Life as Art - The Great Northwest

Hello my Friends,

I'm back!  I had just taken a week off and travelled to Washington State.  My wife Sue and I attended our nieces wedding and spent time looking around and visiting with family and friends.  We had a great time.  We saw some awesome sights and caught up with some folks we haven't seen in a long time.

 All in all it was a good time.  Here are some of the sights from the northwest part of the USA.

Space Needle, Seattle, Washington

We ended the trip with a day in Seattle, a good sized city and very busy place.  The Seattle metro area has about 3.5 million people.  Here we went to the famous Pike Place Market, where we saw the fish throwers, shops, and did some people watching.  We had lunch in a great little mom and pop diner - the kind of place I like the best.  We went up in the Space Needle.  It's a very odd looking tower, build for the Worlds Fair in 62.  Great view of the Puget Sound and the city.

Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA

Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA

Seattle from the Space Needle.  Seattle is also known for coffee....there are lots
and lots of Starbucks shops and other coffee stands...everywhere.

Seattle with the Puget Sound.  Lots of ships coming and going.  A very large port.

The wedding was in Cle Elm, Washington.  It's about 100 miles from my brothers place near Tacoma.  The drive was thru the mountains and absolutely spectacular.  Washington didn't disappoint in the weather department either - there was quite a bit of rain, and cloudy and cool temperatures in the 50s and 60s.  Of course for me it was a great break from the 100 degree desert temps.

The Big House Lodge in Cle Elm.  Out of town a little ways...a beautiful getaway.

My brother Dave and his daughter Amber - now Mrs. Calderon.  Nice wedding and a fun reception.

Cle Elm is right next to Roslyn, WA - a small town where they filmed the television show "Northern Exposure."  The show was probably about 20 years ago.  The Roslyn Cafe was featured on the opening of the show with a moose walking down the street.

Sue and I stopped in to Roslyn for an afternoon.  Had some great food at the Cafe and shopped at the open air farmers market.  Wonderful place - fresh mountain air and beautiful scenery.

Sue and me in front of the Roslyn Cafe

Downtown Roslyn, WA

My Sue at the Big House Lodge.

Sunset over the Puget Sound by the Narrows in Tacoma, Washington.  A truly
spectacular sight and beautiful evening.

It was a great trip.  We're back and I'm back to work today as well.  I've got a couple art projects on the horizon and my Holistic Weight Management with Hypnosis Group and a massage this evening.  It was a fun trip and if you get the chance, check out Washington.  It's a great place.

Take care all and have a great end to this week.

Peace,

Tom

In Honor of Fall and Our Nations Capital....

Hi All,

Well, it's fall again.  In a lot of places the leaves are turning orange, red and yellow and are starting to drop.  It's finally cooling off a little here in Arizona too.  And, football season is well under way here in North America.  So I decided to break out a picture I did a while ago for some friends.

Riggo - Pen and Ink with digital color

I lived in the Washington DC area for about 8 years and created this piece for some friends who are huge Washington Redskins fans.  The artwork commemorates the former Redskin great, John Riggins (or Riggo for short).  I know not all of you are fans, but  Riggo is a revered sports hero in the DC area.  He's a big ol farm boy from Nebraska who was a powerful running back in college and in the NFL.  He played for many years as a Redskin and on more than one championship winning team in Washington.

The technique I used is one I enjoy quite a bit.  I start out with reference material and sketch out my design.  On this one I liked the idea of incorporating a scene from one of the Super Bowls he starred in, his number, name and the team mascot in the background.

Riggo - Pen and Ink version

Next I render a nice tight pen and ink drawing.  Personally, I really enjoy pen and ink.  I used it a lot when I was starting out because we did a lot of one color printing.  I use bristol board and Koh-i-noor technical pens.  The thing I like about it as well, is that the pen and ink is a stand alone piece of artwork (I like it better than the color piece myself).  And after I add the color it can be used as a dual purpose piece.

After completing the inked artwork I scan it in to my Mac.  Then I use Photoshop and my Wacom tablet to paint in the color.  A couple things I like to do are first; touch up the pen and ink in Photoshop.  I want the black image on a layer by itself in Photoshop and I want it to be tight.  So, it takes a little touch up work and time.  Then, I can paint in the color on a layer beneath.  This keeps the black image crisp with the color popping in thru the area that they should.  I normally have several layers of color while working on it.

So, here's to all you Redskins fans and DC area residents; enjoy the beautiful Fall weather out there.  I know the Skins aren't having their best season, but hang in there.  The rest of you - enjoy yourself, wherever you are.

Have a great week all.

Aloha,

Tom

Going Away Artwork

Hi All,

I hope you're all doing well.  I'd like to feature "going away art" today.  Here's what that is.  If you're part of an organization that may have members moving on every now and then, you may consider developing some type of art to reproduce as a unique going away gift.  It can be a nice memento that you can personalize easily as an added touch.

As a career Air Force member, I've done my share of moving around.  Over the years I've collected a number of plaques and photos and things from various places, given to me as going away gifts.  As an artist, I thought - "why not come up with something unique, reproducible, and maybe something that we could easily personalize or use as a fundraiser.  So I started developing pen and ink artwork that could be reproduced, given as gifts, and easily framed.

Prime BEEF - 11" x 14"
Pen and ink on bristol board.

The picture above was done for the 11th Civil Engineer Squadron (CE), in Washington, DC (where I was First Sergeant for a few years).  Their deployed mission is called "Prime BEEF" and is represented by a bull - so that was a major theme in the piece.  I also included a local flavor from DC and the CE corps badge (lower left corner).  I wanted to make it a fun memento that I could easily print up at Kinkos or a local print shop in a nice quality paper.  I left a "hole" in the middle to write a personalized message for the recipient.

55th OSS - 18" x 24"
Pen and Ink on Illustration Board

I developed a larger montage illustration for the 55th Operations Support Squadron in Nebraska.  They hired me to develop this as a piece they could reproduce and use as a long term fundraiser.  The piece represents the local area as well as scenes from around the base.   I did the same thing for the hospital at Offutt AFB as well.  They went over well...the hospital Commander even proudly gave one to the base Commander when he departed for another assignment.

Over the years I've done a few others as well at various places.  They're fun and can even make a few bucks for you or your charitable organization.  I'm sure this type of thing could be developed for various corporate offices, schools, charitable organizations...anywhere people come and go occasionally.

Take care all and have a great week........

Peace,

Tom