Astonishing X-Men

Just a quick post today as I have to go plan my wife’s birthday.
I picked up the first trade collection of Astonishing X-Men, with art by John Cassaday, and story by Joss Whedon, and I’ll tell you, it’s been the most fun I’ve had reading a super-hero comic in years.
Not that I have ever had [...]

Another Exhibit

Well, the boys and I decided that we would have a round of themes for the next eKaku exhibit.  So far, we have space (mine), tempted, and banana, with two more to be chosen.
I’ve got my ideas for the first three sketched out already, and it just remains to be seen if I can actually [...]

Tea and Oranges Final Version

Tea and Oranges Final Version.JPG
Originally uploaded by SunToad.

I’m not entirely happy with the final color choices, although, like always, it looks a lot better in person. The gold tracing looked really good in my head, just not so good on the canvas. Still, overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

The Tools Involved

Just a quick post today with pictures of the tools I have been using lately, in case anyone is interested. The top photo is the pastels that I used on the drawing “Loves Me Not”, while the lower is a photo of the oil sticks I am using for the main part of “Tea [...]

Tea and Oranges, All the Way from China

The latest, still in progress. The title comes from the song “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen.
This one is a little different in that I am painting the main image with oil sticks, rather than brush and tubes, after having already laid on the red background about a month ago, using the basic techniques.
I really have [...]

Loves Me Not

So, one of my friends turned 26 the other day and had himself a little party. I went, naturally, and was pretty surprised to find that he had a late birthday gift waiting for me. I received a nice sketch pad, some fixative, and, coolest of all, some little pastels that I had [...]

Sword of Damocles Redux

Well, not to be outdone by the One Man, who has opened up a great cafepress store to make his artwork more available to all of you out there in the world, I created a new cafepress store today, celebrating my drawing of the Sword of Damocles.
For anyone who is not up on their Greek [...]

Setting Free the Kites

Setting Free the Kites
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Another sketch. That is all.

As Long As I Can See the Light

As Long As I Can See the Light
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Put a Candle in the Window
So, with regard to Saturday's post, I set out to find a story I could illustrate. In this case, I'm using the Credence Clearwater Revival song "Long as I Can See the Light".
Back in the day, when I was [...]

Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Back in the day, I used to have these great fantasies about starting my own web-comic and using it to achieve fame and fortune. (I realize what that says about my geek. Sigh.) To that end, I even took a one day seminar on cartooning at the experimental [...]

On the Train

On the Train
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Somedays, I really feel like this is accurate in one of those bitterly painful ways that are hard to describe.

How Do I Look?

How Do I Look?
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
The caption reads "So, uh, how do I look?" which is funny, because, see, he's green. And wearing a horrible stripey shirt. With a polka dot tie. And a big thumbs up.
Maybe it's just too subtle for you.

Breakfast

Breakfast
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Another one I drew up yesterday morning. I know, Warhol did it first, but, ahem, I did it better.
Things are going very well at the moment. The art show launch went very well last night and I've spent most of the day recovering, only taking time out to take my [...]

Sword of Damocles

Sword of Damocles
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
I woke up with this in my head and put it down on paper before doing anything else this morning. Then I grabbed my other sketchbook and laid down six more drawings and sketches, some others like this, done with the ink pens, and others basis for new paintings.
I [...]

A Penguin

A Penguin
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Super busy day today. Lots of stuff to do, so, here, have a drawing to pass the time. This is a companion piece to "An Owl" that I did a while back. This one is called, naturally, "A Penguin".
Have a beautiful day.

Salvage What You Can, Throw the Rest Away

Put in about three hours painting this afternoon, forcing an image when there was nothing in my head that I felt strongly about and ended up with an image that I absolutely hated.  I scraped as much paint off the canvas as I could and threw all the gunk into the garbage.  I'm left with [...]

Decompression

Hawaii
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Yesterday was the first time I had been able to sit and paint in quite a while. I am not too pleased with the final result although I really enjoyed the act of painting, if that makes sense. I spent a lot of time on the sky, working to blend the colors [...]

Great Artists Steal

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” – Picaso
Or maybe it was TS Eliot. They’re both credited with originating the phrase by various sources, but that’s not really the point. The point is, every starting artist has to beg, steal, and borrow, from any sources they can in order to learn how to put [...]

Volcano

Volcano
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
After the last painting, I wanted to do something easy and quick and I wanted to try out that masking technique again.
So, I took an old canvas that had been mostly covered with Lamp Black and then abandoned after the original idea didn't work out, and started laying tape out in [...]

Confetti

Confetti
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
The canvas for N'Orleans had been sitting in the stack waiting to be covered over ever since I got frustrated with my inability to put the image down the way I wanted.  However, it managed to sit out of sight for so long that inspiration returned and I was able to get [...]

Snow

Snow
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Here’s the latest. This one’s a bit smaller than I have been working with recently. I’m not thrilled with it, but, at the same time, this was the idea in my head. They match. Which is a good thing.
I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated with painting recently and nothing [...]

Colors Thrown at Canvas Until An Image Appears

I met with the One Man yesterday morning to discuss my latest existential crisis. Now, to be fair, I should mention that, for myself, turning to the One Man for existential advice is much like the blind man leading the able-sighted man who refuses to do anything but sit in the backseat and shout [...]

N’Orleans – First Layer

N’Orleans – First Layer
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
So, the base coat is down now for the majority of the painting…I like how it’s going but I’m not sure where it’s going to go from here. I haven’t been able to decide if I’m going to keep using the smooth, blended colors, or if I’m going [...]

N’Orleans – Guide Lines Painted In

N’Orleans – Guide Lines Painted In
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
First I should apologize for the crappy quality of this photo – I had to blow out the contrast in order for the guidelines to be visable, and even then they’re really only visable if you’re looking for them.
So, what I did was, use the oil sticks [...]

N’Orleans – First Object

N’Orleans – First Object
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Quick post today.
I decided to start the painting by putting in the flat base coat for the bead necklace. I used a gold oil stick to draw directly onto the canvas, where it mixed with the white base coat I had put down over the entire canvas, making [...]

N’Orleans – Pencil Sketch

N’Orleans – Pencil Sketch
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
The good news is that I’m no longer in a state of brain-fried-ness, the bad news is that, once again, I’m in way over my head with ambitious projects. I managed to break out of the brain-fried state by indulging it, as is the way of so many things. [...]