconds to recycle.

Busch Gardens

2007-04-12T23:38:00.001-07:00

I just got back from working at Busch Gardens in Tampa for a couple weeks. It's the first time I've worked in a theme park in 4 years. It took a bit to get used to the whole thing again, but I'd forgotten how fun it can be to sit outside and draw people all day. The experience was enhanced by the pain in my shoulder and working with some of my favorite people-Dion, Nick, Joe, John...I learned something by watching each of them-mostly that I have a lot to learn.
I was so, um, affected, that I decided to work at my local Six Flags two days a week again this summer. Two days is just the right amount to retain the novelty and keep from becoming bitter. More likely I'll be disillusioned after opening weekend. But at long last I'll finally get to draw 'soccer body' over and over again someplace other than my sketchbook and bathroom stalls. Yeah, turn me loose in a public toilet with a marker and it gets out of hand.

Company caricature

2007-04-12T22:54:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year I completed this 40 person caricature and never really showed it to anyone. I was tired of looking at it. All the heads and bodies are magnetic and interchangeable for entertainment and capability to add or subtract them accordingly. They were colored in Photoshop-I tried as variety of techniques (I still got a little bored after the 30th one). The background is a schematic for one of their products.

Each person received their individual sketch as well; these are some of my favorites.

2007-04-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

Finally jumpin' on the 'ol blog bandwagon. I think it'll be entirely geared to my art, and art in general. If you're reading this you probably know me (hopefully you're not some weirdo stalker type) and don't need to know anything more about me, you're just interested in what eye candy as well as eye sores I plan to produce and post here. I have a hard time showing my sketches and unfinished work to people, and I think it's time I get over my fear of it. Strangely, I have no problem receiving critique, so bring it.