These were done as a gift in the not too distant past. Just getting around to putting scanned versions up.

First off I’d like to say, it’s really inspiring to watch a grass roots effort take hold and mobilize a group of people. I was pointed in the direction of fellow illustrator Kelly Light’s amazing efforts over the weekend, through multiple folks on my Twitter follow list. Through numerous small steps and what I can only assume is an amazing amount of elbow grease Kelly has started the ripplesketches blog. With it she’s been putting up her own and other’s donated sketchcards or prints, selling them for the price of a ten dollar donation to either The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center .

It’s just that simple. She stood up and said out loud she wasn’t going to sit by doing nothing. Instead she used what she had at her disposal, and tried to make something happen. And you know what? It IS happening. In just a few short days and through word of mouth the project has raised as of last update 2,000 dollars. With what I can only imagine is no end in sight.

The cards I’ve submitted will be in the post to their new home tomorrow (Thanks Charlotte if you happen to be reading!). BUT, in saying this there are so many great pieces still available, by so many great artists.

One last plug, go check out the ripplesketches blog, and buy something great, while doing something great.

I’m happy to say in a small way I was a part of this. Thanks again Kelly, for everything you are doing.

IF: Subterranean

Done pretty quickly as a means to get back in gear. I’ve been a bit unproductive as of late.

This was the last of the series I produced before the show. I actually finished it the Thursday before the opening.

For now I’m probably going to let the stained paper work rest just a bit as I recharge some. I did learn a lot from doing these, and that’s always the goal. In fact doing these have convinced me to restart the poster I’ve been working on. So starting soon the Process Posts will return, but I’m headed back to the beginning I believe.

This week has been mostly about the business end of things. Making a mailing list has really sucked up much of my time. And I’m still only a fraction of the way through. Necessary but data entry and fact checking is not a very relaxing way to spend my days.

This was a concept thrown out to me by Chris Horrorshow. At the time of doing this one I was down to two more images to create before the opening and I was drawing a bit of a blank. Chris threw the concept of an old west gun crossed by a ray gun at me. After hearing that I only had to come up with one more concept. This one practically drew itself.

I need to draw more guns. Especially LASER guns.

This is a House Sparrow. I had no idea that “house” was an indicator of a separate breed of these things until I was grabbing reference for this bird drawing. Clearly I should be on the Audubon Society’s short list of illustrators*, with thoughts like “Oh There ARE different kinds of Sparrow. Would you look at that?”

Maybe I should erase that line and scour the House sparrow wiki to act like I’m knowledgeable or something?

Nah, I doubt that would fool anybody, at least those that know me in person.

*If I ever manage to land a job with them, you’ll be cool and not point out what an idiot I am right? Right?

Any new technique or style I work with has to pass the ape test. Yes I’m aware the file is named Monkey!, and this is a chimp. It’s okay I assure you. Tarzan called a Chimp Cheetah, clearly they have no special identity issues.

More coffee stain drawings to come this week.

I’ll do a write up on the opening at some point this week. However on the off chance anyone who was there is A) reading this and B) took pictures while people were there, that would be awesome to know. I ended up running off at the mouth at anyone and everyone who wanted to talk. And promptly forgot to take any of the pictures I planned to take. But talking to so many awesome people was worth forgetting the one task I’d set for myself honest.

Long story short I’m still really pleased with how things went. And I’m stoked to hopefully do this all over again soon!

And when I do, here’s hoping my son won’t have a whirlwind flu bug come through the day before the opening causing him and my wife to miss out on the fun part. Sorry family! Next time.

Also Richmond, I’m still impressed with how quickly 200 chicken nuggets were eaten. Amazing.

Pencil, brushed ink, White colored pencil, white china marker, white gouache, on coffee stained water color paper. 4″x6″.

I started doing these as an experiment, and ended up liking the results enough that I’ve done ten in the last two weeks between preparing for tonight’s opening. Come on by if you can and check them out. At the very least you can partake in the refreshments.

Another in the current series. Shamelessly exploiting my fascination for World War I era gas masks.