M. SzalPlease click this link if you would like to pre-order your deck of mystical playing cards.
I have opened pre-sale orders to sell my new deck of cards, The American Game. I have changed the cards several times and I am on 4 different redesigns for the entire deck. The deck officially will be released on Thanksgiving, which is when all pre-sale orders will ship. Thank you so much for supporting my artwork and designs, I will have the entire deck on my portfolio soon with watermarks.
In light of Judge William P. “Bill” Brandt’s military service, I have removed the last press release about him in honor of Armistice Day. One of the officers I was close with and who I designed things for in the Department of the Army (with U. of S. Carolina back in 2017-18) emailed me that Judge Brandt served in the United States Air Force for several decades.
During his distinguished military career, including active and reserve service, he has served in numerous flying, staff and command positions all over the globe–including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.judgebillbrandt.com/about
World War One is my favorite conflict to study in history, along with the Napoleonic Wars, the English Civil Wars, plus the civil war between Sulla and Marius in ancient Rome. We get Veterans Day from the original Armistice Day, which is the anniversary of the eleventh month and the eleventh day that the armistice was signed to end the First World War. I would also like to thank my uncle John Szal (Captain in the Marines) and my old roommate Wes Ellett, who went to TCU on the G.I. Bill after serving in Iraq, for their service today.
This is a Flying Dutchess character concept I made based on an English Admiral that uses the Tarrant County District Attorney as a reference – Phil Sorrells.
In other news, I am working on the 4th different version of my “American Game Deck” of cards, which will be available for sale on my website starting Thanksgiving. Each card has a different NFL team, a different zodiac sign, element sign or special major card, which all equal 52 playing cards like a traditional deck for playing poker or spades. The NFL teams only have the city name and team colors since their logos are copyrighted. I have selected +500-year-old emblems mostly from Claude Paradin’s Devises heroïques, first published in 1551. I have redesigned the emblems to coordinate a theme idea and color palette to represent each of the 32 teams. So you could shuffle the deck in strange ways to help you pick your predictions for some sports gambling at West Gate in Las Vegas, then play go-fish with your friends while you watch the games.
I want to elevate American culture to an almost metaphysical place and have this deck hold a space similar to the traditional Rider Waite Tarot Deck. These timeless emblems from centuries ago still have a familiarity yet an elusive quality that makes each one feel eternal. See the “Atlanta Card” for an example. It has the official CMYK red of the team with an emblem featuring a falcon-like bird (Atlanta Falcons). Some teams are doubles, such as New York and Los Angeles. Yet, with color and imagery, I attempted to make each design fairly easy to distinguish. The teams are the number cards and the four elements (32 teams + 4 elements = 36) – Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.
The royal cards are the 12 zodiac signs and four unique cards from special emblems, which I thought would increase the mystique of the deck as a whole composition. Some cards have emblems with related imagery, like Capricorn, which has an actual sea goat on which the sign is based. Other cards are more subtle references, such as Taurus, which features an emblem with a “Dexter Dei” (hand of God) with a sword and a trowel, which makes a shape similar to the horns of a bull.
NFL Football season is back once again, so I thought I would share some more information about a project I have worked on for the last couple of years (there are three different deck versions in total).
This video covers much of the physical process behind the making of my “football tarot” cards. I used emblems from the 500-year-old book Devises Heroiques. Each emblem has a conceptual or actual reference to a modern-day NFL team. For example, I used an emblem with a bear for the Chicago Bear’s card.
Below is an example of what the emblems look like in the book version:
When I moved to Schenectady, the first job I could find was at Harbor Freight. Luckily, after a few months, I found a shop to work as a mechanic called Warren Tire. I have worked at Warren Tire since April and have been very happy there.
I haven’t been able to work on my animated series, The Flying Dutchess, as much as I would prefer. Yet, I have completed the new version of the Oliver Cromwell character.
My representative character, Ace Malagurio, has a new companion animal. His name is Hals, and he is a Dutch Rabbit that rides at the back of Ace’s broom while he flies around.
view of the backyard with snow
After moving from South Carolina to New Orleans in 2018, back to DFW in 2020, to California in 2022, and briefly back to DFW last year – I have decided to move to Upstate New York for a while to be closer to my mother here and her family.
It is nice to be back in the Empire State. I lived in Brooklyn in 2010-2011 while attending Pratt, the Art and Design school. Although, Upstate is quite different than The City (quite a bit colder).
The move will afford the opportunity to continue my work on The Flying Dutchess and focus on my animation career. I started a part-time job in retail and have met several new friends.
Happy Bastille Day everyone! Here are some highlights from my sketchbook this summer I would like to share:
Drawing of priest during Mass @ St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Drawing of Altar @ St. Elizabeth
Hebrew Calligraphy Practice
Watercolor @ Pershing Square in Los Angeles of Beethoven Statue
Check out my newest portfolio of backgrounds and backdrops for animation (mostly for The Flying Dutchess).
I was blessed to move to Los Angeles last year at the end of September 2022. As many of the Old Masters once painted the buildings and sculptures in the parks and squares of cities they lived, I have endeavored to do so in reverence to them.
In an attempt to cure my insatiable love of Art Deco buildings, I visited Pershing Square. The Title & Trust building is an Art Deco gem situated off the square, named after prestigious WW1 General Pershing himself, mastermind of the Argonne Forest Campaign. In this watercolor, I did not do any underdrawing with pencil or pen and painted this with the brush from observation with no reference photographs. This process increases dexterity with the brush and better economy of line with each brush stroke.
Pershing Square was redesigned by Ricardo Legorreta in the 1990s and these elegant, orange spheres feature prominently in the square vibrant new look.
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