TO LOVE.

A lot has occurred in my life since I posted my last series, Lonely Girl: A Tribute To Edward Hopper [link] (by the way, thanks for all of your support, comments and favorites, I was a bit surprised at the overwhelming response considering that they were all remakes) So what did occur? Well, for one, I am in a new studio and I absolutely love it! The move was hell, but in the end it all paid off. So this will mark the first series (or sessions) to be completed in my new place. Not sure if that makes a difference on the quality of ones work, but if you see any difference, do let me know. LOL.

Also, on a very sad note, as some of you may already know, I lost a really good friend during that time. I recently did a portrait in honor of his memory entitled “This Charming Man” [link] to express my feelings about it. It’s really the only way I seem to know how to. I think of him often and think I always will. I know when someone passes away, you always hear people saying, “he was one of the sweetest and kindest person you’ll ever meet,” well, he truly was that, and I am not just saying it. If you would have gotten the opportunity, or privilege to have met “This Charming Man,” you would understand why I consider myself one of the lucky ones to have known him in life.

On a much shyer note, I met someone really special since I posted my last series. Someone that gave me those warm fuzzies you get when you really start to like someone, you know what I mean? Unfortunately, there were some obstacles that we were both afraid to take on or challenge that ended our brief relationship. Nevertheless, I am one to believe that no matter how long something last, if the relationship made some kind of an impact in your life, it’s still something worth cherishing.

Okay, sorry folks--I didn't mean to get all mushy and stuff, but I thought I’d share a little bit of my personal side because it MIGHT, POSSIBLY, PERHAPS be somehow related to the mood of this new series. MAYBE.

Speaking of my series, if you’ve been following most of them up to this point, you might already know that I tend to draw from some kind of artistic influence with each one I post. This time around I looked to the artistic bravery of French painter Gustave Courbet (June 10, 1819 – December 10, 1877). Best known as an innovator in Realism, but to me he was truly an artist who was way ahead of his time. Please look him up kids (and you adults, too!) But for my under age audience, please get some permission from your parents or guardians before venturing off in search of Courbet’s work, some of it can be a little on the risque side of art. And as an extra added treat, if you just so happen to live in or perhaps maybe visiting the New York area real soon (this means you, Geo! , some of his amazing works are currently on exhibit until May 18 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Besides drawing heavily on Courbet, I recently visited Florida for the first time (sad, huh?) And stopped by the Salvador Dalí Museum. Good stuff, however Dalí is always kind of an inspiration for me. But seeing his work live again, ignited my creative spirits once more!

And, oh yeah...besides those two masters, I am always taking some inspiration from all of you one way or another, so keep on inspiring me!

Okay, I’ve said way too much, please go and (hopefully) enjoy my new series, Myleti [link] and as always, let me know what you think.

Peace,

O

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

The year 1967 was the birth of some extremely important events that changed my life and maybe yours, too. Believe it or not, it’s been 40 years since the emergence of Sly & The Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, The Doors, Pink Floyd, and even a then little known David Bowie and life changing albums, movies and events like Forever Changes, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Surrealistic Pillow, Disraeli Gears, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Graduate, and the 67 Summer Of Love. But on a sad note, we also lost one of the art world’s most influential and wonderful masters, Mr. Edward Hopper. American painter and printmaker, his works represented light as it is reflected off of familiar objects. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. So in a world where remaking a classic film or song is common practice, I figured now is good time to cash in my own chips and remake a few of my personal favorites of hopper’s brilliant works to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his passing.

Before I go on, understand this, before Hopper, I knew or had no interest in traditional art whatsoever. Earlier this year, I mentioned in my Fantasy series that all of my art heroes were sci-fi/fantasy/comic related artists like Frank Frazetta and Frank Miller. It was Hopper who paved the way for me to get into traditional artists like Sargent, Goya and Van Gogh, that would eventually influence my work immensely. I remember taking a field trip in about the 10th grade to see his show at the National Gallery of Art right here in Washington, DC. I remember being captivated by his skills and the way he perfected light. In a way, his work reminded me of Miller’s. He painted like a comic book artist. Very simple and bold colorful brush strokes. And that light...well let’s just say at that time I had a lot of great teachers who were trying to teach me how to paint and see light, but it was Hopper who really taught me. To see the indelible mark he left on me, just check out some of my own recent works: “Window Wishing” [link] , “Warm Ride” [link] , “I Wonder U” [link] , “Just The Other Side Of Nowhere” [link] . You’ll notice that “girl alone” theme that occurs in most of my works was taken straight from the book of Hopper.

For this project my intentions were to not mimic Hopper’s work to the point of not knowing mine from his. And personally, I can never see the point of doing that. Why make a carbon copy of an original piece of art when there is already one in existence? A couple of profs forced me to do that in my first year of college and I always managed sneak in a few of my own stylings without their permission to piss them off! LOL. So with this tribute, my idea was to copy and study his work very closely, but at the same time add my own spin or signature style to it. Kinda like when Whitney Houston remade Dolly Parton’s classic “I Will Always Love You.” In my opinion Whitney didn’t really make it better or worst, she made it her it her own song. Almost like a whole new song altogether. However, I still prefer Dolly’s version.

Another reason why I decided to pay tribute, is because I was recently inspired again after seeing Hopper’s current show at the National Museum of Art in my hometown of Washington, DC. I’d forgot how large he’d worked. So for this series I did all of mine to the largest scale possible. I also placed the name of Hopper’s original painting underneath my imitation version. So I STRONGLY encourage you all (especially you kids out there) to go check out the REAL DEAL to see how it really should be done. But please don’t go leaving comments telling me how much mine suck compared to the original! Trust me, I already know. And if you just so happen to be in the Washington DC area for the next month or so, do yourself a favor and go check the show out, and feel free to ring me, I just might be down for a second helping.

Despite the deeply depressing theme, I do hope that you enjoy the new series “Lonely Girl: A Tribute To Edward Hopper,” and as always, please feel free let me know what you think.

Peace and Happy Holidays to you all.

O

...or BACK TO BASICS.

This series is a study of facial expressions. Still trying to achieve, with color pencils, that painterly feel or look. One very sweet deviant friend left a generous comment on “Flower Smile,” the first piece from this series, saying that she “love the painted look you (I) manage with colored pencils.” I told her that that was something I’d been trying to achieve with these little colorful things ever since I started using them about a little over a year ago.

Anyway, about half of the 16 pieces featured in this new series are drawings done of photographs I took of a few special friends that I met this year, one is a very beautiful deviant friend that generously allowed me the privilege to paint her for the last series and this one and hopefully if she continues to like what I do, maybe she’ll allow me to paint her for future series, too? Anyway, her dad shoots these gorgeous shots of her and she posts them on her very own site along with her gorgeous original artwork, check out her site out when you have a free moment



The other half are me doing more fantasy...I guess it’s not quite out of my system, yet?

As always, with each of my series, I draw from some source of inspiration and this time around that inspiration and influence came from a very super talented Deviant Artist you should check out:



Her work inspires me to convey more emotion and expression in my own work. Please check her out when you get a minute or two. It’s quite amazing stuff!

Anyway, before I sign off, I just want to thank everyone of you out there again for supporting my last series. I am sure that some of it wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but a lot of you left the sweetest comments and made some of them your favorites. I’m sure I might have lost some viewers in the process, but at the same time I gained some really cool new ones. Heck...I even got to join a club that is currently featuring 6 pieces from my Fantasy series in its gallery. Check it out:



There was also a down side to my releasing the Fantasy series on DA. One of the original 35 deviations from that series was deleted by the good ol’ censorship folks. If I offended anyone with it, please accept my apologies, not the type to set out to try and offend anyone, I put my work out to make people smile. And for all of you who supported me through my small little venting post called “Censor This” thanks so very much, it really meant a great deal to me to see how many people left supportive comments and added it to their favorite gallery...or just simply told me how much they liked her boobs! If you have not seen it yet, check it out before the lovable censors snag that one, too. And on that note, I’lll say it one more time, and then I will leave the subject alone for good. Censorship SUCKS big. Uh oh...can I say that?

Enjoy and as always, feel free to let me know what you think.

Peace.

O

Dedicated in loving memory of Brian Eubanks 1971-2006.

Okay. For this particular series, I am quite sure that my college professors and teachers would surely disown me. But I am one who strongly believes that one should never forget where one comes from. And for me, that would be the wonderful world of fantasy.

My adoration for Fantasy started at the age of 6 and one movie did it all. My dad took me and my little brother to see the 1977 premiere of Star Wars (now appropriately titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). At the time I had no idea the impact this film would have on my life. I was transformed and inspired. I watched anything and everything fantasy/sci-fi/horror related in the movies and on television and even music! Here are just a few that were a huge influence on me: Dark Shadows, Hammer (the production co.), Doctor Who, Star Trek, Buck Rogers & The 25th Century, Filmation, Danger Man, Danger: Diabolik, The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Champions, The Persuaders, The Saint, Thriller, The Exorcist, Barbarella, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Wonder Woman, Batman, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Incredible Hulk, Logan’s Run, Sid & Marty Krofft Hour, Dukes Of Hazzard, Thundar The Barbarian, Indiana Jones, Sheena, The Evil Dead, Let’s Scare Jessica To Death, Prom Night, The Bugaloos, Six-Million-Dollar Man, Secret of Isis, Bionic Woman, Man and Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Alfred Hitchcock, Wild Wild West, Battlestar Galactica, Spiderman & His Amazing Friends, Shazam!, Planet Of The Apes, Man From Atlantis, Xanadu, A Clockwork Orange, Deep Red, Fathom, James Bond 007, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie, Inga, The Wizard Of Oz, The Wiz, Blacula, Vampirella, Vampyros Lesbos, Female Vampire, La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio, I Spit On Your Grave, Dawn Of The Dead, The Wicker Man, and the cover art and music of David Bowie, T.Rex, Parliament-Funkadelic, KISS, ELO, Kraftwerk, Yes, and Ohio Players ...oh yeah, I almost forgot...lots and lots of late nights watching The Benny Hill Show!

A year later I realized that the genius of Mr. George Lucas may have opened the door to my love for Fantasy, but one artist by the name Frank Frazetta let me in and offered me tea! But before I talk about Mr. Frazetta, I should mention that my older brother played a huge part in introducing us. You see, he was a huge Frazetta fan in the 1970’s. Probably because Frazetta painted mostly nude women with very large rear ends! Anyway, every now and then I would sneak into his room and file through his collection of prints. He must have seen the stars in my eyes, because a year later he lovingly blessed me with his entire collection of Frazetta prints! I still own those originals to this day. So thanks, big brother! Frazetta’s work led me to other giants of this genre that also had a big influence on me, including the great Boris Vallejo.

I thought I knew all there was to prepare me for Fantasy 101 until I turned 9 and decided there was more to 7-11 than just sucking down Slurpees and eating Now & Laters. One day I purchased a comic book. No, not just an ordinary comic book, but a really unique and different comic. Daredevil #181, written and drawn by a then 19 year old from my very own hometown of Maryland by the name of Frank Miller. This 20 page comic book pretty much changed my whole career direction. At that time I was set on becoming a lawyer or a police officer. But then one look at Miller’s work and I put away my toy brief case and water pistol and got my Mom to buy me a box of Crayola Crayons.

I pretty much followed Miller’s career and purchased anything he touched, including his master work, The Dark Knight Returns. In my senior year of high school I’d gotten way too cool for comic books, which was perfect timing when Miller was releasing his magnum opus, Sin City, which I viewed as “more adult” which fit perfectly with my more so called adult reading at the time, (I was reading tons of Stephen King’s work). Miller’s gritty and violent style of writing and art introduced me to a host of other fantastic adult comic book illustrators and writers of that genre who would later contribute a huge influence on my art style today, most importantly Heavy Metal magazine. This ground-breaking magazine led me to the amazing art of Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri and Luis Royo.

Anyway, this series is a tribute to these great artist to show my gratitude for their inspiration and influence on my art and life today. However, I must mention that the inspiration for me to start doing fantasy/sci-fi/horror would have never been sparked had it not been for a handful of my Deviant friends. I have been watching these dudes for about a year now and taking notes! So please check out these very talented DA artists when you get a chance:



















Thanks for the inspiration, dudes!

All and all, returning to the wonderful world of fantasy has been rewarding. I had a fantastic time revisiting. It made me feel youthful again and sparked my creative juices back up to speed. But I gotta say, I totally forgot about the amount of work and time it takes to do this kind of stuff. I had gotten used to just sitting down for a couple of hours, painting from live models or photographs. Trying to come up with new concepts all the while trying to stay original became very draining, a little frustrating and very difficult at times, so my hat’s off to all of you amazing fantasy artist out there Deviant land--YOU ALL ROCK LIKE ZEP IN ‘71! Much respect.

As always, enjoy and let me know what you think...oh yeah, when viewing. please keep this in mind...it’s only a FANTASY.

Peace.

O

There’s a little bit of confusion (in my head I guess) as to when I actually joined DA. The problem is, my main page says that I joined up on March 22, 2006, but my DA gallery list me as posting my very first Deviations “Daytime Girl” [link] and “Lost In Love” [link] on June 14, 2006. My guess is, I must have joined up and decided to look around for a little bit and see what was being posted and after seeing quite a few of these stunning Deviations I must have freaked out for a couple of months and went into hiding, then finally get over it and deciding to post a couple of portraits to see what response I got. After that day, I remember checking my DA site and seeing these awesome comments on both portraits. After that I got up the courage to post more and the rest is history.

Anyway, this journal is to simply say THANK YOU FRIENDS for being so supportive and taking the time to check out my work and give me such positive feedback, an extra THANKS to those who made me a special feature in your journals) I am always honored. And an extra, extra SPECIAL THANK YOU goes out to ~taitan [link] for being the very first Deviant Artist to comment on my work. Lots of Love, you rock! I have gotten so much inspiration from you all, either through your very own wonderful works of art or your positive feedback on mine. I really do appreciate it very much! And please forgive me if I take a little longer than usual to reply, respond or to check out your DA page, believe me, I am always excited to see what you all are up to. It motivates me! If I could I would feature you all in here right now, but after a year, I still don’t know how to make one of those cool links with the persons icon or art inside the page. So on that note please check out everyone of my 217 wonderful and talented Deviant friends on my list.

I would also like to take the time to address a rather bothersome comment I got recently. It was from a very pleasant and talented DA friend that faved a few of my pieces and then decided to watch me. I checked them out, loved what I saw, and decided to watch them, too. They were concerned that I was only watching them because they were watching me. Well to anyone who feels that way, first and foremost, I watch whom I want, and nobody forces me to watch them. Just because an artist is not displaying these so called traditional talents doesn’t mean that I won’t see something in their art that moves me. So even if you are not producing those so-called super-duper-extra-ordinary-Leonardo-da-Vinci-type paintings like our art historian-oriented folks tend to only like, but you are showing potential and attitude in what ever you do, I consider it to be just as good. I hate to sound cheesy, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder...er...huh, I mean viewer.

And as a sort of celebration to mark my one year anniversary on DA, I decided to post two new Deviations that are somewhat symbolic to the very first two that I posted a year ago, one color pencil and one BW/Grayscale. The first one, the BW/Grayscale entitled “Your Smile” is a portrait of a friendly stranger that was just visiting my site randomly through another DA friend, that I have yet to find out who (if you are this person please drop me a line and say hello) She wanted me to do a portrait of her, obviously I was way flattered, but unfortunately I had to decline the offer for the simple fact that I am currently not doing any commision work, I am working only on an inspirational basis. However, after a few great conversations and realizing that we both have so much in common, I decide to ask her to send me a picture of what she looked like, and the photo, taken by her father, was just way too impressive to resist. I’m a sucker for a smile, so I had to submit. The second one, “To Claudia On Thursday,” is actually a preview from my next upcoming series. It’s a revamped version of a portrait of a very talented and beautiful Deviant Artist who goes by the Deviant name ~CherubJibril [link] She was so very sweet and kind to let me do a color pencil portrait of her Deviant ID. And promises to let me do more in the future (hint, hint)

Oaky, I’ve said enough for 2 or 3 more journals.

Thanks again, to both of you ladies and all of my DA friends for supporting me and dropping by my gallery in the last year. Much appreciation.

Enjoy.

O