From the Archives: Jenna The Ranger

This set of drawings were created while I worked at 3am Games, Inc.  This character was developed as part of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventuring party.  The party was being developed to be present in any drawings in 3am Games supplements.  If there was a scene involving an adventuring party, it was to be this group.  Jenna was the Ranger of the group. 

These drawings were created to act as character studies to be sent to other artists for reference.  There was also brief mention of using the characters in a comic book setting.  The common adventure party in each book was abandoned, but the drawings were done.  I've always had a soft spot for Jenna the Ranger.  Hope you like her too.

{Pen & Ink}

2003, Year of Sarcoidosis

2003 was a very difficult year for me. It was around this time I quit smoking and discovered I had a disease called Sarcoidosis affecting my lungs. {Prismacolour}

UPDATE:  Well, apparently if you update your tags now it updates your entire post.  yay.  This post was from long ago.  I wanted to add a tag and now it is today.  Sorry for the repeat.

The Blogger Blip

The maintenance issues earlier in the week caused several of my posts to become mixed or to not post at all.  My apologies for the confusion.  The Changing Course post ended up being reposted accidentally.  I was adding a tag and when I published, it republished with that May 17th Date.  The Changing Course post should have occurred on May 8th.  So technically it came before The Man in the Moon post and The Tiger Me post.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.  :-)

From the Archives: Rainbow Spirit Child

Here is something I found on the way to a mandala.  Some strange other dimensional rainbow child.  It's weird when you're working on something and look up at the screen and realize that it is looking back at you.  EEP!  However, it was more being startled than being afraid.  The feeling I get here is one of innocent interest and curiosity.  Around this time I did this piece a strange philosophy began to take over my Mandalas.  I began using the Mandala process as a way of viewing problematic situations in my life.   The repetition and changing angles began to become a way of looking at situations until there was a greater understanding, symmetry, and beauty.  When you start looking at situations from every angle possible, existence becomes a giant unfolding flower.  Who Knew?

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Changing Course

This year has brought a variety of changes to my life.   New ways of doing things, new goals to accomplish, new hopes and dreams.  Part of all the new emerging structure is the restructuring of my blogs.  Previously, I was content to simply let my blogs be, using them more as a digital catch all for my artwork.  However, the wave of change in my life this year is affecting me on all fronts.  Now each of my blogs will have its own focus.

Trail of Bread Crumbs started as a sketchbook blog; a place to put all my artwork that wasn't quite finished or or professional quality.  Over time the work in this blog began to take on a more spiritual and philosophical quality and many finished pieces began to find their way in.  As part of my restructuring, Trail of Bread Crumbs will now host only my artwork that is focused on the spiritual, the philosophical, the magickal.  Any pieces of a different quality that were posted previously will remain to avoid any complicated relinking.  From this point forward though, Zombie Bites will host all my work that is dark or focused on fear and EXP3 will host all of work focused specifically on graphic design.

Things are changing rapidly for me this year.  I can barely see a month ahead.  Every week seems to hold some new challenge to keep myself going, some new obstacle to my tomorrow.    I have no idea what my future holds at this point; I'm literally following a trail of bread crumbs.  The strange part is that despite the ups and downs of day to day I'm not worried about my long term.  I can't see ahead, but I know somewhere deep inside me that the path I am on leads to my happiness and success, that regardless of what I'm trudging through right now, in the end I'm going to be okay.  In my lifetime, that is a first.

From the Archives: Man in the Moon

Here is an older piece.  I think I may have posted this somewhere else, but for the life of me I cannot find the other post.  I think the other is in color also, but I prefer this version.  My friend Josh and I were discussing how this looks a bit like Alan Moore.  I'm okay with that.  :-)

I've been attracted to the crescent shaped Man in the Moon for some time.  I kind of chalk it up to my attraction to mythological masculine imagery.  The moon is many times assumed to be feminine in nature, but my personal belief is that these energies are beyond gender and express themselves in many ways.  Regardless, this is the image that speaks to my soul.

{Pen & Ink}

From the Archives: Tiger Me

The year I created this, the Tiger had begun appearing as totem for me.  In an attempt to understand this energy, I incorporated it into my artwork.  This is an example.

I had a strange dream at the time of a Tiger leaping and each of its leaps were a dramatic change in my life.  The last leap involved leaping into another man's yard where the Tiger turned into a tabby cat.  I had the impression that he was my lover.  Which was odd at the time as I was single.

The Tiger is generally a solitary animal and they hunt silently.  One of many totems telling me to keep my big mouth shut.  LOL.  The others are Owl and Leopard.  Also not the only totem to tell me to work in darkness.  I wasn't aware previously of their fondness for water....seeing them swimming is a strange and wonderful thing.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop}

Winter from the Archives

Me as a snow elf.  MANY moons past.

This was going to be a x-mas card.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop.}

Water from the Archives

A further exploration.

We are not removed from our environment.

I find it amusing that I missed posting these.

They are very relevant to my current river of thought.

Once again - special thanks to Mike Mignola.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop.}

Spirit from the Archives: Becoming Aware

The strange energizing feeling of being connected to a larger system:

The Realization of Connectedness.

Special thanks to Mike Mignola.

{Digital images manipulated in Photoshop.}

Qabbalah from the Archives

Another from the archives.

A previous version of the Tree of Life.

I actually like this one more than my previous post.

This one has its own space, I feel like the overall structure is stronger.

The individual spheres also resonate better here.

{created in Photoshop.}

My Portfolio Spring 2011

This is my Portfolio / Resume for Spring of 2011.

I have presented this in a Magazine format.

If you would like to see this larger,

please go here.

The Black Heart

I was obsessed for awhile with the symbolic idea of the "Black Heart".

My question was: What would turn a Heart Black?

Flame I think...VERY HOT Flame.

All apologies to the Black Heart of the Feri Tradition,

which I did not discover until later.

I must investigate that visually at some point.  :-)

{Image 1: Created in Photoshop.

Image 2:  Digital images manipulated in Photoshop.}