

This Week: Women in the News and Mark Twain
"Human intellect cannot estimate what we owe to woman. She gives us good advice, and plenty of it, she soothes our aching brows, she bears our children--ours as a general thing." "In whatever position you place a woman she is an ornament to society and a treasure to the world. As a sweetheart she has few equals and no superiors. As a cousin she is convenient. As a wealthy grandmother with an incurable distemper she is precious." "Look at Cleopatra! Look at Desdemona! Lo


Pet Portraits: Dogs Demand Equal Time
Project of the week: dog portraits! Sorry... I didn't take good step-by-step photos, just a basic beginning and end. Step 1: I am asked to paint small portraits of these dogs. Step 2: The client and I discuss the details of the commission. Step 3: We agree on the details of the commission and how to achieve world peace. Step 4: Make some sketches and decide on one. Get your client to agree on the same one. Step 5: Get all your paints and stuff together. Step 6: Let's p


Speaking of Cyclopses...
You may have noticed a smaller version of this illustration on my blog header and thought: "That looks familiar... Is it a spoof of, or an homage to, the iconic image from the 1902 silent classic Le Voyage dans la Lune by George Melies?" If you did, you know your silent classic iconic images! And here's a still of the iconic scene from the 1902 silent classic Le Voyage dans la Lune by George Melies (his last name has an accent over the first "e" and a backwards accent over


"Happy Spring" Vignette: A Crappy How-To
Isn't this precious? I'd like to say it was an easy 1-2-3 process , but it was, in fact, more of a 47-step process. That doesn't mean it wasn't worth the time, but boy, it sure took a lot of it. Personally, I steer clear of anything that promises to be easy or fast. Sure, you can create a website in 15 minutes, but unless you're a professional website wizard or an actual wizard, a 15-minute website will look like you made a website in 15 minutes. I wanted to make something