Aloha

Originally a photo I took of a hibiscus flower that was later manipulated and colored.  Then I decided to play some more and created this beautiful tropical lei.  Welcome to the islands.  Prints of the individual flowers are available for purchase on Imagekind (link at right).

A Night At DV8 Volumes Nine & Ten

Just realized that todays two covers have two different interpretations of curly or wavy hair.  The first one a little more stylized perhaps.

Lightning McQueen Finds A Friend

I put this together last year for my nephew who loves Cars and Lightning McQueen in particular.  The picture of  McQueen I scanned from some materials I had on hand and the image of my nephew came from my grandfather's funeral where Nick provided some comic relief.  Everything just sort of came together on this one.  His pose was perfect.  The light source was properly positioned.  The stars aligned.

Living the Wild Life

While sitting tapping away at my keyboard on Tuesday, Mother Nature sent me a guest.  It came in the form of a racoon just outside the sliding glass doors into the backyard where I was cat-sitting.  By the time I ran to the garage to get my camera out of the car, he had wandered off.  I threw some bread crumbs outside (which I know I shouldn't do) in the hopes that he would return which he did about an hour later.

I have photographed this racoon (or one of his relatives) before.  The house is bordered on two sides by nature preserve and there's only one house on the other side before more nature preserve so there is an abundance of wildlife to see.  In the past we've seen bobcats, alligators, otters, herds of frogs, snakes, spiders the size of your hand, armadillos, and all kinds of birds.

A Night At DV8 Volumes Seven & Eight

Rambling

Yikes.  I spent all day doing yard work for someone (and getting paid) in the blistering Florida sun.  Today my sadly out of shape body aches and I'm slightly sunburnt.  The latter I wouldn't mind, I would like a tan, but since i was wearing a tshirt all day I now have that ever stylish farmer tan look.  I hear it's all the rage in Paris and Milan this season.  At least I managed to go without my sunglasses all day so I don't have that beautiful earpiece line across each side of my head.  Today I plan to lounge in the pool and relax and possibly do a little drawing later on.  I hope you all have a relaxing and creative day as well.

Disney-MGM Studios Drawings

A couple of rough drawings today from what is now Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World.

Sign near the Great Movie Ride leading to the Backlot.

Restrooms near the park entrance on Hollywood Boulevard.

Jazz Music

I think I drew this in the late 90's or early 00's.  Somewhere I have a similar unfinished drawing with a different theme (which I can't remember) and I used a similar design on a Cinco de Mayo cd cover I made in 2003.  I'm pretty sure this pre-dates the cd cover.

Today I Ramble

I've been distracted by shiny things and didn't have a post prepared for today so I suppose I'll just have to ramble.  I have not been terribly creative lately.  Aside from creating a cover for my July dance cd, I can't remember the last thing I did.  Being unemployed should afford me plenty of time but I'm come to the conclusion that I just have way too many hobbies.  I've spent the last two days scanning Disney tickets and guidemaps from the last twenty years and I'm only half way through.  I really want to get out and photograph some buildings which I haven't done in a while.  I'm cat sitting and still trying to get things pulled back together here from last weekends fabulous party.  I will squeeze some drawing time in if it kills me.  This hasn't been a very interesting rant but damn it, I can't be interesting all the time can I?  Well, yes, I probably could but this time I wasn't.  Live with it.  Tomorrow, Art! 

A Night At DV8 Volumes Five & Six

Adventureland

Adventureland is my favorite land at the Magic Kingdom (Tomorrowland was a close second before its 1994 transformation).  There is such an array of architectural styles mixed in with the natural beauty of the encroaching jungle.  Every turn reveals a gorgeous vista (well, maybe a couple of the vistas have been marred by additions over the last ten years or so).  Here are a couple of drawings I did in the early 90's.

This is one of several facades that make up the former Adventureland Veranda restaurant.  This drawing was just just a rough sketch.  I never got around to doing a cleaned up version.  In fact, I didn't even remember this drawing until digging it out of a file drawer.  Perhaps it's a task I should now undertake.

As we enter the Caribbean Plaza area of Adventureland we encounter the home of the Pirates of the Caribbean.  They've apparently begun their seige as their flag flies from the clock tower.

A Couple of Godesses

Today's drawings are circa 1990 and feature two of my friends from the period.  Both were done in pencil.

This one is titled "The Virgin Sacrifice".

This one is "Quiet Contemplation".

Forty Candles Party

Seeing as how I spent tons of time the last week plus preparing for this party, it only seems fit to post a few pictures of the end result.

I can only take credit for the Rubiks cubes in this photo, the other things were store bought.  We had originally wanted to string lights across the pool but there was nowhere secure enough and of adequate height to anchor them without drilling into the side of the house.  The last thing we wanted was for lights to fall in the pool while people were swimming.

Pac-Man sort of became the main decor theme.  Here he's surrounded by ghosts on the door into the living room.

I had planned on taking a whole series of pictures of lighting and decor before the party began but ran out of time.  Here's a quick one I snapped of the pool area while there were only a few guests present (but out of frame).

The entryway was our time portal transporting guest back to the eighties.  This was probably the one thing that didn't work out as I had wanted.  It still had a fun effect but in it's original design it would have been so much better.  Thank goodness for the fog machines or it would have been a fail.

Our photo backdrop was placed in the garage with the bar.

Here I am in Tom Cruise Risky Business mode with the birthday girl as Cyndi Lauper.

The Living Room was tons of Pac-Man.  He and his ghost friends wandered across three walls in their maze.

Act Two:  They Meet

One of the guests brought one of the original cars from Knight Rider to park in the yard and here the birthday girl sits in it for photos.  Behind the car is the 40 Candles light up sign I created using twinkle lights and cardboard.

Tarot - Strength

The twelfth in the Tarot series is Strength.  Three elements make up this card.  The female figure and the tiger come from two different photos form 2001.  The background is some tropical plants photographed in 2011.  The idea here was to show both the aggressive straight forward aspect of strength represented by the tiger as well as the more quiet strength represented by the female figure.

From her 2001 wedding reception comes today's model, Jasmine.

For a friend's 2001 birthday she was given a photoshoot with a tiger.  This photo comes from the afternoon we spent there.

Strength

A Night At DV8 Volumes Three & Four

The next two covers from the A Night At DV8 cd series.

Volume 3

Volume 4

Tarot - Page of Wands

The eleventh of the Tarot series, the Page of Wands began with a photo of myself from Halloween 1995.  The background is a pastoral photo taken this year.

1995 Brian

The Page of Wands

A Night At DV8 Volumes One & Two

This collection of cd's (50 volumes total) was a companion to the Retro DV8 cd's posted previously only these featured contemporary dance remixes.  The first of these cd's was made in 1998 or 1999 by a friend and then I appropriated the title and made the other 49.  These are the front covers for the virst two volumes.  Both were done in ink on card stock.  These hand drawn covers lasted up through Volume 30 at which point creating multiple hand drawn and lettered front and back covers for each volume became too labor intensive and I started playing with photo manipulation which was utilized for the remaining 20 covers.

Tarot - The Fool

Tenth in the Tarot series is The Fool.  This is based on a photo from the early 90's.  I have not posted the original photo as today's model, Heather, is in a swimsuit and might not appreciate the picture floating around the web.

The Fool.

Forty Candles Preparation

I spent the weekend preparing for a friend's 80's themed 40th birthday party that I'm co-hosting next weekend.  Besides all of the cleaning and logistics setup there were decorations to create.  We did actually purchase some decorations for this party but I normally prefer to make everything myself.  It makes it all more personal and I also find it fun plus it ensures that I get exactly what I want. 

Jen works on another friendship bracelet to add to the colorful and diverse collection already created.  Several patterns, colors, and a variety of really cool, interesting beads.

Lala works on assembling a Rubik's cube and tells me what she thinks of my project.

Pac-men of assorted sizes.  Not pictured are a variety of colorful ghosts.

Ms. Pac-man goes after the cherries.

Scene II - They Meet!

Hard at work on our graffiti photo backdrop.

Kristen tags a corner.

The final product.  All that's left is to work on lighting.

The finished Rubik's cubes.  I might have to work on more of these this week.  One can never have too many.