Creepy Crawlies "Suck Face"

Starting next week, my best comic strip, Kritter Kids will be featured on Sundays.  All will be digitally colored or in some cases, recolored.  Look for additional things, as well.  Some Sundays will include a second strip, such as Creepy Crawlies.  There will be animation cells along with character highlights.  Here is the main character of Kritter Kids, Grant the ant. 

Poison Frog "Tinc"

I am amazed by the colors and patterns of poison frogs.  They are often referred to as the jewels of the rainforest.  I think that's right.  What amazing, amazing little jewels they are!  The paper sculpture shown here is of a poison frog called Dendrobates tinctorius.  People in the poison frog collecting hobby simply call them "tincs".
The first image is a photo of the paper sculpture.  The second is the same image digitally inserted into a foggy scene with a digital blue morpho butterfly added.

Faux Wood Panda

Finished with this panda and giving it to mom tonight.  Happy Birthday, mom!

Precise Panda Pendent Pencils

Say that with a mouthful of water!  I am working on a new panda piece.  A new panda project.  I can't avoid words that begin with the letter "P" in today's blog.  A perfectly precise pretty panda pendant pencil is shown below.  Why so precise?  The pencil work is resized and cut into stencils.  The stencils are pressed into the clay and the sculpture proceeds from there.  I will post the finished product in a couple days.

Shoestring Lion

My lion is finally finished!  The face is faux cocobola wood made from polymer clay.  Holes were drilled in two levels around the base of the face and black cord was weaved through the holes.
I took it to work yesterday with the intentions of listing it on Etsy, but a friend at work said, "That's mine!"  So this lion has already found a new home.

Creepy Crawlies "Intelligent Life"

My polymer clay lion is finally finished and I will show it off tomorrow.  In the mean time, here is your Sunday dose of my comic strip, Creepy Crawlies.

Amazonian Milk Frog

One of the frogs we used to have in our terrarium was an Amazonian Milk Frog.  He tolerated the poison frogs, but was best buddies with a green tree frog we had.  An accident installing the waterfall system killed the green tree frog.  The milk frog honestly never seemed the same after that.  Sounds weird, I know.  Anywho, here's a great pic of our milk frog that I wish I could take credit for.  My wife, Jenn, snapped this really cool photo.

Etsy Treasuries

I'm featured in a couple new treasuries on Etsy.

First is Bluegreen Blues and here are a few samples...

Next up is The Birds and the Bees... 

Check 'em out by clicking on the links above!

Valentine Tradition

My wife and I started a new Valentine's Day tradition this year (her idea).  We went to the Hallmark store and looked around to find the perfect card for each other.  We exchanged the unsigned and unsealed cards in the store.  We read every romantic word on our special card.  Then we put 'em back and walked out the door.

I did make this little Steampunk Valentine Bear for her.

Creepy Crawlies "Temptation"

It's Sunday!  On Sundays, I dig through my vault of comic strips I did in the early 90's.  All are being scanned, digitally lettered, and brought to you in glorious color!  As always, click on the strip for a large version.  You won't find that in the Sunday Funnies of your local newspaper.

Killer Whale Flashback

This pursuit of art goes back to March 1990.  The digital water drops and lettering was added about ten years later.

The Trouble with Lions

Actually, it's not so much as having troubles with lions.  It's more like having problems making masks, but I am getting close to solving my dilemmas.  I have been working for almost a month trying to make a lion mask in a pendant size.  I sculpted four different lions in order to make molds.  Three of the lion sculptures made it to the mold stage and then I was not satisfied with the results.  No matter what I try, the finished product comes out of the mold with tears, bad impressions, misshapen, or other imperfections.

So, now, I am making sculpted supports that the clay drapes over and gets remolded.  There is a layer of aluminum foil between the two so the clay won't stick and easily pops off the support.  Confused, yet?  Me too.  My first attempt cracked because when the clay goes through the heating process, it shrinks and that is a problem when it is on a solid support.  I just finished my third support, which is smaller with more defined lines.  The clay that goes over this support will be thicker, making it more resistant to cracking.

One other thought;  Using a support instead of a mold will add more variety to each piece.  Every lion will be a one of a kind because each one will be worked on top of the support.

While we are waiting for me to figure all of this out, here the first mask I was able to finish.  It's called "Adam" because it's the first one.

Matthew Perry & Courtney Cox

Matthew Perry's new TV show, Mr. Sunshine premiered last night and Courtney Cox has a relatively new show in Cougar Town.  I have not seen either show, but I did do a paper sculpture caricature of them when they were together on Friends.

Treasury "Polymer Clay gets Steampunked"

I put together my first treasury on Etsy.  Here are a few of my favorites.  You can click on this link to view all sixteen amazing pieces. http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d51f4fae5b26d917ff7173b/polymer-clay-gets-steampunked

Long Pants

We went to the circus after nap time was done
Just me and my daddy having some fun

I looked next to me and saw long striped pants
They started to move, then started to dance

The size of the pants was the greatest of all
This man would be hurt if he happened to fall

His pants were longer than a gigantic ladder
But he smiled so big, it didn't much matter

Daddy explained the best way he could
He called the legs "stilts", made out of wood

Creepy Crawlies "Pinned"

Creepy Crawlies was a comic strip I worked on in 1990.  Last Sunday, I showed one of these strips and every Sunday this month, I'll show another one.  I am scanning and colorizing all my old comic strips to show every Sunday.  I hope you enjoy them.

Jay Leno Flashback

For all of 1992 and most of 1993, I did caricatures inked and airbrushed on illustration board.  Each caricature was carefully cut out and added to a real background.  Here is Jay Leno in April of 1992 with much darker hair.

Faux Wood & Retro Blue Bear

Here is a piece I sold before I had a chance to really promote it.  I always like when that happens because it's a rare occurrence for something to move so fast.

Owling at the Moon

Tater came up with a good one today.  He said, "I can't wait till tomorrow!  We're watching "Diarrhea of a Wimpy Kid'".

The creative process of Owling at the Moon:
The tree was accomplished by dripping colored inks down thick, wet watercolor paper.  While wet, the paper was crumpled, straightened, and crumpled and straightened again.  After the paper dried out, the tree design was cut out, embossed and rolled in spots.
The owls were cut, embossed and assembled.
The grass was added digitally, along with a space shot from the Hubble telescope and a moon shot from NASA.

Nat King Cole

In honor of Black History month, here is an old paper sculpture I did of Nat King Cole.