Happy Holidays

Just taking a small break from grading finals to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I.F. Pattern

Just reposting my latest bow tie design for Illustration Friday's word of the week pattern.

LSC's ABCs 2013 Faculty Exhibit

today is the opening of the 2013 Visual Arts Department Faculty Exhibit, LSC's ABCs. Each of the faculty selected one to three letters of the alphabet and created a work of art for those letters. Here is a sneak peak at my illustration for the letter S (I also created one for Q that I will post at another date). The title is “Seven silly superheroes silently searching for sly scoundrels from skyscrapers.” 

New Bow Tie Guy

Mockingjay (ˈmäkiNGjā)

The past month has been busy. I am currently working on images for the LSC Faculty Exhibit, maintaining a teaching overload and meeting many other demands for my time. I made some time to do a little sketch in honor of the opening of Catching Fire today. 

A few years ago, at the suggestion of Julia, I made the mistake of picking up the Hunger Games series right before the semester started. Three weeks latter I had finished it and I was not as prepared for the semester as I would have liked to have been. I was captivated by the power of the story and the characters involved. Suzanne Collins is a master story teller.

Two New Bow Ties Available

Two more of my bow ties are now available at Beau Ties LTD of Vermont.

For the fox lover you can have the tie “Fantastic.”  And if you love Dinosaurs you can have a tie replete with various dinos called “Dinomite.”

They are also available as neck ties. 

New Visual Arts Web Paga

We have updated our departments web page and it is now live. You can visit at here to see what we are doing.

Last of the Birds

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (ˈsizər-tāld ˈflīˌkaCHər)
This is the last of the bird posts. Life got really busy for awhile. Here is the state bird for Oklahoma.

Bird #18

Happy Birthday Jim Henson,

In keeping with the bird theme of the month, here is a quick sketch of Sam the Eagle.

Bird #17

Common American Gull (ˈkämən əˈmerikən gəl)

The Utah State Bird. This will be the second to last of the state birds representing states I have lived in. Oklahoma is last. 

Bird #16

Shoebill (ˌʃuˈbɪl)
I couldn't resist drawing this bird. I just love the beak.

Bird #15

Roadrunner (ˈrōdˌrənər)

I decided to go back to some of the state birds. Particularly focusing on the states where I have lived. The roadrunner is New Mexico's state bird, a bird that has fascinated me since I lived there.

14th Bird

Moa (ˈmōə)

Continuing with the prehistoric theme, the Moa is a large extinct flightless bird from New Zealand. To me it looks like a huge short beaked kiwi.

The 13th Bird

Diatryma (ˌdaɪ.əˈtraɪmə)
Things got really busy for a few days. Now I am back to posting. This is a large (about 5.7 ft) flightless prehistoric bird from the late Paleocene and Eocene age. 

The 12th Bird

Phoenix (ˈfēniks)

I decided to go mythological today. I will be off line for the next few days. My month of birds will rise from the ashes again on Monday.

Bird #11

Red Footed Booby (red ˈfo͝otəd ˈbo͞obē)

SInce I posted the Blue Footed Booby yesterday, I thought I would post the red footed one today.

the 10th Bird

Blue Footed Booby (blo͞o ˈfo͝otəd ˈbo͞obē)

Work is piling up, but I am still managing to make time to draw. The Blue Footed Booby is a large tropical seabird with bright colored feet.

The 9th Bird

California Quail (ˌkaləˈfôrnyə, -nēə kwāl)

The California Quail is indeed the state bird of California. He's a colorful little guy. I thought I would continue my state bird theme for a few days. If you are wondering why this state bird, similar to the Vermont, I have lived in California. 

Day Eight of the Birds

Hermit Thrush (ˈhərmit THrəSH)

Last night I was looking up state birds. It seemed only natural to draw a hermit thrush, the state bird of Vermont) I gave him a green vest because it is the Green Mountain State (a little obvious but it works).
I will probably be posting a few more state birds in the future. 
For information on yesterday's post, I found out the robin is the State Bird for Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. That's taking care of three states with one bird.

Day 7 of the birds

Robin (räbən)

I asked my illustration class what bird I should post today and it was a unanimous Robin! They are aware of my distaste for Batman's sidekick with the same name…So here he is.

Day six of the Birds

Pelican (ˈpelikən)

Just a quick sketch while sitting in the faculty assembly meeting.

Day five of the Birds

Kestrel (ˈkestrəl)

This is the last of my Fairbanks Museum sketches of Birds from this past summers sketching class. 

Bird #4

Shrike (SHrīk)

Another sketch from my summer sketching class at the Fairbanks Museum. The shrike is songbird that is also called Butcherbird because of its strong sharp hooked bill. It sounds beautiful but is deadly to small birds, lizards, and insects.

Bird Number Three

Parakeet (ˈparəˌkēt)

Another sketch from my day at the Fairbanks Museum.

Going to the Bird's Day II

Hoatzin (wätˈsēn)

A tropical bird of the Amazon. It is said to have such a fowl smell that nothing wants to eat it. Their chicks actually have claws on two of the digit wings. It is also the only bird of it's genus Opisthocomus.

It's National Bow Tie Day!

As part of national Bow Tie Day, I am starting my next wave of Bow Tie Guys. Now through the end of September, I will be posting at least six Bow Tie Birds a week.

Today it is the Blue Jay. I drew this while at the Fairbanks Museum this past summer and recently colored it in.

If you have a particular bird you want me to give the bow tie treatment let me know.

The Music Man

I just finished the illustration for The Vermont CHildren's Theater production of The Music Man. Generally, I have a difficult time figuring out what to do with shows like this. There are no animals in the show. Luckily, the director had a very clear vision of what he wanted and that helped me get excited about the illustration.

Superman

This is another drawing in my what if I had designed series. I have been busy with reports for school so I haven't been able to do much drawing. I will be posting an update that is more refined and in color latter. Since Superman is currently celebrating his 75th birthday and Man of Steel opens today, I thought it would be appropriate to post what the first superhero would look like if I had created him.

Superman has always been a favorite hero of mine. He's just a good person. In addition to that he can fly.

Brementown Musicians at Vermont Children's Theater

I just finished the illustration for The Brementown Musicians poster. It will be playing at The Vermont Children's Theater on June 27, 28 and 29. My youngest daughter is the sheep. Nothing like the challenge of getting a donkey to play the kazoo.

Summer Sketching

Last week I took my Sketching class to the Shelburne Museum in Shleburne, VT to sketch for a day. This is the sketch I did of Ticonderoga. I loved the museum is is a wonderful place to visit and sketch. It was amazing walking through the steam ship and the other building on the  grounds.

More Sketches from Europe

Here are some  of the sketches I did of people while in Europe this last Spring.

Drawing from Venice

It has been some time since I last posted.

In April I was able to take a trip to Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, and Southern France. It was a wonderful experience. In addition to seeing some incredible art work, I made sure to take some time to draw what I saw. Here is one of the drawings I did while in Venice.

Sharing Some Success, Diego Melendez

One of our graduates at Lyndon State College, Diego Melendez, just received a Merit Award for student work in HOW Magazine's 2013 International Design Awards Annual. He's a great designer and an even greater person. It was an honor working with him in class. (It's also wonderful to be honored by being listed as one of the faculty associated with this.)

Its the year of the Snake

The Chinese New Year started yesterday and in honor of the year of the snake I decided to finally do a snake bow tie guy.

Spring Cover for Beau Ties LTD of Vermont

In addition to the new bow tie, the latest catalog from Beau Ties LTD just came. I tried to fit as many bow ties as I could in the image and stopped short of putting them on each of the tulips.

Spring Bow Tie is now available!

Tired of the winter weather? You can now purchase my third bow tie for the Spring Season and the Easter Holiday at Beau Ties LTD of Vermont. This one has been titled Chicken or Egg. It begs to answer the question which came first. Well, in this instance the egg came first.

Illustration Friday (Myth)

Ammut ('aemit)

This is the painted version of a posting for the 31 Creature Bow Ties. 
To reiterate what was said earlier. I find this amalgamation fascinating.  
Ammut is comprised on the three man eating animals in Egypt, of the head 
of a crocodile the torso of a lion and the hind end of a hippopotamus. 
It is the soul eater in Egyptian mythology.

A Perfect Valentines Day Gift

Looking for the perfect Valentines Day Gift?

My newest Bow Tie is now available to purchase. Visit Beau Ties LTD of Vermont to look into it. It is also available as a neck tie here.