Wildlife Documentary: I've been working on a wildlife documentary. I've been lucky enough to film some really cool animals. I've decided to post some stills that I filmed in my backyard. The story is that I walked out on my deck and went around the corner of the house and I startled a hawk that was perched on my fence. I could tell he was eating something, because feathers flew everywhere when he took flight. Lucky for me he landed in a nearby tree. I've yet to identify the hawk, but I think he's a Coopers Hawk he seems to be eating a pigeon. Click on the photo to see the two enlargements.

Pet Portraits: I've started doing pet portraits. My first attempt is a pencil drawing I created for a friend of mine. He wanted a pencil drawing of his cat Chloe (a sealpoint himalayan). I think it turned out pretty good and I really enjoyed the challenge. Because of this, I've decided to offer pet portraits to anyone who wants one. Soon I'll have a pay scale for different sizes and mediums.

Update: February 8, 2003 = I took some cool photos not far from my house. I've picked the best ones and made them available for download as desktop pics. Click here to view and download.

Update: August 2, 2002 = On a recent trail run I decided to take my digital camera with me. I plan taking it with me some more so I can document the entire 5 miles. I was only able to get the first part because I ran out of memory. You'll need the Quicktime plug-in to be able to watch. Click here to watch the video.

Update: July 7, 2002 = I finally got off my fanny and created an online store featuring my artwork. My illustrations are available on assorted t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and more. Click here to visit my store.

Update: March 9, 2002 = I found some very old pictures of my relatives. There are seven photographs for you to enjoy... Family

Eagle Animations are hard to do. This animation consists of 40 drawings rendered at 24 frames per second. I have always been interested in animation and have secretly wanted to animate my own series, but as you can tell it takes a lot of time and effort... something that I'm lacking these days. Anyway, click on the graphic to watch the animation. It is looped so that you can enjoy it over and over again.

Lesser Scaup hand carved out of redwood. This decoy is approximately 8 inches long. The Lesser Scaup is the last of three decoys that I have carved and is the least detailed of the trio. The decoy was hand painted with acrylics and india ink and took around 20 hours to carve and paint. All three of the decoys I have carved I have given away, but if you want one you'll have to pay... LOL! The other two ducks are a Green-Winged Teal and a Wood Duck. There is a link inside the Lesser Scaup's popup window to view a picture of the Wood Duck, I hope to have a picture of the Green-Winged Teal up soon.

The Sargeant Major to the right was painted with acrylic on canvas. Painted life size, the Sargeant Major is a Damsel fish that lives off of the coast of Texas. There is a link inside the Sargent Major's popup window to view a picture of a Lion Fish... I hope you enjoy it.

The Green Heron to the right is another "bad luck" painting. Like the Toucan at the bottom of the page, the Green Heron illustration was done in gouache and water colors. The painting was created specifically to be entered into a contest for a wildlife calendar. I sent it off with great hopes of being on the cover or at least somewhere inside. So after three very long months I received a letter from the WVDNR stating that my painting had not been chosen, but they encouraged me to enter again in 1999. KERPLUNK! My adams apple fell into the pit of my stomach. Well I guess there's always next year.

Pen and Ink can sometimes lend it's self to the perfect type of animals. The Eastern Cougar illustration to the right seemed to work out great for me. There was no question about it, as soon as I got the idea to draw the eastern cougar I knew it had to be done in black ink. At first the short fur was starting to be a problem, but I soon figured out that a modified stippling approach would work best. Click here to learn more about the Eastern Cougar

The Bluegill to the right is one of several illustrations that I created for a certain magazine that shall remain nameless. The magazine killed the illustrations right before they ran on the press. Well at least got a kill fee from it. The Bluegill was drawn by hand and scanned into my Mac. I then painted him in Adobe PhotoShop and Metacreations Painter. I use a pressure sensitive drawing tablet to get the look of a real painted illustration. The best part about creating illustrations this way is that there is no mess to clean up afterwards.

The Keel-Billed Toucan to the right was created using pencil, gouache and water color. The substrate is No.114 Crescent cold press illustration board. I prefer cold press because of the way the paint interacts with the teeth of the board. This particular painting was sketched out to size and then transferred to the illustration board. I started the painting process by creating transparent washes using water colors. After the washes dried I built up my colors with gouache. Some highlights were helped with prismacolor pencils.

 
Check the links below for more illustrations
  Muskellunge | Brook Trout  | Eastern Bluebird  | Dolphins
Largemouth Bass  | Smallmouth Bass

Check out my work in progress
Summer Tanager | Sketches