The Skull and the Bees

Here is the second painting that I completed for the Bees at the Bee show on May 8th.
This one is my favorite. I kinda hope it doesn't sell so I can keep it, it looks so metal! Reminds me of the Anthrax album Attack of the Killer Bee Sides. I think I will paint this one again, maybe do a whole bunch of skulls with beards paintings. Because dammit, I think they look cool.
Save the Bees!

Beeing Dead

This is the first Painting that I completed for the Bees at the Bee show on May 8th (Second Saturday) in the front court yard of the Sacramento Bee. You can find theme there for 200 dollars, half of that money will go to me and the other half will go to the "Honeybee Research Program" to help save the bees. The requirements were that the pieces were bee themed.
Both of the pieces I did were centered around bees and death of humans. These were a lot of fun to paint and got me back into painting outside of the computer. I need to do it more. Though the lack of an undo or layers is irritating, limits my experimentation, but I must say, there is more room for happy accidents this way.
Turning in the paintings today.
Save the bees!

Sommar The Fallen

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Sommar "The Fallen"
Sommar was once a proud Valkyrie in the service of Odin, once she descended to the Midgard to escape the constant veiwing of war and horror. She went to a tranquil meadow high in the mountains, she thought she was alone she was wrong. There was a young farmer, Agni, out trying to avoid his duty to his father's farm. Agni saw what she was instantly and looked for him Swan Plumage Cloak, which was how she travled from Asgard to Midgard, and grabbed it trapping her. Her eyes fell onto him and she fell instantly in love and would have gladly gone with him. Soon they were married and Sommar brought in a chest of chest of silver and a chest of gold. Agni had hidden the cloak in a locked chest under a rock in the middle of the woods, though Sommar didn't wish to return. They used the chest of silver and bought their own farm and cattle. They were happy for nine years, though the husband being lazy quickly spent all of the money in the gold chest, on gambling as well as refinement for himself. He was in debt, he needed to escape and one night went to the woods donned Sommar's cloak and flew away. Sommar was stuck and pissed at her no good husband she desired nothing more then to return to Valhalla, but to do that she needed her cloak back. She sold all of their cattle and burned their farm down and went on the road looking for Agni.
Sommar dresses in black until the day that she finds her cloak and kills her husband can return to being a Valkyrie and done the white, red, gold, and silver of her station.

Harold the Mythology Expert

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Harold "The Mythology Expert"
Harold grew up in the same village as Eric and Paul, though he is many years older, in fact Harold had been in charge of watching them a couple of times. Which didn't always go well. Harold felt restless in the village and one night he decided to leave and try his fortune out in the world. On the road he met a man in a blue cloak and a wide brimmed hat, he asked Harold for a drink of water and a bit of food. Harold didn't have much on him but he gave the old man all that he had. The old man was impressed with his generosity and whispered secret words into Harold's ear and had him drink the dregs of his water pouch, filled with his back wash. After that day Harold was changed, he continued on his journey and at the next town he went to the temple of Odin and gave an offering and asked the priest if he could study under him. The priest allowed Harold to stay, Harold was there for a couple of years and left mysteriously. Harold continued on to study the gods and the worlds and moved around absorbing all the he could find and he started collecting books. Years later he ran into Eric and Paul again and asked if he could join them, he needed to go a viking and find something that he had yet to find in Scandinavia. Though after a couple of nights out drinking with Eric Harold kinda forgot his quest and became one of them.
In this world of gods and monsters some one needs to know what is going on, Harold is our viking expert in the strange and mythical. He is in your face and abrasive however, he is a good friend and has thrown himself in front of many swords for his crew members. Harold doesn't have just one weapon he like to dabble and try everything though he is not a master he is versatile and able to pick up almost any weapon and know how to use it. Harold loves to steal books and gets really pissed when he sees other vikings trying to burn books. Harold home almost rivals the Library in Alexandra with how many books he has stolen. Though a lot of those books are Bibles seeing as the vikings target monasteries, though Harold doesn't really care he just loves books.

Tu-Anh the Small

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Tu-Anh "The Small"
Tu-Anh is from Vietnam and yes she some how made it all the way to Scandinavia. Not much is known how she got from one place to another. Though the way I heard it she spent time hiding in cargo holds and in barrels. She went the long way over land, take that Marco Polo.
Tu-Anh met Eric first in a tavern in Constantinople, Eric had been there with Paul to become part of the Varangain, Eric was not really the service type, but Paul believed he could do really well so Eric came along for the ride. Eric quickly became bored watching Paul start a fight and show his prowess to the existing Varangain, Paul was easily mopping the floor with them and he wouldn't be needed as back up. Eric went looking for something to do and that meant a tavern. Eric found the Rogue Elephant Tavern where Tu-Anh happened to be that day. Eric started to drink and Tu-Anh thought she had found an easy mark for her favorite con, The Drinking Contest. They battled with booze, it was a mighty and spectacular battle. In the end it was a draw, they both passed out on the floor and they both woke up in a jail. They were locked in there for a week before Paul who had become a Varangain saw them locked in there. Paul decided friends over duty and decided to break them out. Once Paul broke Eric out Eric insisted that they bring Tu-Anh along as well because they had become friends and he had alot of respect for some one who could hold their liquor like he could. She agreed not knowing that they would be going to the frozen north.

Paul the Wise

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Ragnarr "Paul the Wise"
Ragnarr grew up in the same village as Eric and they were childhood friends. Paul quickly came up the ranks of the vikings and was the youngest to win control of his own boat. Paul was lucky and a wise leader and lead his men to many great victories. There was once when they were sacking a Monastery and there was not getting in. Ragnarr faked his death and had his men bring his dead body in a coffin to the church doors and asked that they baptize him and perform the last right because he dead realizing that the Christian Church was the true way. The church oblige them and brought the coffin into the church. They baptized him on the spot giving him the Christian name of Paul. Once fully in the church Ragnarr burst out of the coffin and cut his way to the door and swung it wide open and the vikings sacked the church. After that attack he was always know as Paul the Wise.
Though on his next venture out Paul's crew met a horrible fate, because after he was baptized he lost the favor of the Norse Gods and all his luck. Paul was devastated. After that day every time he went a viking he met with failure. The last time he went out in command he lost his ship in a storm. Paul was bad luck and no one would follow him into battle any more. It looked like he was doomed to a straw death, however, Eric stuck by Paul through out all of this and Paul became the shadow second of command on Eric's ship.
Paul is the voice of reason on the boat, where as most are influenced by their gut and their emotion Paul is ruled by the voice of reason. He never takes out right control because he fears the reactions of the gods though he is always there to give his opinion which the crew often listens to.

Tedward the Navigator

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Ted "Tedward"
Ted is the English navigator and cartographer who joined the crew after they had raided a monastery where he was studying maps of the world. When Ted saw that the Viking crew were mostly stealing beer he decided he would try and go with them to see the world, make his maps, and get drunk. The viking crew being over zealous started drinking early and didn't notice him on the boat. The next day at sea they found him and tied him up. Later on the boat was attacked by another group of vikings a bloody battle ensued. In the middle of the battle Ted was able to escape and took the sword of a dead man and came to the assistance of a lone berserker and was able to save his life. The Berserker was so grateful he allowed the Englishman live and in fact let him join his crew.

Ted is always getting lost, why he is the navigator is beyond me, he gets lost so much the other vikings made a deal with dwarves to make a magic compass that always points tedwards.

Ted is an archer and he wields a sword when he has to but with his keen eye of observation he can hit the feathers off of a chicken 500 feet away. Though he usually seems just as surprised as the rest of us that he did it.

Eric Berserker

Concept art for my viking story, The Drunken Sagas: Monsterous Mead.


Eric "Bloodaxe"
He is one of the main characters a Berserker based off of me (yes I am an ego maniac).
He wields two axes which he uses for both defense and for offense. He wears a bear skin as a cap and hat. While real beserkers would go into a battle nude, Eric walks around with out armor or a shirt.
He is a loyal character and would do anything for a friend, he is run by his emotions and his desires. This often leads Eric into trouble and into quick and rash decisions. However, he has a luck about him that makes people want to follow him.
He once had a spectacular mustache which was stolen by pixies to be used by their pixie king as a cape. He hates pixies.

The Late Night Crowd 01

I decided that there was not enough zombies on my blog so in the wee hours of the night I imaged the zombies coming out to get me.

The Mermaid That Stole a Heart

I was watching the Little Mermaid today after listening to an interview by Glen Keane and James Baxter and I was all jazzed to draw a mermaid. This mermaid also will appear in my Viking story. Hero or foe I don't know; but she always steals my heart.

Dino-Bot

In the forums at Animation Mentor they have a sketch book section and they have a weekly theme for sketches, which I thought sounded like fun. I want to share more of my art at Animation Mentor to get myself out there, and I'm hoping to do one every week.
This weeks theme was Dino Robot.

I didn't quite get to finish this one but this what I got done in an hour.

Fat Flash

Laura and I went to Wonder Con this weekend this painting memorializes one of the sites that was for ever burnt into my mind, the moose knuckle of Fat Flash!

Luchador Mask 01

Ryan Cicak, a friend of a friend, is working on a web series about a super hero and he asked me for some art that has to do with masks to populate the walls of the set.




















I love luchadors; they have a ridiculous mystique about them.Sso when a project about masks and super hero came up my first thought was to do a luchador mask. This is my first pass on this project, I missed the turn in point and I want to do something a little better if I'm going to turn it in late. I didn't really plan this one out when I started it so I think with more sketches and a little more planning I can make something much better. I need to think of better iconography to work with a luchador super hero.

I painted this this on a cigar box divider. My dad smokes cigars and has a lot of these; they are 7.5" by 7.5". I think they are a fun size and material to work with. I have another 10 or 15 of these so there will be more tiny paintings on cigar box dividers in the future.

Thorsday The First

The triumphant return of Thorsdays! (A feature that was a favorite of my mother's on my sketch blog) I was inspired by How to Train Your Dragon - my new favorite animated movie; hard to go wrong with animated films about vikings. I still need to see Astrix and the Vikings though I think I will Netflix that today...





















Behold the mighty Thor. Whose hair was a red and would shoot sparks, who wore a crown with points of fire, wielding Miolnir, wearing Iarn-greiper (magical Gauntlets that allowed him to wield Miolnir), as well as Meigin-giord (magic belt that gives him great strength). He's dressed in a red suit because that was his sacred color as well as a magical color in Norse myth.

I'm extremely happy with how this one turned out and I think I will have to do the other Norse gods in the weeks to come.