Lion Mask Ornament

I think the unwritten rule is that you can show Christmas ornaments up to the beginning of the new year.  If that is the case, then I got this one in right under the wire.  Get it?  Under the wire?  The lion's mane is made of wire?  Ah, never mind...

Autumn Stand

The Fall colors can be spectacular.  Here is one of many Autumn pics I took over the years.  It's my favorite season.  Tater, looking over my shoulder, says, "No, your favorite time of the year is my birthday!"

Autumn Stand, November 1985

Fields of Gold

I broke down and got my own slide scanner, because the photo lab I was working with could not get me a nice scan with their $4000.00 Nikon machine.  That just goes to show you...The best of the best equipment will not deliver the desired results if the person working that equipment doesn't know what they are doing.  Here is one of my old slides that I named "Fields of Gold" from the song by Sting.  It was taken on Kodachrome 64 way back in October 1985 with my Minolta X-700.

Fields of Gold, October 1985

Dark Knight Persuasion

This was my 100th paper sculpture, and a tribute to Frank Miller and his graphic novel, "The Dark Knight Returns".  Incorporated into this paper art is the background from the original art, some fabric paint for the bad guy, illustration board, and a little string.

Dark Knight Persuasion, July 2001

Giraffe Weevils

Here is another example of an amazing creature that you wouldn't think exists; but, honestly they do! Everything here is made of paper except for the out-of-focus background.  And I'm not 100% sure, but I think the flower is a gardenia.  I need to take better notes.

Peace on Earth

I've been hanging on to this one till Christmas got a little closer and then almost forgot about it.  It is a paper sculpture, but all the patterns were digitally created, so I refer to this as a digital paper sculpture.  My lion polymer clay pieces are based on this lion.

Milk Frog Marquetry

The photo of our Amazon Milk Frog was very popular, so I found another photo of the same beautiful frog and turned him into pieces of digital wood.  I like it and I hope you do too.

Poison Frog Tattoo

I love poison frogs, so here is my attempt to do a tribal tattoo.  It's all freehand inking on paper.  Then it was digitally added to a girl with nice skin.  I wish I could find the time and the cash to get illustrator.  I could design tattoos all day...and maybe even get better at it!

Grog and Oogle

Here are two original characters, Grog and Oogle, I created for a story I haven't finished.  One of these days, Alice.  They are made of inked watercolor paper and the background is a cave painting from Altamira.

Grog and Oogle, January 2004

Ludacris Tribal Mask

I want to do an art show of just these tribal masks, but it takes so long to do just one of them.  Much of my time is spent on trial and error, so they should become easier to do as I get better.  After making the original sculpt, a mold and a support are made.  These are necessary to keep the faux wood from smearing.  Three other Ludacris masks were scrapped because they weren't good enough.  At this point in my progression, this one is not too bad.

Santa Caught

Christmas is just around the corner, so here is a not-so-jolly old elf to brighten your holidays.  It is made of paper, some of it airbrushed, and mounted on illustration board.

Santa Caught, November 2003

Rhyme Time

Riding in the car last night, Tater wanted to play a rhyming game.  One of us would say a word, and the other would guess a rhyming word that the first person was thinking.  The category was 'Something inside Toys-R-Us'.


Tater says: "Mikes."
Me: "Bikes!"


Me: "Boys."
Tater says: "Toys!"


Tater says: "Legister."
I just cracked up.

Shine!

This paper sculpture was originally done with a background painted on glass.  The background would light up with a strong light source behind it.  This digital version is slightly different.

Shine, August 2003

Sylvester Stallone

I did a couple caricatures of Sylvester Stallone in the early 90's.  The first one is brush and ink.  In the second illustration, he got a haircut and was airbrushed on illustration board and cut out.  The clouds were added today.

Sylvester Stallone, September 1990

Stallone cutout, March 1992

Metal Lion

Here is the second version of my lion pendant.  It's a little steampunky with the gears, but I don't know if my steampunk friends would consider this one steampunky enough.  My newest lion is made of polymer clay, brushed with gold and copper Perfect Pearls.  The gold chain tail was picked up at a yard sale.

Dragon Eggs

I also did a paper sculpture of this one a few years later.  My first attempt with this design was airbrushed with colored inks onto illustration board, outlined with black magic ink, and then cut out.  The speckling on the eggs was accomplished with an old toothbrush.

Dragon Eggs, August 1992

Confused Chameleon

I made stencils in order to airbrush the color designs onto thick watercolor paper.  There were actually 4 or five different sets of chameleon pieces before I decided in these colors!

Confused Chameleon, June 2002

Friends

I was watching a movie with Jennifer Aniston, when the thought occurred to me to post my Friends paper sculpture caricature.  So, here are my takes on Monica, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe, Rachel and Ross.

 Friends, December 2001

Coco Stolen in NYC

My Coco (Conan O'Brien) Tribal Mask was on display at the NYCOCO MoCA Gallery located in New York City. I got the call yesterday that it was stolen right off the wall!  Apparently, it was swiped even though the show had personnel on guard. Well, on the bright side, someone must have really liked it a lot!

Turtle Beach

There was a lot of work involved with this one.  I even made a template so the turtle's shells would be embossed.  But the whole thing is just too...I don't know...sterile?  It looks like the turtles were spit out of a machine or something.  Anywho, this is a paper sculpture, although the shells and shark tooth fossil are real.

Turtle Beach, July 2003

Alfred!

This is the last of my Batman cutouts, the big man himself.  Looks like he needs Alfred's help again!  I hope Al is getting properly compensated.

Batman & cave cutouts, June 1992

The Penguin cutout

Here's the second of my Batman characters, The Penguin.  It was inked and airbrushed on illustration board, then cut out and added to a watercolor background.

The Penguin cutout, June 1992

Catwoman cutout

I did a trio of Batman characters, all airbrushed and cut out of illustration board.  Here is Catwoman.  I drilled small holes in the illustration board and stitched the costume with thread.

Catwoman cutout, June 1992

Concrete

Concrete was a comic book character that I used to follow several years ago.  It was a very well-written series by Paul Chadwick and published by Dark Horse Comics.

This version of Concrete was brush and india ink on illustration board.  It was cut out and photo added for the background.  January 1993.

My second shot at the character is paper sculpture with an airbrushed background.  I think the butterfly adds to the feel of the piece.  January 1996.

Hangman

Have you ever played hangman on paper?  Tater and I were playing last night and it was his turn to come up with a phrase for me to guess.  He got stuck while marking down the dashes for the letters.  So Tater says, "How many letters are in the word 'lime'?"  I just go with it, "Four".  Tater finishes his puzzle.  Now it's my turn to start guessing the letters.
"L".
"I".
"M".
"Hey", Tater says, "That's cheating!"

Scarface again

I posted my caricature of Scarface in January, but I wanted to resize the hands and gun.  So here he is again with some slight changes.

Scarface, May 2002

Pappy

My dad wanted me to do a paper sculpture of his dad (my grand-pop) in his fishing boat.  Here it is with an amateurish watercolor background.  The boat is made of real wood and even comes with a metal anchor chain.

Pappy, December  1996

I Heart Autumn

I finished this heart design months ago, but never got around to making it into something.  With the temperatures getting cooler and the leaves starting to fall, it seemed like a good time to use my heart design.  It is almost 50mm (1 15/16") at the longest dimension and made of polymer clay extrusions.

Coco Does NY

My Coco Tribal Mask was selected as one of the fine arts of the NYCOCO MoCA Gallery located at the world-famous Time Warner Center in New York City from October 24th till November 3rd!  I mailed out the original polymer clay sculpture to the gallery and spruced up the digital version just a smidgen.

Top of the Key

Continuing with my logo theme, here is a logo I designed for a sports clothing line called Top of the Key.  The half basketball design is on all their clothes.  What you see here is a paper sculpture consignment for the owner of the company.

Top of the Key logo, February 2002

United Way Jet Pull

I work for USAirways in the tower in Philadelphia as a weight and balance coordinator.  Every year we raise money for the United Way by playing a little tug-o-war with one of the airline's jets.  I named our group and designed the t-shirts in 2009 and 2010.

Poison Frogs

I love these little jewels of the rainforest.  Here are four of my earlier attempts to illustrate them.  Starting upper left and moving clockwise, they are Amazonian Poison Frog (D. ventrimaculatus), Strawberry Poison Frog morph (D. pumilio), Harlequin Poison Frog (D. histrionicus), and Red-Backed Poison Frog (D. reticulatus).  All skin patterns were done in Photoshop and made into 3D paper sculptures.

Poison Frogs, August - October 2006

Razorback Musk Turtle

Here is the latest addition to my Animal Pendant Series, a little Razorback Musk Turtle.  As with all the other pendants, it is made of Premo polymer clay.  I cut out a stencil for all of the shell segments and models and molds for the head and feet.  Speaking of the shell, I also made a clay form, from which the turtle shell lays on and is molded and baked.  Once again, faux wood and faux leather techniques were used to create this little creature.

Groucho Logo

I did this brush and ink many moons ago to be used on a business card.

Groucho logo, June 1997

While watching Elmer Fudd tracking Bugs Bunny on TV, Tater says, "Dad?  Do people really hunt rabbits?"

"Yea, I guess they do", was my reply.

Then Tater says, "Why don't they just get 'em at the grocery store?"

He followed that up with, "Anyway, I think rabbits are 'stinct."

Bluestone logo

I've dabbled in logo making here and there.  Shown here is one for the Blue Stone Landscaping company.  This is the color version.  There is also a black and white and another where just the stone is colorized.  I'm teaching myself Adobe Illustrator, so these will eventually get better.

Bluestone logo, October 2009

Clem, a chameleon

Why do people give their artwork characters stupid, corny names?  I've always kinda hated that.  So, with that in mind, here's Clem, a chameleon.  Also, I won't tell you what "he" is made of or what he likes to do in his spare time.  Ridiculous!  Okay, I'll tell you.  He's made of airbrushed watercolor paper and doesn't like the taste of bugs.  Because they're disgusting!

Clem, a chameleon, July 2004

Erin

The paper sculpture of this little girl was a commission for a friend of mine.  I also did one of Erin's sister, but for the life of me, I can't find it.

Erin, June 2004

Blue Hummer

I posted the sketch a couple months ago.  And I finally got around to finishing my hummingbird with a little digital background to dress it up a little.  The body was sculpted using a 50/50 mix of Super Sculpey and Super Sculpey Firm and made into a mold.  The wings and beak were made from stencils I cut from plastic blanks.
This hummer would have been the fifth in my Animal Pendant Series, but it became a pin instead.