Ashes to Ashes

This past weekend was really busy. Amanda and I left KC in the afternoon to drive up to St. Louis. Saturday we drove 2.5 hours up to Quincy IL, went to my grandparents internment, and then drove back to St. Louis. Sunday we drove back to KC... So I am so tired of driving.

But even with all the driving it was worth it. The service was nice and I got to see some family that I don't normally get to see. On saturday after we got back to St. Louis we all went back to my mom's house- ate, drank, and talked the night away. So that was nice.

Anyway, the headstone turned out pretty well. You can see the pictures below:





If you want to see the design it is based on, click here.

E.T. Mask

Wow, I never knew my ET mask would be so popular. I had someone write me about 3 weeks ago asking to use it for their costume, and I just got a photo from someone who used it and wanted to thank me.



I made it specifically because there is no mask online that I could find to make my ET costume last year. It's nice to know that there are few people out there who have the same idea as me and like my mask enough to use it.

As for our traditional halloween party at Andrew and Alison's, our costumes were very popular (for the people who knew who we were). We won best group costume. You can see a picture of us below:



Unfortunately I won't be home this Halloween. Amanda and I are going up to Quincy Illinois to meet with family to inter my grandmother. At least I will get to see some family and find out how the etching I did for the headstone turns out.

Lightship Basket

My grandmother died recently. I got a call at 4 telling me that she wasn't doing well, I got a chance to call her and basically say 'goodbye' and she was dead at 4:45. Then a couple of days ago I got a call from my dad asking if I would do a drawing of Nantucket Lightship Basket for the headstone. Kinda freaky, but I agreed.

The one below is the first one I did which was WAY too detailed:



This next one is the one that most likely is going to end up on the headstone. There may be a few more changes, but this is where things stand now:

So Busy!

Man, have I had my hands full as of late. Basically I have had so much to do at work it has overwhelmed pretty much everything else. It's been good, though. I really like having this kind of focus at work. Not to say that I don't like my job most of the time. In fact I love it just about all the time, but having a deadline like we have the past two weeks really brings out the best in my work. Or at least I think. Pressure brings out the best in me.

For fun, I have been trying to paint something for fun. While its all sketched and ready to go, I haven't touched it because I have been so busy. Maybe tonight. Its a retro Zelda painting in the style of the original nintendo manual. To give you an idea, take a look here.

Amanda and I went camping last week which was a very good time. We hadn't seen the "9er's" in a while so it was good to spend some time together:
















Other than that, nothing else seems to be noteworthy...

PORTRAITS!!

I have been a little art machine as of late. I did these two portraits for one of Amanda's co-workers.

After I finished that I moved on to this little Bacchus project my friend Alison asked for me to make her, so I made this.

I also did a painting of my mother's bosses house so that she could give it as a gift. Seen here.

After all of that one of Amanda's co-workers is interested in a portrait of her cousin and yet another wants a oil painting of her 3 kids. So that whole zombie comic might be put on hold people... I hope you understand.

But if you really want some comic sweetness, hop over to Lee's flickr or blog and check out his He-Man comic.