ANOTHER SKULL

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SKULL TREE

I for one am strongly against the commercialization of Halloween. It's just wrong that such a holiday is now a marketing opportunity to hawk one's wares. I blame the evil corporations for sucking the life out of Halloween, and life itself.

Anyway, buy my Halloween card. We just bought a fence for the yard, well, actually, it's for the dog, but whatever, we're poor.

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NOTHER SKULL

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BEN'S PICS

NOT mine. Don't want to take the credit/blame. These are by Sutcliffe buddy Ben. He went to art class with me, so here are some familiar images through the eyes of a banjo player.

First, the skull:

Next, the talking teacher:

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SKULL AND BOTTLE: PENCIL

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SKULL AND BOTTLE: WATERCOLOR

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BLUE COMMA

While I think this may be one of my best, I'm not quite up to having a "period" yet.

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ART CLASS: RED AND BLUE SKULL

You gotta know the skull if you're gonna know the face.

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BECKMANN-ISH

Max Beckmann is one of those artists many people have said I should check out. Alright, already. I've checked him out. And, as usual, those people were right. Cool stuff. So here I offer up unto you, verily verily, my interpretation of Beckmann's Still Life with Three Skulls.

I suppose you could find a poster of this somewhere. If you bought that, you'd have a more accurate representation of the real thing. And it would be bigger. But, and I hate to be the one to break it to you, posters are tacky. And even though this aceo is a painting of someone else's work, it's realer art than a poster.

Just be happy that I didn't try to make it more my own by adding a naked Belly Punker.

Anyway, here's the real thing:

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Work is starting to let up a bit, so let's just pretend October never happened and resume with the art stuff.

First, from art class:

This is a piece I shall call MULTI-TASKING. See, I was doing the standard art class thing and painting a skull some decomposed dude was nice enough to model. While letting bits of it dry, I wanted to work on watercolor shading. Hence, the blobs. It's all on the same page because, well, I had the room and didn't feel like ripping it out just yet.

Next, I've got three aceos up:

MORNING DRIVE

SNAIL MAN ADMIRING FLOWER

and
RETURN OF BELLYPUNKER


More to come, especially since the laundry is done and the dog has been walked.

SKULL FLOWER

Ah, memories. It seems like only a few months ago when I listed my first aceo, SKULL BOUQUET. That might, just might, have something to do with the fact it was only a few months ago. Maybe. Come, walk with me down the retrospective path of my art history:

SKULL BOUQUET

I think there's something to that whole practice equals improvement thing. Here's a close-up of the detail of

SKULL FLOWER:

For the record (call Guiness), this is my first go at acrylics that's not a paint-by-number.

Bid here.

RAGING SKULL

As you may or may not know, I tried my hand at boxing for a while. I'm a peaceful kind of guy, more of a lover than a fighter. And I'm more of a joker than a lover, so take that for what you will. Anyway, I had never felt a punch let alone been in a fight before I signed up at the boxing gym.

While my defense wasn't too bad, I learned pretty quickly what a punch felt like. You know when you see a bunny hopping across the meadow as you're strolling with a loved one on a sunny day after a tasty picnic bbq? It's nothing like that. Except when you get hit on the nose, you do smell bbq for some reason.

You would be forgiven if you thought this was an image of a boxing skeleton. It's actually a regular boxer, who has dehydrated himself making weight to the point where all you see is bones.

Place your bids here.

TOUR DE SKULLY - THE LOOK

My first commission!

This image will be familiar to all Tour De France fans. Basically, while Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich were racing up a mountain, there was a moment when Lance looked back at Ullrich, who by that point was pretty tuckered out. Upon receiving Lance's glare, he withered. Lance took off. It was one of those 'DAAAAAANG!' moments in sports that loses much in the description. So I'll stop trying.

ART CLASS RESUMED

Here's the familiar still life, now 20% meatier:

I thought I'd try to do the same little ditty without looking at the page. You know. To be arty. LOOK: ART!

And, just in case you forgot I'm a guy, here's a portrait of my lvl 60 Undead warlock, named Petunia:

Dude. All your base SO belong to me.

I've got three new ones on ebay. I posted them all at the same time, so I could get a better indicator of what style is more popular. You, dear reader, could also help out by leaving a comment or two, letting me know which one you like best!

These three are: TOUR DE SKULLY, LANDSCAPE 1, and SUN PRACTICE. The landscapes are influenced by the paintings of Charles Burchfield, who've I've just been clued into. TOUR DE SKULLY comes with a rant, which goes as follows:

So anyone who at the very least glances at the Tour on TV will notice how skeletal the riders are. Many of them are downright ghoulish, especially in the final stages. In this anti-obesity hysterical society we live in, it should be pointed out that exercise more often than not is very unhealthy. That’s right, I said it. Being fat isn’t a health crisis. Maniacally demanding people adhere to some arbitrary waifish beauty standard is. Athletes should not be viewed as the pinnacle of health. They severely abuse their body to successfully compete for our enjoyment. If there was a drug that had the same effects on the human body as the Tour, you can bet our bed-wetting politicos would be earning popular points for demanding it’s prohibition.

To purchase, click on my What am I selling now? link on the right.

MI FAVORITO

OK, amigos mios. I've just completed another skull-themed aceo. How would you like to see the aceo making process? You would? Great! Here's how I made this one:

First, the sketch:

Then, I start to put some color in:

Finishing up the color:

Last, the detail:

Also, I gave my first aceo gift today to someone with hairdryer problems.

Here it is:

Enjoy, and come back soon!

harmoniousjosh

(The skull didn't sell. I wanted to keep it anyway.)

SKULL RAVEN GOTHIC

Today I thought I would venture back into the world of pencils again. For inspiration, I used the business card of a tattoo artist I know. That's where the raven on a skull came from, not the red house with trees. A red house with trees would make for quite possibly the lamest tattoo business card EVER. Or maybe not - maybe that should be my next challenge: to draw a red house with trees worthy of a tattoo artists' business card.

Back to the picture at hand: I think the raven and skull turned out rather nice. The red house and trees were put in as background, but I ended up kind of liking it. I almost wish I drew two ravens, one with a pitch fork and glasses, the other with it's hair tied back. In fact, if you look at the classic picture, AMERICAN GOTHIC, you'll see a red barn in the background. That, I decided just now, is where this raven is sitting on the skull. You'll never look at that painting the same way again. Cool.

(Sold!)

SKULL BOUQUET

This is an original, and it's my first ACEO ever! I've always been a doodler, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I HAVE NO TRAINING (which may or may not be obvious - I don't even know that much).

Here's the deal: instead of taking a class, I'll use ebay feedback as my instruction. If a piece is popular (lots of views, watchers, or, *gasp* bids) I'll take that as an indication of being on the right track.

(Sold!)