It's Done.

The final illustration is done. On Sunday night I'll be getting my "about the artist" photo taken, and then all the book content will be finished. A few more days for proofing, and then it's off to the printer.

It's a pretty good feeling. Nice to see something positive come out of a recession year like this past one.

Time for whiskey, I think.

The Beginning of the End.

You heard it here first, folks. The last picture in my book is officially underway:



Still have to ink the linework and tweak some details, but this one's progressing pretty rapidly.

Details, Details.

So now that my book is nearly done, I need to start looking at the specific details for when I get it printed. For instance, there are two different paper stocks I can use: the 80-lb. matte-finish "traditional" paper, or the 100-lb. silk-finish premium stuff.

Personally, I'm leaning towards the premium, because it'll look and feel better, and it only adds about three bucks to the price of a single book. It is 35% heavier, though, so I'm assuming shipping costs will be higher.

Thoughts and opinions?

My New Video.

Hey, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this:

More on the Book.

Here's the second-last spread for my book:



Now there's only one illustration left to be done.

Buy This Book.

Seriously. If you're into acrylics, this one will floor you. It's hardcore.

The Key to It All.

Hey kids, I'm been playing with video again. Here's another layer-by-layer video, this time with music I threw together in Garageband:

Evidently I still need to learn some things about format, but bear with me. Soon you'll think I'm an award-winning movie director and shower me with riches.

Hot Rods and Bulletholes.

Okay, this is something new for me - I'm no Luddite, but when it comes to video I'm waaay behind the curve. Anyhow, with a little advice from my friend Das, I figured out how to record video as I activated the various layers in a Photoshop file.

I wanted to give readers a sense of how some of my illustrations are put together, so this shows the layers being added, one by one from the bottom up:



Note that the video just features a small section of the piece. Here's the whole thing, for reference:



And yes, this one will be in my book, too.

An Update on the Book.

Hey folks, just a quick update - as of yesterday I've got 28 of the projected 30 illustrations done for the pin-up book. This has been a much more lengthy process than originally intended, but the final product oughta be worth the wait. And it's definitely been a good experience for me - not exactly a huge sacrifice to spend a year drawing women, after all.

Anyhow, I've got the final two pictures planned out (the last one will be a tattoo design), so hopefully I can get this thing off the ground before Christmas, and then everybody can buy a copy and I can retire to the French Riviera and drink champagne and eat caviar all day.

Oh, and here's the one I finished yesterday:



Cheers,
Bret.

Mopar Madness.

Hey, folks. Been tweaking and updating a lot of my older art the past few days. Here's a couple I dug out of the archives from 2001 and 2002. In both cases the colour scheme in the top part of the image was the original, and the one in the bottom part is something new.

Anybody got a preference?





I suspect I'll spin off more variations as well. I'd really like to see flames on that Dart.