Casting Art to the Net

Art & Exposition

Art - it’s an audience that completes a work!

art awakens the senses
composing reflections from life's reasoned fences
encoded skill and mind is the foundry
beyond the grip of night's emotional boundary

Star​ting Lines

Works done before retirement

I divide my artwork into two phases; before and after retirement since retirement is a significant lifestyle change. I hope you enjoy!

Space is Out There

Thanks to folks such as the people and friends supporting APOD (started June 1995 and still running)... we have at our Internet fingertips an impressively large quantity of very high quality artistic and scientific images from the seeable universe. These are wonders to behold and some would argue enough for our astronomical appetite. But for others the thought of exploring space from the comfort of a faster than light starship is a bit more palate pleasing. However, travel to even our closest stellar neighbor is well beyond a reasonable human journey today. But these space traveling dreams so many of us have likely indicate possibility. I believe we look and outreach with hope to the heavens because it's part of our nature. How the distant star trekking dream is fulfilled who can say... maybe heaven has the answer!

life’s flame burns like fusion
propagating emotion like starlit nebulae
who can hide from its beckoning
to the stars… onward outward… ever reaching
for love's reward

Space Traveler

"For now, we see through a glass darkly;"

1978 - Acrylic and ink on acetate with background photographic print

This is my rendition of Ed White's historic 1965 spacewalk. The above space traveler was drawn with black ink on one side and painted on the opposite side with acrylic in the fashion of early animation cel production. Today's production animation is predominantly done with computers eclipsing this hand labor process. 

Balance

1977 - Acrylic and ink on acetate

Beatles

1975 - Acrylic and ink on acetate

This was my first work in this medium (animation cel)... I found it when cleaning out my files while sheltering in place. I had mistakenly painted George's pants yellow before I painted the Yellow Submarine so I opted to paint the submarine tail red instead of starting over.

Ken's Ride

1979 - Acrylic and ink on acetate

I enjoy working with animation cel construction. This piece was especially fun because I love motorcycling!  "And I'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway..."  lyric quote from the band Genesis, Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, released 1974 - The highlight that I painted on Ken's windshield reminds me of the inevitable bug collisions experienced on a motorcycle. I reckon it's a good argument for a full face helmet...

Angle Wrangle

1982 - 11x14 Lithograph 

I printed several of these. I did the entire graphics production including sketch, pen and ink, rubylith color overlay, grayscale screens, camera ready mechanical, graphic arts camera work and printing on a 1250 Multilith offset printing press.

Dragon One

1971 - Pen and ink

I love drawing this dragon! It's art therapy for me. This is my first pen and ink of this guy. I found it along with its initial pencil drawing when cleaning out my files while sheltering in place. I finally came up with a name for this mischievous evil looking creation. His name is COVID, after the pandemic we've been dealing with. It helps to have a tangible shape to battle an invisible enemy. And we're always battling evil in this fallen world. When evil rears its ugly head we need God and perseverance to win the war. Psalms 23:4

Traversity

1980 - Metal Etching/Carving

I made two of these (left and right) for my 1979 Kawasaki LTD 1000 motorcycle (below). The two holes align with a gas tank mounting bracket. It started as a pen and ink drawing that was etched in magnesium then I carved it out of the etch panel and painted it gold to match the LTD's blue and gold pinstriping.

Fireworks

1976 - Watercolor

This painting of "my Dragon" is the third of a set of three storyboard watercolors that were inspired by Gandalf's Fireworks at Bilbo's Magnificent Party from The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Log Cabin Church

1981 - Acrylic watercolor on illustration board

This Log Cabin Church painting is my personal favorite work. My adopted mom always said this was my masterpiece. I discovered this beautiful church in 1973. I saw the two buildings as reflecting the Christian Bible "Old Testament" (log cabin) - the Tabernacle was built of cloth and wood, Exodus 26, and "New Testament" (stone building) - "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.", Matthew 16:18 NIV. The ghostly shadow in the painting that's approaching the front of the stone church is symbolic of the evil that constantly challenges us all, Romans 12:21. I took artistic license there and replaced the road that runs directly in front, (see pencil drawing). The original church was held in the small log cabin. The stone church was built later as the congregation grew larger.

One Nation Under God... God is our Light, Savior and Mentor!

From Light to Red, White and Blue

I see the color White, like at the log cabin doors, rock church building and clouds, as symbolizing the Father since white reflects all colors from light (God is reflected in everything throughout the universe. He is the Artist with the largest palette and singular divine infinite and perfect skill.) Isaiah 40:28

In 1981 the stone church front doors were green but they have since been painted red. Red is the better color for the doors because Red symbolizes Jesus's life and purpose. (Jesus's blood is our "door" to Heaven.) John 14:6

I see the color Blue as symbolizing the Holy Spirit like the sky all around us. (God's Spirit interacts with us constantly like the air we breathe... when we are "still", He is readily apparent.) Psalms 46:10

Portal

1971 - Original pencil sketch

2008 - Wacom Intuos3 Drawing Tablet, MS Paint

Jesus Christ's Birth - Such a humble beginning for the Savior of mankind. And what a strong mother Mary must have been to travel over one hundred miles in those days from Nazareth to Bethlehem at nine months pregnant! Portal is a study for a Christmas card. The three stars are symbolic of the Trinity. The upper most star symbolizes the Head, God the Father, the middle star is the Holy Spirit bridging us to the Father in this mortal life and the star closest to Earth, hovering above the manger, represents Jesus who is God compressed into a human, come to Earth as the Father's Son to redeem us from our sins. Jesus Christ is our "door" to Heaven. If we follow Christ's teachings, we will live a second time, eternally in God's Holy presence. Revelations 21:3 

Santa is symbolic of us humans. I attempted to portray the transitional phase from this life to the afterlife with "Santa". Isaiah 65:17 The evil that we dealt with in life is blowing away into flames of the second death. The flames trailing off Santa's eyebrows and hat brim represent the internal self-destructive types of thoughts many of us fight.  The dragon's head in the beard is dissipating into flames symbolic of the external evils that we dealt with in this life's world. Evil is always closer to us in this life than we like. Revelations 12:9 

Notice the fish symbol in Santa's hat. The early Christians used a fish symbol to represent themselves as followers of Jesus. The red coloring covering Santa's head and body is emanating from the fish's mouth. Jesus's blood is our armor against evil. Ephesians 6:11 Jesus Christ came to Earth to save us. Matthew 1:21

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18 NIV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 NIV

The overall Portal theme is that Christ and Christ's legacy lives throughout time. The prophets of the Old Testament told us about Jesus Christ. i.e., Micah 5:2 Even Job, probably the oldest book of the Bible, refers to Jesus. Job 19:25

The Lamp

1974 - Pen and Ink

Grasp and Balance as in "Get a Grip".
 

Reach out when asked about the hope you have with gentleness and respect while holding fast to the light offered by Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:15 

Our world is spinning and moving and has been gradually slowing down since shortly after its creation. Our time here is numbered so we shouldn't be satisfied with all we have learned... the Earth will too soon blanket this life in quiet solace. Isaiah 65

Who of age has not pondered life’s destination... whether it's to a final resting place or another beginning. And who doesn't want truth as the foundation of reason. John 18:37

Believing in something does not make it real... we humans are not that powerful. Truth makes a something real. Truth is what we seek and humility is what we should know. John 4:23

Search Light

climbing the tree  John 3:16-21

what to see

dare i aspire
a journey higher
to find key
beyond the lee
stars of fire
twigs of pyre

every soul be

on bended knee

light we acquire

evil will expire  Revelations 21:1-8

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you."  Luke 11:33-36 NIV

HummerHead

September 1992 - Computer Animation

Commodore Amiga 3000, Imagine 2.0 software - This work won honorable mention in a national Computer Animation competition for the Amiga computer. Unfortunately, this digitized video is made from a VHS tape recording. I no longer have the Amiga computer this was built on that would provide a sharper image.

The overall theme for HummerHead is that much of our inspiration and inventiveness comes to us by studying nature. When we do finally realize how to build a starship, it will be with God's help.

Finish Lines

January 2020 - Retirement is a significant lifestyle paradigm shift not unlike being born again. This second and final phase of my artwork includes new works and updates to website composition.

Works done after retirement

Internet ConnectIon

January 2020 - Net Circuit Board

The above colorful picture is a raster graphics image of my career final PCB design. It's a pseudo partial "X-ray" rough representation of a small portion of a cable modem Internet circuit board. The actual production graphics data is rendered in a CAD tool then manufactured from multiple individual layers of copyrighted proprietary vector graphics artwork (not shown here). You might have a complete and "real" one of these in your home.

COVID

March 2020 - Watercolor

I originally started drawing this dragon in 1971 (see Dragon One). He's always been full of mischief, but I hadn't thought about naming him until deadly COVID-19 hit. I decided to name this guy COVID, after the pandemic we've been battling. This familiar old subject gets me back in the painting saddle after a long hiatus. I will render this same subject in ink and acrylic on acetate next (see Flames below).

Flames

April 2020 - Acrylic and ink on acetate

This animation cel character painting cartoon of COVID was another post-retirement refresher project for me. One thing that you might find interesting about painting on transparent acetate is that the cartoon is viewed from the opposite side that the paint is applied so that the brush strokes aren't visible. That means the highlights are painted first then background last. For example, the flames' red highlights were painted first, orange second and yellow background last. So that in viewing from the opposite side through the clear acetate, the red highlights appear to be on top. In contrast, on canvas and illustration board, two common examples, paint is normally applied background first and highlights last.

Ariel Mermaid

August 2020 - Ink on acetate

This is the second step in producing an animation cel. In this case, I traced a print of Glen Keane's rendering. Usually my first step is a pencil drawing on paper then trace my drawing using a rapidigraph pen or ink brush on the acetate as shown above. The $1.00 cotton garden glove with thumb and two fingers removed is the same one I've used since my Beatles painting. The glove protects the acetate from my skin and the fingers are cut out to help with drawing and painting control.

In the early days there was usually an assembly line team of artists employed to produce each individual cel for a commercial production animated film. First an animator would sketch broad step character positions on paper. Next cel artists would trace the sketches with ink on acetate. The cel artist would bridge the motion sequences between the broad step sketches. The cels were then painted with acrylic by cel painting artists.

September 2020 - Acrylic and ink on acetate 

This is the third and final step in producing a cel. This painting is a present for my toddler granddaughter. She loves this Disney character and calls her "Ariel Mermaid".
 

This work actually combines my Princess Ariel cel with my Sebastian and Flounder cel to make a single picture frame from two cels. Since acetate is transparent, multiple production cel artists were able to work on separate characters at the same time then overlap them for one camera film frame.

Typically there are 24 individual camera frames per second of animated film. Disney's first feature length animated film, Snow White (released 1937), contains hundreds of thousands of drawings done by a crew of 750 artists. This traditional by hand labor intensive method of animation has since been outdated by computers.

Princess Ariel was created by Glen Keane.

Sebastian and Flounder were created by Ron Clements and John Musker.

Princess Ariel, Sebastian and Flounder are copyrighted by Disney.

Next Project...

TBD

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