Category Archives: life

CareFree

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Believe it or not, I actually had artwork ready for last week. But I ended up two states away at a hospice center, watching an old aquaintance pass away.

It was interesting in a terrifying way.

I’ve seen people die. I’ve caused it as well (do NOT recommend). But that’s pretty quickly over. You can’t process everything and it leaves you a little dazed.

This was… different.

First the call came and I drove to North Carolina where my friend had retired. I thought he was hurt. Then they explained and I told them that I hadn’t seen him in over a decade. It was awkward. We weren’t super close. But I decided to stay.

I have never had someone look so happy to see me. EVER. We talked a little, got caught up. My brain was having a hard time processing that he wasn’t just….in the hospital. You know? Like he’d get better somehow.

His biggest fear was that no one would come. “I couldn’t think of anybody, man. I was a little scared”.

….

What could I say? Having noone there is pretty much a horrible thing. When he turned and stop talking, I got a break. The nurses thanked me for coming and wanted to hear how I knew him. The more they asked the less I could answer. Finally the question came…

Why did you come?

Those places are very religious. He talked a lot about the Lord and what he believed. Sometimes he just stared at me, like he was trying to memorize my face.

Eventually he was gone.

I drove home. During the drive I thought about how I had pulled away from friends and family. Three years ago, I had tried to end my own life. I thought about this stuff over and over.

Anyway…it was a busy week.

come back

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I’m VERY busy lately and it’s my own fault. I’ve been working on a pretty big project that started in the wrong way….

…so I am a member of the Mustang Club of America. I’ve owned a few and I draw them constantly. Some of you already know that.

Well, last week I decided to post a couple on the group’s Facebook page.

Big mistake.

After a few hundred people contacted me to draw their personal cars, I decided to draw different ones from different eras and make them available for sale. To get everyone excited about the idea, I drew the new Shelby in illustrator and promised to include it in a coloring book that I was also making.

So far I’ve had a little over 8 thousand likes and a ton of responses.

I guess that I’m going to be busy.

Do try die

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I finished this project for someone new. She doesn’t know about the blog. She just thought the image was cool and I agreed.

We talked.

And I was really enjoying myself until this voice inside me asked, very quietly, “what are you doing?”

I finished her picture and packed up my stuff. She seemed confused and I couldn’t explain. We parted. I’ll try to never see her again.

Because #skyphoenix never forgets and the stars haven’t burned out yet.

Birthdays are for the Living

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For the first time since I was 15, I had my birthday off! This is entirely new territory for me; so I decided to draw something meaningful to me.

I drew my homeworld.

I know it sounds pretentious, but it’s not incorrect, is it? Plus drawing Terra is not as easy as it seems. So many colours, so many layers, set against an almost velvety smooth blackness. It’s a really gorgeous place.

And I get to live there.

You do too. Isn’t that amazing?

He’ll Heal Heel

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I promised you red, didn’t I? Well after trying four separate times to get started, I finally gave in. I’m just more in people mode. Maybe later.

Skin tones. They tend to be the single greatest pain in my ass! I limit myself a lot on colour choices, because I believe that I can create most of what I need, which is true. Still, it requires a bit of experimentation sometimes.

When it works, like here, it can give the feeling that the warmth and shadows are coming from within the image itself. That’s definitely the goal.

Sometimes I run into an unusual problem that’s kinda normal. People are NOT perfectly symmetrical. Who knew?

This is a study I did of a good friend. She is very chatty and always seemed to have a totally normal facial symmetry… until I looked closer…

I had never noticed that before. I erased her eye a few times before I went with it.

Here you can’t see it as well. Most people are this way; arms too long, short torso, nose curves slightly to one hemisphere. And once you start seeing it, you can’t stop!

Relax.

Although we draw from anatomy and physiology, understand that nature has its own quirks. Try to find a way to make that work for your image. It’s no secret that breast are rarely the same size on a woman. You can choose to give her “plastic surgery” or draw her in a way that highlights her beautiful essence without changing it.

The young lady in this picture loved her picture. She has a disorder, but she likes that her image makes her feel beautiful and special but doesn’t leave it out.

Always remember, “If every pork chop was perfect, we wouldn’t have hotdogs”

We Greg’s are good for stuff like that. 😊

1991

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While my life is going through reset at least one unexpected thing came out of it. My son found a couple of pictures in the attic. They were old but in decent shape and brought back some fond memories. Why you ask?

I painted them during a war. A war that I took part in.

Both of these were painted during Desert Storm. They’re made of watercolor and the remnants of my canteen water. I was 20 years old and drew everything I saw.

But the rest were stolen in South Korea. These are the last remaining pieces of mine from that long ago.

Hope you like them!

Reset

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I spent all of last week working for free and moving out of my home. Fun fact; landlords won’t consider being furloughed as a job, so even though I sold my home, I’m currently living in a hotel.

Yay.

Drawing superheroes is a personal favourite of mine. Trying to imagine someone in a realistic way can be fun, because you can put your own slant on the character.

However, when drawing a cosplayer, you have to reign in this desire, to a certain degree. It may seem odd, but I still manage to add a little fantasy to the mix, much to the delight of the subject.

I’m still going for realism, but part of it is getting the personality right. That’s very important.

Someone who has taken the time to bring a character to life deserves a chance to see themselves immersed in the reality that they are representing. So I try to bring that to life for them. 😊

See you next year.

Star

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I’m officially homeless.

That is, I’ve sold my home of the last 20 years and currently don’t have another place to live.

There’s no joy in this. It’s me moving on with no enthusiasm and lots of regret. But you have to keep moving forward in life and I was haunting this place instead of living in it.

I still found time to draw. It helped me not worry so much. Helped me try to be a little more dispassionate to the situation.

Maybe it worked. Who knows?

In the meantime, I dreamed of racing this Mustang and what building it would be like.

It’s important to draw objects because you can easily start making objects that float in space, without any weight to them. Cars, robots, boxes; they all let you practically work on vanishing points and multiple horizons.

I was never a fan of kaleidoscope or ruler art. I hate all the erasing you have to do. But having objects on the same plane is a big deal. Also know your model, otherwise a concept like camber for wheels would make no sense.

Well, back to house hunting ☹️

Lackadaisical

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Last week my mom was flooded out of her home by a burst pipe. Having some experience with this kind of thing, I helped her with her home.

Anyway, I find myself with a weird dilemma. Nude pics.

Lots of nude pics.

Don’t get me wrong, ladies. As problems go, it’s an interesting one to have. But on the flip side, I have people who don’t want me to draw them because they think I only draw naked women!

As some of you have noticed, that’s not true. But because I draw a lot of fitness types, well…they are proud of the work and rightly so. Oh well. Guess I’ll have to get more creative.

Wouldn’t want to be considered a one trick pony.

SUPERlazy

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Oh no! Sorry guys, I have had a seriously weird week. I’m selling my house, working projects due before the week ended and ended up in the hospital.

So when I got home Sunday I was a bit dejected. So I binged an entire snooker tournament. That got my creative juices going and late last night I created this image.

Nothing like working to a deadline! See you next week.