Regan's Artist Blog

new signature icon needed....

2011-10-28T08:41:00.001-07:00

Awkward Fit

2011-10-28T08:32:00.001-07:00

awkward piggie

2011-10-27T22:41:00.001-07:00

idea for useless gadget themed Woot contest

2011-10-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

working with halftones

2011-10-17T13:33:00.001-07:00

So, the thing I'm working on and looking up tutorials on is halftones. That's how you can get a gray shade of a color without having to pick another color. It's just dots going in a gradient. This is important in printing cause the less colors the less money involved. Also with the Woot site I'm entering contests for you only have 6 colors to work with. This hawk practice piece only has 4 colors. and if you looked closely enough most of the color is in dots. The drawing itself was hand drawn and scanned in the computer. I'm liking the look of computer and hand drawn coming together.

signature update...

2011-10-14T06:11:00.001-07:00

I love USA the Purplest shirt design

2011-10-14T00:56:00.001-07:00

shirt design

2011-10-13T22:46:00.001-07:00

Left turn at Albuquerque

2011-10-13T21:58:00.001-07:00

another signature tag to post...

2011-10-09T17:52:00.001-07:00

new signature icon needed....

2011-10-07T10:24:00.001-07:00

with or without the speech bubble...

2011-10-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

Masquarade Ball

2011-10-06T18:32:00.001-07:00

gecko source

2011-10-06T17:08:00.001-07:00

6 color gecko halloween

2011-10-06T17:02:00.001-07:00

halloween black and white designs

2011-10-06T14:39:00.001-07:00

new signature icon needed....

2011-09-30T18:37:00.001-07:00

inprogress safari design

2011-09-29T23:38:00.001-07:00

slightly smaller...

2011-09-29T22:13:00.001-07:00

safari theme

2011-09-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

Landmark theme

2011-09-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

pic of our chameleon...

2011-09-21T17:19:00.001-07:00

another signature tag...

2011-09-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

These go at the bottom of my signature when I post comments on Woot, by the way, if anyone's curious :) Thanks for enduring...

signature for Woot account

2011-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

have to post this here so I can use it over in Woot :)

oops another resizing...

2011-09-16T06:59:00.001-07:00

Another in progress...

2011-09-16T06:54:00.001-07:00

in progress...

2011-09-15T23:36:00.001-07:00

Chores UNITE!

2011-09-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

another sketch for the Chores themed contest...

color preview Chores Goddess

2011-09-08T23:12:00.000-07:00

lineart for Woot contest

2011-09-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Early preview of artwork for a "derby" or contest. The theme is Chores and this is my Kali-esque Chore's Goddess...

A Woot Design

2011-09-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

entering a derby this week, it's been a while...

Lady Justice

2011-08-30T19:29:00.001-07:00

Graphite and Conte Crayon smudged...

Marker Art

2011-08-17T20:51:00.001-07:00

Been doodling with markers at work. I had school supplies envy and had to buy a cheap ole bucket of markers. They blend pretty well!

Rescue Art

2011-07-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

This is my way of dealing with the nervous energy I got waiting for the rescue/adoption process to go through. It's totally worth the wait and I'm glad they are thorough, but oh. my. god! I'm ready to mount up and go get him, already!

Cat Composition 8

2011-05-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

I have a book of projects and this came from drawing 30 cats from memory. This was the doodle of cat #8 that I scanned in and played with.

sketches from Dallas...

2011-04-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Finished collage...

2011-03-02T19:17:00.001-08:00

Whew! This took FOREVER! It started out as a prismacolor, then morphed into a watercolor, then reverted back to a prismacolor... but I'm really pleased with it!

Holiday Lights

2010-12-19T17:39:00.001-08:00

Just a quick oil pastel (starting to like them, who'd have thought!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T12:00:00.001-08:00

I did come up with this gag on my own, but I doubt I'm the only one to have run with it. You do hear women say "Those aren't real" when they see their men eying a rack, and we're only doing a turkey breast for thanksgiving this year, so the two sort of gelled. The tones were done digitally (as well as the drawing, though first sketched out on paper at work). I overlayed a sepia tone to give it a more fall feeling. It was fun to do and send to folks for Turkey Day :)

fishy

2010-11-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

another experiment with oil pastels... I should mention that for years, I would take them out and make a horrible abomination and then throw the pastels in the deepest art bin I had and try to live on and forget what had happened.

This time I watched some tutorials and took a different approach. I know some techniques have inherent strengths and weaknesses, so I tried to let the oil pastels do what they were good at: blending colors. Not the best medium for control freaks, I'd wager, but this was a nice exercise that will not haunt me. I'll have to include these in my rotation now. :)

Celtic Snakes

2010-08-07T23:27:00.001-07:00

Ok, so last reptile expo I did I just had art, and it was all pretty realistic, drawn from nature kind of art, and I broke even (and had a lot of fun). This year I'll have my Camp Lizard book, so I hope to do much better, but I'm also doing some different art... like this Celtic knot of common pet snakes (milksnake, kingsnake, and cornsnake). I have some other ideas, too, even some "manga" illustrations. Lots of people last time thought of things as they would relate to a cool tattoo, so I'm taking that into consideration, too. It's fun! :)

First Online Art Sale!

2010-08-02T14:46:00.001-07:00

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE!

These watercolors were done to celebrate Summertime, and were part of a group art show. The show's over and I really would hate to put these in deep storage, so I'm using Facebook to offer them to all my friends and family at a special price!

All the pieces are 5x7" images (already matted and ready for a 8x10 frame) and are each only $25.00 (shipping included) for my facebook friends :)

Shown here are...

"Summer is for Sprinklers"
"High Dive Anxiety"
"Floating Along"
"Cannon Ball!"

If you'd like one of these fun watercolors to commemorate this summer, just email me at regan@reganjohnson.com to arrange for payment and delivery.

If you like one of these, but, say, you'd like your own kid in it, I can also do a special commission.

Hope everyone's having a happy summer and staying cool! Feel free to comment, too, I always like hearing from the public!

Regan

Reptile Expo!

2010-07-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'll be a vendor in next month's Austin Reptile Expo (yeah!). I'll be selling artwork like the one above and also selling and signing my books, mainly Camp Lizard to all the kids that come see the reptiles. Hopefully I'll earn some green and even more hopefully I won't immediately blow it all at the expo!

I've still got a lot of "realistic" reptile studies, so I'm having some fun with art deco motifs and designs. I think they may do well, we'll see.

another signature image

2010-05-20T22:13:00.001-07:00

Woot Shirt Design

2010-05-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mother(ship)hood preview

2010-05-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on this but wanted to get some feedback from the Woot forum, so I'm posting it here... the theme is Motherhood and I'm showing a little UFO bringing "Mom" a gift (poor guy, his dog, and a camper)

sketch for Unsinkable Quartet

2010-05-07T20:11:00.001-07:00

Spring Chicken

2010-04-30T20:43:00.001-07:00

A tshirt design for the Woot.shirt website... it's a fun weekly contest, I'm learning a lot about design and use of limited colors (6 is the most you can use). Really fun!

more woot avatar stuff (sorry, need to post it)

2010-04-30T20:07:00.001-07:00

woot avatar

2010-04-29T20:36:00.001-07:00

sketches for Woot Derby

2010-04-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

need to post this for my woot site!

2010-04-20T19:16:00.001-07:00

Mural Mock Up

2009-11-14T07:39:00.001-08:00

I think the murals I have planned for the new house will restart my creative painting engines. This will have four layers: a base color layer that will open up on the ceiling to the blue that is already on the walls (adding clouds to soften the blue a bit), then a sponged on mist layer of a slightly lighter tone, then a darker than base color silhouette layer which will add depth and realism without me having to lose my mind painting every little thing, then a final full color layer that will be spaced out into "spots" of realism.

The thing about the Savannah mural I did was that was also 360 degrees was that I had to paint every blade of tall grass and it also was kind of claustrophobic because I didn't paint in atmospheric effects to lead the eye beyond the elements right up close. The effect was you were in a sea of grass, which was fine, but for a jungle if I tried that I would go bonkers fast. But, flipping through my many, many... MANY wildlife books, I saw that nature created a nifty shortcut: mist that creates shapes and shadows. I predict this will be much easier both to work on and to live with. I won't have to leave whole sections totally blank while I work on other parts of it. It will be like the jungle is emerging piece by piece.

The fun part, too, is auditioning animal/plant sources. I already decided it will be a South/Central American jungle, since I did Africa with my Savannah mural before. Almost chose Australia, but I really want toucans! I have my jaguar source, and a list of favorite plants from my terrarium building. Definitely a plus of home ownership: a JUNGLE Room! :)

updated Brady Bunch parody!

2009-09-28T19:06:00.001-07:00

Redesign of Website take 2 or is it 3?

2009-09-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

the white empty squares on either side will be horizontal scrolling portfolios that when clicked on will enlarge on a different page. The idea came from a book on new website design/ideas and I like the idea that a lot of my art could be quickly viewed all at once with the option of looking closer available. Clicking one at a time and even seeing a tiny preview thumbnail might slow things down in the fast paced art world. The light gray box in the middle at the bottom will be a news box with updates and hopefully release dates of future books. And I like the different backgrounds I got going on behind the design portfolios (argyle) and the illustration ones (floral/organic pattern). That's meant to show a left brain/right brain difference at work.

Now just have to sweet talk the hubby to build it :)

Art Deco Wedding Portrait

2009-08-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

Holy god, that was a lot of frilly textures! Hahaha, it makes me laugh, cause I don't consider myself a frilly girl, and I think my wedding was restrained, but I had to go all out for the sake of the illustration :) Those who were there can keep a secret!

Salome Dancer

2009-08-03T15:19:00.001-07:00

I'm taking some interest in Art Deco and Mucha in particular, so this is a belly dancer figure drawn in that heavily outlined way used back then... I like the flat use of color that was popular, too, back then, it's very graphic. I named it Salome because her expression looked like she was wanting a man's head on a platter... sometimes I don't get to choose!

zilker bridge

2009-07-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

just a pen and ink drawing of the bridge at Zilker park for my 3x3" show

poster

2009-07-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

the poster advertising the show... better get framing!

wombat

2009-06-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

this just makes me happy... and I'm loving the handmade paper, it's like artist crack!

goat!

2009-06-30T18:29:00.001-07:00

Here's a goat drawing I did in charcoal pencil... I like it because I came to that point where I don't think it'll pull through, but I played with it and now it's a keeper. It's going in my July 3x3" show...

logo artwork

2009-06-16T20:42:00.001-07:00

A logo for a friend required some neat artwork, was fun to draw!

Ego Surgery

2009-06-11T13:24:00.001-07:00

How would you show a man's ego getting medically taken out? Here's how I did!

Yoga Pretzel

2009-06-08T10:07:00.001-07:00

One of the humorous illustrations for the "Yoga for the Pleasingly Plump" book I'm working on finishing (I didn't write it, just doing the illustrations!). Along with the technical illustrations showing the poses, I'm doing some fun "anecdotal" cartoons that go along with Keith's personal experiences. This one is about the fear and misconceptions that Yoga has... ie, getting stuck in a pretzel shape!

yoga cartoon

2009-06-03T19:03:00.001-07:00

This is a rough sketch proposal that I just really like, it's about being "pleasantly plump" on a plane, how it's impossible to get comfortable, you spill over the sides, and of course he's seated by a cute girl and really thin guy...

hawk study

2009-05-17T18:04:00.001-07:00

proud as a peacock

2009-04-27T10:49:00.001-07:00

This is a digital preview of the silkscreen I plan to do (and I'm pleased just with this version!). The process of silkscreen is each color is considered a run, so this piece will have around 6 runs with 3 stencils cut out and doilies for texture, and a final "drawing fluid" run. Basically, it'll brush me up on doing these since it's been a decade since I had the class at Baylor! I'm looking forward to it!

start your silkscreens!

2009-04-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

I made a small investment in a silkscreening setup so that I can make silkscreen prints (serigraphs) and also be able to silkscreen my art on tshirts and things. There's a lot you can do with Silkscreen, but it's that graphic look that I'm looking forward to playing with. This is a pattern I made of gecko feet that might be part of a background or laid over something... we'll see!

Mighty Texas Dog Walk

2009-04-11T16:05:00.001-07:00

This was so fun today(that's Mike and Jill, I'm not in the collage), and I think I'll have to do an illustration or two from it. The weather was cool and the sky overcast, but the dogs were happy and perky. So many dogs and people, some in groups (like the poodle brigade and the corgi crew) I liked how the people and dogs were so varied and different, but we were all there doing the walk together. Have to say, the beagles and daschunds made the biggest showing, at least from where we were in the parade. And lots of tiny dogs were there, many in little sweaters and outfits. Hope to do it again next year :)

Wildflower Center

2009-04-05T07:19:00.001-07:00

On my day off I loaded up the art bag and went down to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and had a nice time taking pictures and drawing the flowers in bloom. Haven't actually been during the bluebonnet bloom and it was impressive.

self portrait

2009-03-31T20:08:00.001-07:00

this was drawn over an actual photo of me, so the lines are true to life. Fun to do and I'm getting faster, too...

Ok, now let's blow the dust off this blog!

2009-03-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had stuff going on, but that's no reason to neglect my blog. And truth be told, I haven't actually been much of an artist lately, so not much was going on in my head to talk about. I have been illustrating, though, and that's been running smoothly, but I'm way backed up on personal creative expression.

So I will endeavor to post some little doodle daily that I either do digitally or scan in. We'll see how it goes!

In the meantime...

Gingerbread Birdhouse!

2008-12-15T19:39:00.001-08:00

With the addition of birds to our menagerie, I opted for the gingerbread Birdcage instead of house. It was fun to make with Jill, maybe it will be a new holiday tradition! :)

Brisby will be missed

2008-11-29T14:57:00.001-08:00

We lost our pet bearded dragon, Brisby, this weekend. He was around 7 years old and died from a long term bone deficiency problem. We tried reversing it, but the weather turned cold and Brisby slipped into hibernation and died peacefully in his sleep. Mike and I know now to expose all our desert lizards to real sunlight to help avoid this in the future. But we will miss Brisby, he was prickly be we loved him.

Let's get crackin'!

2008-11-17T14:27:00.001-08:00

Decided that The Nutcracker will by my theme for this Christmas! I've done this little painting to sell, and Mike and I have tickets to see the Austin Ballet do the Nutcracker on the 23rd of December.

vacation impressions

2008-11-01T20:13:00.001-07:00

These were too funny, but these are from our vacation last month: Mike doing an impression of a Bernini sculpture at the Getty Art Museum that I'd liked, and me at the San Diego Zoo doing an impression of some kind of wild animal... or maybe it was the vacation kicking in!

night of the living dead!

2008-11-01T06:36:00.001-07:00

For Halloween Mike was Shaun of the Dead and I was his zombie wife! We had several people comment "You've got red on you" to Mike, it was great!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

Yep, these are my geckos if I could dress them up for Halloween!

Cowgirl Model

2008-09-22T12:47:00.001-07:00

Another outfit from the sketch group. She's kneeling on a old school round cushion piece (y'know the kind that look like a jelly mold?). That's why her knees sort of drop out. It was a 10 min pose, so I was sketching and painting fast. I was in a spot on the side of the group and didn't get that many great poses, but this one was perfect!

Material Girl

2008-09-22T08:21:00.001-07:00

I had my "Dr. Sketchy" figure drawing group last Saturday and the theme was the 80's so our model came out in some vintage outfits, and the DJ played classic 80's rock and metal... and I'm a little embarrassed over how much I enjoyed drawing to it! If I get in a rut, I may have to turn to that digital music channel and get my "Paradise City" fix :)

This piece I obviously finished at home on the computer, but the sketch was made at the session, along with the pen doodles (I got a little art set at work, and everyone was like "Ah, those take me back!).

Trying out new "old" looks

2008-09-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Finding some inspiration in Mucha and other Art Nouveau artists. It's a stylistic way to represent things, and I like the panels, patterns, and textures. This is a piece about walking Enzo and scaring off cats, squirrels and birds. We'll see where and when I use this style, but it's fun for me, and I need some fun!

Website under Construction

2008-09-13T16:46:00.001-07:00

I've had the reality check that I have a new book coming out, so I need to go great guns on my website! I'm changing several elements of it, but this will be the new homepage. It's a lot of work, and Mike will be a big help. Can't wait to email everyone when it's ready!

How many lizards do you see?

2008-09-05T15:42:00.001-07:00

If you answered one, look harder! Funny, even though Thumbkin is bright green, red and gold he's just as hard to spot in the tank as the leaf tail gecko.

And guess who's 2 years old!

2008-09-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Enzo had his 2nd birthday on Monday, and here he is being ever so cute all curled up in a ball, shown on top, and crashed out with his new birthday toys below. I'd have liked to thrown a little party, but it came at the end of a stressful week, so we'll have to have a celebration soon. We did take him downtown to the Lofty Dog, where he met Pickles the Pug and picked out he raccoon tug toy. I can't believe 2 years have flown by! He's making life too fun :)

The Reptile Expo

2008-09-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well, the Austin Reptile and Amphibian Show was last weekend and here you see my table set up with all the artwork I offered. There were canvases, framed watercolors and drawings, and two portfolios of prints and unframed artwork. Long story short, I made a small profit after taking into account the table fee and other small expenses, but I think my display served better as advertising for what I could do with commission work. I had some business cards and brochures run off at Kinkos that advertised various commission possibilities, a popular one being "Tattoo Design." And people were showing their ink at the show! I saw some really intricate and unique tattoos, that while I wouldn't want to be covered in them, I could have a blast designing them for other people. So, hopefully there's revenue still to be tallied with commissions, but even if not, I did have a lot of fun. I got to go to a cookout and see Tim's venomous snake shack (a whole room of pissed off rattlesnakes will get your blood pumping). And I met lots of neat people, who, I'm sorry dear readers, they "get the whole reptile thing." And it was a boost in the moral to hear nice things about my drawings and paintings. And my favorite sales pitch for my work was "Hey, they look great and you don't have to feed 'em!" :)

Scott Allen from One Stop Exotics had the table next to me, and we got to know each other a little. He was selling beautiful Jackson chameleons and gold dust day geckos. He had some left over and he gave me a male, because we'd guessed that Klondike was a female and he thought we'd have fun with 2 of them. Good plan, but turns out Klondike is a dude after all, and after a very entertaining tail and tongue display (ask Mike next time you see him to demonstrate), we had to pull the new gecko out and add him to Waldo's terrarium. So now we have "Where's Waldo and Where is Thumbkin" in the 28 gallon. So far it's working out in an odd couple day shift/night shift kinda way (finger's crossed).

Reptile Show Artwork In Progress

2008-08-19T16:27:00.001-07:00

(click on to enlarge) This is one of the new paintings I did for the upcoming Reptile Show. I hope I find a buyer who'll love it as much as I do. This is actually a juvenile green tree python (the young ones are yellow or red, in this case). I should paint more snakes, it's relaxing for me. It's all repeating patterns and light hitting smooth surface... very zen like painting. I guess if I were drawing this from real life it would be less zen and more duck and weave!

Waldo Closeup

2008-08-15T20:28:00.001-07:00

Thought Waldo needed a closeup photo to show off how cool he looks. That green mossy part isn't moss, it's his skin, and it's all fringy and bumpy. And he doesn't hide, he seems to pick the most open part of the bark or branch, and just his skin and his stillness make him disappear, ninja style... almost like he knows the predators wouldn't think to look just in plain sight. At night he switches on and moves around with lizardly grace, but it's how he doesn't move that's impressive. He even stretches his back legs all helter skelter to mimic twigs... ok, so I may do that in my sleep, too, but I didn't know we had that in common!

Austin Reptile and Amphibian Expo!

2008-08-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

You know you're way into herps when there's a show and you're not going as an attendee, but a vendor! I was struck with inspiration when I realized Austin was hosting a reptile show and, hey, I have quite a few unsold paintings that could fetch a good price by attendees looking to blow some money on some herpetological stuff. So, I looked into it, and having a table there to sell paintings was very affordable (I sell 1 painting and I've covered it). Plus, it'll be fun for me and Mike. We drove down to a show in San Antonio and came back with Dexter our Hognose snake. This time we want to come home with some cold cash! The image above is my banner that will go up on the site for the show.

Now... who can I get to man the desk with me so I can have potty breaks... c'mon, Jilly! The snakes are all enclosed, and think of the good your raised heart rate will do :) Zach? It's muy macho, you'll feel invigorated afterwards. Rhi? You've got anti-anxiety pills still, right? Pop a few and meet me there!

Housing Market Up Turn in Deutsch-land!

2008-08-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

So, many know we've had a beautiful vivarium for about 9 months with no occupant save 30 or so plant species. It was like a house on the market, but we couldn't find the right tenant. I'd wanted poison dart frogs (and still do someday), but the upkeep for those would be too much for me right now. We were also faced with the fact that if we're paying for the juice the lights and water feature are using, we should get a little more bang for our buck and have something moving around in there. So after some research and talking to some herpetologist people we discovered the mossy leaf tail gecko who didn't need anything done to the tank, we just dropped him in! They are a cooler temperature lizard that required just the sort of heavily planted vivarium I had built. And, frankly, he's so funny looking we just had to have him. He's all mossy and lichen looking, a really good camouflage artist, so we named him "Waldo" as in "Where's Waldo? I've been staring at this tank for- Oh! There he is!"

I've Joined a Gym!

2008-06-30T18:45:00.001-07:00

Ok, so with the post about the freaking heat, the hubby and I have sent up the white flag and joined a gym. But in the spirit of our electronics buying, it is the BMW of gyms! It's open 24 hours, so surely, even with my insane hours I can make it in there. They sent us a promotional offer that waived a lot of the joining fees, so we're signed up on their uber platinum level, which was all they were sigining people up for. But this way, we get almost all of the otherwise add on things included in our fee (things like classes and fitness tests). Our friends were gold members that got rolled or grandfathered into the platinum, and we've had fun telling them all the free stuff they get now that they were unaware of.

What I didn't expect when we started working out is to have such a noticeable change in my state of mind. I mean, it's like someone put me on Zanex, or something! I guess it's endorphins or released pent up stress. It's scary to think that I could feel this much better without really realizing that I felt so bad before. I also, wrongly, thought you only suffered from stress if you were unhappy about said stress (like you're only a workoholic if you don't enjoy it). This year's been stressful, the good kind of stress, as in I have books under production and coming out soon and the company is making great headway, but there's quite a lot of putting out fires as they pop up.

So while I have physical goals I want to achieve, it's already worth it on a deeper psychological level: work out = no creative burn out!

Images from my Rain Forest Show

2008-06-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't use the "good" camera, but these are some of the paintings I did for my show in April. I picked bold/colorful wildlife and painted on what I consider large scale for me. I sold several in the show, and got many inquiries on the frog, but he's sitting above my desk here now, and I think that's where he belongs. The viper, too, I couldn't part with in the end, and it's actually covering the hole of our fireplace, with the screen place in front of it. It's a neat effect, because the black of the canvas looks like the depth of the fireplace, sort of freaky.

Its. So. Freakin. HOT!!!

2008-06-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a quote from the News here in Austin:

In a typical year, we hit 100-degrees eleven times in Austin. Its only mid-June and we have surpassed that number... the high of 101 at Mabry today makes it the 13th for the year. And that now puts us in 2nd place for the all time for number of 100+ days during the months of May and June.

I've finally become the delicate Southern Belle my Mom secretly always hoped I would be (just kidding, Mom), but honestly, I step outside and my Scarlett O'Hara comes out, "Oh, my, I seem to have succumbed to the vapors, clutch the pearls!" I'm pretty sure I got a mild case of heat exhaustion over the weekend: I had no appetite and felt what Mike and I call "loagey" and blech. I resent this, as I'm no shrinking violet, but I dare anyone to put up with this heat and be at the top of their productivity game.

And I'm pretty sure the heat has zapped my brain, too. I start the day with a pretty well rested brain, thinking of all the things I could do at work and at home. Step outside in the sticky 105 degree heat and ten seconds later I'm drooling in the coolest part of the house wondering why Texas won't legalize your birthday suit as suitable work attire.

Tonight it's driven me to Tequila. I thought, Hey, maybe there's something to the equatorial favorism of margarita as an elixir, and by jove, I think they're on to something there. A big fish bowl margarita later, I'm more worried about the numbness in my face than the sweat rings in my shirt. And it's like getting dehydrated on MY TERMS, none of this atmosphere ripping out my precious bodily fluids, that's what the salt on the rim of my glass if for, thankyouverymuch.

It's time like this I'm glad I'm not a little black Italian Greyhound. Poor Enzo is like a cell phone with half a bar left. He shoots out of the house all happy, then the warning tone goes off alerting that he has about 5 seconds of juice left. It's like watching the evolution of man in reverse, turning the vibrant, bouncy dog into a lowly primordial bottom feeder. Sigh...

So, more creativity to come when the brain can withstand the heat :) Check the Weather Channel.

Feeling Patriotic

2008-06-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

Well, this color pencil drawing started, actually, with me finding a really nice paper at my favorite art store in town (Jerry's Artarama). It's Strathmore's heavy weight dry media paper, and it felt so much like a lithographic stone I used to do prints with, that I bought then decided to do some portraits with it. And with it hot as blazes here, I thought I'd do something to commemorate the fourth of July. I also really got into the John Adams HBO series, especially the opening sequence that showed the early revolutionary war flags, like the snake one shown in the corner.

The scan was, I'm sorry, sort of half assed, so some on the edges got cut off. The bottom shows a little more of the "Join, or Die" motto, and the e in people above isn't cut off. But this was a big drawing (18x24") so I'm only going to do so much scanning and puzzling together the pieces.

I think I'll find a buyer in town for this one. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The only traced/transfered part is the "We the People," everything else, the faces and all were free hand. The overall design of the piece was thrown together pretty fast, too, from several references. I did enjoy reading about the snake flag. Ben Franklin actually carved out the woodcut design himself, and it ties in with his recommendation that if Britain kept sending them convicts, that America should send England their rattlesnakes. Some say that the rattlesnake came darn close to being our national mascot (the whole Don't Tread on Me came from this flag, too).

Greening up the flower beds

2008-05-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

Well, we're trying to beautify our flower beds, so we added some sage, oleander, laurell, red yucca, and some baby aloe plants that Jill sent me home with (she has a very productive aloe at her place). Hopefully we picked the right ones!

A New Dedicated Pets Blog

2008-05-24T18:53:00.001-07:00

I've started a new dedicated Pets blog called Pet-a-Palooza that I hope ya'll will want to check out. I just have too much I want to post here about my pets, so I'm diversifying. I'm also going to invite friends and family to be contributor, so we can all brag on our pets. I'll try to have reoccurring features like "Pic of the Week" and "Doodle of the Month" so bookmark it and drop in now and then (I'll try to make it interesting!). If you go there now, you can get a rarely seen roll call with all the pet's names, species and countries of origin.

Hope to see ya there!

Lemur Silkscreen Doodle

2008-05-21T14:59:00.001-07:00

A digital doodle, if you will. I did the pen drawing last Friday at the zoo, then played with dropping in flat colors like a silkscreen... much cleaner this way :)

close up of Gordon

2008-05-05T15:41:00.001-07:00

I like this one because the male cordon blue is looking at me (we've named him Gordon for Gordon Ramsay with the whole Cordon Blue culinary school). This also shows the nice lushness I made with some silk and some real plants. Some I'll take out once they feel safe in their environment so they'll have some more flight room. I love the internet, I found a lot of useful info there (www.finchinfo.com).

The Finch Connection

2008-05-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I had two little zebra finches. They were great fun, even made a nest in my drapes when I let them out for a little constitutional stroll from their little cage. Funny enough, the Whites tree frogs got me in the mood to have them again with their nightly short calling session. So I'm putting the poison dart frogs on hold (their terrarium is growing nicely in the meantime), and since it's me, no store bought bird cage would do, so I made a "floating aviary" out of egg crate panels, plexiglass, some modular wire shelving and about a million zip ties. It's hanging in the bay window above brisby. This is their summer cottage, I'll be making a winter lodge that will go over the fireplace and be warmer in the cold months.

So far we have 2 spice finches (the white/tan/brown ones), 2 spice finches (the speckled ones with dark heads) and 2 cordon blue waxbills.

"Proof" there's a book coming!

2008-04-28T07:45:00.001-07:00

Ok, I couldn't help it! My Dad's an OBGYN, and I when I got the printer's proof of Camp Lizard, it reminded me of getting an ultrasound. We had to check ever page, like we were counting fingers and toes. Also, it was blue and black as a proof but will be green and black "on delivery" (ultrasounds being black and white, but oh boy, it's colorful later). So it was neat seeing what will be coming out soon. We did have some concerns that we're talking to printer about, but overall I'm ready to take this little bugger home! (and then get it into a good school, har har).

Fan Mail!

2008-04-25T16:01:00.001-07:00

It's nice when I get fan mail! This one really picked me up today and I thought I'd share...

Hello Regan!

I just wanted to let you know we just picked up a copy of your book "Little Bunny Kung Fu" from the Wells Branch Library. I read the book to my 4 year old daughter right when we got home and we were both thrilled! She's been hopping around singing "Little Bunny Kung Fu" and doing karate chops ;-) I had to find out more about the author of this wonderful book and I found your webpage. I'm delighted to see that you're a fellow Austinite - something that I suspected when I saw that you had personally signed the book for our beloved Wells Branch Library. I just wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed this book. We've already ordered our very own copy of "Little Bunny Kung Fu" and we anxiously await another book from you!

(I'm omitting their names for privacy)

Keep on Karate Chopping!

Regan