Happy New Year

In the Chinese Zodiac, 2011 was the Year of the Rabbit. It is also referred to as the Year of the Metal Rabbit and the Golden Rabbit. In honor of this (as well as my love for the book Watership Down and the mighty Bigwig!)  here is a golden metal rabbit to say goodbye to 2011.

January 23 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year and we will be welcoming in the Year of the Dragon. I also found it referred to as the Year of the Water Dragon and the Year of the Black Water Dragon. Well here's 2 out of 3 to welcome in the Year of the Dragon. I hope it treats us all well

Here's wishing everyone a Blessed New Year!

A day at the museum

There are few things more artistically inspiring than a visit to a great museum. We recently had a chance to go to one of my favorites, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. I get goosebumps looking at the works of some of my favorite painters of all time. Rubens for example. Regardless of what anyone says about how he painted plump ladies, he may be the greatest painter of action scenes in history.

The memories of the time my brother and I first saw the Great Hall in the Arms and Armor section are still vivid.

This is a great collection of weapons and armor from different cultures around the world. I'm sure I will be using some of these as reference in future works

And of course its always nice to catch up with some Old friends

Creature Double Feature

Here is a digital sketch and a work in progress detail from the oil painting I am working on. The great snake eels! The finished painting will be posted soon. Hint.. it might include 2 of my favorite characters in fantasy literature. One is a great big red bearded fellow and the other is a wiry, cloaked bloke who carries a scalpel and a cats claw. Any guesses?

Unsubmitted art challenge

Here's something I was working on for the "A Princess of Mars" art challenge on theArtOrder.com. I wasn't able to pull it together with holiday travel but I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorite Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. It is still a work in progress. This scene is from the beginning of chapter XXIV  when John Carter comes to the aid of Tars Tarkas after his flyer crashes in the midst of a great battle between Tharks and Warhoons on the plains of the red planet.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/pmars-XXIV.html