Race to the top and a new studio!

Yes, I am still alive. Still drawing and painting. After a couple rough weeks of funerals, weddings and moving, I am now settled in Brooklyn. I have a brandspankin new studio, complete with four legged studiomates and even a bonsai tree. Domestic as all get-out!

Note killer wild horse foldout card above the tackboard. No biggie.

Studiomate 1 is a fearsome 40lb pitbull named Miga.

She worships me in a very literal sense.

Studiomates 2, 3 and 4 are now residing at The Brooklyn School of Inquiry until next summer. But for a few sweaty days, Lola, Chiam and Fozzy kept me company. 

Lola and Chiam doin what they do best. Mainly pooping.

Fozzy, a sugar glider, is nocturnal. He spends his days in a pouch and his nights killing anything that enters his cage.

And here is a new piece for Kelly Carter at Delaware Today Magazine. The article was on "Race To The Top Funding" and her suggestion was to try to convey a group effort to get a child to succeed. 

These were some of the quick idea sketches I sent. Very rough communication oriented sketches, which (unintentionally, but on reflection) break down to one ok, one good, and one worth painting. 

I really wanted to push the lighting here... possibly more than I ever have previously. I knew I wanted the only pure white to be the very corner where the sun was shining to really push the heat of it. Once that was acheived, realistic color elsewhere wasn't as important.

The final result is among the more dramatic paintings I've created, but a blast to make. Thanks again to Kelly Carter for the opportunity to launch a child into the sun. 

SB!