Art for One

this is Master Chief, the main character from Halo. he's on a racing bike. i almost just painted him in a kickbutt kneeling pose shooting a giant gun or something because lots of gamers that saw the painting would be into it. but the guy that requested this was really particular about the bike including the color, style and type of wheels. i could tell he was serious about it so i couldn't just give him half of what he wanted. so instead of this being a general painting of a well-known video game character that lots of people could find online and love, it's is a very specific and very personal painting made solely for one guy. i hope he likes it. and i hope some day someone requests just a Master Chief, too.

The Game They're Playing Is "NHL 99"

this was a request for penguins playing Nintendo 64. i totally could have painted Sidney Crosby playing Evgeni Malkin.

CEO of the Zoo?

this panda is a lawyer. or maybe this lawyer is a panda. i dunno. but apparently wearing suits and pointing forcefully while holding your belt is a thing that lawyers do. at least according to this artist. i definitely don't think it's a thing pandas normally do. you don't really need to command respect via a wardrobe and aggressive gestures in a bamboo forest. or i guess the outfit and point could maybe mean he's a politician. or a car salesman. he's forcefully indicating the direction of great deals on used vehicles. wearing a suit and pointing forcefully could also make you a Sea World employee... but the suit would have to be changed to the bathing variety. but then he and Shamu would just get in disagreements over who is the best black and white animal. good thing lawyers are good arguers. i let this post get way too stream-of-consciousness.

You Two Wait Here While I Travel

well, LA is calling again. i'm headed out there for a good chunk of days so



you'd better get well acquainted with these two. they're going to be hanging out at the top of my blog for over a week. i shall replace them when i return!

I've Made Zero Connections About the Muffin Connection

the person that requested this painting asked for a guy and a girl standing next to each other, each holding a muffin, and underneath, the words "the muffin connection". (sidenote: i think i nailed it.) when i read that, i figured it was something cute between he and his girlfriend. ok fine. i get requests like that all the time. but he followed it up with "this will make sense to me and four other people". so it's not a relationship thing. interesting! or well i guess he could be in a relationship with four people. i dunno, i'm just glad when things aren't what i expect. or maybe it IS about how he and his girlfriend met and they told three other people the story. that would be expected. geez, this post is getting really long compared to my usual. i should just stop speculating and ask him. i'm not gonna ask him.

Swaping Swirls and Spots

this is my third yin yang. the first one had the colors swapped and the second one was flipped vertically compared to this one. i didn't mean to make them all different but i think it's a pretty cool accident. i'll have to remember that for the fourth.

The Coloring May Also Be a Bit Inaccurate

that's a lot of head to hold up with such little wings. clearly i didn't study enough bird anatomy in art school.

His Flight Partner Was Fuzz Aldrin

a portrait of Neil Tailstrong.

Looks Just Like van Gogh

the person inside the armor is julia roberts. i call this painting "Starry Knight".

Don't Even Get Me Started on the Time Signature

i just put notes where i thought they looked pleasing for this painting. i can't believe i did that. honestly, every time i see a use of music as a decorative element, i always wonder if the designer even knew what he was communicating with this language known as music notation. well i just played what i painted and it turns out i'm communicating an awful-sounding mess. sorry.

Wings for Shoveling, Not Flying

if you don't follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, allow me to fill you in on a recent thing about me. this hockey season i made the team for the Pittsburgh Penguins Ice Crew! we shovel the ice and cheer in the stands for all the home games. one of my new teammates asked me for a painting and let me pick the subject. of course i painted the awesome shoveling penguin! i'm actually surprised they altered the branding for this. yes, this is the officially sanctioned Ice Crew logo. now i'm trying to picture what else this guy could hold. haha and i juuuust remembered that beer is (unofficially) one of those things.

My Idealized Form

this is the seventh self portrait i've painted. i am my Fender American Stratocaster. actually, my Strat is blue. unless you're looking at a picture. then it's red. because i photoshopped it in my album cover photo shoot to match the rest of my branding. so i guess this is a photoshopped self portrait.

Cloth Over Feathers Over Fur

yeah halloween happens in antartica, too. BUT! this is actually in the arctic. "wait, how is that possible?!" you frantically ask? well, it's possible because this is actually a polar bear dressed as a penguin dressed as link from Zelda.

Oh Man, What If It's a Self Portrait

this is an old dude with cats for a beard. if you do a google image search for cat beard, you'll see a hilarious trend of people photographing themselves with their cats' noses and mouths covering their human noses and mouths. internet is weird.

and so is this digital painting on which i was asked to base my painting. i tried reverse image searching to find it's origin but failed. there's a name, "TAKU", in the bottom corner. the best i could find were more pictures in the same style and a couple of other people also curious about the image's origin and failing to find an answer. i fancy myself a darn good searcher so i'm pretty confident that the answer isn't findable online. either that or TAKU is the worst search engine optimizer on the planet.

Antagonist Outfit

where'd he get those sweet armbands?

The End of Both My Polychromatic and Monochromatic Periods, in One Post

i didn't forget yesterday! i went to post and i couldn't because my site was down. ARGHH! i sent a support email and my host fixed it overnight. darn it, don't they know my art needs to be put out in the world?? there's no room for downtime!



i'm going through a purple period. it's only lasting one day. but still. this is my purple period.




it's always weird for me when people request an environment, not an object or character. i wonder if they looked through my gallery but just decided to ask for something that's not my specialty. well i found a way to turn a beach into a series of objects anyway. i'll have to try that with every environment request.

You Can't Tell in 2D

this requester wanted an abstract painting with circles. welllll, don't tell her i painted abstract spheres instead.

A Couple of Strong Symbols

well, i had yesterday's post open and half written but i didn't finish/publish before i went to bed. so here it is with today's added on.



so why aren't we the pittsburgh pittsies?




i just realized this is almost close to being an almost, not quite, vague swastika. completely unintentional. or was it subconscious. oh crap am i unknowingly a horrible person??

Art Helping Me Learn

this is my cousin's daughter! i had to google what that meant. now i know she's my first cousin once removed.