My Favorite Movie...

My brother and I were invited by a friend of ours to create a podcast about favorite movies. Any genre, any year, just as long as it was a favorite of ours and we can chat about it for 45 minutes or so. We've recorded one about "The Karate Kid" and another on "Men In Black," but haven't posted them yet. Next up will be "The Blues Brothers" and "The Big Lebowski."

I think I'll try drawing something inspired by each of the films and post them here. It'll get me back in the habit of drawing regularly and may even turn out some cool art. In the meantime, here is the logo I cranked out for our little show. I really like the iPod/popcorn bag mash up.

Look for us on iTunes. MFMPodcast.

Posting again.

After much delay, here is one of my variations of the t-shirt design I made for Amphibious Medics. My client wasn't exactly sure what he wanted when we started out, but he was satisfied in the end.

Aside from that, I haven't accomplished much to post about. If anyone has any work they'd like to toss my way, I'd be appreciative.

Missed Halloween...missed Thanksgiving...Happy Channuka.

I know I have been away from the blog for far too long. I wish I could blame it on having too many illustration commissions, but they have been few and far between. I am posting the logo design I did for "Amphibious Medics," a California based company that provides medical services for filmings on land and sea. I also created a t-shirt design based on the logo, which I'll post later.

Thanks for your patience. I'll try not to wait so many months again.

Same picture? No, wait...

About a week ago, I watched a video demo from an artist named Bao Pham. The demo was on a dvd-rom that came with a British magazine, ImagineFX, which I bought a couple of years ago but never got around to looking at the disc. My mistake, because Bao is an amazing digital painter. I spent nearly eight hours watching his computer monitor. If I looked quickly, I could see which brush he used and what lighting effect, but there was no sound in the files, no explanation for why he made the choices he made nor what he was doing with different colors. Still, I learned a great deal from the experience and wanted to show the latest look of my Jack and the Beanstalk to all of you. Despite appearances, I did not use the Dodge or Burn tool for any of this image, a statement that will not be understood by many visitors, but fellow Ringling students and alumni may remember teachers frowning on such Photoshop tools. Anyway, I hope it meets everyone's approval.

More Photoshop fun.

Once again, I'm going back over some of my old illustrations and seeing what I can do with a little more practice under my belt. In the original black and white version of Jack and the Giant, I was trying to convey atmospheric perspective through a limited value range on the giant. This time, I'm using that idea along with fading the giant towards blue and partially erasing the line work. Also, since I just learned how to turn a photograph of a cloud into a brush, of course I over used it. No matter. It still feels good to put some work up here again. New stuff will be coming soon.

Where's the ART?

Sorry, but there's no art ready for posting today. Shortly after my last post, the motherboard in my HP died. The Geek Squad said it would cost over $777 to fix it, which is more than I spent for the computer just under two years ago. Instead of going that route, I invested in a new Gateway. I just finished installing my Adobe software, but it'll be some time before I can pick up Corel Painter 11. As much as I learned to love Painter since graduation, it was a student version and I don't have permission to download it again. *sigh*

Oh well. I hope to get some more things finished for everyone to enjoy very soon.

Middle of July? Wait, what happened to June?

I know I haven't updated in a while. That may be normal for many bloggers, but I had hoped to break free from that crowd and be more consistent. *sigh*

Anyway, I just got home from a wonderful vacation in Arizona with my family. It was a rare gathering of Sweetmans, considering that only Mom lives in Arizona. The rest of us are spread across the Eastern Seaboard, but the lure of seeing each other and all exhibiting in the Art in the Orchard show in Pinetop, Az, encouraged us to unite.

Instead of doing caricatures like I did last year, I opted for

face painting. It's easy,

fast, and fun to do, plus the low costs make it ideal for a quick purchase from parents. The weather in the White Mountains was in my favor as well, since

kids weren't sweating off the colors while I was painting as they are prone to in Orlando.

Along with the faces, I offered greeting cards featuring the colored versions of

the illustrations from the Pinocchio's book. I had Pinocchio, Cinderella, and Hansel & Gretel available, and I worked on this image of Oz while there. For the future, I would like to have more prints and greeting cards ready so parents could buy more stuff while I paint their children. Overall, I did comfortably well, even after taxes, and was able to start on several repairs for my car (battery, brakes, tires...). I need to work more art fairs.