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The blog has left the building.

A couple of weeks ago, I was surprised and appreciative that I was asked to write a guest blog entry for Scott Kelby’s blog today.  Scott is the President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, the founder of Kelby Training and the editor-in-chief of Photoshop User Magazine.  Scott is also a photographer so his blog is very much geared (pun intended) to that creative pursuit.  I’m sure more than a few of his regular photographer readers are initially wondering if my animal paintings are some sort of freaky new HDR technique, until they read the entry.

You’ll find a number of different takes on keeping a blog.  Some say it’s a waste of time, others swear by it.   In keeping with the theme of the entry on Scott’s blog, I decided awhile ago to just ignore what others say about blogs, and I enjoy writing in mine.  I’ve always liked writing, even in school.  Those that know me best know that I’ve even written a couple of novels, the last one over ten years ago,  although if I’m being honest, I chickened out when it came to really putting in an effort to get them published, but I enjoyed the process immensely.  I’ve been toying with the idea of dusting one of them off, re-editing it with the voice of a little more experience, and giving it another shot, just because I love the story so much.

I also find that I enjoy the ‘keeping a diary’ aspect of a blog.  At the end of each year, I write a summary of what I did and didn’t get done over the past 12 months, and I derive quiet satisfaction from going through my posts, especially since there are always little things I’d forgotten about.

From a marketing standpoint, a blog is supposed to be a good thing.  It gives you something new to post on social media, offers a little more insight into your work, and keeps you focused on your goals.   Personally, I like that it gives me a chance to write a lot more often than I would otherwise.  For those of you that stop by often or even just once in awhile to read it, “Thank you.”

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Tough Decisions

Regular readers will know of my plans to have a booth at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in April.  Sounds like it’s far off, but it’s not.  In the past month or so, I’ve been doing a lot of research into what it takes to set up a booth at a trade/art show and I’ve been reconsidering.

There are pros and cons to everything.  I’m fond of saying that ‘fortune favors the bold,’ but the opposite side of that coin is that ‘fools rush in.’  Considering the latter doesn’t make you a pessimist, just realistic.  In the past 10 years, I’ve made a few business decisions that ended up making my life very difficult, one or two that took a couple of years to recover from financially.  Now that I’m in a better position,  I’ve learned the lesson, and I don’t care to repeat mistakes.

I’ve talked to a few people that have made very good money selling their art at shows.  For all intents and purposes, if your work is in demand, you can do very well at them.  Risks are part of the business, and I think I’ve got a pretty good track record for taking them.  Some have turned out less than ideal, many have turned out well, but I’m starting to recognize which are more likely to bear fruit and which have a greater potential to be barren.

I awoke on Saturday morning with this conundrum rattling around in my head, asking myself a tough question.  “Am I thinking of backing out simply because I’m afraid of this new challenge or are my reasons legitimate?”

Now, they say in business you should always be wary of your image, and put forth the persona of someone who is successful all the time.  I’m finding that feels a little too hypocritical sometimes.   I found out these past few years that many people whom I thought were wildly successful were just skilled at the image they project.  Good for them for managing that and I try to do the same, but on occasion, I wouldn’t mind revealing a little behind the curtain to help somebody else who might be facing the same struggles I did on my way up.  I sure would have liked to have seen some of the real world, instead of thinking I was lagging far behind all the time, when I really wasn’t.

While I do consider myself successful, it’s a relative thing.  I haven’t had to worry about paying the mortgage each month for a very long time, and when my car needs a repair or a big expense comes up, it definitely screws up the budget, but it’s manageable.  I make a good living, but we’re far from being able to have dinner out every night,  take a tropical vacation whenever we feel like it or walk in and buy an 80″ TV on impulse.  And I have a love hate relationship with my credit card.  Years ago, I carried a very nice size balance for quite a long time, and after digging myself out of that hole, I refuse to ever be in it again, so I rarely put anything on credit.

They say you have to spend money to make money, but the caveat should be that you have to HAVE money before you can spend it.  Racking up credit card debt and spending money we don’t have is the whole reason the world is in this economic mess in the first place.  Many businesses have failed because of a ‘spend now, worry about it later’ attitude.  Looking at my upcoming expenses for this Spring, alarm bells have been going off.

Let’s talk about some of the expenses involved with having a booth at a trade show, and I’ll likely forget a few.  There’s renting the booth, electricity, parking, hotel for two nights, credit card transaction software, hardware and fees, and meals.  Things I have to buy include banner and hardware, display hardware, wall racks, easels, and promotional material.   Then the largest expense shows up, and that’s inventory.  Talking to people I know who’ve done trade shows, they all say bring more than you need.  While I wouldn’t bring prints of all of my animal paintings, I would probably bring prints of 7 or 8 of them.  That’s small matted prints, large matted prints, 12X16 canvas prints and a few 18X24 canvas prints, framed and unframed.  Plus art cards and DVDs, which I still have to buy, too.  Canvas prints are expensive.  I would estimate that I would have to bring about 20-30 canvases for three days, not knowing which are going to sell or not,  and many more matted prints of both sizes and LOTS of art cards.  Some people (who don’t do trade and art shows) have suggested that people could just order one if you don’t have it on hand.  People buy at the shows on impulse.  Buyer’s remorse is very real.  I know because I’ve done it, and been there, and multiple sites I’ve read about art shows confirm it.  If you don’t have the product on hand, don’t expect to sell it.

So, while I’m not about to give you my whole art cost structure, let’s just say the cost here is now more than a few thousand dollars.  Here’s the argument I get from others,  “Yes, but think of the money you’ll be making.  You could make twice that.”

That’s true.  The other arguments are that anything I don’t sell, I just bring home and hold onto it for the galleries, and that it’s a great learning experience, and it could be wildly successful, and, and, and…

In the grand scheme of things, it may hurt for awhile, but that expense isn’t all that much, and an investment in the business.  I get that.  But here’s the other shoe.  My work is still selling well in the galleries, but these days, art is not flying off the shelves.  Despite what the stuffed shirts on CNN say, we’re still very much in an economic crisis, and art is a luxury.  Is this the right time to gamble a great deal of money on it?

It should also be noted that this expense doesn’t exist in a bubble.  I’ve also recently realized that I will need to buy TWO new computers this year.  A desktop and a laptop.  The current ones have gotten too old, and with Photoshop CS6 likely to come out this Spring, I’ll need hardware that can run it, especially given that I want to paint larger paintings.  On top of that, there’s likely a not-insignificant tax bill coming in April, despite the fact that I pay installments all year.  I’m also releasing four more paintings this Spring in limited edition canvases (both sizes) and matted prints (both sizes) and have to stock the galleries with those.  And finally, there are those expenses that show up that you don’t expect.  You can’t put out a fire if you’ve drained the well.

Do I think this show would be a valuable experience and benefit to my business?  Absolutely, but I no longer think this is the year to do it.  I’m unwilling to cut corners to save money and have a skeleton bare bones booth.  Putting forward the wrong image with my work would be worse than not being seen there at all.  I’ve spent too many years becoming skilled at my profession to look like a kid with a lemonade stand.

Timing is important in business, and unfortunately, there is no way to know if this is the right decision or not.  I believe in taking risks and being willing to fail,  I’ve done it a lot in the past decade,  but there is a difference between smart risk and foolhardy impatience.   Gut instinct plays a large part in business.  While it was that instinct that told me to take a chance on being a cartoonist and artist in the first place, it was also that which told me not to quit my full-time job until my business could pay my half of our bills.

I plan to attend more trade shows this year, but not as a vendor, so that when I am ready for it, hopefully this time next year, I’ll be armed with more information.  Sometimes the best way to keep moving forward is to not only knowing what to do, but knowing what not to do.  Right now, the timing for this just doesn’t feel right, and as much as I don’t like it, my instinct is telling me to wait.

With all of that in mind,  I’ve decided not to have a booth at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this year, and I’m comfortable that it’s the right decision.

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Gilly

Here’s a painting I just finished this morning, a commission of a Pomeranian named Gilly, who passed away last year.

While I’m happy with the finished painting, the work itself was very difficult.  Unfortunately, the photo reference was a lot less quality than I would usually consent to working with.  The pose was awkward, the photo was out of focus, and his eyes were reflecting the light from the flash.  Anyone who has ever taken a photo of a pet with a flash knows what that looks like and it’s as undesirable in a photo as it is in a painting.  Suffice it to say, this was one of the most challenging paintings I’ve done, and I really didn’t enjoy it all that much, which says a lot about my frustration level, since after all, I was still painting.

As this wraps up my current painting commissions for the moment, I’ll be starting on another Totem painting this week, and since I’ve already got that photo reference ready to go, it should be an enjoyable process.

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The best laid plans of mice and me.

At the beginning of 2011, there were a number of things I set out to do that didn’t get done, primarily because I was busy on projects I hadn’t anticipated.  Nothing monumental, by any means, just some projects I would have liked to have taken on that I never made the time for.  Every success manual you ever read says that you have to have goals and you should write them down, to make them real and remind you of your intentions, but it would seem that whenever I do that, it never turns out quite the way I want.  If I’d held firmly to many of my goals over the years, it would have been self-limiting, because it would have meant saying no to opportunities that drastically changed my career for the better.

I’m an obsessive planner and control freak even for things I know are uncontrollable (which is most things).   Just ask anybody who knows me, spontaneity is not one of my strong suits.  But it’s something I do want to change a little because the alternative takes a lot of effort and energy.  It’s really exhausting and not one of my finer qualities.  About a month ago, my wife and I were in Calgary to do some shopping on a Saturday, and out of the blue, I suggested driving home to Red Deer instead, (another hour each way) to shop there so we could hang out and have lunch with my folks.  Called them up, and they thought it was a great idea, so we headed north on a whim.  The fact that it shocked both my wife and my parents was a bit of a wake-up call for me, that something this minor had become completely out of character for me.  Planning, looking ahead, mapping things out and trying to see all of the variables is a great asset to have when working on projects and deadlines, but it’s an undesirable trait for living life.

I’ve been working my ass off for the past ten years trying to get my business and career to a point where there is enough forward momentum, so that every foot of ground gained, is not simply held because my fingernails are dug into the dirt far enough.  These days, I’m finally able to let go a little without sliding backward, which is giving me a chance to look around and figure out what to do next, without an overwhelming sense of panic.

So what have I got planned for 2012?  Well, there are a few things I know for sure.  First, I’ll be painting.  Animals, people, maybe an experiment or two, but always painting.  I am fortunate to be filled with a deep satisfaction that, right now, that’s the work I’m supposed to be doing and it gives me the most joy.  Editorial cartoons are another given.  Despite what I thought a few years ago, that part of my business is still going strong, and while following self-important, overpaid, blowhard politicians around with a shovel all year annoys the hell out of me on a regular basis, I do like drawing cartoons and the bills must be paid.  There will be at least one more DVD from PhotoshopCAFE coming in 2012, maybe even two.  I’ll definitely be selling my wares at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in April, and depending on how that goes, I might book another trade show for the Fall as well.  And so that I am free to say ‘Yes’ to whatever right opportunities show up, I’ll be saying ‘No’ a lot to those I’m certain are the wrong ones.

Of course,  I’ll work long hours, will still plan a little too obsessively, and will continue to work hard all year.  After all, as the scorpion said to the frog, “it’s just my nature.”

When it comes to the rest of 2012, however,  I’m just going to take deep breaths, keep moving forward, and see what happens.

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The upside of 2011

Bighorn Sheep TotemAll things considered, 2011 was a great year.  While every year will have it’s challenges, I’ve been fortunate that I’m honestly able to see each year of the past decade as having continual forward momentum.  The work I’m doing is far beyond what I had hoped for when I first started in this profession and I’m very grateful for it.

I became nationally syndicated in September of 2001, sending cartoons out across Canada each week, and got very few bites.  For two years, I had no more than three newspapers, paying the bare minimum rate, and I will admit to almost giving up on it more than a few times.  With a full-time job to pay the bills, I had to get up at 5:00am each morning to get a cartoon out before I went to work.  When I came home, I had to sketch in the evening and work on the weekends in order to manage it all.  Finally I started making progress, got a few more papers, took advantage of other opportunities, and about six years ago, I was able to leave my job and play this game full-time.

Through it all was my ever supportive wife, Shonna, and I’m incredibly grateful that she never told me not to do any of this.  The only caveat given when I went full-time was that if I couldn’t pay my half of the mortgage and bills, I had to go back to work.  Canmore is an expensive place to live and we couldn’t do it on one income.  Fortunately, it never came to that, and each year has been better than the one before.  At the time, it was an incredible struggle, but in retrospect, I’m glad I had to go through it because it makes the present all that much sweeter.

If my 2001 self could see the work I’m doing now, he’d be pleasantly surprised, and I try to think about that when I’m having a bad day or feeling sorry for myself because of a heavy workload or when money is tight.  So far, I’ve not only gotten what I wanted, I’ve gotten much more.  Best of all, I discovered that I loved getting up at 5:00am to work, I still sketch in the evenings, and being self-employed means you often work weekends anyway, so I was already used to the routine.  Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Here’s a recap of my professional highlights of this past year, some of which I’d forgotten about until I went back through the blog entries month by month.

iPad Painting: Started playing around with this in January, and damn if it hasn’t been a lot of fun figuring it all out.  Ended up trying four different styli and half a dozen apps.  It would seem that I’ve finally settled on the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, the Nomad minibrush, and the procreate app.  The combination of those three gives me the best results, and while I don’t consider anything I paint on the iPad to be finished work, I would go so far as to call it advanced sketching, and I plan to keep doing it.

PhotoshopCAFE DVDs:  In March, I finished my first DVD, called Cartoon Illustration Techniques in Photoshop.  Easily one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever worked on.  Having only done a little bit of sound and video editing for a failed Flash animation project a few years back, it was a struggle.  But I finished it, it went into production, and is selling well.  I’ve heard from many who bought the DVD that have learned a lot from it and complimented me on my instruction, so I’m guessing I didn’t do so bad a job.

The second DVD, Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop, was a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable as I wasn’t teaching raw Photoshop beginners.  It was more about the painting than the software and while it was a challenge, the difficulty I went through with the first DVD paid off while recording the second as there were few problems I hadn’t already solved.  Recording one DVD this year would have been enough of a milestone, but I never expected to record two, and to be very pleased with both of them.

Cartoon Ink: While my old website was ‘fine,’ it had become difficult to use and it was no longer the image I wanted to project.  While I had always done my own website in the past, this time I realized one of the most important business practices that so many have learned before me.  Hire professionals to do their job, so you can focus on doing yours.  With that in mind, I hired Erik Bernskiold of XLD Studios in Sweden to create a new website for me.  I knew Erik’s work and know him personally, so I was confident he would deliver much more than I could create myself.  With the help of Elizabeth Gast at Design by Firgs, another colleague and good friend who consulted on the site, and created an improved evolution of my logo, I was very pleased with the final logo and website and would highly recommend both of their work.  The time I saved was well worth the money spent and reduced stress.

Wacom: I began to form a relationship with the great folks at Wacom at Photoshop World in 2010 after I won the Guru Awards for two of my Totem paintings and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Having used their tablets since the late 90’s, you won’t find a bigger fan, so I’m very pleased to be working with them from time to time.

Over the course of the year, I’ve been featured in the Wacom eNews, have represented the company and demonstrated their products at one of Scott Kelby’s seminars in Calgary, and have been a featured guest on two of their one-hour Wacom webinars.  The people I’ve worked with at Wacom have been incredibly supportive and are absolute pros at what they do and I look forward to a continuing relationship with them.

The photo shown here is Joe Sliger demonstrating the new Wacom Inkling for me at Photoshop World this year.  He is also one of the moderators of the webinars.

Island Art Publishers: In July of this year, I began a licensing deal for some of my Totem paintings to be produced on art cards.  These are distributed throughout Western Canada and the northwestern U.S. and time will tell whether this arrangement bears any fruit.  An artist friend once told me that art cards are often your best advertising, because not only does the person buying it see your work, but so does the person receiving it.  You may not make much money early on, but it’s enough to get your work out there to a market that otherwise might not see it.  And the cards look really good.

Photoshop World: While it’s true that I didn’t learn much about technique or improving my work at this year’s Photoshop World in Las Vegas, I still think it was worth attending because of the networking opportunities.  Having recorded two DVDs for PhotoshopCAFE, it was great to finally meet the owner of the company in person, and see their operation on the Expo Floor.  I was able to meet a few more of the Wacom folks in person, and talk with other industry professionals I otherwise might not have had the opportunity to talk to.  Online interaction is fine, but it doesn’t compare with face-to-face conversations.  So while I won’t be going back as an attendee, I still think this year’s trip was well worth it.

knmadventuresAt the time, I was doing some illustration work for wildlife photographer and instructor, Moose Peterson as well, and being able to go over sketches with him in person was a real treat, as most of the time this would have all been done online.  The other benefit of the Photoshop World conference is that I get to meet with so many talented photographers, many of whom I consider close friends.  For somebody who relies on great photo reference for my painted work, their skills and talent are often one of my most valuable resources, not to mention their generosity with their work, and the support they offer for mine.

Paintings: Saved the best for last.  I am so very pleased with the progress I’ve made on my painted work this year.  The first half of the year, I was so busy with the DVDs and other work that I only painted one animal in my Totem series, the Great Horned Owl.  When I realized this in the latter half of the summer, I was ticked off.  The work I love to do most, I had placed in last priority.  In retrospect, however, I’m glad it happened because when I realized it, I vowed it would never happen again and it stoked the fire.  The end result is that from September to December, I’ve painted a number of new images and I feel they are my best work to date.

I had been becoming bored with painted caricatures of people in the past couple of years, but recently, I’ve realized that it wasn’t people I was bored with painting, just caricatures of them.  Beginning with a couple of iPad paintings, I’ve discovered how very much I enjoy painting portraits, and I’ve done a couple of pieces recently that I’ve really enjoyed.  Inspired by the work of Drew Struzan and others, I think I’ll be painting a lot more portraits of people, if nothing more than for the sheer enjoyment of it.  While style is always evolving, I think my paintings now have a definitive look that is mine, whether it’s people or animals, and it’s one I want to continue to develop and refine.

I’m now getting commissions to paint pet portraits and caricature this year, and it’s really enjoyable work.  The painting of Don Diego that I did for my DVD, the memorial to Titus the cat, and to being able to finally create a real painting for my folks of their dog, Bailey, it’s looking like this could be a big part of my work in the coming years.  Working on another commission at the moment, and having fun with it.

My real passion, however, is still the Animal Totems.  Nothing I’ve ever done in my career has filled me with as much joy as that I get from painting these whimsical caricatures of wildlife.  Not only are they fun to work on, but they sell well in the galleries which means others like them, too.  I’ve been fortunate that a number of wildlife photographers I know have been willing to sell me the license rights to use their photos as reference, or have enjoyed my work enough to want to trade me the use of their images for canvas prints of the painting when it’s done, both of which I’m more than willing to do.

Humpback Whale TotemEach of them is my favorite for different reasons, but the one I was most happy with this year was the Humpback Whale Totem.  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve wanted to paint it for so long or that it was such a challenge to paint an animal with no fur or hair, and the end result lived up to my expectations.  Either way, these paintings are the only work I’ve ever done that I still enjoy months and even a year after I’ve painted one.  That alone tells me this is the work I’m meant to do, at least for now.

As you can see, I’ve had a very good year, and I’m grateful for it.  For all of you that follow my work, your messages of support here on the blog, through social media, and email are all appreciated.  It’s a solitary existence, this freelance lifestyle, and it’s nice to know that others are getting enjoyment out of the work I do.  And if you’re struggling with your own creative endeavors, whether you’ve just begun or are just trying to keep going, I would urge you not to give up.  It may not seem like it in the moment, but I assure you, if it’s something you love to do, it’s worth the effort.

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The downside of 2011.

I decided to break up my ‘year end’ blog entry into three separate posts.  This is the first one, and the one I didn’t want to write.

Part of the job of a freelancer is to promote yourself like crazy.  Websites, blogs, social media sites, forums, it’s practically a part-time job just getting all of your work out there so it can be seen.  One of the other things you’re supposed to do is put on an optimistic, confident and successful face so that people will think you’ve got everything together.  You have to be your own PR guy, trying to make sure people see all of your latest work, without coming across as a narcissist, something I have no idea if I’m doing well or not.

You’re not supposed to talk about the bad things because you don’t want a reputation as a complainer.  Unfortunately, it can also make people think that nothing ever goes wrong.  I may get to do what I love for a living, but it’s far from perfect.  I’m an artist, so naturally that means I’m neurotic and more than a little obsessive-compulsive.  Working alone at home all the time, you live inside your head a lot, and that’s not always a nice place to be when things aren’t going right.

Social media is a necessary evil, but there are days I’d rather not deal with it.  I’ve come close to deleting my Facebook account more than once this year because being self-employed, you have to be on it a lot, even when you don’t want to be.

Being an editorial and political cartoonist, some days it feels like you wake up in the morning, have a shower, and then wade into mud and shit.  There are many days I hate drawing cartoons about politics and politicians, because you see the same patterns of waste and corruption being repeated year after year, regardless of which party is in power.  But it’s a job, like any other.  You do it, because that’s what pays the mortgage.

Looking back on the blog entry earlier this year that talked about my big plans for 2011 made me laugh out loud.  Apparently, I was determined to learn to sculpt, to get familiar with Adobe Illustrator (again) and to learn a lot more 3D in Photoshop.  I have all of the materials, software, books and resources to work on all three of those, and yet, I never made them a priority.  Put those in the FAIL column.

In that same entry, however, I vowed to paint every chance I got, to work less and play more, and to be less cynical, each of which is still a work in progress.  My wife and I did manage to go on a small vacation to Vancouver Island in June and it was wonderful, one of our best to date, so I count that as a victory on the ‘play more’ side of things, but I didn’t camp at all this year, and that’s something I regret.  Camping is something I love to do, and I didn’t make time for it even once, nobody’s fault but my own.  I didn’t really work less, in fact, I worked very hard all year, but I did manage to say ‘No’ more often when it came to work I didn’t want to do.

As for being less cynical, let’s just say I’m making progress.  I’ve seen some of the best sides of people this year, and I want to focus more on that, but I’m still too judgmental for my own good about people’s seemingly endless need to keep digging deeper holes for themselves while blaming it on somebody else, hence the reason I’m such a Scrooge this time of year.  I’m not a violent person by any means, but I do have my angry and depressed periods on a regular basis, and I take many things way too personally.  But I’m able to let it go a lot easier these days, and I’ll attribute that to getting older and not wanting to waste my time on things I can’t change.  Nobody’s perfect, especially me, and life’s too short.  So I’m still going to work on being less cynical, but I’m going to try to refrain from beating myself up about it.

One of the absolute worst days of my year was the deadline for finishing my first DVD from PhotoshopCAFE.  I had been dealing with almost constant back pain in early Spring for about 2 months, despite regular yoga, stretching, exercise and massage.  Sitting for longer than 20 minutes was excruciating.  Recording the DVD was an incredibly stressful exercise, and it seemed that everything I did while editing it went wrong.  Knowing I was about to turn 40 had sunk me into a deep depression, as my midlife crisis was peaking.  Worst of all, our cat Maya was in failing health and nothing could be done to help her.  So on the night of March 18th, I was up the entire night without any sleep at all in my office, editing the DVD for the next day’s deadline, watching our very sick and disoriented cat in the office with me,  knowing we were putting her to sleep the next day, and my back in excruciating pain.  I alternated between editing a section, getting up to stretch, trying to comfort Maya, and wiping away a lot of tears.  This went on the entire night, and even though I finished the DVD very early the next morning, I really didn’t give a damn, because that afternoon, we had to go put our cat down.  Needless to say, I didn’t celebrate my 40th birthday a week later.

And still, I consider 2011 a great year.  Stuff happens in everybody’s life, and given what some friends have dealt with this year, mine was relatively easy.  Incidentally, I’ve discovered that my recurring back pain was entirely stress related and I thankfully have had very few recurrences.

Freelancing is a tough gig, no doubt about it, and some people can’t handle it, because if you’re not always working, you’re thinking about work, even when you’re on vacation.  Balance is an illusion, at least as far as I’m concerned.  I know enough people in this ‘job’, that it’s a pretty universal trait.  But everybody has it tough, no matter what they do for a living.

So if you follow artists like me, you’ll read a lot of inspiring messages that tell you that you can do whatever you want if you work hard enough, and I firmly believe that’s true, but never believe it’ll be easy.  This is the hardest job I’ve ever had.  You rarely get time off, 12-14 hour days are the norm, you don’t get vacation pay, stat holidays or benefits, and your income is directly related to how hard you work and scramble.  So as much as it’s mostly good, sometimes even great, there’s a lot of crap, too, and you just have to live and work through it, and keep moving forward.  And still, I wouldn’t want to do anything else than what I’m doing now, even knowing I’ll probably have to live through bad and worse days ahead, too.

So there’s a little dose of reality.  As much as I’ll post that everything is great, and often it is, there’s a lot I don’t talk about, because at the end of the day, this is a business, and that would just be bad PR.

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Finishing Touches

This is a video I recorded while painting the portrait of Harry Morgan.  All of the brushwork has been sped up, and much of it is very subtle, but it gives you an idea of the detail involved with a painting like this.  I felt this video would be better with music, so I bought the license rights to this piece, appropriately entitled, ‘Fond Memories’ by Heather Fenoughty.

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Portrait of Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan passed away this month, peacefully in his sleep at the age of 96 years old.  While he had many movie and television credits in his career, he was most known for the character of Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M.A.S.H. , the role he won an Emmy for in 1980.  The impact of the series on our culture is well known and to this day, I still enjoy watching it in syndication, even though I’m sure I’ve seen every episode more than a few times.

The combination of writing and acting talent on that show was incredibly rare, and what I loved most about the character of Colonel Potter, was that while he was regular army, he had a great sense of humor, and a big heart.  When I heard that Morgan had passed away, I was saddened to hear it, but not too much.  Hard to feel bad for a man who lived a long life doing the work he loved.  Better to be inspired by his example, than mourn his loss.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting his portrait.

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Pomeranian – iPad Painting

This is an iPad painting for a piece I’ve been commissioned to do.  It will end up as a fully finished painting in the next few weeks.

When it comes to using the iPad for paintings and drawing, I’ve come to think of it as an advanced sketching device, which is why I’m not putting colour into very many of these.  Since this will be brought into Photoshop, pasted into a higher res image, and painted over, spending a lot of time on colour for a commission like this seemed like a waste of time.

One of the reasons I love painting and sketching on the iPad is that it forces me to tighten up an image as much as possible at very low resolution, with fewer tools than are available in Photoshop.  That way, when I do begin to paint over it, the likeness is pretty solid.

This really is a lot of fun, and after trying a number of styli and apps, I’ve now got my preferred iPad tools down.  For this painting, I used the procreate app, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, and the Nomad Mini Brush.