Given the time of year, I couldn't resist adding a little pink valentine flair to the Dancing Dead painting.

I started this painting last October but had to put it on hold until recently.  That's ok though because I think of skeletons as a year-round sort of thing.

Another daily practice from photo reference.  This pastel portrait is quite small, only 8x8 inches.  I use blocks, not pencils, so I was lucky to get any detail at all on this one.

I painted these trees using pastels on green construction paper.  I'm not really all that fond of pastels but I have a bunch of supplies to use up.

A practice cat painting, based on my favorite image at icanhascheezburger.  The caption on the original photo says: DOOM Now in fun size.

This drawing unfortunately bears no resemblance to the model, except for possibly the hair.  She had nifty spiked hair.

Many thanks to the Phoenix Herpetological Society for hosting Sketchcrawl #34 today.  It's a great place to visit, staffed with wonderful people who take the time to tell you all about their snakes and crocadiles and other cool animals.

Another practice sketch using Painter's Real Soft Pastel brush.  I've been meaning to do more cat studies.  This is from a photo because real cats hate being stared at.

Another quick paint, this was an experiment with what Painter calls Real Soft Oil Pastel.  It was a nice change from the Artist Oils, which is what I've been using most lately.

A charcoal drawing from Sketchy Doodle yesterday.  The model said she thought about bringing a lightsaber, in which case she would have made an awesome Princess Leia.

This mini painting might have something to do with Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek.  Major scifi geek points if you know why.  Mostly though it's just another color study.

Chaos was born in April of 1994, and we adopted him when he was nine months old. His original name was Harmony but I didn't think it fit him at all. He was a juvenile terror and clearly needed a name with a little more infamy.

These mini landscapes are turning out to be really fun, although not very useful since the print size would be only a few inches.

Another mini landscape painting.  I was mostly experimenting with the color.  This is subdued color by my standards.

I've been doing some daily (almost) painting exercises and rather like the way this one turned out.  It's pretty small, the original is only 1000 pixels wide.

We got forty-three tangerines this year.  That's pretty good for our little tree.

From life drawing yesterday. The color in the photo comes from two different light sources - a lightbulb and a window. John said that she looks like a Vulcan, which I agree she kind of does, in the drawing anyway.

From life drawing today at JD's.  I've been remiss lately and need to get back in to practice.

I've traditionally done a painting for my Christmas card, but this year I decided to do a cartoon illustration.  The idea was inspired by our new kittens, who are rather fond of climbing legs.

We adopted these two beautiful gray kittens from Pinal County Animal Control a few weeks ago. Their new names are Willo and Wisp, they are about five months old now and they eat like there's no tomorrow, perhaps because there almost wasn't.

Loki was born in 1993, but she didn't move in with us until early 1997. This kitten photo is from her previous home, which is where we first met her. I remember her suckling on my armpit when we visited there.

Lacheln in charcoal and conte, from life drawing today at Sketchy Doodle.

It was a beautiful afternoon for sketching outdoors at Tempe Beach Park.  Black ball point pen.

I'm working on a day-of-the-dead painting but didn't get it finished on time.  This is the concept sketch in charcoal.

Our model Crystal created this costume for a concert by Voltaire, for a performance during his song "Zombie Prostitute".  We added pumpkins to the scene to make it a little more vintage Halloween.