Holiday Pet Portraits.

A friend of mine that I've known for ELEVEN YEARS had me whip up a couple of pet portraits with accessories and this was, without a doubt, my favorite thing I've done all year. I don't know what did it, but these accessories helped. I was given a lot of freedom (when I asked about the background color, he said "dealer's choice" and it was awesome). I painted the matte that's inside of the frame to complement the pieces. It ruled and I want to do MORE LIKE THESE.

Pet Portrait-Palooza.

Get ready because I'm about to post a slew of pet portraits I had the honor of doing! I really love pet portraits because pets, like people, have different looks and personalities. I did some for family and friends. Check em out!

Family Portrait.

I'm really trying to incorporate my drawing more into what I do and when I had the chance to do a family portrait for a friend, I couldn't WAIT. She said that their little family have photos, but none that are really of the three of them together proper. So, I whipped this up! I wanted hats to be a unifying element and I wanted it to be bright and fun. They loved it!

Captain America.

A friend of a friend asked me if I could do an old school Captain America. This is my first ever Marvel character! That seems crazy to me, but I had a lot of fun with it. I went with an old comic Captain America. It's a mini painting. Someone pay me to do some Marvel stuff!

Octonauts.

I have a friend that I have known for over ten years. He married a woman and they have two beautiful children. One of those children loves the Octonauts. I watched a few episodes of this show recently and it's actually pretty awesome as far as kid's shows go. His wife asked me to paint 4 different characters from the show. The daughter BELIEVES she IS Peso Penguin! Each member of the family is one of these characters. It's amazing. I couldn't wait to do it and Matt did the glitter! She was given the paintings on Christmas and audibly GASPED when she opened/saw them. Best thing ever.

Em's Smorgasboard.

I had the absolute honor and distinct pleasure of doing a smorgasboard this holiday season for a friend of mine over in England! SmorgasBOARDS are my absolute favorite things to do because they're a visual representation of a person. It took me about a month to do this piece, at 15x15 inches, and surprisingly, it made it to England in 5 days! It was finally given to Em on Christmas and she loved it! Check it out, including some of my favorite details, by clicking below!

Windwaker.

Back in 2015 when my sister when my sister got married, I wanted to make her something special. My whole family loves the Legend of Zelda. We grew up playing it, our parents played it, it's a thing. For her wedding, I used cut paper to create a piece of art based off of the Legend of Zelda mosaic pieces that are out there in the world. She loved it. You can see it here! 

This year, for Christmas, my sister wanted me to make her another Zelda piece, but also wanted it to be a smidge bigger. I did her one better and did one three times bigger and decided to paint it. Little did I know, this would be the most ambitious undertaking I've ever pursued.

This piece TESTED me. I painted it and used a copic liner for the smaller black outlines/details, but I am so happy with how it came out and so was she. It took hours, DAYS! I had no idea it was going to take as long as it did. I told her that if someone had paid me to do this, I would've charged them $500 based on the time it took.

Check it out and all of the fun details! I'd love to do another one, but I'd plan better next time. Click to enlarge! I'm proud of this!

Meghan.

A friend of mine passed away a couple of days ago. Her name was Meghan and all she wanted was to make it to Christmas. She passed away not long after midnight on December 22nd.

It's hard for me to imagine there being a god when he would allow someone to suffer as much as she did and at such a young age. Meghan was only a couple of years older than me and she was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer a month after my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. My dad lived for just over 6 months after his diagnosis and he would often talk to Meghan on the found. She was a comfort for him. Meghan fought on for 3 years more than my dad. Her spirit and eternal hope would've kept her around forever. It was her body that couldn't fight anymore.

Meghan and I went to the same elementary school. We both won the spelling bee. She was always kind and truly one of the nicest people in the world. There isn't a bad thing to be said about her. I wish she would've lived beyond all of us.

A lot of things don't make sense to me. Why her? Not that anyone deserves to die, but she definitely didn't. One of the last things she did before she passed was have me do a piece of art for her friend who has been watching her two cats. She wanted me to draw her friend's cats as a thank you for watching her cats. Meghan posted the piece on her facebook and implored anyone looking for art to reach out to me. She changed her profile picture. She posted a status about how this was near the end and that was it. To even go out of her way to write about me left me speechless. I couldn't believe it. Here was a girl, fighting to live, writing a glowing review for me. So, I wanted to share that piece with all of you.

I am lucky to be here. I am fortunate to have made it through Christmas. Tomorrow I am going to her funeral. There's never enough time. We all take everything for granted. Stop doing that. Breathe in and breathe deep. Nothing is guaranteed.

To Meghan.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas and I wanted to share a couple of pieces I whipped up for the occasion!

A friend of mine asked me if I could make her a Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. Did you know I've never seen or read it? Maybe I'm a bad Christmas fan, but that didn't stop me from having a FIELD DAY making this! It is chock full of texture, color, and mark making. She loved it, by the way.

The other thing I did was treat myself to a new artistic tool called a CUTTLELOLA! It's a dot making pen that kind of seems like a tattoo gun! It has two speeds and in 40-45 minutes, I was able to make this Santa! The pen gets pretty warm after about 20 minutes. An artist designed it to help with wrist fatigue. I think it's pretty neat. The finished art looks like a xerox which is weird, but for my first attempt, I can't wait to see where I go with this baby!

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and even better holidays. 2020 is nearly upon us and I AM READY FOR A GREAT YEAR! So, cheers to you all and thanks for sticking with me!

15. Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren. I am in love. I saw the FINAL STAR WARS movie last night at 1:30 AM in IMAX (and it didn't get out until 4:15 am) and it was SO, SO GOOD. I cried, hard, a couple times, but Adam Driver. I love you. I adore you as this character. Also, I really, really love how this card turned out because of the purples and reds. I'm learning more about painting and it's so fun, but here we are, at the end of this series. I learned so much and had the best time doing it. Thanks for sticking with me!

14. The Child aka Baby Yoda.

There is nothing cuter in this world than Baby Yoda. I know it's not actually Baby Yoda, but that's what I'm calling him. I literally cannot contain myself when I see him. I think my heart is going to explode every single time I lay my eyes upon him. UGH! The Mandalorian as a whole is pretty fantastic, but I love that little creature. One more Star Wars post to go!

13. Rey.

Rey is one of my favorite characters from the new series. She's tough, compassionate, kind, and fights for what's right. Had to hook her up with a nice blue glow in this portrait. Rey forever.

12. Darth Vader.

There is no Star Wars without Darth Vader. He's easily one of the greatest villains in cinematic history and I couldn't wait to post him. I'm doing a Star Wars marathon right now and he's just too good. This is officially Star Wars week! The last movie comes out Thursday and I only have 3 more portraits to post! I've enjoyed this a lot.

11. Stormtrooper.

They never really know what's going on do they? I don't.

10. Jabba the Hutt.

I wasn't originally going to do Jabba the Hutt. I was having trouble selecting characters, but my little sister, Shelby, suggested him and I had to do it. I wanted to make sure he wasn't a bunch of muddy colors, but a fun, bright, slobbery mess. I really love the way he turned out. He's way cuddlier than they make him out to be in the movies!

9. Poe Dameron & BB-8.

The only card to feature two characters: Poe Dameron & BB-8! I had to paint super small to accomplish this, but this is a card I am also super happy with. I loved doing his jacket and his puffy vest and BB-8 looks super cute back there hanging out. Only 6 cards left!

8. Lando Calrissian.

Lando. The most fashionable person there ever was in his capes. I held a vote to see if people wanted to see old or new Lando and old Lando won. Party.

7. Boba Fett.

I'm not Boba Fett's biggest fan, but for some reason I chose to spend an ungodly amount of time pouring over the details of this bounty hunter. I mean, he's a cool dude, don't get me wrong; he's a true rebel. I don't know, I wanted to get all of the metal and rust spots down. This one is definitely my favorite!

6. C-3PO.

I find C-3PO to be kind of annoying, but when paired with R2-D2, I love the two of them together. They pair well. Anyway, I was freaking out having to do this gold metal, but I actually like the way it turned out.