Speaking of tomorrow, I can't believe it will be December 1st. Eleven months of this so far. Wow!

This isn't the art I did for a client, but it has the same type of message. Okay Gary, that's all the lemmings you get. :)

Above is the first page of pencils. It's interesting trying to work in a style that wasn't natural for me back then. I didn't hit it exactly. It needs to be a bit more cartoony. But that is something I can do in the inks. I will post the pages as they go. It might be a bit interesting.

Today was a full day at the Labs. I did more art for this event than any other. About 2-3 times as much. It went really well, but I was exhausted. But I still made time for Dejah this evening. I will probably put her up on eBay in the next day or two, for anyone interested.

Today is the 13th birthday of Dakota Jean Gonzales. Deena and I could not be more proud of our daughter Dakota. Not only is she a stellar student, a terrific musician (viola and guitar), an outstanding artist, and a html & css whiz, but she is also any incredibly wonderful person. Must take after her mother. :) Happy Birthday Kota!

All finished up with this Christmas Cutie. I still have one more to go.

Pretty productive day today. Managed to put a big dent in a series of projects for one client and picked up a new job as well. More on that as the date of the event gets closer. So all in all, a good day. Tomorrow I have a full schedule of work as well as a trip to the art store for some illustration boards. Went to the flat file and the flat file was bare. I plan to do most, if not all of the Space Ghost commission this weekend. Hence the need for illustration board. I love saying "hence".

My 1970s hot pants Supergirl auction is ending tonight. Still time to take her home. For those interested, here is the link.

And speaking of doing what I love, I got home from the Labs around 6pm, returned a couple of business calls, ate dinner, and then transfered and inked the Christmas Cutie above. This was inked with Micron Pens on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. Time to get some rest, got a big day tomorrow.

And here is number 4 of 6. I posted this before as a series of process posts. Here is the finished piece with the string of lights in place.

Lastly, for anyone interested, my Supergirl from yesterday is on eBay for the next 3 days. Here is the link. And hey, this is post number 321 and only 51 days left in the year!

I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Since today's post is not incredibly exciting unless you are a lemming, (and please, don't be a lemming) I thought I would bring out some old work. From 1985-1992, I was working for Hewlett-Packard as the purchasing agent in Facilities Operations. For a while I was the interim Region Buyer for the Western Headquarters in North Hollywood, California. In other words, I was not a full time artist. But for a while there in the late 1980s until 1992, I was doing automotive art.

A buddy of mine got me going to classic car shows. He was a very gifted photographer. He would photograph details of the cars. Not the whole car, just areas of interest, the shape of the bumper, the curve of a fender and so on. I took pictures of the whole vehicle, not knowing what I would do with it. I don't know if he suggested I paint them or if I came up with it, but I did start to paint the cars. Sometimes working from one of his slides, sometimes working from mine.

For a while I displayed my work in an automotive book store in Burbank, California that had gallery areas for automotive fine art. No one bought the exhibited pieces, but I did get commissions because of them. I did several paintings for people who owned classic cars. I would photograph the cars or they would provide me with pictures. Sometimes they requested a specific background or they would just let me have at it and come up with something that reflected the spirit of the vehicle and it's history. I have slides of that art and one day I need to get a slide scanner in order to get them on my computer. But for today I thought I would share some of the pieces that were hanging in that gallery.
The T-Bird was an example of a no background piece. The paper is a lot whiter than it looks in this image. So when you see the original, the red just jumps off the paper. This was done entirely in watercolor on 10" x 14" Winsor-Newton Watercolor paper.
The 1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL image is a mix of things. The car was shot at the Pomona Fairgrounds outside of Los Angeles. The gas station is (or was) on the west side of Cambria, California. Cambria sits on the Pacific Coast between Santa Barbara and San Francisco. I used to spend a week or two in Cambria every year back in the 1980s. I photographed the gas station because it had a lot of character. Everything around the gas station is made up. The real gas station was inland and you couldn't see the ocean from there. I like to think it would have loved my location for it more. The rocks in the background is inspired by the coast line in that area. This piece was done in watercolor on 20" x 14" Winsor-Newton watercolor paper.

I have several more to share if there is an interest. A strange side note: At the time, I was driving a metallic forest green 1965 6-cyl 3 speed Ford Mustang coupe with black interior and a white 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback 289, with light turquoise interior. While I took a lot of pictures of them, I never painted either one.