I dedicate this section to my dear, long-time friend, Rodney Smith. Rodney and his family have overwhelmingly supported my family, as well as my art career. Here are three of the pieces he has collected toward that end.
(first image) “Swift Spiral” ©2022 Acrylic on primed smooth plywood 24”x36”. This started as a commission for a rubber welcome mat that spiraled into something much greater. It’s now destined to hang in the sun room in Rodney’s house.
(second image) "Fire Fairy Spell" ©2014 Acrylic on illustration board 8"x11". Art intended for display and purchase at Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention art shows, and for online print sales. This piece started as a dragon head in my HS sketch book. The fairy spell popped into my head as I refined and scaled up the sketch. Prints will be available at some point.
(third image) "Sheriff R. Bot" ©2014 Acrylic on illustration board 5.25"x7.5". This piece was created for display and purchase at RadCon, a general Science Fiction & Fantasy convention held annually in Pasco, WA. "Sheriff R. Bot" is the kick off for a series of space cowboy paintings I’m still developing. I've gone with a style reminiscent of one of my favorite illustrators from the pulp era, Hannes Bok. Prints will be available at some point.
(first image) "Car Hop" ©2012 (Adobe Illustrator) Based on an ink drawing for a friend’s band poster, this vector illustration was designed and formatted to sell as clip art on iStock.
(second image)"Vixen" ©2010 (Adobe Illustrator) Based on an ink drawing for an audio store, this vector illustration was designed and formatted to sell as clip art on iStock.
(third image) "ROCKiT SPACE" ©2010 (Adobe Illustrator) Based on the original mural I painted for ROCKiT SPACE — a community art center formerly on Beacon Hill — this vector illustration was donated to the center for promotional use. The dot pattern is baked into the vector art, so it's scale-able to billboard size.
I dedicate this section to my lifelong friend’s, The McKenna’s. Three generations dedicated to the craft of writing, willing to toss a ducat or two my way for my creative efforts. Sample below.
(first image) "Rosie the Riveter after Norman Rockwell" ©2013 Alkyd Oils on VW Minivan 22"x48" . This a pretty faithful reproduction of the classic Life Magazine cover with some tweaks, like the modern feminist buttons on Rosie's overalls.
(second image) Rosie next to the name of Marti McKenna’s website — I did the lettering, as well as sanding and painting the blue "canvas". Rosie took about 40 hours over two weeks.
The Rosie Van was sold and is now living in France. I’ve been in contact with the new owners. They have fully refurbished her and added a companion mural on the other side. Viva la Rosie!
(third image) "ROCKiT SPACE" Acrylic on brick wall. 4'x12' ©2009 I created this piece for the Beacon Hill Art & Music Space run by Jessie McKenna and friends. My influence for this art was Rick Griffin — underground comic artist extraordinaire. This mural required drawing and painting from a 16 foot extension ladder. I worked from my original 8 1/2"x11" drawing, and used a grid to enlarge the art. I completed the work in one long weekend.
(fourth image) "Scorpius" ©1999 Acrylic on illustration board 5"x5.5". This illustration was made for Bridget McKenna’s Scorpius Digital Publishing— used for a promotional temporary tattoo given out at convention publisher parties. Features from several scorpion were combined with my original pose to create this painting.
(first image)"Photon Fury" ©1997 Acrylic on illustration board 18"x24". I created for Photon Fury for an anthology of "Nose Art" created by alien cultures — after the WWII practice of painting pin up girls on the sides of bombers, and other fighting planes. The book never came to fruition, as far as I know, but I've sold many prints of this piece and received quite a few awards for it at science fiction conventions. Rodney Smith purchased the original recently, however the last limited edition print will be available on the print page (coming soon). The rest have sold at various conventions over the years.
(next three images) I am currently working on a sculpture of the Klingon Valkyrie pinup character. The sculpture is my self-assigned master project — started under the direction and tutelage of Rebeccah Shummacher Sweeney — an amazing teacher and friend who taught a constructive anatomy approach to sculpting. She also taught me how to make simple but effective armatures and a million other inventive and helpful techniques.
(first image) "Succubus" ©2000 Acrylic on illustration board 11"x17". After creating this band poster art, I started showing Succubus at conventions, and subsequently sold her to two different publishers for book covers. The original is available for purchase now, and online prints will be available at some point.
(second image) "Cloud Harvest" ©2001 Acrylic on illustration board 10"x16". Cloud Harvest started life as a horizontal concept illustration for a steam-punk style game proposal. When I resold it to Talebones, I was able to crop the sides and extended the top and bottom in Photoshop seamlessly.
I painted these four interior illustrations in 2000 and 2001 for an anthology of short stories by Bedlam Press. All paintings are acrylic on illustration board 6.5"x10".
(first image) "Fire Breath" was for a short story about the son of a circus freak confronting a metamorphosis that's taking him over now that he's hit puberty.
(second image) "Chrysalis" is a visualization of the main character’s internal struggles in a short story by the same name.
(third image) "Round Head" — the illustration and short story depicts the life of a child raised by sewer dwellers.
(fourth image) "Pavlov" depicts the main character being haunted by their imaginings of the crocodile from Peter Pan in a scene form the similarly named short story.
Sadly, this publication never saw the light of day.
(first image) "Backwards Circus" ©2013 (Photoshop) I created these three vintage circus folk for one of Ignite Studio's client's-- Backwards Distillery -- for their line of spirits. I achieved the desired Victorian Etching look with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop.
(next twelve images) A dozen of the 30 sketches that led me to the final ringmaster design.
(first image) "Annie Port: In a Storm" ©2000 and "The Jolly Codger" ©1999 — Acrylic on canvas paper 5"x7". These two are part of a big series of portraits I developed and sold at conventions for several years. The idea was suggested to me when a friend pointed out hundreds of these antique looking frames for cheap at Artist and Craftsman Supply in Seattle. I ended up making about a hundred portraits — Victorians, mummies, aliens, nuns, historical pirates etc — many ideas coming from the same friend who pointed out the frames. Each portrait was original, quick to make and they often went to voice auction when they sold at conventions. This image is a Photoshop composite of the original paintings, scans of the frames, and an original Cthulhu Wallpaper I created.
(second image) "Kay Daver" ©2000 and “Maury Bund” ©1999 — Originals sold at auction.
(third image) "Shara Burnheart" ©1999 and “King Rankandrotten” ©1999 — Originals sold at auction.
(forth image) "Tami Burywick" ©2000 and “Happily Hereafter” ©2000. Both are commissions. The first for a good friend/co-worker from Humongous Entertainment. The second is for my good friends, Alan and Melody.
Prints in the works. Stay tuned!
(first image) "Fyre Drake" ©1984 Serigraph on paper 14.5”x17.75”. This print is the first in a series of elemental dragons I started in 1982. Fyre Drake emerged as an 8.5"x11' black and white ink drawing I made in the 12th grade. Don, my boss at Wilcox Graphics, taught me a simple but elegant paper registration system that worked flawlessly — this first dragon has 14 different color impressions, all in perfect register.
(second image) "Dragonfly" ©1985 Serigraph on paper 14.5”x17.75”. This second dragon has 23 different color impressions, all in perfect register. These Dragon serigraph prints are truly limited. The color separation process requires cutting away sections of the masking film to create shading gradients. The clouds were created with masking liquid painted into the screen, and cannot be duplicated.
(third image) "Sea Dragon" ©1990 Serigraph on Paper. This third dragon has 18 different color impressions, all in perfect register. Each edition size: 100 copies. These print comes with archival matting (16"x20"). A little more than three quarters are still available. Shop opening soon.
(first image) "Journey through the Upsidaisium Ore Mountains" ©2014 Acrylic on canvas board 14"x18". This artwork started in 1984 as a lightly airbrushed nebula with some roughed-in asteroid barges moving from right to left. Inspiration struck me in December 2013. I rotated the under-painting one quarter turn clockwise, and the Upsidaisium Ore Mountains were born — depicting a steam-punk "airship" visiting the source of it's propulsion. As I painted, I imagined this picture as part of a much bigger adventure story.
(second image) “Algae Farm/Fuel Depot” ©2014 Photoshop 16.5“x12.5”. This illustration started out as a thumbnail on the back of a business card I had intended to hand out as a sample at a convention. After completing several I realized I’d rather make them into art than give them away. While developing this piece, I was inspired to add the Upsidaisium Ore Air Ship to the mix. Now it’s part of the story. Stay tuned for more developments.
(third image) “Venus & Milo Cover” 700px x 438px Photoshop. I am collaborating with Marti McKenna on her children’s book. This is a first pass at the cover for the kindle version.
(fourth image) “Venus & Milo Pg 9” This sample page is formatted for a large format printed book, and can be cropped to fit the kindle format as well.
(fifth image) “Blink P.I. Issue One” Photoshop & Krita 9.64“x12.47”. I’ve been kicking around this idea for a graphic novel based on a sculpture I made at ROCKiT SPACE. This cover illustration started as a demonstration of cel shading in Krita. Like Stone Soup I just kept adding until I had a manga sized image.
(sixth image) “Blink P.I. Maquette/W.I.P. Cover” Sculpy, wire & Styrofoam/Photoshop. This is the sculpture that inspired the comic. Sculpted over several session with Rebeccah Shummacher Sweeney.