Tickle me with taxes

Today I received a new portfolio book, in which I can present my artwork.  It'll hold 8 1/2 x 11" prints, which is on the small side, but not too out of the norm I believe (digital portfolios are actually replacing physical portfolios more and more these days).  I also received some pencils.  I actually have to order pencils through the mail, because for some reason my local art supply stores don't stock the HB lead, which is my favorite!


Today I learned a new appreciation for being an artist, in that I hardly got to do any artwork today.  Instead I was getting paperwork together for my yearly tax return!  But here is yet another update on the current project, such as it is!  :)  Enjoy.

Where can I hide?

Here is the latest progress on my digital painting for the t-shirt artwork!

Yes, I'll be putting some clothing onto the woman.  This is the "airport screener's" edition of this artwork.  Stripped down and looking for somewhere to hide.  Well, come back soon and all of this will be looking better.  :)  There will be a horror theme to this image, so, lots more work left to be done.

A store pending?

Today I started taking a look at www.zazzle.com... I'm thinking about making some of my artwork available for purchase, on t-shirts, magnets, coffee mugs, etc.!  So I've ordered a few items from Zazzle, because I want to see what the products are like.  Zazzle of course allows an artist to set up an online store, selling all sorts of items with their artwork on them, many of the items being customizable.  Zazzle prints the artwork onto the products, per each customer order, and is able to ship within one day, from what I understand.  I was pretty impressed with the website, with its depth of functionality and ease of use.  I found one artist's Zazzle store that I was particularly fond of, called Retropolis Travel Bureau. There are some very nice looking items for sale there, all with a "retro-future" style of artwork.  The artist is named Bradley W. Schenck.


The question is how much of my previous artwork is suitable to be put on a t-shirt or button or whatever.  I'll have to evaluate the pieces, and meanwhile, I've already started work on an image which will be intentionally t-shirt friendly.  Below are some rough, early sketches.  I plan to make two versions of the artwork...  one to be a painted raster image (shown on the right), and the other to be a vector image using solid colors.  I'm imagining that these graphics will be something preferred by the ladies (ladies who like to crawl around in graveyards and attack zombies for their blood).

I hope to have more news on this soon!  Stay tuned.

Technical illustration

This is another older technical graphic that I did for USFilter (now Siemens Water Technologies Corp):

The equipment is called a TES Filter, used for water treatment.  The image was made in an earlier version of 3D Studio Max (today I am using Blender / LuxRender for 3d modeling, which has nicer global illumination capability).  The twin purple "lightsabers" in the middle were not actually borrowed from Samuel L. Jackson, but were some kind of ultraviolet treatment I believe.  
I just received a communication from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.  He wants me to meet him in his high rise office suite.

R.L. Stine

When I moved away from Texas as a teenager, I received as a going away gift from my best friend Dan, a copy of R. L. Stine's book, "How to be Funny".  I've made it a point to hold on to this book not just because of its sentimental value, which is abundant, but also because I still enjoy reading it at my increasingly advanced age.

A page from R.L. Stine's book, "How to be Funny".

Illustrated by Carol Nicklaus, the book introduces a host of original characters, whose studied efforts and foibles are used as examples on how to be funny, how not be funny, and how to survive the consequences of both.  This book introduced me to the word "bloopgaloop" for the first time.  (I find occasion to use this word once in a sentence every day, which was surprisingly easier back when I worked the phone in customer service for aftermarket parts sales).   I'll always treasure my surge in popularity at my high school cafeteria, as I implemented Wilma Wallaby's "Double Surprise Backward Bump & Spill",  not to mention my consumption of her several page dissertation on how to tell a two-line grape joke.  And I would credit my perfecting of Harrison Babble's "10-step Classroom Bumbling Entrance" as my sole accomplishment at my karate dojo! 
R. L. Stine is one of the world's leading children's book authors, although unfortunately this book was my only real exposure to his work.  I think you can still find copies of this book on Amazon.com, although I note that some copies have a different cover than the version that I have.  I wouldn't mind having this book imprinted on my eyeballs as I bloopgaloop and greepgreep my way down the merry lane of life.  

Someone shot my pack pig

Here's a sneak peek at the digital painting that I'm working on currently! It's a science fiction scene, and still pretty rough:

I had started this painting a while back ago, with the intention that it would be the home page image for my website and blog.  But I abandoned it, on the grounds that it was not going to be done quickly enough to be ready for the website going online.  Ironically, the image that I ended up creating and using, turned out not to be any faster! There's nothing easy about painting a purple woman in peril.  Anyway, I would like to see this other painting completed, as I think it kind of hints at an interesting story.  


Also, I've pretty much decided that I won't be finishing a previous painting that I showed to you (the one of the woman getting run over by some recreational enthusiasts at the park).  I think there's too much going on in the picture, and there's problems with foreshortening, so it's really a mess.  Also, I was receiving hate mail from the Society of Really Pleasant Guys Who Ride Skateboards, and I am uncomfortable having those people angry at me.  I wouldn't want to be brought before the Board of People Pedaling with Polite Vigor, and so I am happy to go back to the image shown above, instead! 

At the Michener

This morning I went to the James A. Michener Art Museum, in Doylestown, PA.


One of my favorite new pieces there, was a large, elaborate wooden door and frame, created by artist Phillip L. Powell.  (A photo can be seen here).  As the photo demonstrates, the door can apparently be opened, which I didn't even try to do.  I would have felt awfully foolish, opening this big door slowly, and then peering around on the opposite side, waiting for the inevitable arrival of the security guards.  Anyway, the door was painted with a subtle combination of red, orange and yellow paint, and was a pleasure to look at up close.  Apparently the doorway was originally created by the artist for a special exhibit, and afterwards wound up being installed at the artist's home in New Hope, Pa.  I suspect that his neighbors had a serious case of door-envy.  My neighbors envy me too, but it's a different kind of envy (ahem).  No further comment on that is available.


Pennsylvania Impressionism is a heavy influence on the works at the Michener Art Museum.  I enjoy reading of the history of this movement, while looking through the galleries.  Some of the Pennsylvania Impressionists became known around the country for their work, winning awards in many places, including in California.  Unfortunately for the Impressionists, the Armory Exhibit held in New York City, in the year 1913, brought the Modern Art movement to the attention of Americans for the first time, and Impressionism was quickly relegated to the backseat, in favor of this radical, new, and less representational art.  As the Michener Art Museum explains it, the Impressionistic style became viewed as being "quaint" and "backward looking", and lost popularity for many decades.  But a surge of local interest was generated again in the 1980's and 1990's, thanks no doubt in part to the Michener's recognition of the Impressionist artists and their talent.  Then along came that guy who carved the ornate door, giving everyone a jealousy of his hard wood.  Sheesh.  

Dorothea Tanning

Today I started handwriting a personal letter to the great artist, Dorothea Tanning.  Dorothea is best known for her contribution to the Surrealism movement, primarily back in the 1940's.  Bless her heart, Dorothea is still with us today at 100 years old.  I contacted the folks at Dorothea's personal website, asking if it would be possible to send Dorothea a letter. I hope to hear back from them.  It would be an honor to be able to make a small connection with one of the giants of my favorite period of art. It's been a source of grief to know that most of the artists that I admire have long since passed away, so it's no small thing to know that Dorothea is out there somewhere.  I have enjoyed viewing Dorothea's painting "Birthday" quite a number of times at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


Dorothea's artwork can be viewed at www.dorotheatanning.org

How to be real (really)

I appreciate what Linda Lee Cadwell wrote about her husband, in the book "Bruce Lee - Artist of Life" (by Tuttle Publishing).  She wrote that Bruce "refused the path of the image-makers and, instead, worked to expose and express his true self."


I'm reasonably sure that I've exposed myself before, but as an artist, have I expressed who I really am?

Bruce Lee, in Warner Bros.' "Enter the Dragon".

It's often been said that in order to create abstract or figurative art, or any type of art that contains "expression", that one must first learn to draw realistically.  But last night I was in an online forum, and someone pointed out, "Who starts by drawing realistically?  Most artists start drawing when they are three years old".  Indeed, if we draw a realistic image of a tree, we are expressing the nature of the tree, and not ourselves.  Essentially we've been taught that we must be marketable, must be respected by certain other persons of fine reputation, and that we must thus follow a predestined path towards becoming an artist.  Well, perhaps we should not strive to be artists, as people commonly define the term.  Bruce Lee shunned the traditional world of martial arts, and literally reinvented the fighting practice, according to his nature and need.  I think that we should strive to be so unique and expressive like that.  And if it matters, Bruce ended up doing rather well by himself financially in the process (or at least was about to, had he lived longer).  


Linda went on in her writing, "I feel confident that because Bruce chose the path of self-knowledge over accumulation of facts, and the path of self-expression over image enhancement, that he did reach his destiny with a peaceful mind."  Please refer back to this paragraph if you notice a dwindling accumulation of facts in this blog.  There's a reason for it.  :)

Dumpster diving

Ok, I really dug this one out of the archives.  I switched on my old computer, from TWO generations ago, and booted up an old application called The Games Factory.  The photo attached depicts an unrealized project that I had been building... sort of a virtual trade show:

You can click the photo for a larger, more personally offensive view!


This trade show was interactive;  I had created a walk cycle for the female character, and you could move her around the screen to investigate the different booths.  Doing that would bring up information boxes, regarding water treatment products designed and manufactured by USFilter (the company that I was working for at the time).  You could even walk the character off the side of the screen, and enter another room containing more booths.  I enjoyed that concept, that of simple exploration and of not knowing what wondrous things were lurking just off screen.  It reminded me of playing the old Atari 2600 "Adventure" game, or a particular digital disaster that I once cobbled together with Electronic Art's awesome "Adventure Construction Set".  


If the user of the application were caught trying to do something constructive, the woman would throw her hands up in the air and say, "What, more red tape?" 


I had to take a picture of the computer monitor in order to capture this image.  The decrepit computer had failed to recognize my jump drives, and then froze up completely.  The decaying piece of trash may have heaved its last breath!  But I was at least able to capture one old treasure from it still.     


My next post will be a lengthy apology for my misuse of the word "treasure".  :)

When art is painful

My sister Michelle pointed this website out to me today:  www.theannainstitute.org

This site showcases the artwork of Anna Caroline Jennings, a woman who died in a mental hospital, after years of being sexually abused, misdiagnosed and just generally treated as if she were not human.  Her medical and legal expenses totaled around $4,000,000.  And she was just ONE person in our illustrious health care system. Hmmmmm.... scary! And sad.   I look forward to when our health care system is focused on real and natural healing, and not in making someone rich based on their forcing ill people to be even more sick than before (or even worse, more dead than before).    
Here is one of Anna's impressive paintings:

I notice that the central figure in Anna's painting above, is surely based on the left most woman in Henri Matisse's painting, "The Dance", as shown here:

Well, this has been a decidedly depressing post!  Cheer up.  Maybe tomorrow I'll write about edible body paints (read about those today)!
Catch ya later.  :)

New gallery image

I posted a new image to my website's gallery today!

I painted this digitally in Painter 11.  Of course my website is www.michaelricketson.com.
You can click the image for a larger view.
The woman's image is based on photographic references of two different women, neither of whom I know.    Previously also included in this painting, was a small team of space beavers patching a structural anomaly in the trans-dimensional dam that they had built to regulate the downstream flow of space-time.  But I erased that part.


Thanks for looking!

What color should I be today?

My friend Jacquelene showed me a video today, of some of the work done by the Toronto Ottawa BodyPainting company (she has a friend, Billy, who apparently runs the show there).  Here's the video:   




At first I was wondering, what would be the value of creating a time consuming painting, which would only be rinsed off in a warm shower?  But then I remembered that not everyone is the recluse that I am... Indeed, the company performs their artwork at various social functions, parties, and conferences, and I have no doubt that they're the hit of the show.  My favorite body paint designs are the ones using highly saturated colors and high contrast values.  If the painted customer can smile and dance around and act silly after the work is complete, all the better!


I can just picture myself doing body painting.  As an artist, it would give me a warm glow to have my canvas actually talk back to me, and tell me that I suck.  I wouldn't be above providing a little feedback myself, happily using my paintbrush as a pointer while I comment on various sagging features of my critically-minded canvas.  Yes, I would last about twelve minutes in this line of work.  Then my living canvas would tell me exactly where I could put my highly saturated colors.  


Some more great examples of this type of work can be seen at the relevant company website:  www.torontobodypainting.com

Whose teeth are these in the sink?

I just received, and watched, Stacie Ponder's film, "Ludlow" (thank you Cynthia!).  :-)  It's a change-up from Stacie's humorous horror blog, "Final Girl", in its sobering depiction of a woman pushed to her psychological limits from physical abuse.  

Shannon Lark in "Ludlow".

If the effect of blood in a movie such as Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" makes you laugh exuberantly, then the blood in "Ludlow" has the effect of making you queasy, with the film's serious atmosphere and sad subject matter.  The film stars Shannon Lark as Krista.  Krista is fleeing from her battering boyfriend Steve, towards what is assuredly a better future, planned for her by her sister Maddy.  At some point in the midst of Krista's pain, reality dissolves into a cognitive brouhaha, and the understood fate of all involved is about as clean as my hands before dinner.  My question about the film is, how much of the disorientation that Krista experiences is merely a result of the copious drugs and alcohol that she downs, and when do the other sinister forces come into play (including psychological trauma inflicted by Steve)?  Life can be a lot more frightening when you're looking at it clearly, for what it is.  I know my life is scary like that.  Anyway, two things that I know is that A) I really enjoyed the film, and B) I don't want to use the bathroom sink after Shannon Lark does.  Of course you understand that I am a complete stranger before my own bathroom sink.


Okay, I'm kidding about my hygiene habits.  But if you'd like to partake of a somber indie film with a relevant topic for today, then "Ludlow" is for you!  Afterwards, you can do what I did (fantasize about beating up mean people).   :-)

Come back here with my Hula Hoop

Here is one of my most favorite of paintings, the famous "The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street", painted by Giorgio de Chirico in the year 1914.  (Did people exist back then)?  

Many questions come to mind when viewing this disturbing work. Such as, what happened to the perspective?  What lies within the darkened archways of the buildings?  Who is the mysterious man approaching our young heroine?  Is it someone that she met on Facebook?  Should we call the police?  None of these questions matter as much as the central debate:  Where is she going with that stolen Hula Hoop?  (You don't think she'd be so cavalier with one of her own toys, do you?  Well, you can tell that I don't have kids).  


I know, it's not really a Hula Hoop, as with just minimal research, I find that what she is doing is called "hoop trundling" (good grief). I've never witnessed anyone partaking of this sport, but then, it's not like I ever go outside either.  And with obvious good reason. De Chirico served the Surrealists well in the inspiration department, with his memorable portrayals of bleak city vistas and mental anguish compounded by loneliness and the inevitable parting of friends.  I highly recommend checking out more of his works,  if you're not too familiar with him.  Then you too will understand that going outdoors is wholly overrated.   

A Day at the Library

When I was young, my interest in art was almost exclusively limited to comic strips.  That's what I read, and that's what I drew.  But when I was in my early twenties,  a friend asked if I was interested in Modern Art.  I had never given it much thought for some reason, but felt open to exploring it a bit.  So one day at the library, I opened a book on artist Salvador Dali, and saw these two paintings side by side:

The paintings are (top) "Dismal Sport" and (bottom) "The First Days of Spring", by Dali.

My impression upon viewing these two paintings was that I had seen these images before, but I had been so young at the time, that I couldn't recall the actual event or circumstances.  Some time later, I was surprised to read what Dali's thoughts were, when he painted "Dismal Sport".  He was visualizing images "which I (Dali) could not localize precisely in time or space but which I knew with certainty I had seen when I was little".    (Ref.- "Dali", by Dawn Ades).  

I immediately loved these paintings when I saw them at the library that day, and my appetite for Modern Art was realized.  There was something about those clear blue skies meeting the hard artificial concrete, which brought out the dream images so easily and in full color.  Before long I would also admire Giorgio De Chirico, Rene Magritte, Henri Rousseau and Paul Klee.  Sometime after that I started appreciating horror comics art, with its blood stained indulgences in peril and alluring excitement. We'll pretend that never happened, at least for today.  Modern Art rocks! 

Helpful(?) tips on digital painting

I thought I'd talk about today, some of the key techniques that I use, while working on a digital painting.  Especially for those times when you get stuck on a painting, and aren't sure what's going wrong, it's helpful to make sure that certain techniques are being implemented in your work. This will help to keep you moving forward productively.  Here are some of the things that I find useful:


1)  Emphasize values strongly.  If you're painting from a photo reference, don't paint too strictly what you see, as photos often can lack interesting detail.  When your painting is looking too flat, you need to play up the value range.  Be sure that you understand the forms that you're painting, and accordingly, increase your contrasts of light and dark.  Even on a flat surface, make the parts of that surface which are farthest from the light source, darker.  Just be careful if you're painting a young woman's face though, as any extraneous lines or sharp plane breaks will make her look older.


2)  When you increase or decrease the value of the color that you're painting with, you often need to increase the saturation.  This prevents your colors from becoming gray and ugly.  Basically, any color that in value, is above or below the middle value, needs to be more saturated than the color with the middle value.


3)  Be sure that a value range is addressed on a large scale, across the entire painting.  Don't just create value ranges in small areas, such as on each arm or leg of a figure.  This large range of values, created first, will become the middle value for each local part of the painting.  To accomplish this in Painter 11, I like to add a new layer on top of the stack, set the layer mode to "Multiply", and then paint with a middle value color over the entire figure, applying more pen pressure to the dark side or area of the body, of course.  Then you can collapse the layers, and go in to each area of the figure and add form and cast shadows, as required.


Man, this post is getting dry.  Let's break for something different:

Well, that was certainly a distraction.  Ok, back to the list:


4)  Vary your colors across the surface of an object.  This increases realism.  Don't just paint with red.  Mix in some splashes of red-purple and red-orange on the same object.  I like to grab a color from an area of the image with the eyedropper, make an slight adjustment to the hue, and then paint with the new color in a low opacity, over that same area, and then blend it in a bit.  


5)  Make sure that your initial drawing is correct, regarding perspective, proportions and anatomy, before you start painting.  It's easy to think that you'll correct any problems in the initial drawing during the painting process, but this really eats up time and can be frustrating enough to make you quit a painting.  I struggle with retaining the good aspects of a drawing in the messy process of painting, but still it's best to get the drawing right, before painting.    


6)  Don't give up on a painting too soon.  For me at least, every painting reaches a point in which it looks like a disaster that can't be saved.  But in the digital medium, a painting is never truly dead!  Mistakes are always open to being repaired.  It's just a matter of having the willingness to make the effort.


Also I must stress that you have the proper equipment for digital painting.  If you don't have a pen and tablet, and a software program that lets you tilt the canvas while you're painting, you don't know what you're missing!  Go get them.


Well, that's it for today's post.  If you want, scroll back up and help that guy with his Speedo.

Ink Splatters

I've been doing a little practice with the dip pen.  Here are some sketches that I did of a few of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters:

I remember reading about how when his favorite dip pen was due to cease being manufactured, Schulz bought up the entire remaining pen inventory from the company, which must have been in the thousands of pieces or something.   Probably a safe investment for him, as the comic was doing pretty well I understand.  ;)  

A certain backlog

Recently I've been asked if I would be drawing any more comic strips.  That's interesting, because having started this blog recently, it's got me to thinking about writing creatively more often.  And of course, the essence of comic strips is the writing, not merely the drawing.  So I've been thinking myself that I should get back into the comic strip scene.  I have a stack of loose, undrawn ideas for comics (sorry for the blah photo!):

So will I break out the dip pen and India ink again?  Sure, why not!  But I will surely re-design the characters, for this fourth go-around.  That'll likely mean re-drawing the previously made strips.  


I was thinking about the nature of the comics that I write, and the main theme seems to be that of people tormenting each other.  That seems too negative an approach, on the surface I suppose, but certainly it's a valid strategy for the medium.  It embraces character and conflict, the essence of a story.  But at the same time, it would be good to know that the characters are decent humans, and that they do care about each other.  That's something that I want to strive to portray better.  And, taken as a whole, are the comic strips that I draw an actual story?  Do the characters reflect on their past experiences, or at least seem capable of doing so?  Do the characters grow and change?  That suggests that the comics are drawn on a sequential timeline (as the fine comic strip Luann seems to be), which I'm not really concerned about doing.  A sense of timelessness allows the artist greater freedom in re-visiting certain habits and beliefs of a character (or at least makes it easier to explain why the characters never seem to learn anything).   


On another note, the other day at the department store, I bought the worst package of toilet paper that I've ever experienced in my bathroom.  I had to stop at the grocery store yesterday, to buy some more toilet paper, that I can work into the rotation to provide occasional relief from the sandpaper that I bought.  The lesson here is to never do panic shopping at the department store, even if there is a bad ice storm coming.  

Secrets of Sinister House

When I was a young kid, my brother and I had this one comic book that gave me sense of anxiety whenever I looked at it.  I would credit "Secrets of Sinister House -The Haunted House-Mobile" by DC comics (one issue of a 2 year anthology) as one of the key influences in my liking and dread for the horror genre (the other influence being "The Exorcist").  No longer in possession of this comic, I remember the key frights of the story being a man gazing into the window of a house, to see a skeleton looking back out at him, and also one of the characters being chased by a pack of dogs.  I recall the dogs being all different colors (yellow, green, etc.) and for some reason in my mind, that was part of what made the scene scary!  My brother did us both a favor, by cutting out from the comic and trashing a drawing of part of a stone wall, that was carved in the shape of a skull.  It's good for family to look out for each other, right?  Here's the cover of the comic (image obtained from www.postmodernbarney.com):

I had this comic cover loosely in mind, when I created my "Skeleton Attack" drawing:

Let me know if you've ever been dragged up the stairs by a skeleton!  

Website fix

Today I made a much needed change to my website.  The javascript, which controlled the size of the windows opened up when clicking the Gallery thumbnails, has been eliminated.  Some people weren't getting any response when clicking the thumbnails, so, bye bye javascript.  The website is now 100% XHTML / CSS, so I can't make it any more user friendly than it is now!  :)  Give it a try, if you'd been having trouble with the gallery before.       


Today I also started drawing a picture of Uma Thurman, and it ended up sailing spectacularly into the trash can.  Uma has a unique face which is difficult to capture.  If you want, I can post a photo of the crumpled up drawing, sitting in the trash can.  Ok, maybe I won't do that.


I still love Uma in "Kill Bill" though.

I love Peanuts

The other day I checked out from the library, "Peanuts - A Golden Celebration".  I've often been surprised to find that I haven't read every single Peanuts strip that was created, and it happened again with this book.  It's a real privilege to be able to continue reading "new" stuff from my favorite comic!  


One of my favorite characters from the strip was Peppermint Patty.  I liked the fact that she was great at some things, and atrociously inept at others, and unfortunately found herself struggling with her inadequacies most of the time.  She managed to be pretty in an ugly sort of way.  I enjoyed how Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Franklin and Roy lived in a different neighborhood from Charlie Brown and his close circle of friends.  It gave a sense of space and time to the comic strip, and created that large cast of characters that I think really helped the comic strip to endure.  That physical separation of the characters from each other created challenges and desires that most of us can relate to, which was pretty deep stuff for a comic strip.  Schulz wrote that Peppermint Patty probably could have sustained a comic strip just on her own.

The passing of Charles M. Schulz was the only time that I shed a tear at the death of a celebrity.  In the latter years of the strips, I had fallen away from reading Peanuts.  But now it's interesting to see how Schulz had sharpened his wit then, even after such a long run of strips.  The re-emergence of the lost and immature Rerun could have helped sustained the comic for many more years, if only Schulz was still around.  

That's my post for today.  As Peppermint Patty once said, "Don't call on me for the next few years"!    :D

    

Spotlight: Carpates Express

Today I would like to highlight a short film called Carpates Express, created by Maéva Viricel and Doris Bachelier, in France.  I discovered this through the DeviantArt website a few months ago, and instantly fell in love with the somber mood and Expressionistic style of the film.  

A still from "Carpates Express".

The film can be viewed at:
http://vimeo.com/13203960


Maéva Viricel also goes by the artist's name Huguette Pizzic, and more images of her work can be seen at the DeviantArt site:
http://huguettepizzic.deviantart.com


The movie captures the angst of a character named Xavier, as he manages to board a train for which he has no ticket.  There's a lot to appreciate in this film, from the painstakingly textured backgrounds, to the forlorn music and sound effects, and the ZBrush character design.  The odd chatter that fills the restaurant car helps to convey Xavier's careful detachment from his surroundings.  I just hope that Xavier considers himself one with nature, because he's got a long walk through the Carpathian mountains to get back home.


Enjoy the film!  I did, it made me a happy clicker.

Current project 02-05-2011

Here's a view of the digital painting that I'm working on currently:

I had originally planned to use this picture in the header of this blog, but I decided to keep the look of the blog more in line with my website (www.michaelricketson.com).   I'm sure that a lot of you enjoy seeing pictures of people getting run over at the park, so you'd better believe that I'll be posting the finished painting to my gallery as soon as possible!

First Post!

Hello and welcome to the very first entry of my new blog!  My name is Michael Ricketson, digital artist and stranded planet hopper.  My goal with this blog is not only to update you on my latest art projects, but also to engage you in any topic related to the creative fields, be it digital art, modern art, comic strips, or anything else that strikes us as being pleasingly enterprising.  I won't be posting any photos of myself from the waist down, so sorry if I lose any of you on that matter.

Please be sure to check out my blog often, as I may have to ask you where did I put it.  For example, I found this carefully prepared first post nestled snug in a snow bank, out by my street.  Seriously though, thanks for visiting.  And please take a gander at my artist's website, www.michaelricketson.com, when you can.  I'll be putting my antigravity boots back on, while you're doing that.

Kind regards (floating away...),

Michael Ricketson