Categories
Professional Studio The Flying Dutchess

Some animated .gifs from my cartoon show, “The Flying Dutchess”

These are from my animated project I have been working on for the last two years is finally coming together; here is a sneak peek! It is the story of a Dutch girl in the Anglo-Dutch wars (the 1650s-1670s). Astrid joins as a midship mage in Dutch Navy. I created both for more extensive sequences, yet I thought making them as separate gifs would be an exciting way to introduce some of Astrid’s abilities on social media. You can check out @theflyingdutchessoffical on IG or the Dutchess FB page or our website www.theflyingdutchess.com

Categories
Art/Design old gems Professional Studio

Portrait of Anthony Graziano

I recently added some portraits to my ink wash and watercolor section, this watercolor portrait is of one of my best friends from when I lived in New Orleans. Anthony Graziano is also an incredible musician. I am very happy with how this portrait turned out.

Also, you can check out his music on his Bandcamp
Categories
Art/Design Pratt

Pratt Cathedral assignment

St. John the Devine Cathedral, Charcoal

St. John the Devine Cathedral, 2011 – Charcoal on paper

6 hour drawing I did at St. John’s in Haarlem

Categories
Art/Design Design old gems Professional Studio

My 2011 Album Artwork for “Remnants of Fallen Walls”

I found some old images of some paintings I was commissioned to do for a band from Dallas area named, “The Pajammas” way back in 2011. The album is actually still for sale on bandcamp. Check out the inside cover and back after the cover below.

Categories
astronomy

Dance of the Cosmos

Categories
Uncategorized

Nature Scenes from Asheville, NC

These are some of my paintings this last week of 2020 that I have spent in the beautiful Blue Mountains of Asheville in North Carolina.

Categories
Art/Design Home Studio oils old gems Personal Sketchbook

“Tarnished Teapot color study” oil on bristol, 2014

Teapot color study after Sergeant
Oil on Bristol, 2014 – This was painted from observation from a tarnished silver tea set that I inherited when my grandma Dot passed away more than a decade ago.

This is an old color study that I found while reorganizing some of my old portfolios. I will post some more old gems and rarities like this in the enminent future, especially ones that have never been posted or never have left the studio/sketchbook. This teapot was from an old knock-off silver set my grandmother gave me when she passed away. She raised my brother and I almost by herself, so she was very much like a mother to me. So, even though it is not worth much in a monetary sense, it is worth more than the Sun and the Moon for me personally.

She wasn’t big on Art, but she always believed I could be a great artist if I put my all into the brush she would say. We lost her almost ten years ago when I was only in high school. Grandma Dot is what I used to call her, short for Dorothy. She also turned me on on of my favorite painters even nowadays, John Signer Sargent. Can you see the influence of Sargent in the wet on wet oil style and color filled highlights?

I am also considering making a series of short videos that discuss my studio process and my major influnces from the Old Masters of Art History. I think combining some old works from sketchbooks and portfolios that have not seen daylight in quite some time with historical influnces would be a good way to showcase some of my old work while also informing my artistic peers and the public at large about important works of art/artists that they may have unintentionally neglected or could further their apperication. 

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Making a Nintendo 64 ( N64 ) Raspberry Pi Emulator with Roman

I recently got some new hats. The first has the Super Mario ghost character, Boo, on it. The second features Majora’s Mask from the N64 Zelda classic. My love for this classic Zelda game inspired me to create an N64 emulator with one of our raspberry pi boards and the RetroPie.

I was impressed with the over 50 game systems that RetroPie offers. I had ordered a set of Super Nintendo controllers and a set of N64 controllers that have usb ends instead of the original plugs.

We formatted an SD card with Etcher to put on RetroPie. Then we plugged everything into the raspberry pi and started to configure things. I am actually still having some problems with programming the joy stick 100%, yet everything else is working great with the original style controllers. After programming the controllers, we had to run some code to add a controller hot key for entering and exiting the emulator.

After everything was working, it was apparent that games still needed to be put onto the system. I was able to download several games for free online. When you download an old game file to put on an emulator, its called a ROM. I obtained the ROMs for Super Smash, Mario Party, both Zelda games and Banjo Kazooie just to get started.

The ROMs go onto a usb that is plugged into the raspberry pi. I am very glad I was able to finish this project and share all my old games I loved as kid with my son, Roman.

Categories
poetry

“Spirt Ranch”

// poem dedicated to John Milton (1608-1674)

The Tower was high,

The Beast was low,

So many cases and hexes,

Sometimes its hard to reap what you sow…

The love in my soul burns,

Yet temptations often take a turn,

A scorned falling from grace,

gotta keep riding, can’t stay in one place…

The devil was in the tower above,

I saw Aces and Magickians burning in desire,

Fighting this beef out in the street,

I had to kill something they needed to eat….

Take the cattle with the cows,

Killing them softly wondering how,

Serving them straight off my gun,

From the nightly shadows with Demons they run…..

A dagger twists in blood and ice,

curses to Sheva in another sacrifice,

These images painted upon my soul,

not ever quite in love but just an endless fold,

It was in these shadows,

I found these jems,

The strangers made lines,

The shadows twisted together with time.