Real Life Applications

My brother sent this to me today:

And I thought the point behind the piece was awesome enough to warrant better design.  So I made a new one.

There are still a couple of things I want to change, but it was a fun stress reliever for this morning.  Illustrator and I are finally getting along a little bit better after last holiday's fiasco with the Christmas video for work.

Flash and I still hate each other, though.

Hamlet Sketch

"This above all: to thine own self be true" (Hamlet, Act I, Sc. III)

This is the latest project that I've been working on. I'm trying to put together a couple of posters for various operas, ballets and plays to send out as sample pieces for theaters around Houston. This one is in progress for a Hamlet poster. My photo reference is up there on the left, and those are some of my color comps are on the other side. My goal is to finish it this weekend, but what with the Fourth of July and the huge barbeque my family is planning, who knows if that'll actually happen.

I'm working full time as a kind of personal secretary, and finding the time to do art has been really hard. I've been doing some life sketching but with Houston weather (i.e. it's really hot right now) it's king of hard to be out there for more than 30-45 minuets.

Mozart "The Magic FLute"

This is part of a series  that I did from the Cornerstone list of the 20 most performed operas in the US.  It's a poster (without all the poster stuff yet) for Mozart's The Magic Flute (it's number 10 on the list if you were wondering).  

Let me just say that this is one of my most favorite pieces that I have ever done!  I cannot tell you why, it just is.  I think it's actually going to replace my Beowulf painting as my profile picture, which I never thought would happen.  This was one of those pieces that just painted itself, it's just a really fun, joyful, if I can use that word, piece for me.  All I could do was smile and giggle when I finished  I was actually able to go home and sleep when it was done, instead of spending two hours trying to wind down (Yes, this does happen, I don't set the time, it just happens, and it's always two hours.  Whether I've been out with friends or shopping or painting, I can never go to sleep right after.  Eventually I started noticing a pattern, and . . . No matter how late, no matter how tired, it's always two hours.  Yes, I know I'm ridiculous, thanks.). It was so nice.  

I've really come to appreciate Mozart through this painting, too.  I created a Mozart station on Pandora (Great, amazing, wonderful site if you haven't found it already) while I was painting, which was kind of appropriate, I felt, and he was/is awesome!  So is  Baccherini, and Haydn, and especially Paganini.  Jury's still out on Liszt, my internet connection hasn't been great so I haven't actually heard one of his songs in it's entirety, but I think we're gonna be cool with him, too.