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  • 2012
    • April
      • Pacific Magazine's "The Art Event"
        04/21/12
        This month's issue of Pacific San Diego Magazine features a story on four San Diego artists, of which I am one. You can read the story here. The article has a short interview with me as well as a layout with some of my caricature and fine art work. And a couple nights ago, the magazine threw an

    • March
      • Happy Birthday Christopher Walken!
        03/31/12
        Today is the birthday of one of my favorite actors, and probably my favorite caricature subject. I try to capture how he can look both scary and funny at the same time. Walken became well-known, early in his career for playing bad guys or mentally unhinged types. But he has done a lot more light-hea

      • Recent Portrait Sketches
        03/14/12
        I've been in a head painting class at the Watts Atelier taught by Stan Prokopenko and have a few oil studies to share. They are on either gessoed panel or a linen panel. Each one was done from a 3 hour sitting.









    • February
      • New 'Oscars' illustration for the Union-Tribune
        02/17/12
        It's that time of year again where critics and publications are making their predictions for the Academy Awards. So the San Diego Union-Tribune once again asked me to do an Oscar-themed illustration for the cover of the Night and Day Weekend section. The composition was left up entirely to me.

    • January
      • Some new oil studies
        01/24/12
        I finally am back in a head painting class at the Watts Atelier. It's good to be painting from a live model again. Quick studies like this help loosen me up and keep me focused on economizing each brush stroke.



        And this is a small 8 x 10 inch study of a crow from a photo

      • Facial Anatomy Class at the Watts Atelier
        01/04/12


        Beginning January 11, 2012, I will once again teach "Drawing Facial Features and Expressions" at the Watts Atelier, in Encinitas, CA on Wednesdays from 2:30pm to 5:30pm. For the first half of the semester, the class will focus on learning the proper construction of the individu

  • 2011
    • December
      • Traditional Corporate Christmas Card
        12/14/11
        Right after the Pacific Magazine cover, I began work on another traditionally wrought subject--this time for a high-end shoe manufacturer. He wanted me to create an illustration that looks like it could have been done in the 1950s or '60s, but featuring his shoe brand. We had these printed on a

      • A Family Christmas Card
        12/07/11
        It's not too often that I get to do a commissioned job that is edgy and macabre. Most people want something very flattering and inoffensive. Especially when it's a Christmas card. But the Nykoluk family is an exception, in many ways. They requested something along the lines of an Addams Fa

      • A Magazine Cover for Christmas
        12/05/11
        I recently finished an illustration for the Dec. 2011 cover of Pacific San Diego Magazine. This was a job I was really excited to do, because I don't often get asked to create a traditional/non-caricature illustration. They wanted something along the lines of a Norman Rockwell, but with a moder

    • November
    • October
      • Shiny Things
        10/17/11
        Here's a couple recent small still life studies. I love painting metallic surfaces, both shiny and patinated. And I've been wanting to start painting vintage toys for a while. The problem is, you have to find and collect them first! So here's the first one I found at Comic Con.
        <

    • September
      • New Portrait Commission
        09/13/11
        I just delivered a portrait commission to a family here in San Diego. I took several photos of the mother and son, from which to work. But they ended up sending me one of their own photos, which ended up being a pretty good choice. I liked the lighting coming in from the side, but would have liked i

      • Breaking in a new canvas
        09/07/11
        I've been using Claessen's Belgian oil primed linen for my fine art work for the past few years. It's the canvas of choice of many artists I admire like Jeremy Lipking and Morgan Weistling. And it is pretty great to paint on. But it's really tough to stretch since it's so ri

    • August
      • Walken a thin line.
        08/29/11
        I apologize for the lack of posts this summer. I promise to be better about posting new stuff!

        This is a small oil painting I just finished for this week's Caricaturama Showdown competition on Facebook. The subject was Christopher Walken. He has always been one of my favorite faces t

    • May
      • Annual Show of the San Diego Portrait Society
        05/22/11
        Yesterday was the reception for the annual all-member show for the San Diego Portrait Society. And I am very pleased to announce that my two paintings "Train of Thought" and "Don" won awards,

        My 12 x 16" painting of my late friend Don Flaws won First Place Honorab

    • March
      • A couple new still life paintings
        03/18/11
        I did a couple new small still life studies this week. One of these days I may actually start to put the flowers IN the vases.

        Oil on panel (9 x 12")


        Oil on canvas panel (8 x 10")

    • February
      • A new illustration for The Night and Day
        02/25/11
        The San Diego Union Tribune had me do a new illustration for their story on Oscar picks. I did this one in oils on gessoed panel. And before beginning, I decided to try to change up my illustration style a little bit. I wanted to simplify the process and use clean but painterly strokes. Dan Adel was

      • A new commission is well received!
        02/24/11
        Recently, I received a commission to paint a fast alla prima style caricature portrait for a young man in the Netherlands named Bowie. He just received the original in the mail and sent me this really nice video thank you card.





        And here is my photo of the painting.

    • January
      • Front Page, Baby!
        01/14/11
        Here's my latest illo for the San Diego Union Tribune's Night and Day section, weekend edition. This time, the editors added a small version of my work in the masthead of A1. That's top o' the front page, to you and me.




        Here's the paper out in th

      • A New Caricature Portrait Commission in Oil
        01/07/11
        I just delivered a double portrait today to a colleague who commissioned me to caricature and paint him and his wife as a surprise gift to her. Some of you may know Dan M. from ISCA. He and his wife are a delightful couple who live in Southern California. I had lunch with them and spent the day hang

  • 2010
    • December
      • Père Noël
        12/22/10
        I just finished yet another semester at the Watts Atelier. I only took one class this time around-a long portrait painting class. We had the model for three class sessions each, or about 9 hours. The last model we had was Fred, who dressed as Father Christmas for us.

        This is on a Claessen

      • "The Fighter" for the San Diego Union-Tribune
        12/16/10
        Last Sunday I painted a piece for the cover of the "Night & Day" magazine, which is a weekly supplemental to the San Diego Union Tribune. It hit newsstands today, so pick up a free copy while you still can. It's not the version that comes inside the U.T. but is distributed indepen

    • November
      • Anatomy Seminar Slides
        11/25/10
        For those of you who attended my seminar on facial anatomy at the recent ISCA Convention in Las Vegas (see previous post), you may remember I said I would upload some of the diagrams and charts to my blog. So here they are, and hopefully you will find them a helpful addendum to whatever notes or ske

      • I'm Back!
        11/17/10
        So the trip ended up being a little longer than expected. I got a last minute gig in LA the day I checked out of the hotel in Vegas, which extended my home coming by another day. So I drove straight to Burbank to work a late night event with some Hollywood folks (more on that in a later post). New O

      • Getting ready for New Orleans and Vegas
        11/04/10
        That's right. I have back to back trips to the Big Easy and the Big Sleazy, the two sin sinniest towns in these United States. First, I'm heading down to New Orleans for a three day trade show for which I was hired to do live digital caricatures. That's one of the reasons I finally go

    • October
      • His Popeiness
        10/26/10
        So I just bought my own Cintiq today, which I am VERY happy about. Sketching digitally is so much more natural with it. Although I will need to spend some more time fiddling with the brightness, contrast and color settings, because when I import Cintiq sketches onto my desktop or to print, there

      • Just a sweet transvestite
        10/25/10
        A quick sketch for Halloween.


      • Jack Black
        10/21/10
        This Jack Black was a really fun piece to design and paint. It was done for a Facebook weekly competition called "Caricaturama Showdown 3000." I have been a huge Tenacious D fan for years (despite their small body of work). This was done in oils on a stretched linen canvas, 24 x 30 inches.

      • Black and White Conte Studies
        10/20/10
        Here are a couple new caricature charcoal/conte studies on toned paper. I'm trying out some paper for the upcoming ISCA Convention in Las Vegas. The Darwin sketch was done on Canson smooth paper, and the Poe was done on handmade rag paper I found at one of the local art stores. I liked the irre

      • Finally! A blog.
        10/16/10
        So here finally is my very own blog. I'll try to keep you up to date on what I'm doing, share stories, post tutorials and of course artwork.

        Enjoy!