Another 20”x16” depiction of cacti. Did something a little different with the sky on this one. Kept the flowers simple since there was some complexity elsewhere.
Recent Cactus
A departure for me. I don’t often include houses in my work. But I tried something different on this one.
Reptilian McGrillz
Sometimes, I just go completely overboard on a concept. I enjoyed using some rhinestone for a couple of other projects. On this one, I kicked that up as much as I could. The teeth were created using innards of an old wooden chest that my neighbor was throwing away. I scored some free wood that otherwise would have been landfill bound. On this one, I also overdid the concept of piercings, which I had done a couple times previously. This one was a lot of fun and I’m really proud of it.
Guitar Crab #3
This is #3 of the series. #1 was a stratocaster type design, #2 was an acoustic modeled after a Martin. This one is a flying V. Can you tell I’m a (bad) guitar player myself? Just to spice things up, I also gave him an eye piercing. I thought the eyes needed more black to sort of match the guitar, so I enclosed the eyes in black bottlecaps.
Part of the reason I like doing these is that each one is a mini engineering challenge. It takes a lot of time to make everything fit exactly right. It’s fun, but quite labor intensive. I also applied some molding paste which I used to make a “popcorn ceiling” type texture.
3 new ones. First use of sheetmetal!
Things I learned: sheetmetal is hard to cut straight. It’s harder than you would think to drive nails through it. It’s also sharp (though I filed down the final pieces so they wouldn’t be.) This fish sat on my workbench for a long time before I figured out what to do with it, but I like the finished product.
As for the whale, it’s similar to another design but I decided to switch things up and make it pink. It’s made from repurposed tinge and groove wood.
The last one is based on an actual fish, the mahi-mahi aka dolphin fish. My creations dont usually bear a strong resemblance to actual species, but this one does. I finished it off with some gel on the fins for texture.
10-22-18: I must be going through an orange phase
A variety of creatures. For some reason, I felt like using a lot of orange. Maybe it’s because of the changing seasons, even though the leaves have not even started to turn here in Richmond, VA. The seahorse was completely different like a month ago. I’d been staring at it for a while and couldn’t decide if I wanted to leave it or redo it. I opted to blow it up and start over and I’m glad I did. I like it much better than the original.
Muscle Shark Bro
I’ve done some muscle crabs, but this is my first muscle shark.
Labor Day Lobster
made of 2 different thicknesses of wood, copper wire, acrylic paint. Love how this one turned out.
Clawed Shot
Inspired by the (possibly apocryphal) story of Babe Ruth calling his shot. Commissioned.
Earth meets sea
Not a fiddler crab
keep your snout up
Daydream Octopus
New fish and a crab
Finished octopus in his new habitat: beach house!
4 new fish
Sneery McPunk (top left) is my fav. He has 2 piercings.
The first cow
More realistic than I usually do.
Wooden Fish
Here’s what I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks. Lot of different techniques and styles but all are made from salvaged wood. Prices start at $30. Check out my website and let me know if you have any special requests.
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
Old subject, new perspective. What do you think?
Old subject...New Technique ( Half Crab Reimagined: 20”x16” acrylic ink on canvas)
I’ve done lots of “half crabs” because they are some of my best-sellers, but I got tired of painting them the same old way. I did this one by:
1). Sketching it out in pencil
2). Using masking fluid over the pencil lines, adding a few bumps with clear tar gel, and letting it dry overnight.
3). applying blue, green, and yellow inks (plus tons of water) to the surface
4). I thought it was still lacking texture, so I dumped some rock salt in certain areas, which is one of my favorite techniques
5). Let it dry and had my kids peel the dried masking fluid off, creating the final product. The white lines are the ones created when the masking fluid was removed.
