The World According To Nick

moved again

2006-08-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

hey all,, i have a new blog and website. hope to see you there.
http://williamnickjohns.com/the-Journey-so-far/
http://www.williamnickjohns.com

I've moved

2005-09-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

as it turns out,, our domain has blogs,, so i have moved there,, and its 10 times cooler,,, music , video's and all... so go here peace and blessings
http://darkvisionsstudio.tripod.com/worldaccordingtonick/

EARTH IS OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-09-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

hello boils and ghouls!!!! Earth is ours is out,, and i suggest you get a copy. the book rocks,, bigtime, one of the best sci-fi books ever, and it has a cover by little ole me. It is also the first cover that daniel started teaching me on. this book is gonna be huge,, your gonna see it advertized on cable tv in the near future,, and there are some big things in the works for this book,, Trust me,, biggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg. For now,, thats a secret. heres a promo i had gary work up on it.....

IT’S HERE
Available through your local Book Store
& Winterwolf Publishing
ISBN# 0-97726-320-7

"Earth is Ours." is a fresh and uniquely original story line that bridges many genre. It is a story of a symbiotic relationship between a self-aware female computer and an American Indian man dying of old age. This is a forced relationship dictated by mutual needs for survival in a world stripped of technology by aliens. The main characters begin the fight of their lives, but before they can fight the fierce aliens, Levi and Amy must fight for control of who they will be jointly. What begins as conflict of minds, develops into tolerance, then cooperation and finally love. This love of total oneness creates a unity of incredible power and strength that provides the means to fight the aliens. Female brains and male brawn unite to battle against incredible odds for the survival of the human race. The conflict of minds, action, adventure and suspense are all interlaced into a compelling and fast paced adventure.
The characters are three dimensional with real emotions, not always perfect, but always interacting. The story is presented from differing view points with the two main characters expressing some of the same events from both a male and female perspective. As they interface, the events are often seen from conflicting emotions and motivations; sometimes cynical and often humorous. It is the ultimate struggle of male versus female while combating monstrous aliens.
http://winterwolfpublishing.com/

Damn,, i can't get the cover to load up,,, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I'm seriously thinking about moving my blog to Live journal,, they seem to be much more dependable,, and no spam. As soon as i post this,, i'm checking on that. Like right now lmao... peace out

any advice?

2005-09-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

For the first time in my life,, i have a sinus infection,, and it sucks. I started taking anti-bioactics yesterday,, and i'm sure that will help soon,, it the meantime,,(and like always,, i let it get to far before i did anything) my face hurts,lol,, it hurts when i chew,, my throat is soar,, and my whole body is acheing. I sure some of you have went through this, and any advice on how to deal with it,, i would appreciate.
I changed the settings on the blog, so anyone should be able to post again,, you just have to type in a word verication,, so it will keep spam offf here. Its getting kind of late here, at least for me,, and i'm having trouble sleeping because of the pain in my face. lmao,,,I made some hot milk, and hope that will help,, but i've been reduced to drinking that 2% fat free milk,, so i hope it will do the trick like the real thing. Truth is,, the 2% ain't bad,, taste pretty good. i'm a milk lover,,i go through a gallon a week, just by myself. Lisa told me that she wants me to try soy milk, once shes here,, thats what she drinks,, I'll try it,, but it just doesn't sound to good. Shes gonna make me try Tofu and Sushi too. I get the feeling, my diet is gonna change bigtime, probally a good thing, as long as i can squezze in a pizza here and there lol. that shouldn't be a problem,, lisa loves pizza too.
Damn,, i have so much on my brain lately. The trip coming up to Colorado to get my baby,, and after 5 years,, having a woman living with me again. i'm really looking forward to it,, sometimes i get very loney, and with al the things that have went on this last year, like my health,, it will be nice to have someone who loves me at my side.
Working with dad is very hard on me too. like the doc's said, i'm not supposed to be doing that type of work anymore,, and i know why, my body just can't handle that type of stress anymore. being in the heat, doing physical labor,, has made me very sick a few times over the summer. i was worried, that that day might be my last. But, i keep hanging in there. I can only hope that things work out soon to where i don't have put my self in jepordy anymore, just to pay the rent. Just a few more paintings.
Whats that saying.."that which does not kill us, makes us stronger" lol,, i'm yawning now, so the milk must be working,, good night my friends,, peace and blessings

step 5 underpainting

2005-09-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

the magic stuff is just an indication of what will be happening,, but don't take it to seriouly,, cause it want look like that when its painted. Daniel sent me one of his paintings yesterday,, where there is some magic going on,, it really helps a lot to study what he did and how he did it.
I'll start painting in the background sat,, gonna be with dad the rest of this week,, got a couple extra things to take care off. let me know what you think,, peace out

jack in the box

2005-09-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

the ringmaster/ nevermore

2005-09-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

2005-09-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

sorry guys, for some reason,, i can't get the pics to load,, i'll try at another time,,its monday,, what can i say lmao

Talked with Daniel

2005-09-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

Good monday morning everyone. I started underpainting last night,, got amy in there too. I'll do some scans later today after i get the whole thing done. I was just to tired to mess with it last night.
Got to have a good talk with Daniel yesterday afternoon. The movie is done now,, all he has left to do is the movie poster, and dvd cover. this was the first time i'd be able to catch him on the phone in about a month,, hes been so busy,, i didn't even know if he liked the Return of the King. well, he did,, he said he was really impressed with it,, and was impressed at how well my drawing and painting skills were coming along... happy dance lol
I know have a pretty good ideal of what he has in store for me. After i finish Target earth,, he wants me to do 3 maybe 4 paintings, based on themes he's gonna assign me. These are to groom me for the gaming market. he said i need some very specific pieces to show as samples, and then,, its the bigtime for the Nickster,, at least, i'll be able to make a good living. I'm gonna start these pieces as soon as i get Lisa back here.
I have worked for a gaming company before,, but they wanted me to do figure designs, and the money was okay,, but the work was boring,, i'm gonna show you the drawings and then how the scupts came out. It was pretty cool to see some of my drawings come to life as figurines.

well, i'm not sure if the pics loaded or not lol, if not,, i'll post them above. so everyone have a good day,, and i'll see you all tonight.. peace out

step 4

2005-09-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

step 4

2005-09-25T05:45:00.000-07:00

I love sundays. Lets see,, always have pizza for breakfast,,, and of course,, FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!! For the game or games i make a big platter of munchies..which include jalapeno poppers,, slices of very sharp cheddar chesse, summer saugage, crackers, olives and pickles...Yum yum.
I want to apoligize for how rough these sketches i doing for target earth are,, the reason,, it because im drawing over a gessoed surface,, and i really don't like doing pencil work on gesso,, as a matter of fact i hate it lol. But i don't have a choice this time. i had to take an old unfinished painting,, and gesso over it. ( don't worry,, it wasn't a very good one,, something i started about 3 years ago) This board is mounted on foamcore,, so it makes it very sturdy,,and makes it possible to show you the work during all its transformations. But it can get expensive,, to get a piece of illo board mounted on foamcore,, for the cost of materials, and the labor involved,, is about 30 bucks a pop.
When i was healthy enough to have my own carpet business,, 30 bucks was nothing,, i would get 10 boards done at a time,, but these days,, 30 bucks is alot. its so funny how things come full circle,, years ago,, ilived the life of a straving artist,,(very happy years for me) I had to sell my plasma to have money to buy art supplies. An now once again,, i'm back to the life of an straving artist.
But good times are ahead, there is a lot of major awesome things going on in my career,, and its just a matter of time before the money is there. you know the funny thing is this. I do feel like a rich man,, i have all the things in life,, that truely make me happy. Lisa will be here next month,,and were gonna start our family, we hope. The powers that be,, have blessed me with a wonderful talent, and imaganation, and somehow,, even during these poor times,, somehow, someway, i'm always provided with the things i really need.
I used to take money and posesions for granted,, not any more. Now i realize just how hard it is to get money,, and every thing that i still own,, has become treasued. I don't take anything for granted anymore,, and i think,, part of the reason for the illness i got,, was to teach me these values again,, somewhere along the way,, i just forgot.
heres the pencils for levi,,, i'm gonna finish amy after the game, and start painting tonight,, i'm hoping the underpainting will be finished by tommorow night. Have a wonderful day all.

step 3

2005-09-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ok,, we got Levi right now,, as far as his positioning,, and i got to tell you,, i do like this better. the only problem,, is i'm winging most of this painting,, no model shots really.So all i got to do know,, is add the details to Levi, and draw Amy back in,, i'm not gonna put all the magic going on, till i start painting.
gary suggested putting a cape on the supreme being,, part of me likes that ideal,, but i can't but help to think,, that it might make him look more like a hero,, instead of the bad guy,, what do you think?

step 2

2005-09-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Okay,, minus the hair,, heres what i got so far. I want to be able to see where the muscles are when i start painting. Now to put Levi in,, hes gonna be in front of the critters right leg,, but i don't want to cover up the leg either, i want you to be able to see that the varmit is walking...

changes

2005-09-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

well, i'm home again today. Dad decided to play hookey today,, yesterday was my day lol,, the truth is,, my landlord's son was in a very bad accident,, and is expected to die,, and he came by tuesday night, and asked me to get on of his rentals cleaned up,, cause someone was moving in wensday night,, and he was not going to be around. The old man has been very good to me,, so i just couldn't say no,, i was done by noon, and was able to get some work in the studio done.
I talked to Gary yesterday, before i got started, and we talked about some changes,,(thank god,, i hadn't put much detail into it yet. lol) so i'm redoing the design, hope to get that up for you today. One of the main things is,, that the simain is around 15 feet tall, so he makes amy and Levi look like little ppl. So the new ideal is,, make there look like more distance between them, so i can make Levi and amy larger in the pic. Gary also wants Levi kneeing.
i got a note from daniel Late Tuesday night,, he wanted me to call him yesterday,, and i tried like the dickens,, but i just couldn't catch him at home, but its all fine. I know he wanted to talk about the pic too, might as well wait till i have the revise done. Big D is going through a very busy work period right now,, with the movie filming, and then having to come home and still get his normal work going,, hes pretty wore out.
I don't know about the rest of you, but i've been keeping an eye on that new storm,, Rita,, they say its the 3rd most powerful storm in recorded history,, my god,, The winds are like 175 miles and hour, and its gonna hit texas late tommorow night, I hope them ppl are getting the hell out of there, i doubt much of anything will be left in its path, and i've got a real bad feeling about it,, something is just not right about this storm.
well, hope to see you later today,, have a good one all. peace out

step one

2005-09-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Alrighty then,, where gonna start from the very first step on this one. But first, let me set up the scene....Levi,, The hero is facing the supreme Simian being,, what has went down is this,, is Levi had an friend helping help,, but the SB threw a mind blast at him,, and his body exploded,, throwing body parts into levis side,, opening up a big gash,, hes hurt,, bleeding bad,,amy is trying to protect him,, but the SB is attacking major bigtime. levi,, is in a state of shock.
Where gonna try something new with this painting,, i'm gonna show every thing,, every step of the way,, so what your gonna see below is very rough pencils,, at this point,, i'm just worried about the design. And i want all of you,, artist or not,, to put your input in,, and help me do this one.
The SB has no hair yet,, except on his face,, i was not to happy with the version i did in the first painting,,, mostly because he didn't look powerful,,, so i'm doing the muscle tone first,, and then i'm gonna add the hair,, trying to show the muscles more. Now the anotomy of this creature is something like this,, his arms are apelike,, much longer than normal arms,, and his legs are like tree trunks,, very thick,, to the point,, they make him look short,,, So trust me,, this causes some problems,, at least to my artist eye. so this has been giving me a fit all day. the other thing is,, i'm thinking about throwing one of his arms back behind him,, holding a sword like hes swinging it at levi.
Now with Levi,, the original ideal was to put his left arm out,, like hes trying to say stop,, but i was thinking about having his arm down,, holding that pick weapon,,, while his other hand is dripping blood from the deep gash in his right side, which will be bloody too
Amy is throwing up a shield of blue flame,, to protect him,, during all this,, because the SB is also throwing a mind blast at him,, like the one that just exploded his friend.
So for now,, i'm leaving everything like it is,, gonna see what gary and the D man think,, and you as well. I'm gonna be gone the next few days with dad,, and well get back on it come Sat... so please let me know what you all think,, peace out

2005-09-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

step one

Got it started..

2005-09-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

i tell you,, sometimes finding the right model pics for a painting is the hardest part of a pic. I'm very picky,,, i know what i want in my mind,, and since i can't afford to pay models 50-to 100 bucks an hour,, i'm stuck with a huge inventory of mags i have to go through to find, jus the right pics.. my main thing and foremost,, i don't want anything that looks possed, i can't stand to look at any painting that looks like the models stood there and let you took pics of them,, very boring,, I love Boris,, his work is awesome,, but i have a major problem with his work,, for that very reason,, the ppl looked so damed possed.
If you want to give something "life" the first rule is,, make it look natural. period.......I'm working on drawing the new one out now,, and by tommorow,, i will be done with it,, i'm kinda waiting on some info from super gary,,, before i start putting finishing details on it. But i got it,, the supreme Simian,, is on attack,, Levi is hurt bad, and reeling trying to protect himself,, and amy,, is kicking ass in protecting him,, but you think,, the sitution looksssss bad for the heros.
I'm gonna show this painting every step of the way,, but like the last,, you want be able to see it as a whole to its finished,,, lots of scans,, and i'm nottttttttttttttt brave enough to ask lisa to put them together till there done lmao. Shes a total sweetie,, but she really has her plate full,, and like me,, shes trying to get everything done,, so when i come to get her,, she can take some time offf as well.
I want to promote a friend of mine,, he does horror art,, and in my humble opinion,, he rocks bigtime,, his name is Steve Gilbert,, go to this link,, and you can see his most recent works http://www.spookyart.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7 If you love horror,, it will be well worth your time.
So till tommorow night,, peace out!!!!

Operation Lisa !

2005-09-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Well, the final leg of the road is here. One more painting,, and i'm off to bring my heart home. I've having a hard time keeping my mind focused,, because i get so excited thinking about her being here. I'm really looking forward to the trip as well,, a nice break,, and a lot of beatiful country to see.
Were she lives now,, there a lot of them old ghost towns arounds,, you know like the wild west. I dying to see them and take pics. I remenber as a kid,, when i would see one on tv,, i've always wanted to see them. I'm thinking about taking my gold panning stuff, and see if there is any gold in them there hills. lol
The trip will go something like this,, i'm gonna do the trip there in 2 long days, according to mapquest,, if i drove straight through,, no stop,, i could do it in about 25 hours. But i know i'll have to stop for gas about every 4 hours, food and coffee. Once i'm there,, find a hotel,, check in,, get some sleep,, the next day,, go get my sweetie,, and start our day with breakfast.
I'm thinking i'm gonna stay there 3 days,, and then take 3 days for the trip back. No point in rushing,, once i'm with her. Now to get readdy for the trip,, is something else lol. For one,, i have to get the painting done,, because the money from that is gonna foot the bill for the trip. I also have to clean up this house,, and start reorganizing everything to make room for her things. And then,, dad and me, have to get Betsy readdy for the trip,, you know, make sure she's safe and sound,, and very cleaned up .
Whats so funny,, is that my birthsign is Virgo,, and i use to be the neatest and most organised person in the world,, but all that has changed the last few months lol. I've found that when i'm painting,, nothing else matters to me,, and the dishes pile up,, clothes ect.. so i do have my work cut out for me.
yesterday was Ben's birthday,,, Happy Birthday Ben!!!!! Today i start on gary's painting,, tommorow i'm gonna be gone most of the day doing the VA thing,, and other errands,, but tuesday i'm hoping to get done with the pencil work done,, and i'll be able to scan this one for you.This one should really rock. Lot of action this time,, all hell breaking loose, and there are going to be some interesting special effects to paint as well, like the supreme simiam creature,, shots mind blast, and amy will be trying to protect Levi with a blue flame shield
Gonna be a long day,, but a good one,, my beloved Panthers play the patriots today,, outta be a good game i hope,, and hopefully we will get a win. Last week we lost the first game to the new orleans staints,, but i don't think anyone could have beaten them that day,, they where playing with pure emotion,, wanting to take a win home to the ppl of new orleans. It was a great game,, and was very close,, but the saints won it with a field goal in the last few seconds of the game. After the game,, it willl be time to get to work. So i hope all is having a wonderful weekend,, and peace out!!!

2005-09-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,,, here is the final version,, text and all. If you want to order a copy, please go to www.blackpetals.com i want to thank everyone,, i sent this out this morning to my friends.. and there response was just awesome. and i know th next painting will be even better. i'm really tired,, got home pretty late after working with dad all day,, so i need to hit the hay.. peace and blessings all..

2005-09-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

After george said something,, i decided to soften up the rib area,,,Lisa is stil working on the whole thing,, i screwed up when i did the scans earlier today,, and light got in on the scans,, and the parts all looked different,, so we redid them,, and now shes working on them again.. Shes my hero,, shes been doing this almost all day,, but its about 1030 my time,, and i have to get up about 5,, gonna hang out with dad tommorow and friday,, maybe sat,, not sure,, but i'll be starting on Target Earth over the weekend. This one,, i got the board mounted on foamcore,, so i want have to tape it to the table,, so i can show you it in progress,, hope to have the whole pic up for you tommorow,, peace and blessings

2005-09-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Preview and Detail well,, its done,, as we speak, lisa is putting the different scans together. I did this one, just of the King,, and hopefully in a few hours i can show you the whole picture. I tried something a little differnt with the fleshtones this time,, used a little more red in them,, what do you think?Well, hope you like,, see you in a little while

Is today the day?

2005-09-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

Howdy,, and good morning. Looks like its gonna be another awesome day, even with a hurricane off the coast. Its not very strong, and were i live,, there not even supposed to be any rain or wind from it, but we will see.
I really got a lot done yesterday, and worked pretty late. I might be done today, as long as i quite playing with the dragon. For some reason i keep going back trying to change or add colors. One of the problems is that the dragon is so large,, while i'm working on it,, i can't reall see it as a whole,, so i have to keep stepping back,, to see the overall thing. When i do that,, i see problems with the lighting, or the way the colors combine. But i think i mostly have it now.
I'm going to finish up everything else today,, and then if i have time,, i'm gonna play with the dragon, just a litttttttttttle bit more lol. One thing i'm doing very differnt,, is i'm playing a lot with color,, more than i ever have,, i'm even experimenting with the color combo's Daniel taught me.
There is a lot for me to learn still. for one,, on flesh tones,, i've never painted a Black person,, and i'm really wanting to,, because the color tones and values are so differnt. The same with native americans,, and asian's. I want to be able to paint all types of ppl,, for one ,, as and artist these seems exciting and challenging,, and for another,, i think it will help me paint critters better as well, you know like green martsians,, or grey corpses. One of the things that always bugged me about the cover i did for the Corpse,, is i didn't feel like the fleshtones on the zombie were belivable, but i loved the ideal of the painting,, it might be one of those that i re-do somewhere down the road,, like the angel ones i keep doing,, or the dragon mystress.. For some reason, i don't feel i've ever got them right.
But regaurdless,, by the end of the day,, i will be able to take all the tape off the painting,, and give you a sneak peek. So, its time to get at it,, peace out!!!

uuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,,, its monday.

2005-09-12T04:22:00.000-07:00

Man,, i've got a new neighbor,, his name is Tom,, and he has a 11 year old son,, can't remenber his name right off, but there nice ppl. The reason i brought them up is,, he has a truck,, that looks and sounds like that one in Jeepers Creepers. When i first heard it coming,,and saw it,, i waited to see what climbed out of it lol. the bad thing is,, this guy leaves for work about 530 in the morning,, and when i'm off,, the sound of that truck will diffently wake you up as it leaves and drives by my bedroom window. Its loud lol
Yesterday was great,, the beginning of pro football season!!! I love football,, and watched the panthers game. Then i headed to the studio and worked a while. Getting back at it this morning, everything is coming together now,, and looking great. Outside of a natraul disaster,, i will be signing it and ascanning it tommorow evening. Yippie!!!!!
If you get a chance,, check out Lisa's blog,, she has a new cover up,,, looks great,, george and Billy have some new things up too. Well, time for capt. Crunch and a shower.. ttyl peace out

2005-09-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you that didn't know,, my buddy George has recently took up sculpting. This was his first attemp last winter,, and its very impressive,, he always said he had a big ........... well you know lmfao. man,, what a day,, i know and angel looks after me. We were working in a very bad neighborhood in charlotte today,, the kind if your white,, stay away. Charlotte is a nice place,, but like any big city,, there are places you just don't go. Dad left me and roland there to finish up a job,, and told me after we were done,, head over to the house we've been working on, for him to sell, and he would meet us there. Just as were getting done, for some reason he came back,, and we packed up all the tools and all. We're leaving,, and for some reason,, he decided on me to go first,, i start up Betsy,, and BLAM!!!!!!!!! a Huge explosing,, and smoke pouring out from her hood. I panicked,, those that know me,, know that Betsy is family to me... and i was freaking thinking she was on fire.. we got out and opened the hood,, and the battery had exploded,, bigtime,, acid everywhere. we get her cleaned up, and dad goes to get a new battery. The wierd thing is this,, he was not supposed to came back,, and if he hadn't,, me and roland would have been in big trouble. No cell phone,, all the neighbors,, looking at us like were dinner,, well you get the picture. An luckily when this happened,, we were in a place that was conveinent,, not on and interstate,, in the middle of traffic and all. Thats why i say,, i know something or some one is looking over my dumb butt. And its really funny,, that just before all this happened,, dad and me were talking about my trip to get Lisa,, and we were talking about,, what it would take to get Betsy readdy to do this. If i take the car,, then i would have to rent a trailer and all,, lots more money,, so i told him,, probally she needs a new battery,, and some wiper blades, a good cleaning and no problem. I'm leaving on Oct 8th to get her,, damn were geting excited.. As fa r as art goes,, its cruch time,,, i'm off till the cover is done,, so thats should be tuesday,, or early wensday. The mag goes to press thrusday. I want to thnak Lisa and Kenny for being so patience with this.. They realize that i went through a major sickness, and it just took time to recover,, but my freinds,, the old man is back in black.. peace out,,

getting there

2005-09-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,,, The painting is looking really good,, the dragon is almost done,, but i keep gong back and adding color,, fading this out,,, things like that... I'm really giving this everything i've got at this point. I know i've not been saying much lately about what sir daniel is teaching me,, but the reason is this,, my skills are at a point,, that only pratice will make things better. But what i'm learning now,, is theory,, and thats hard to talk about,, because its hard to put into words.
Its a whole new level,, its about breathing life into your work,, about understanding things that i don't know if can be taught by words. its like going from and idiot to a super genious. My concept of my work has changed on so many levels.. and i can't help to think that all i've done in the past is just crap,, total crap.
the brush and paint have become part of me,, instead of being affraid of them they have become part of my soul. I can bend them to my will,, In a lot of ways,, this has become the most exciting time of my life. I am there master, not the other way around.
good things are going on,, for one,, i'm a guest at trinoc con next july,, one of my favorite cons,, and a part of deep south con,, one of the biggest in the area. I'm getting a lot of offers in my e-mail,, but i'm turning them down for one reason or another,, the main thing is that i'm sticking to my guns,, and gonna do several paintings, that are just me,, except Garys,, but me and him are so tight,, we see everything the samne,, so its always a pleasure to do anything for him.
his first book,, The earth is Ours,, will be out soon,, its at the printers now,, so look for the ads on cable TV. The ideal for the new cover is awesome i must say,, were taking Daniels advice and putting the hero Levi,, in very much a bad sitution.. the image in my mind is awesome,, by next weekend,, i will be starting on it. its gonna rock.
I'm gonna tell you all about something,, that i wasn't to start with,, but the more i think about it,, i'm hoping by what i did yesterday will inspire you to do something simular. i have to tell you,, its a damn good feeling in your heart.
We got done early yesterday,, and dad took me to lunch and gave me 50 bucks for my birthday,, i figured wow,, i can put 30 in the bank and buy a new movie.. give him a big hug,, and telling him how much i love him,, i headed home. I was almost off the interstate,,, close to home, when i saw a couple walking on the interstate,, against traffic,, they weren't hitchhiking. they looked dirty and tired,, wearing back packs.. I pasted them,,, and thought about it,, and thought they must be refugees from the gulf... I went to my exit turned around,, and came back to the exit before,, and headed back to the pair.
I stopped about 30feet in front of them,, on the side of the road. They didn't even look at me,, once they got close to Betsy,, i got out, and asked them if they needed a ride.. the woman said nothing, kept looking at the ground,, tbut the man told me,, they were trying to get tot he charlotte colisum,, where there was a camp set up to feed the refugees,, and find them work and give them a place to sleep and shower. ( i'm really proud of the way my area is helping these ppl,, finding them jobs and such,,, southern ppl rule.)
it was still about 10 miles down the road,, and i told them i would take them. Once i had them in Betsy, we headed back to charlotte.I got the man to talk (jesse) and he told me there story,, they had left Biloxi Miss, 2 daysbefore the storm hit,, they had lived in a trailer,, and he was sure all was gone. he also told me they had run out of money 2 days before and hadn't ate.
I saw a sign for a waffle House at the next exit,, so i pulled off. Tehy acted real nervous,, i guess they were affraind of what i had in mind.. I pulled into the parking lot,, and said come on,, lets eat,, its on me. Once inside the place become quite,, i guess because the 2 looked like bums. i spoke up and said,, hey,, this guys are from the gulf,, they've walked all the way here,, and they're hungrY everyone become cool,, came over and introduced them selfs and gave them cash.. I odered the works for them to eat. I've never seen two pll eat so much food in my life, it was really sad,, they were very hungry.
After they had there fill, me and Betsy took them to the colism,, and they asked me how they could thank me,, i gave them my address, and asked them once they got settled,, send me a letter,, let me know how they were doing, and once they had a new home,, i would bring them something to hang on the wall.
I cryed all the way home, and on the phone to Lisa. there pain was so great,, you just couldn't help but to be touch deeply by it. so i live you with some lyrics from a song,, by one of my favorite bands... ICP i don't know if all the words are right,, but,, think about it my friends,, and remenber,, you neighbors need you peace out

aint nobody jealous
everybody has they own
nobody locked up
everybody
everybody is free to roam
look at that scrubby (jus chillin)
wit a hottie on his side
look at them rich kids, poor kids
everybody
together on the same side
and they down to ride
lets go all the way
(lets go all the way)
lets go all the way
lets go high high high
lets go all the way
: aint nobody left out
everybody gets to go
it could never be too crowded
come on
we still pickin up some mo'
dont nobody hate you, playa hate you
there aint no hate at all
gotta hold out thier hands and catch you
they'll catch you
and they never will let you fall
you aint gotta worry all day long
lisa: lets go all the way
(lets go all the way)
lets go all the way
lets go high high high
lets go all the way
never no sicknessno sicknessnobody has to dienobody has to dieeverythings answered right then and therenever have to wonder why(you never have to wonder why no oh)wont nobody rush youno hurrylisa: be as long as you wanna becan you guess what this place is?your futuremake it a realityall you have to do is follow me
lets go all the way(lets go all the way)lets go all the waylets go high high highlets go all the waylets go all the way(lets go all the way)lets go all the waylets go high high highlets go all the
way

Thank you and a rant

2005-09-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for the happy birthday wishes, thanks to you all it was a nice birthday, and just a wonderful day overall. I even made a philly chessesteak pizza,, my first one,, and it rocks!!! What i did was take a pizza mix,, made the crust and added the pizza sauce. Then i took part of a porter house steak,, sliced it very thin,, fried it up with oinions mushrooms, and green peppers. Then added it to the topping,, then covered the whole thing with A-1 sauce,, and tons of mozzareli chesse,, man,,, this is some good eating!!!!
the painting is coming along well,, i got about half the dragon done yesterday,, and hopefully will finish that part of it today. Looking good so far.
This morning i've been watching a little of Good morning america,, its a special about katrina. What has me pissed is this,, we knew 4 days ahead of time this thing was coming,, knew it was gonna be bad. Knew that New orleans would be devastated,, but did our goverment do a damn thing to prepare for this,, outside of trying to evacuate the city? Hell No. I want to know why,, more couldn't have been done to get those ppl out of there that couldn't afford or have the means to live. You can't tell me, that buses,, public,, school,, ect could not have been sent to help. And why did it take so long to get help there? The national gaurd should have been put on alert, and sent there immeditlly. they could have started air vacing ppl out of there within hours,, taking them to dryer ground,, setting up relocation camps,, with food and medical supplies. There is NO excuse for this
the blame is on our government,, once again, showing a lack of responsibilty and concern. they don't give a damn,, it wasn't them in the tragedy. And i place the biggest Blame on Bush,, and the ppl who put that fool in office. The man is the sorriest excuse of a leader i've ever seen in this country. I f he is the desent man he claims to be,, he should have done a hell of a lot more to see that the massive death,, and devastion that one of our oldest and largest cites faced, was minimised,, but no,, he was to busy taking another vacation,,,(he seems to take one a month) on his ranch.
In his warped mind,, there was no glory here,, he couldn't declare a war,, and have many more of our young americans killed.( Because like his dad, he didn't have the balls to finish what he started, he just wanted to be a hero and get re elected) It still amases me just how quick he got troops to the middle east,, but it seemed to take forever for the national guard to get to the gulf, even thought there are hundreds of bases all over the south, within a several hours drive, and very short by air and helicopters.
And somehow,,racism is being brought into this. just another ploy to get the ppl's mind off what the real issues are here,, the goverment sucks. it has nothing to do with black or white,, but for some reason,, some leaders are trying to make it seem that way. We need to all work together to get through this. its affecting everyone. hell,, gas has went up over a dollar a gallon here,, which is absurd.. There is no reason for it,, even thought they make plenty of excuses for it. The government,, should put and end to that here and now,, and frezze prices. Another example of rich assholes,, taken advantage of a bad sitution,, and these are the american companys doing this,, not the middle east.
I love the spirit of my country, and I belive in what it stands for,, but i don't belive in our government anymore,, or to be more specific,, the assholes we supposlly put in charge. Our system has lost its way, and something needs to be done to get it back on track, before its to late,, and we become another soviet Union.
We need a new leader,, one that is strong, and non political,, who only concern is the well being of our country and our ppl..........

2005-09-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

i found this pic of george and Solly when they where kids,, thought i would share it. george is the one with the skid mark..lmaorotf!!!!! Happy birthday to me,, i'm 24 x 2 today!!!!hope all is having a great holiday,, the art director for BP.. has the whip out on me,, making me work like a dog..later taters!!!

color and such

2005-09-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

Some of this,, i've might have said before,, but I'm hoping to open some "eyes". Daniel told me a while back,, when he was looking at one of my painting,,,"why are you holdiing back on color?" To be honest,, i was affraid to add to much,, for the fear that it would make the painting look to unreal.
The truth is,, the more color,, the better. I've been going through a "sponging up" process,, where i'm just studing everything,, and i mean everything. White is a good one to study. Find a white curtain,, or shirt,,, and look at it,, really look at it, you will see that there is about 20 different colors in in. Either from shades, or reflections,, or dirt ect.
What i've seen in my past works is that if something is blue,, i painted it blue with tones,, and maybe be some backlighting,, but this is also the reason i've never been happy. Now if i wias gonna paint a blue object, you would see reflective colors,, fading,, other colors showing through. Now that makes it beliveable,, and as Daniel said,,most things have wear and tear on them,, show that when you paint them,, not everything is new. For instance,, a sword is gonna have dings,, bends,, and dirt. the same with clothes,, shoes, ect.
The painting i'm doing now,, has far more detail in it than anything i've ever done. I'm putting everything Daniel has thought me into this one. If it goes well,, it should be done next weekend. I should be able to start painting the dragon today,, and be done with it sometime monday, and that will just leave the King.
The background , i'm very pleased with,, i've really went with a different color shceme,, and i love the feel of it,, very alien,, and very tropical.
well, till tommorow,,, peace and blessings

Back at it

2005-09-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,, well, i'm back in the studio again,, finally got dad out of his crunch,, The bad news is that Paula ( my stepmother that Ashley killed) sister died yesterday,, so Dads heading back up to Penn. As you can imagine,, hes a little upset.
you need to see the new illo that george did,, its on his blog,, i really like it,, reminds me of and old horror movie,, well done old man. its for that mag of Sean's and Coscom,,, i'm sorry,, i cannot spell the name of it lol. Maybe george will for us. george,, i love you man.
tommorow,, i'm gonna start talking about art again,, some things i've figured out with color and all. just a lot to share. Once again,, my heart and prayers go out to all those poor folks that survived katrina,, and to those that didn't. i can only pray that better days are ahead for you.
My baby is going through a hard time as well. Abig tragedy in her life,, please remenber her in your prayers as well. Till tommorow,,, peace and blessings

THE STUDIO

2005-08-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know if most of you will remenber this,, but back in the day,, the late 70's early 80's,, there was 4 artist that got together,, and formed what they called the studio. The artist were bernie wrighterson, Jeff jones,, barry winsor smith,and Mike kaluta,,, 4 of the most awesome artist to ever live. They rented a huge warehouse,, and turned it into 4 different studios,,, and the rest is history. Can you imagine,, the creative energy that ruled that place,, the 4 of them,, together,, in there own worlds,, feeding off the creative juices of each other.
I just wonder if George, lisa, billy and me maybe oneday could do something like that,, each off us making there marks in the artworld, creating art that would blow away future generations. Its a nice thought,,, i just wonder.........................
I got home early today,, so i've been working,, starting the background now,, much differnt that anything i've ever done in the past,, Its times like this,, that i wish Billy George and lisa and i were together,, and we could talk about differnt ideals and approaches,,, God,, we could learn so damn much from each other... peace out my friends

NEW BLOOD

2005-08-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

First offf,, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those poor people down in the gulf,, damn,, i feel so bad for you all. Just watching the images on the news is terrifing. God be with you all.
I think tommorow,, where gonna get whats left over from the storm, hopefully its just alot of rain. I',m still helping Dad out,, but that will end soon,, and i've gotten a lot of good news the last couple of days,, when i'm not so beat,, i'll fill you in,, but all is good.
I reall feel like myself again,, my energy is sky high,, and my creative brain is ticking bigtime.. but i need to go for now.. but will be back with you all soon, and thank you for checking my blog out,, peace and blessings..

my anger

2005-08-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

You know the thing is,, i really don't hate ppl. There are some that make me really angry,, but i'll get that soon. When i say i don't hate ppl,, i mean,, i don't know anyone,, i want to see die,, or anything to happen to them or there family.. I guess the closest thing would be my step sister,,Ashley,, for what she did to her mom,, and tried to do to dad.
At the moment,, the courts still have not set a date for her trail,and dad,, God love him,, is doing everything he can to help her. Including hiring private detectives,, and such to help her case,, Every Sunday morning without fail,, he goes to see her,, takes her money,, and things she needs.. He is more a man,, than i could ever be. He is my hero,, and role model. The man gives so much,, and gets very little in return. Since all this has happen,, i swear,, he has had the worst luck of anyone i know.. It breaks my heart. Hes a great man,, and doesn't deserve the bad things he constanly bombarded with, but life is a bitch,, and then you die. It does me a little good, to know that he is so proud of me.
about a year ago,, when i was still doing the AD thing,, one of the publications i was working with,, well,, we had a big run in. The reason,, because i was being bullshited. The thing that hurt the most,, is i really liked this guy,, and i belived in his dream,, bigtime,, and i got the artist i was working with to buy into it. But he got into things over his head,, and couldn't live up to his promises. If only he had been straight with me,, and just told me how things were.. But as it was,, i guess he was going through a lot of crap,, and just trying to hang on. But he made a beig mistake by going around me,, to ask the artist if they would still work for him,, if i was gone. This really hurt. I had acted as a buffer between him and the artist,, to keep them beliveing,, and keep working for him, and when he did that,, i guess that was the final straw. The artist i worked with,, belived in me,, and what i told them,, and this final act by him,, just made me give up. Once again,, i really like this guy,, he's a hell of an awesome writer,, but he got in over his head,, and instead of being honest with me,, i guess he didn't belive in me enough to know that i would have stood behind him,, if he had just been honest.
Part of my treatment at the VA is talking with a head doctor,, the reason,, is because they tell me i have hyper-tension, and i hold things in to much. well, today,, i think some big progress was made. Got to the root of things,, why i react to things the way ido.
What came to light is this,, there is a big part of me that is still a child,, and thats the part of me that creates,, and paints, is that child. When i open up to someone,, call them a friend,, and help them,, that child is exposed. With one book company,, i open up big to them,, trusted them,, and they hurt that child,, major, and the anger came out,, bigtime.
Since i got sick last year,, i have been working on being calm,, not letting things get to me, and trust me,, i have calmed down quite a bit. The bad thing is,, i have learned,, i have to hide that child, and don't let no one know that part of me,, except the ppl i truely love and trust,, so i don't have to deal with the hurt anymore.
That is part of the reason i posted that blog i did when i got out of the hospital. I just think in my brain,,, that because all the ppl i know,, love the same things as me,, i guess i think they are cool.. But thats not true,, lot of snakes out there. One of the big disillutions i had,, Daniel got rid off. it seems,, no matter what level your one,, publishers and AD are stilll jerks. For some reason i thought when you made it to the bigtime,, ppl would be awesome,, but once again,,, i was dreaming. The only thing is the pay,, yeah,, the pay in bigtime is awesome,, but you still have to deal with snakes.
The reason i love WCP so much is,, these ppl are real,, and decent,, and care about you, and i'm sure there are some ppl like that in the bigtime market. But Daniel,, is preparing me for a lot more than just being a great artist,, hes teaching me all the other things too. I think one of the reasones, i love Daniel so much is,, hes a lot like my Dad,, Hes a busy man, very busy,, but when ever i call him,, he takes time out for me.
I'm just curious,, anyone that is reading this,, do you understand about the "child" inside of you? The part of you, that life is constandly telling you to kill,, you know,, grow up? Well, thats enough raving for one day,, The panthers are playing pre-season tonight,, and tommorow i will be spending the day with dad. So i will see you soon,, peace out,, everyone,, and yes i mean everyone. J,, i was very sorry to hear about your son,, hope it works out,, hes way to young to have problems like that,, he is in my prayers...

yesterday and today

2005-08-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was hell. When i got up yesterday morning,, i realized that the muscles in my upper legs,, were torn all to hell,, and swollen. Standing up was a real challenge. At 47,, torn muscles, have become a nightmare. The older i get ,, the worse they hurt.
My first thought was,, i can't work like this,, but dad had given me the key to the house,, because the plan was for me to get there early,, and get started while he took care of some errands. So,, i baby stepped my way to the van,, and offf i go.
I took a heavy dose of pain medicine,, and a muscle relaxer,, hoping this would help. I got there,, got down on my knees,, and there i stayed. My legs started crapping so bad,, i couldn't put any wieght on them. I tried to stand up,, but down i went,, and went dad finally got there , 3 hours later,, he found me laying on the floor.
He asked what was wrong,, and i told him,, and him and his helper Roland,, had to lift me up,,, and pratically carry me to his van. Dad brought me home,, and had Roland drive my van here.
They get me in the house,, and sit me in my chair. While here,, dad ventured into the studio to see what i was working on. He came back in here and said' That rocks" i couldn't help but laugh,, i've never heard dad say that before.
And then he says... " i really like that,, the man and the two headed dragon, look so alive...your really doing good. ( The painting is underpainted,, readdy to be painted)
and then he says,, Maybe you should send it to Daniel and let him paint it"
I'm like HUH?
"well,, you might mess it up,, and it looks real good. This one will be a real showpiece,, and you want it to look good don't you?'
I love my dad,, but i wanted to choke him. lmao. Damn,, iget no respect. Its so funny,, ppl who don't know me,, treat me like something special,, but once i get close to someone,, they love to give me hell.
Well, today,, i'm heading to the VA,, for a follow up,, and my legs are doing much better. Sat and sun,, i'll be helping dad,, to finish up the BIG job. Then i might get a few days to start painting. So,, till later,, have a good one,, peace out

damn.........

2005-08-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

hey all,, sorry i haven't been blogging latey ,, as much as i normally do. The thing is,, my dad,, got into a jam on a very big job,, and the installer he planned to let do it,, broke his arm... so its fallen on dad,, and he needs my help. so for the next several days,, I'm have been and still looking at 14 hour work days,, till we finish,, hopefully sunday.
quick updates,,, i intead to blog on some art stuff soon,, and what is going on with Daniel,, my master. But is very deep. Its not about how to do anymore,, its about life and soul, the true cogwheels of an artist.
its offical now,, i'm going to be a guest at Frolic- con http://www.frolicon.org and its really cool that these are the same folks that do Dragon -con,, the biggest con in the south. So hopefully,, this will get my foot in the door at that con as well. I hope that some of you can be there,, and chew the fat with me.
Its so strage that things are going so well in my art world,, that i still have to bust my butt doing the hard labor thing,, but my dad is awesome,, and has allways been there for me,, so there is no way i can say no to him, as with any of the ppl i love or care about.
well, i'm tired as hell,, need to cook, and get my old butt to bet... so peace out my friends.

2005-08-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

howdy all,, Is it just me,, or do you all feel something strange in the air? well, anyways,, good news all around, first congrats to my buddy George for getting his first cover. He will be sharing that with me for the Oct issue of Black petals. Lisa took over the Dante's flames books for me for WCP,, so i could have a break for a while,, so i could do some fantasy pieces for my portfolio,, so i can get some work with the big boys. whats really cool about that,, gary wants me to go ahead and do the second cover for his series of books,, and we know that means at least 1200 bucks,, boom,, that pays for the trip to go get Lisa and move her back here late next month. As soon, as i finish the cover for BP,, gonna get started on that,, then a couple more horror/ fantasy pieces. I t sure is a lot more easier to sell the fantasy pieces than the romance ones.. wonder why? I start hitting the con circut in jan,, so i really want to have about 4 or 6 new paintings to show offf.,, and sell prints of. Ben took the pic of the one above last night when he was over, i'm hoping to get the rest of the dragon drew out today and underpainted..and hopefully by the weekend,, be painting it. Once i get the whole thing UPainted,, i'll pull it off the table and scan it,, and show some details. I finally got to see the new star wars movie last night,,, man it was awesome,, best one yet..as Sean would say,, "it rocked my ass" lol well,, i'm off to work,, have a good one all.. peace out

I told you sooooooooo

2005-08-20T05:44:00.000-07:00

"somehow i told you so,, just doesn't cover it" lmfao. I got 2 letters yesterday,, from staff menbers of a certain book company. I'm not gonna mention their names,, but ther're asking me for help. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,, my response to them was Kiss my ass. You made your bed,, put your faith in a crazy person,, so deal with it. When i did tried to warn you,, you blew me offf,, and stabbed me in the back... so deal with it.
Every day,, i feel better and stronger. I've been working,, but its been slow go,, but i'm almost done with the pencil work for the BP cover, and my friends,, it rocks. I've named this one "the return of the King" nothing to do with the book by toieken , you'll understand when yo see it.
I'm so amazed that this painting has the internet talking so much,, there are two forums that are a buzz at the fact that i'm doing it.. and its even more exciting to see my old work making a bigger comeback that it did to start with with,, i had no ideal i had so many fans. Check this out http://www.vampires2.com/FAVampires2WebPages/ pretty cool.
I had a nice surprise yesterday also,, one of my old publishers,, well,, i had to write to him and tell him,, i could no longer work for free, it broke my heart,, but i just don't have the time anymore. I let him know,, that i would always be part of his publication,, and continue to always support it. He wrote me back a very touching letter,, and he also told me that the mag is going main stream,, color covers and such,, and he would be able to pay me soon, and he wanted me to do the first color cover.. wow.. cool.
After all these years of busting my butt, and making big scarifies,,, its all paying off now. Very few ppl have the courage to follow there dreams,, that is a gift in itself. It takes lots of hard work,, with very little in return, until you reach a certain level of professionalism. From what Daniel tells me,, this time next year,, money will be something i will never have to worrry about again. That will be so nice to have that monkey offf my back.
Well, time to get things cranked up around here,,, so have a good weekend,, peace out

Its official

2005-08-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

hello my friends,, well, after talking to Lisa and Daniel about my last blog, They both feel that i am making the best choice for me. Daniel, of course,, has been there and done that,, just talking to him about his path, i learn so much about this business. he told me about a time when he went through something simular,, but the bottom line is,, you have to follow your heart and soul as and artist,, if not,, your work will grow stale,, and you'll be miserbale, which is where i feel i'm at right now.
I enjoy working with the folks at WCP,,, there just plain out good folks. Each of them send me a good well note while i was in the hospital, and i intead to stay part of there family,, just not as much,, so i can paint the things that make me happy.
Daniel also mentioned that i need more in my portfolio than just erotic, which is something i felt too. After all,, i'm hoping to be working for wizards of the coast soon,, but they want to see fantasy,, not erotic.
Something i want to clear up,, I have made some very wonderful friends, i love them to death,, and would do anything to help them. The ppl i mention yesterday,, are all the "snakes" you run across in your travels. I just intend not to let ppl into my world, unless i know them very well,, and that takes a lot of time.
i want to mention all the wonderful nurses at the VA hospital,,, these ladys where just great,, and very caring.If not for them,, my 8 days there would have been a living hell. One of them,, Sharon, was as good to me as anyone could be. No One there knew who i was, and i wanted to keep it like that,, i wanted to be treated like the other vets. But a couple of nights before i left,, I confided in Sharon,, and let her know who i was. I took her to our site,, and i think she was impressed. I told her i would send her some prints,, for her and her family,,She send me an e-mail telling me the names of her grand daughters,, so i could personalise the prints for them, the least i could do for the kindest the lady showed me.
Tommorow,, i have to go take care of some bills,, but when i get done,, i'm locking myself in the studio for several days,, and gonna see what comes out of me. So till later,,, peace out

blog from hell

2005-08-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Be careful what you ask george,,, i missed you too. i was hoping to get a call from you at the hospital, but i'm back now. got home about 3 my time. A condition i've had sinse i was 12 decided to give me a visit,, first time in about 6 years. its called ulcertive colitious, very nasty, very painful.
the last 5 weeks,, i've been very sick,, Lisa is the only one who knew how bad, The last 8 days in the hospital have been very,,, lets say unpleastand, to say the least. Imagaine,, craps so bad,, your bending over in severve pain,, crying,, shiting blood about every 30 minutes. real fun.
But,, i'm on the road to recovery now,, and i've been doing a helllllllllllllllll of a lot of thinking. From here on out,, theres a new Nick in town, and this ones not very nice,,, not at all. As a matter of fact,, unless i consider you a student,, or a business associate,, you want be hearing from me again. I just don't have time for anymore of the bullshit of "what can you do for me?"
Several months ago,,, dennie,, the publisher of Outer darkness,, called me,, asked me to help out some new kid named Ray Champion., gave me his phone number, and i called the kid. talked to him about an hour. Bottom line was,, he needed to be on the net,, for me to "hook' him up with some publishers i know. I gave him my address and phone number and told him to send me his e-mail addy once he was on line. About 3 weeks later i got a letter from him. he was cussing me,, telling me what a loser i was,, and i couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper bag.
I din't write him back,, but sent the letter to Dennie to see. needless to say ,, dennie was very up-set about the whole thing. This wasn't his fault,, he had no ideal the kid was a physco punk. Since then,, i've gotten 8 threating phone calls from this person,, and when i got home today,, i had a new letter in my mail from him. I have no intention of communacation with this fool,,i've had my share and fill of physco's this last year. But his name,, now that,, i will never forget,, and i will be keeping an eye out for him.
So,, next time someone asks me to help someone,,, guess what i'm going to tell them?? and trust me,, this wasn't the first one. You all know some of the other ones.
As far as my art goes,, thats changing too. I will be going back into some old directions with it,, just like it should always have been. I'm going to still do work for WCP for now,, but very limited. I don't want to be and Erotic romance artist,, just not me,, boring as hell. And to be honest,, with all the turns in my health lately,,, its going to become about money. I have to make a living, and doing work for my "Old"friends,, just ain't cutting it. No more of this working on percentage shit,,,its time to ask Daniel to open some doors for me,, as a matter a fact,, i need to give him a call,, he's been doing that movie this month,, having heard much out of him.
To Be honest,, i've had some pretty cool doors opened lately,,, That vampire mag,, brought the rights to "Tainted Love" for there second cover,, not to shabby for something i did a year ago.
Well, i just gessoed over the cover i was doing,, got something different in mind,, i'll show you in a few days, think Dark,, very dark,, tommorow,, i'll tell you about some of the wonderful ppl i meet at the VA, later

How Nick is

2005-08-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all this isn't Nick aweeeeeeeeee i know..... He asked me to put out a blog for him so here i go.:)
He is doing better... can u say wired!:O
They got him on some meds to heal the inflammation and then he will have to get more tests, still keep him in ur thoughts and prayers.
Well, the down time has given him time to do some soul searching. Being Daniels apprentice is teaching him so much so fast and just really has him thinking about just how he wants to proceed. I am pleased to say he has come to his senses and is gonna follow what his soul wants... ohhhhhhhhh hell ya! i knew my Nick was in there somewhere. lol... So look out world lets see Nick shine more then ever...
Ya i know he rocks now but when u do what u feel to ur core and have a great teacher guiding u, u cannot go wrong! Sometimes he listens to me... this one was a delayed reaction. Its about time babes! lol
Til Nick returns, signing out and remember be scared be very very scared the Nick we all know and love is coming back full force mwhahahahaha!!!!
Lis

2005-08-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, well, here's the finished cover, hope you like. Today,, i spent doing the underpainting on the new one. Going well. Guess what,, i got a couple of checks today from WCP,,nice ones,, and they signed them!!!! Its so nice to be working with professional ppl, instead of the jokes of the past. I'm getting cabin fever pretty bad,, so i think i'm gonna spend tommorow with dad, and be readdy to paint again come sunday. So till then,,, peace and blessings

Make you or Break you

2005-08-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

i just read Lisa's blog,, and it inspired this on. You know,, i've been doing art a long time now, and have been working in publishing, well to be honest,, i m not sure how long.. a long time. My first piece was published 25 years ago, damn,, time flys. Of alllllllllllll the publishers i have worked with,, i remenber 5 that told me "I can make you or break you" 3 of those were women. One woman in particully had a "Thing" for me,, and insisted i call her all the time,, to discuss "business", yeah right.
The one thing these 5 didn't understand about me, is "Homey don't play that" The only person thats gonna make or break me is myself, period. Now,, i have seen artist Break themselfs, by stealing,or missing deadlines ect. Stealing and missing deadlines are the 2 worse "sins" and artist can commit,, and word of things like that does get around.
Those 5 that told me that,, well,, they fell to the side,, never to be heard from again, and here i am,, still kicking,, still painting,, being published all over the world, and making money.
Which brings me to another point,,, artist. Damn,, over the years i have known a lot of artist,, on every level, and most of them are just plain and simple, arrogant assholes. They think there all this and that,, and thats so funny. What is funny to me,, with the exception of one,, not one of these "artist" ever made it to the bigtime,, or are even still around. Trust me,, i do searches on ppl,, i like to keep up with the ppl i have meet through the years.
Now, don't get me wrong,,I know some artist that are wonderful ppl,, very down to earth, but about 90% of them,, are , well, just a joke. It seems to me,, that everyone wants to be and artist these days,, and hell, now with the right comp programs,, anyone can be. Yeah right. These guys and girls come and go pretty quick. Small time publishers will publish them,, but the bigtime publishers want pay for images created by Poser or Brice.
the biggest thing i see is this,,, if you want to make yor living doing art,, it takes years,, lots of years, and most ppl give up,,,opt for a "real" life, food and electricty. Its a very hard and long road, and if your heart and soul arent in it,,you might as well get a job at Karoke bar.
well, got work to do,, take care all peace and blessings

2005-08-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

okay,, here she is,, after Lisa gets the whole thing put together,, i will post that,, probally tommorow,, but for now,, i'm in a hurry,, working on the BP cover,,, i took out the dragon,, and doing a two headed dragon instead.. the bad news is,, that i won't be able to show it to you until its finished,, its very large,, and i had to tape the illo board down to the table,, and it will take 8 scans to show you the whole pic.. so,, we'll talk about other stuff in the meantime.. peace out,,

shoot me ,, please

2005-08-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry, i haven't got the painting posted yet,, i'm just not happy with it yet. I finished it yesterday, but not happy with it,, so i'm gonna work on it some more today. I guess compared to the last paintig i've done,, its far better, but i still know i can do better. But one way or another,, i have to call it quits on it today,, because of deadline pressures.
this is going to be a busy month,, i have yet to do the Black Petals cover,, and then an eroctic werewolf cover. So, i've really got to get on it. Being sick for 2 weeks, really through me into a bind. So with that said,, i have to get at it,, see you sometime today with the finsihed piece.. peace and blessings

Evolution

2005-08-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Howdy all. Things sure have been quiet lately, which somethings is a good thang. I've really been doing a lot of soul searching lately,, thinking to much. The new painting is almost done,, just have to finish the hair and feathers mostly,,so tonight you will see it.
Ben's visit was nice. he even made me copies of The Devil's Rejects and the Fantastic Four. Both Movies rock,, in major ways. TDR is far superior to the original House of 1000 corspes. ( i like it too) It is much more darker and serious, and the soundtrack is just wonderful. Two of the songs Midnight rider and Freebird fit the movie so well,, you would think they were made for the movie.
the Fantastic Four just rocks. Its very well done,, and has a lot of humor as well. I grew up on Marvel comics, and it is just a thrill to see all the comic books i used to read being made into movies,, and good movies on top of that. I heard somewere they were making the Silver Surfer,, i can't wait.
i'm not sure what is going on with me lately,, but i am going through some serious changes. The way i think,, the way i do things period. One thing that really bothers me is that everytime i look at any piece of art i've done in the past,, i think it really sucks. My artist eye has changed so much. I'm glad i'm not ADing anymore,, because i would be hurting a lot of the artist i used to work with feelings in a major way, and i don't belive in doing that,, i would rather give positive input, but right now,, i'm in a mode to where all i see is what is wrong. So i've decided,, for now, to not to give critism on another artist work.
time for breakfast,, and then to work. Have a good day all. See you tonight

still kicking!!!

2005-07-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

good sunday morning. each day that passes i feel more like myself,, getting those drugs out of my system has been hell. But the cramps are finally gone,, and the sweats too. I mean its been around 90 degrees here the last couple of days,,and i've been wearing sweats,, cause i've been cold. Man,, i'm gonna have some words with the doc when i see her next.
Painting is looking great,, even though its taking me foreever,, but i should make some headway today,, and finish tommorow. i was hoping to be done today,, but yesterday,, was a bad day for me,, didn't feel worth a crap,, sweated like a dog most of the day,, but i think that helped clean out my system, that, and lots of green tea and that rain forest tea Lisa has me drinking all the time,, Its good stuff,, when you drink a cup,, you feel better just like that.
tonight is the night "The Boy" is coming over lol,,he got that nickname a longtime ago,, and that one isn't nearly as bad as some of the ones my dad gave me,,,i would tell you some of them,, but i know i would never hear the end of it.. lmao.
Well, i got the music cranked up in the studio, and my happy lights on,, so its time to get to it. Have a wonderful day everyone, peace and blessings

Parents!!!

2005-07-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Is it just me,, or are parents put on the planet to drive us crazy? let me try to re-create a conversation i had with dad this morning.

"i thought you said you felt better?"
I do dad,
"but you look like hell"
thanks dad,, that makes me feel real good
" your pale,, and you got dark circles around your eyes"
well, dad,, i've had flu like smytems from the medicine the doc put me on
"well, you need to quite taking it"
I did dad
"you need to go get lisa,, you don't know how to take care of yourself"
Dad,,i've done everything i know to do,, been drinking gatorade,, v-8, the volks
"well, you need to go her,, you make me worry to much"
Dad,, you know the plan,, i'm going the second week of sept
"have you finished that new cover yet?"
no dad
"why the hell not,, you've been home the last 2 weeks,, you should have done 2 paintings in that time."
Dad,, i have till the first,, no problem,, i haven't been feeling good,, its hard to work when your having bad cramps
"you need to go home and finish the picture"
dad,, i need to make some cash to pay the rent
he takes out his wallet,, grabs a bunch of bills,, and stuffs it in my pocket
"there,, now don't give me anymore crap,,,I want to see a finished painting the next time i see you"
okay dad,, thanks.
"now, go to the store,, and get some gatorade,, and some v-8 and some medicine for the cramps"
dad,, i already told you i have been drinking that stuff
"don't you sass me son,, i raised you better than that."
yes sir
"now go home and get some rest"
I thought you wanted me to go home, and finsih the painting?
"There you go,, sassing me again! You ain't old enough that i want take my belt off and wear you out.'
You wear overalls dad, you don't have a belt anymore
Well, to make a long story short,, i have new knot on my head. lmao damn,, you just can't win with parents. I've been working in the studio today,, and the pic is looking very nice. I'm really getting the hang of the new color combo's. peace and blessings all,,

good day

2005-07-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

hello my friends,, today has been a good day. First,, i was right,, it was that medicine that had been making me so sick for the last couple of weeks.. I stopped taking it tuesday,, and today,, i feel much better,, the cramps have really eased up. I don't mean to whine,, but the cramps were so bad,, i was in tears. by tommorow they should be completely gone. Dad and Lisa wanted me to go the hospital,, but i have to get this cover done first, but i had promised i would go as soon as i finished it. but it looks like i'm gonna be okay.
I got a check in the mail today,, yeah!!!!! and its signed.. lmao but anyways, this fellow bought some of my old work while i was working under the name Nick rose,, to use for a vampire e mag,, and print too i think. Anyways,, really nice guy,, i told him if i got a break in my schelude i would try to work in acover for him. anyways,, heres the link http://www.vampires2.com/ Its still under constrution and all,, but i think he needs some writers if anyone is interested. its all about sexy vampires.
you might not see me till sunday,, i'm going in to help dad tommorow and maybe saturday It will be nice to get out of the house,, been getting cabin fever this week. So i see you when i can,, and i should be done with the painting come monday,, and then its back to the black petals cover. Don't forget to join all of us on the new dark visions forum,,, you can find a link to it on the darkvisions homepage.. peace and blessings my friends...

2005-07-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

howdy,, heres so far. I am going to put a necklace on the fellow,, and do more work on the towell,, i'm thinking about putting a little blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth,, but i'm waiting to see what jan and karen say about it. I want to invite you all to join our new forum, you can go to the darkvisions homepage and click the link there.. well, i'm getting back to work,, gonna start painting her now peace out!!!

good morning

2005-07-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hey all,, i'm feeling more like myself again,, yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so i should get a lot of work done today. Last night before i went to bed,, i looked in the mirror, placed my hand on my image,, my forehead,, and in my best preacher voice,, said "Be healed!!!!" and damn if it didn't work... lmfao.
the new site is really talking off,, we've had about 200 hits since saturday afternoon. coollllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. Does anyone know how to check the cafe press thing, and see if your selling anything?
Ben has started his own blog http://theworldaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/ so stop by and tell him hello,, he'll tell us what its like to be a young person again. I remenber being young,, just not much about it, lol Hey,, it was the 70's. well, time to get to work,, i'll have something for you this afternoon... so see you then,, and stay out of the heat if you can,,, peace and blessings

drawing hands

2005-07-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

Howdy all,, I'll scan the painting tommorow so you can see the progress. I've been moving slow this last 7 days,, but deadline is closing in. I'm really starting to think that those new pills the doc gave me, is the reason i've been feeling so bad. there are 2 of them, for cloresral,, and one of them is to keep me from getting stomach acid. ok,, the one for clorestal doesn't cure the problem,, just sugar coats it,, and i was reading on a box of oatmeal, if you eat it everyday for 30 days,, the clorestral will be gone,, so i'm asking myself,, why take the pills that are making me feel bad,, and they cure nothing,, just cause more problems, when all i got to do is keep oatmeal in my diet?
Daniel has been teaching me about drawing hands a good bit. The main thing he is trying to get me to understand, is that a heros hands are large. If you draw them as they really are, on a muscle bound man,, they look to small,, so you need to make them much larger. When i talked to Daniel last friday,, i asked him if there was a formula or a guideline to doing this,, and he said No, you just draw them till they look right in comparison to the body.
i don't think there is and artist out there,, that wouldn't agree,, that the hands and the feet are by far the hardest to draw or paint on the human anatomy. learning to draw them and making them right is one thing,, but to be able to give them feeling and emotion,, is quite another. The hands and eyes are the two main things that show human emotion,, for both men and women.
to give your figures Life,, is one thing,, but for them to have a soul, is quite another,, and this is done by being able to draw emotion, not just life. this is one of the goals i have set for myself as and artist, among others. so i will leave you with that till tommorow, peace and blessings my friends.

Ho hum

2005-07-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

hey all, i'm gonna get busy in the studio pretty soon here. I'm almost done with the male vampire, but trying to get the color combanation right has been a nightmare lol,, but i think i've got it,, maybe not. To be honest,, i just haven't been feeling to good here lately.
i went in to work with dad yesterday,, was feeling pretty froggy,, but the heat got to me bigtime. I got very disorientated, very sick. So,, its looking like i can't handle the heat anymore, and am gonna have to stay out of it. An Lisa and me are thinking that a new medicide the doc put me on,, is causing a lot of the stomach problems that i was thinking was the flu. I'm gonna lay of it for a few days, and see if that helps.
My ex step-son got in touch with me yesterday,, i haven't seen him in about 4 years. When his mother and me were spitting up,, it was kinda bad, so we drifted apart. But he found me on the net,, and i invited him to come over sunday evening and hang out. I do miss him, we had a lot of good times together, and he's a pretty smart fellow. His name is Ben,, so if you see him post on here,, you'll know who he is. he told me yesterday that he had been reading the blog.
Well, gonna try to get at it now,, have a good one all,, peace and blessings,,and for God's sake,, stay out of the heat if you can

Good sunday morning

2005-07-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone,, this is a quick one this morning. First, i talked to Daniel about the exact date for the nov thing,, but hes not sure at this point,, but he said it would either be the first or second weekend in Nov for sure. As soon as he knows you'll know.
For you fans of the movie "Saw" out there,, check this out http://www.lionsgatedirectors.com/bousman/2005/07/how-in-hell-did-i-get-here.html this is a link to the directors blog. At present there finishing up Saw 2,, and you canread about it.
Got to get to work.. hopefully i will haves something for you to look at later today.. have a good one peace out

2005-07-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

This piece i did about 4 years ago. It was the first time i drew Lisa. The reason i'm showing it to you, is this this one,, and the painting Hellcrow,, where the 2 pieces i had done, and took to sheva-con,, that got Daniels attention,, when i first meet him there.What blew my mind, is that he told me then, that this piece inspired him to do something erotic, and shortly after,, he did , in my opinion, his greastest painting to date, Arcadia. It is the painting to be on the cover of his up-coming painting collection book, it is on his site too. www.danielrhorne.com If you haven't seen it,, it is truely a passionate painting,,and one of the most beautiful i have ever seen. Bar none. Yesterday wasn't as a productive day as i would have liked,, i still wan't feeling like myself. Everything i worked on was a struggle, but hopefully today wil be a better day. I do feel much bettter,, but my body is just tired from what it went through. Ive been drinking lots of good teas , v-8 and gatorade and eating foods that are actually good for me,, yuck yuck,, phewwy.. lol. damn,, i miss my pizza and jalapeno's. I was talking to Gary on the phone yesterday too,, and i remenbered something funny while we were talking. Anybody that knows me,, knows,, i am not a very socialable person.. with exceptions. Now,, i don't mind ppl with creative talents coming to visit,, but unfortunaly,, where i live there are none,, so i don't like ppl coming to my house. I'm usally always working,, and hate to be disturbed, especialy like the other night,, when i had a new neighbor come to my door,, drunk,, bigtime,, had a 6 pack in his arms, wanting to come in and bug me. (Its funny, since i gave up drinking last year, i hate to be around ppl drinking, there very annoying) he wanted to come in and visit. I was still working,, and the last thing i wanted was a drunk in my house.. so i told him i didn't have time and was busy,, he told me i was rude,, so i slammed the door in his face. but thats not the story. About 3 years ago,, on a nice spring satuday afternoon,, i heard a knock at the door. Like an dumbass,, i answer it,, its two old ladies,, in there late 60's i would guess. had no ideal who they were. They smiled at me real big,, and asked me which church i go to? i told them i didn't go to church,, thought it was just a big social gathering for ppl to talk about each other,, but i prayed every night,, gave thanks for every meal i got, and read the bible 3 times. This wasn't good enough for them,, there were convinced they need to save my soul. I did my best to be nice to the two,, and keep telling them i was busy and had things to do,, and they kept trying to get past me,, and come in. so i fianlly told them,, let me think about it,, come back next satuday, and we would talk. Well, this seemed to please them,, and they left he he he... All week,, i plotted and planned,, and saturday came. I wasted most of the day,, watching out the window for them. But finally,, i see them walking down my driveway. I rush to put my plan into action,,, i had bought a big vial of vampire blood,, and had alreaddy,, poured some on my biggest butcher knivfe,, drew a bloody petagram onmy chest,, and rubbed some on my cat Clovis, (she wasn't happy with me) so now i cover my hands and arms in the blood,, and then knock knock knock. I grab Clovis up by the scruff of her neck and grab the knife,, and opened the door,, I had my eyes very wide open, put on my best crazy face,, and said very loudly and excited to the two,, This is really a very bad time.. Clovis was limp in my hand,,not moving,, blood dripping from me and the knife. You should have seen it,, i've never seen two old ladies run so damn fast in my life. they could have been in the olympics...needless to say,, they never came back. The only bad thing was that Clovis was pissed at me for a few days,, nothing kitty treats wouldn't cure though. lmao Have a good day all, peace and blessings from the crazzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyy man!!!

2005-07-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

part 2

2005-07-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

wow,, it sure feels great to be back at work. Hope you like what i've done so far,, gonna start the background here pretty soon. Hats off to my sweetie,, between her hectic work scheulde she has been working on our site,, and the cafe press thing. The site is about 90% done now,, and we have t-shirts up on Cafe Press now. There is a link to it on our home page www.darkvisionsstudio.com if you want to check them out. Over the next week,, there will be more stuff up,, you know like prints, mousepads ect. and even "Thongs" for George lmao. next week,, were gonna start promoting the hell out of the site and merch. so far,, even without a meta-tag and putting the word out,, the site has about 100 hits.. pretty cool i think. On the background of this painting,, i'm gonna make it dark, but romantic.. like candles going,, that sort of thing.. so.. let me know what you think,, see you tommorow

The Fly Woman!!!!!!

2005-07-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

Below is BO-FO, one of my charathers that one day i'm gonna do something with. He comes from my dark side, and i've actually created several other charathers to go with him. I was thinking graphic novel or something like that,, but while i was sick and recoverying,, i came up with a new charater to go with him,,, THE FLY WOMAN!!!!!!! She want be a main charater,, just someone to give the readers a laugh. Basically,, the history of this charater is,, this is a poor, scarwny woman,, who was born with no breast,, and looks like a man. Early in her life,, she tries to convince everyone that she is a writer and a phyhic,, but she is just a nothing to be honest, and slowly falls into the trap of gambling and drinking, and tries to talk everyone with her. Slowy she falls into insanity,, and looses touch with reality,,, not taking baths ect.. and finally, flys, lots and lots of flys befriend her,,, constanly swarm around her. (after all, flys are attracted to the smell of shit) and start doing her bidding.
Ppl run from her,,,because maggots spew from her mouth ( shes so crazy,, that she says there ramain noodles) and they just can't stand the smell of her!!!! Wow,,, what do you think??? I'm gonna start doing some sketches of her,, outta be great!!!!
I feel so creative today,, can't wait to get into the studio and get back to work. I want to thank for friends for the well wishes,, and all the letters you all sent. I haven't been able to go through them all yet,, but i will. But i wanted to say thank you!!!!!!! Its nice to know that folks care.
I'll see you all tonight,, with the underpainting,,, and then where gonna get busy painting. I'm gonna be home till monday at least,, so i'm gonna tear it up...peace and blessings,,, and BEWARE the FLY WOMAN!!!!!! lmfao

2005-07-21T04:16:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone!!!!!!! damn,, i feel much better. soooooooooooo I'mmmmmmm BBackkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!

a little better

2005-07-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all,, well,, i do feel a little better this evening,, starting to get my strength back. I was going to ask you all to check out my friends blogs to the left,, Billy just turned out a new illo,, thats wonderful,, George took a pic of something veryyyyyyyyy strange,, you should look at it,, as see if you can figure out what it is. Lisa (my honey bunny) anounced some big news,, and Sean has a new publication out,, and the cover he did,, is just nice,, very nice..
I got my copy of April Love in the mail today,, i have to say this is a very nice publication,, and i am very pleased with the quality that WCP produces. I also got a package from one Mr DS,, it went straight into the trash, i didn't even open it,, as i said,,i hope you have a good career,, but i'm done with you,,and your gang,, period,, so please don't waste your money on me,, and spend it on your family.
I hope to be back in the studio soon,, and get back to business as usual,, but i have been able to lay on the couch,, and watch some really good old horror/sci-fi movies,, so i am enjoying that.. good night all,, see you soon,, peace and blessings

down sick

2005-07-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

soffy everyone,, but i've come down with a very bad stomach bug,, i'll be down for a little. see you soon..peace and blessings

Good morning!!!

2005-07-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

Good morning all, well, the only person i heard bad from about the new illo,, is Nora,, the AD for WCP, and she likes it. So,, i can't wait around to hear from the others,, its time to paint. I need to have the underpainting done by the end of the day,, tommorow and thrusday,, gonna be with dad.
Speaking of Dad,, hes taking a trip this friday,, heading to the mountains for some r & r he went to Pittsburg the other week,, but that was to visit a sick relative,, and the only thing he got to do was take in a Karoke show,, i had told him about.. he was really disapointed with that,, he said the bar was nice,, but the person running the show,, was a major idiot and rude. He put in a complaint with the owner before he left.
Well,, hes going up to Cherokee this time,, a beautiful place,, and kinda like a small vegas run by native americans. hes not much into gambling,, but they have a lot of Native american heritage things there,, and thats what he likes most. I remenber as a kid,, he took me and mom there, before the casino's, and it was a blast,, I loved the dances and the handcrafted items, and of course my mom,, dressed me up as a little cowboy before we went. lol
I saw on the news this morning,, that pres. Clinton is in africa,, and hes doing some pretty awesome things to help his fellow man,, Hes started some massive foundation to help all the poor folks there with aids. Hats off to you Mr. pres.,, and to pres carter too. he spends a good built of his time, work on those Habitat for humanity houses. hes been here a few timew working on them,, and i can proudly say,, i have donated a lot of my time,, to put floors in the houses for nothing,, except the satisfaction of knowing i helped my fellow man.
well,, i will see you tonight folks,, and have a good one..!!! peace and blessings!

2005-07-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

part 2 In this pic,, we have vampires,, she is holding a bouqet of colorful feathers,,, so lets see what all the bosses have to say,, hopefully i can start painting in the morning,, have a good night all peace and blessings

2005-07-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

part one

thank you

2005-07-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Alright,, thank you very much,, now lets get back to life as normal,, ok? I can't promise i want talk about things that bother me,, but i will not mention your names here,, as i promised before. But this is a blog,, if things i say bother you,, then don't read it. My intent is not to hurt ppl,, but to let the ppl who interested the road that i have traveled and the bumps on the way.
have a good one all,, back to work i go

another monday

2005-07-18T04:53:00.000-07:00

its Monday again,,, lol,,, man i hate mondays. Well, the good news is,, i'm doing the pencils today for my newest cover for Torrid,, the vamp thing. I got together my model pics yesterday,, and am readdy to go. I took most of the day off yesterday,, outside of taking care of some business.
Lycos contacted me the other day,, they are the company we brought our domain through. They informed me that a "hacker" was going into our mailboxes,, changing settings,, ect. They told me who it was,, they had been watching him from the start. They gave me several options on how we could deal with it. One is tutning the case over to the FBI,, and letting them handle it. This person thinks since they live acroos the ocean,, they are safe,, but wrong, The united kingdom and the states work together on federal cases.
now, if i do this,, it will ruin this person,, and they own a comp company, fixing things, on other ppl's comp. I have no desire to ruin this person, but i don't see where i have a choose right now. I'm gonna give it 24 hours,, and think about the best way to handle it. If this person,, decides to fix thing,, and move on with there lives,, then i will forget it ever happend,, but if not, your not giving me a chose. I would be willing to bet,, that you and your wife,, don't want the publishing world to know about you antics,,,it would ruin her. So think about this.
Daniel warned me about ppl like this,, he has had his share as well. Most of them served time,, one went as far as to threaten his family. I haven't told him about these 2 yet,, but if i need to ,, i will.
Enough of all that. I got work to do. Have a good day all. peace and blessings

the Bush visit

2005-07-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

hey all,, its sat night,, and damn i'm tired lol. tommorow,, i have a lot of online business to do,, for one,,i just sold a lot of my old illos to a publisher,, for a pretty good chunk of change,, and i have to get them to him.. most of them are from the Nick Rose days, and then i have to get busy on the next cover,, the vamp thing. this writer has a lot of confidence in my judgement,, so this should be an exciting cover,, the first in a series of book.
Yesterday,, prez Bush came to my town,, and what the news didn't report, is all the boooooooo's he got,, thats why he did the college thing early,, cause he wanted to get the hell out of dodge.The city i live in,, is gastonia.. belmont and dallas,, are like small towns in the surburns here,, and those are the places he visisted.
this area's ecomony is based on mill's,, lots of mills. and most of them have closed down,, and alot of folks around here have no jobs,, no homes,, you get the pic,, its really bad. An of course,,Bush blames it all on clinton.
I've ran many companys in my career,, and the first thing you learn,, as a leader,, is that,, when you take over,, its your responsibity,, for what is going on,, and its your job to fix it.. a weak leader,, blames others,, and does nothing to fix it,, and there we have Bush. so, no,, no one around here respects him or likes him
About 3 years ago,, just before i moved to where i live now,, i went to the food store,, it was rent week,, and my rent was about 650 a month,, so between that,, basic needs , like gas and such,, and then food for the week,, i was pretty straped. When i pulled into the parking lot,, i saw a station wagon,, full of clothes and such,, and a family of 4 sitting on the talegate,, man, wife,, and 2 beautifuly cute young ladies,, one about 9 the other about 6. They were holding up a sign that said,, please Help.
There was something about them that seemed familar,, so i walked over there,, and sure enough,, i knew them. I had worked for them about 2 years before,, i had put carpet in there home,, a nice home. they both worked a a big mill around here,, cannon mills, and i remenbered how nice they were to me,, there oldest daughter at that time,, was around 6 or 7,, and she called me Mr. Nick,, and kept bring me a cold drink all day and cookies.. a total sweetie. made my day. and here parnets were both so nice,, so very nice to me.
When i walked up,, the older daughter knew who i was,, jumped up and gave me a hug,, and sayin mommie,, it's Mr Nick. her parents seemed to be ashamed to look at me...I asked them how things where going,, all though,, i knew not well. That told me the story about how they both had lost there jobs,, and both of them started working there straight out of high school,, and they had no other education.. they both got jobs at a burger king,, and the mill closed,, but they was no way they could pay the bills they had, on such a little income. at first,, creditors were suing them,, and then they lost there house,, the irs,, frozze there accounts and so on, so here they were,, homeless,, broke,, haven't eaten in 2 days,, and havent had a shower, or a place to sleep in two weeks,, and no gas in ther car to go anywhere.
he told me,, that they were trying to get to Las Vegas,, where his brother lived,, and that there was plenty of good paying work there,, but they couldn't get there without money, They were between a rock and a hard place.I gave them,, the 650 bucks i had for the rent,,,and they got to vegas,, and there doing very well now,, in fact,, they were the folks that bought april love.
But what is funny is,, my landlord was so pissed at me, for not having the rent,,, she wanted me to move..(that and the fact that i lived across the street from a fish camp,, and i had like 50 cats,, that would come out of the woods,, smeeling the fish,, trying to crosss a busy road to get to it,, so i started feeding them,, all of them,, cost a lot,, but i hated seeing dead kitties on the road,, trying to cross the street.. so i had a lot of pets lmao) so i had to move, to here,, and here is where all the magic has happened. So at the time,, i was really bummed out,, but i never regretted helping this family,,, but i love my then home as well. But now,, i love here,, there is so many special memories here,, so much has happened here... it was meant to be.
There is something about my nature that always helps ppl,, and some of the time,, that really comes out nice,, and then other times,, i regret the hell out of it. The reason,, its just hard for me to accept the fact, that the ppl i do my best to help,, will turn on me,, so i get angry,, and i have a hard time letting go of it. I did a good thing,, and then i get screwed... i just don't get it,, and this makes me hate a lot of ppl. But, i'm learning,, and i'm doing my best to get pastcertain anger,, but everytime i try to,, these ppl. find a way to stir me back up again. But it is time for me to get past that,, to be more careful about the ppl i choose to help.
But ,, i cannot change who i am,, i am filled with love, and i want to help ppl,, so hopefully i will get more wisdom, to know how to deal with these things better. Good night my friends,, peace and blessings

what the master said

2005-07-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,, well, the painting is a big hit.. everyone,, and i mean everyone,, loves it to death..big smile... and daniel is very pleased as well,, to understand his response,, which is cool as hell, this is what i wrot e him to start with

My dear friend and Master,, i poured my heart and soul into this one,, i >did everything you have taught me so far. This is just the single scan,, >Lisa will put the whole thing together tommorow,,then i will send the full >scan at 300 dpi's, thank you my friend,, i never dreamed i would ever be >able to paint like this..I love you man..lol>

this is what he wrote back

You are doing my Jedi apprentice! The painting looks fantastic, keep it up!You can paint like this because you put the time and your heart into it.DanielAs Yoda would say: "Painting like a master soon you will"Keep the faith and remember, good things happen to good people.

man,, this man is awesome,,, he constantly builts my confidence. and i have no doubt,, that he is proud of me. hell everyone that loves me is. When dad saw the painting today,, his mouth dropped open,, no kidding.. he was spechless. An dad even told me,, he buying me a new car,, he knows i have to get lisa in sept,, and i'm sheudled to do a lot of cons in 06,, most as guest of honor. were gonna relize a scheulde of them soon.. and when and where,, i'm really looking forward to meeting all the fans out there, and as much as i love "betsy' my old van.. i don't think she is up to all this travelling.
It s been along day,, Bush was in town today,, but i'll tell you about that tommorow,, and the crazy woman who looked like axel rose, who was screaming "I lost my marbels" and the secret service dragged her away... real sad story,, but thats tommorow... peace and blessings

2005-07-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

this has been a day of days. a wonderful day.. very . first heres the partial scan of the Knight in the Dungeon,, and i am thrilled with the finalpainting,, everything Daniel has taught me so far,, came together in this one,, this is by far the best piece ever from me. The new issue of Black Petals is up on its website www.blackpetals.com and the cover is by my soon to be wife,, and its amazing,, i truely think its one of the best covers yet,, and while your there,, check out the centerfold section,, Lisa did another awesome illo there,, just blows me away,, there are also illo's by eorge and me there as well. An on top of all that my sweetie. signed a contract with a large book company today,, to do covers.. i am so proud of her..For those of you that don't know,, i have 2 students,, george and Lisa,, and the progress that the 2 of them have made over this last year is just amazing,, i'm very proud of both of them,, and George put up a new illo on his blog,, check it out..Well, the next progect is a vampire cover,, i' should have some pencils to show you by monday,, i'm gonna be with dad tommorow and sat.. peace and blessings all, and remenber to check out the black petals website

Good News and a change

2005-07-14T04:41:00.000-07:00

Howdy by golly!!!! Its a good thing i waited till today to finish,, i got a call from Steven W last night,, The bosses husband, and they want me to take the cross out of the pic. There worried it might offend some readers, Thats understandable,, but if i had known that to start with,, i would have went with the ideal of just doing a sexy knight guy,, Oh well, no biggie.
that was the first time i've talked to Steven,, reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy nice fellow,, and a hell of a sci-fi writer too. We talked a while,, and i enjoyed it,, we talked about the future,, ect. he also asked me if i would be interested in doing a 4 plate lithograph series,, based on one of his books, to be sold on the net,, and whereever. Hell, i've always wanted to do that,, i mean,, i get to do 4 awesome,, no type paintings,, and they will be availbe as a set. i even talked to him about getting them put in a package,, with another piece of art on the cover of that..like a folder,, or large envelope.
he was telling me some about the book,, and it sounds awesome. the aliens,, wear some sort of exo-skeleton,, and theres sexy woman,,, damn,, what more could an artist want? lmao. I told him,, it would probally be dec before i could start them,, and probally would do one a month,, so i could keep up with the rest of my work. I have no ideal about the price, or anything yet,, but i'll keep you informed. but they are gonna be numbered and signed...
Damn,, its so cool to hang out with bigtime writers,,,i cna't wait to see Garys book come out,, and see it on cable all over the states,, that will be a rush..speaking of Gary,, i heard that he got kidnapped by a group of female midget wrestlers.. there holding him hoastage somewhere in the calif. desert..His wife,,(a sweet lady) refuses to pay the ransom,, something about,, he isn't worth that much. poor Gary...The image would make a good painting though. We need to remenber him in our prayers guys,,,and he probally needs some ginsien too.... lmfaorotf,,,, i'm gonna catch hell for this one!!!!!
Time to get to work,, peace and blessings

one more day

2005-07-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

hello my friends,, the painting is looking very nice,, but i'm gonna give it one more day,, no one is pushing me to get it done but myself,, and this is the largest figure i think i have ever painted,, and there is so much subtle detail in the skin,, this is a chance to really study the fleshtones.
An of course i relized imake a boo boo on one of her hands,, having to redo that lol. so be patience,, and i will have her for you tommorow sometime,, Then i can start the vampire piece. have a good evening all, peace and blessings.

Thinks i like

2005-07-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone, i feel great and motivated today, gonna get to work soon so i can finish up the Knight in a Dungeon painting,, but i wanted to talk about things i like today,, so often,,the bad things are what comes to mind,, but there is so many good things,, we can't leave them out.
I love a good movie,, especially horror,, even the b-grade ones.
I love seeing a picture of someone i dispise, kissing her pet monkey
I love painting
i love my new drawing light,, its the bomb..you guys got to get one of these.
I love my job,, and all the ppl i work with, and my friends
I love Lisa, shes my honey bunny
I love cooking,,
I love seeing books i did the covers for the number one bestseller
I love seeing someone i used to work for,, begging for food. (thats mean iknow, but i dispise this person,, so all is good)
I love being an artist.
I love mother earth and nature in general
i love dad and daniel
I love being able to afford to put a thick juicy NY strip on the grill with all theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee trimmings.
i love our new domain.
I love Karma
I love Lisa,,(I know,, i alreaddy said that,, buts shes the sunshine of my life)
I love ppl who are honest and honorable

there,, thats just a few things that come to mind right off hand. Overall,, i'm very happy with life,,Sure bad things happen,,when when i lok at the big picture,, how can i complain. Got a painting to finish,, see you tonight,, peace and blessings

2005-07-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

well, everyone,, i got back at it today,, put in a long day,, and made good progress,, tomorrow will be a long day too, but i should be able to finish her up with no problem. I know Dad will be happy,, he really needs my help on something,, and with out me around,, hes actually having to do some work lmao,, Don't tell him i said that. I'll get wooped on the head again. If you'll notice on the painting,, her face and her left side are mostly done,, and the rest is in progress,,i don't now how well you can see the colorin it,, but i'm very pleased,, in person , its quit beautiful. We had a special visitor today,, a lady by the name of Nancy jackson,, one of the best horror writers in the business. she has several books in print, and has a large following of fans. She recently started doing some erotic stuff as well,, and is doing some of that through Torrid, as well as other companys. her and Lisa has been friends for some time now,, and when i found out she was doing some work through Torrid,, well i was pleased. Its getting late,, and i haven't even ate dinner yet, much less spend time with my sweetie.. so goodnight all see you tommorow. peace and blessings

being professional

2005-07-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

oh man,, i slept like a log last night... thank god.. lolThat pill really did the trick,, my back feels much better today. I've been having back problems,, the reason?, well i'm just not use to sitting in a chair for 10 to 12 hours a day,, leaning forward. But the doc put me on a back exercise program,, to strengthen these muscles that i'm not use to useing for such extended times.
You know,, i hear all kinds of things, about the way you should act as a pro,, but the bottom line is meet your deadlines, do the best you can, and reply to the phone calls or letters you get (business) asap. PPl would not contact you if, at least in there minds,, it was very important.,and what is important to them,, should be important to you,, and visa versa.
WCP is one of the best, by far, companys for doing this,, i know if i need to know something,, i will here from whoever i contact within 6 hours. Business is business,, and if you run one,, you should respect that. i have dealt with 2 companys,, that are just the opposite. We have had one,, that you never hear from, even when you turn in the art,, no response. So, you wonder, is it okay,, do they hate it,, whats the deal? You send dozens of letters,, and no response. So,, you write one of the editors to ask,, "whats up?" and they tell you that the publisher is just so busy,, they can't take 30 seconds to respond to a letter,, and then when the creative staff complains about it on there forum,, they close down the forum,, and fire the troublemakers so no one can complain. So, i ask you,, would you want to work for someone like that? do you consider that professional?
Then we have another publisher, that complains on there blog,, how much they hate dealing with there ppl,, who call them. The reason ppl call them, is because they don't respond to letters either,, unless you write a letter kissing there ballon knot. I'm not a writer,, but i would imagen that if i had a book due to be released,, i would be excited,, and probally want to ask questions, and if the person publishing the book, couldn't take the time to respond to me,, i would wonder,, "oh God,, what the hell have i gotten myself into?" and if this person couldn't respond to me,, then how wel are they going to get the book out there? According to the sales i've seen from the two mentioned companys,, not worth a damn.
If your going to run a company,, then run it. I managed a wal-mart for acouple of years in my early days,, and one of the main things i learned,, was to have ppl skills. In any business,, this is very important. If you don't have them,, or you just don't want to waste your time,, talking to the ppl who are giving you sellable items,, then you shouldnt be a publisher. THIS is extremly unprofessional.
I have decided,, i want deal with publishers like this. If they don't have time to talk to me,, then i don't have time to waste on them.
An another thing,, you work with a company,, and then you part ways,, regaurdless of the reasons why,, and then they refuse to pay you,, because "you Quit" Now, to me,, a publisher who would do something like that,, well, they're just a crook,, plain and simple. They probally never intended to pay you to start with. But at times like that,, i just have to belive in Karma,,"what goes around, comes around"
How can your reconize publishers like that? well, a good clue is there usally someone who want to be a writer, and can't get there books published anywhere at all,, so they start there own publishing company, which brings up another point,, YOUR NOT, a professional writer unless, someone pays you to write, anything less means your a wannabe.
Well, just a few thoughts i thought i would share, not only do i want to share art tips,, but tips i have learn about the publishing business, on my road to success. But please remenber,, there are alot of awesome publishers out there, and i've been lucky enough to have worked with them,, and in most cases i still do,, even small press. I belive in helping the ppl who have been good to me,, and i always have time for my friends.
Time to get to work,, peace and blessings

not very productive day

2005-07-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

today,, turned out to be a bust sort of,, I got a late start in the studio,, and then i had to keep remixing the painting to get the fleshtones i wanted.. I'm still learning the combo Daniel taught me,, and then i took one of the new pain pills the doc gave me for my back pain,,,its calledTramadol,, and this stuff is strong,, i 'm so stoned, its not even funny. lol Not gonna be able to take these when i have work to do,, so it will probally be wensday before i get finished up,, but no problem,, still on scheulde.
But my back feelssssssss much better now lol. Normally i have a heating pad dad got me,, to put in my chair,, but its been so hot and humid,, even with the air going,, it makes you very uncomtable.
Did i tell you guys how well the forum went last week,, I was amazed. it lasted about 14 hours,, had around 300 readers visit and talk to the writers. I poped in when i could,, but i just had a busy day. I'm telling you guys,, Whiskey creek has it going on. The staff is just awesome,, and real go getters,, and just a lot of fun to work with. If you count the new books WCP puts out, and then Torrid,, thats about 16 new books a month.As the need grows for artist,, i am going to bring my friends in. Lisa is already in.
man,, my head is wayyyy out there tonight,, gonna have to go to bed early so i can get an early start in the morning. George,, we still need a banner from you for the site,, or i'll just get Lisa to make one for you. Lisa is putting up our merch sites as i write this,, and the e-bay thing is looking good,, we got morewatchers,, so i exspect to see the bidding to start wensday afternoon,, it should be fun to watch.
Well, i'm outta here for the night,, i hope you all are safe and happy. peace and blessings

I'm feeling betta!!!

2005-07-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

good day everyone,, sometimes you just need to vent,, and i did yesterday,, and i feellllllllllllllllllllllllllllll much better today. to put the past behind,, you have to get it out of your system. enough of that.
I don't know about were you guys are,, but were getting some pretty good rain today from the tropical storm,, man we need it,, turtle lake has been low lately, and i've had to water my plants by hand for a while now,, i've already got tomatoes,, and jalepenos...
today,, i start painting on the female figure in the painting,, if it don't look to out of sorts at the end of the day,, i'll show it tonight,, but i will be done with it tommorow. I'm really starting to think that red "thing" daniel has been telling me about is for oil paints,,, althought i like the effect of what i got so far,, i still don't think its what he's been talking about,, or maybe,, i just haven't figured it out yet. Part of Daniels teachings are "i just give you the map,, its up to you to find your way" which is awesome,, it keeps my work original.
Speaking of my dear friend,, his movie starts shooting at the first of the month,,,i know hes excited,, he even got his son a job working on the set.. man, i hope i can get up there for this..lol I'm still trying to pin him down on the excact date of the workshop,, should have that for you soon. Like i said,, we know for sure its either the first or second weekend of Nov.
Also,, for you Hellboy fans,, he just finished doing a scupt of the charather for a major toy company. there going to mass produce it,, it should be cool. Hopefully,, i can get him to bring some of his scupts to when he comes,,they are awesome,, i promise you.
On another Daniel note,, he recently got his Brown Belt in Karate. Thats amazing,, i mean hes 2 years younger than me,, and i can't imagine trying to do all those streches anymore,, damn,, i would be in pain. So, i have to admire his dedication to the martial arts.
Okay,, don't tell Lisa i told you this,, but shes got our new site almost done. some of the things are missing still,, and you have to hit the back button to go to some pages,, but i have to tell, ireally love it,, the way she showcased the art is fantastic,,and her native american crafts,, are just amazing.. check it out at www.darkvisionsstudio.com go ahead and sign the guestbook while your there,, if its up and running..lol.
well, time to get busy,, have a wonderful day all,, peace and blessings

2005-07-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

here you go,,, i'm in a hurry,, so i'll comment in the morning,, peace and blessings

song for a ballon knot

2005-07-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

god,, i'm in a very dark mood today, but as i have been learning from the real players of publishing,, that passion, is what me, me. And belive it or not,, thats what the bigtime guys want. When they see art,, the want to see passion,, anger,, love...not someone kissing there asses, and trust me,, i've been hanging out with the bigtime players lately.. so i have one more thing i need to say to some old wannabes i used to know and help...and then its gone,, for now. this is a song by Nine Inch Nails... enjoy the lyrics,, i know that my true friends out there will relate to this..

God money I’ll do anything for you.God money just tell me what you want me to.God money nail me up against the wall.God money don’t want everything he wants it all.No you can’t take itNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take that away from meNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take that away from meHead like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Head like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.God money’s not looking for the cure.God money’s not concerned with the sick among the pure.God money let’s go dancing on the backs of the bruised.God money’s not one to chooseNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take that away from meNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take itNo you can’t take that away from meHead like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Head like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Head like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Head like a hole.Black as your soul.I’d rather die than give you control.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.Bow down before the one you serve.You’re going to get what you deserve.You know who you are.

see you later with the pic,, its really looking awesome,, i mean bigtime peace and blessings

time to talk

2005-07-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

Good sunday Morning everyone. Taking a day off, did me a world of good,, i got plenty of rest,, had some fun,, (watched several old b movies) and ate tons of food,, including a lot of fruit and ice cream lol. I feel refreshed and readdy to do some serious painting today.
I haven't said anything about the tragedy in london yet, one reason is,, i have a lot of friends that live there,, and i've been worried about them,, and waiting to get word that they are ok. They are,, all of them. My heart and prayers go out to those who were not so lucky.
this crap just sickens me. Ppl, that would attack cilvanins, in the name of god, and then hide like the cowards and pieces of sh*t they are, need to die. I served in the army,, and made the rank of a Ranger,, back when that meant something. Internation laws were differnt then,, if those laws hadn't been changed,, this kind of crap would never be happening now, including 9/11.
My job then, was to take out who our goverment considered the bad guys. I was damn good at it,, because i belived in what i was doing. Even won the silver star. The ppl i took out, were the terrorist leaders of the past, and at that time most of them were in the south america area,, deep in the jungles.
If the laws hadn't changed,, Hussan and Bin Laden would have been history a long time ago. there would have been no war,, those ppl killed in NY and London would still be alive, as well as our fallen soldiers.
(deep breath) ok,, enough of that. I've been saying those adventures for when i write a book about them. lol. But i think what really bothers me,, is what is laying beneath,, what the real cause is. To put it plainly,, the world has changed and the ppl in it.
When i was growing up,, there was this thing called "HONOR" I hardly see that anymore. There was a time,, when your "WORD" was a bond,, and if you gave it,, it was better than any contract. My dad told me " a person is only as good as there "WORD" But times have changed,, very badly.
Today, its allllll about me me me,,,(thanks Billy for explaining that to me) These days,, its hard to find a good friend. A friend is someone,, that you can trust with your life, or your family's, If they tell you there going to do something,, you could count on it. If you were sick,, they were there,, to get you through.
But in about 85% of the cases i know off,,its like,, i'll be your friend,, as long as you can help my carrer or other trival crap. True friends help,, because they want to, not because you ask them too.
Not too long ago,, i had two ppl,, i thought were "friends" totally screw me over. I got them the jobs they have,, but that wasn'tenough,, they wanted what i had,, so they decided that if i was out of the picture,, they could have it. Well. i'm outta of the picture,, and they got it. I learned one hell of a lesson,, be cafeful who you call friend. One of them even called me his brother,,and i got very close to him and his family. Only to be betrayed the very night,, i offered him the best gig he ever had,, but that wasn't enough, he wanted the whole ball of wax. When i come face to face with him again,, and i will,, he has a busted face coming. Homey don't play that.
But the whole point is this,, this goes on everywhere. All over the world. PPl just don't care about those they hurt, or screw,, they don't care about anything,, but me me me. the same with these terrorist,, they have no consious,,I might have this wrong,, but i heard something like,"they belive when they die, they get some many virgins in heaven." or something like that. So,, this ppl put bombs onthere bodys,,kill themselfs,, and whoever is in the area,, because they can't get laid???? But of course,, sorry i forgot, its in the name of God!!!
Sometimes i really belive that old mettalic saying,, "kill them all, let God sort them out", and thats my Sunday Sermon....lmao... what a world....what a bunch of ballon knots. (ask George) Have a good one all,, i've got a painting to do. peace out

2005-07-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

Okay,, i changed my mind.. lol What i'm trying to do,, is use the red thing that daniel told me about,, the old masters trick. I tried it in Parsnip,, but i don't think i did it right.. The bad thing is,, i'm feeling pretty lazy today,, its been allong while since i took a Nick day,, i'm really thinking about chillin today. i was thinking about making the cross more goth,, what do you guys and ladies think? On the vamp/wolfy thing i'll be starting next weekend,, i'm going very differnt with those,, gonna made them much more moody,, indoors,, goth type settings,, firelight ect...well,, if i don't see you tonight,, then it will be tommorow,,let me get some more caffiene in me and see what i feel up too.. peace and blessings

The Underpainting

2005-07-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Good morning all,, nope,, ididn't forget to put it up,, i'm just not going to for now. The reason?; well,,i scaned it for you,, but it just looks funky lol...I am trying some new things, if they work,, it will really show when the background is done. I will have that done at the end of the day,,and if it turns out as well as i hope,, then i'll show you what i did,, but in the meantime,,, you would probally ask "what the hell are you doing????" lmao
We haven't got a bid on the great balls painting yet,, and probally want till the last day,, thats how april went. But the good news is there are "watchers" which means that ppl are watching the bidding,, and will probally put in a bid. If i wasn't a poor artist type,, i would probally give the painting to Emy's family.
Well,, not much to say this morning , lol,, but look for the painting tonight, i'm anxious to get to work.. peace out

updates and art

2005-07-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

hello everyone,, and glad to have you here debra and jan. First,, i wanna catch up on some things,( been a long day with dad,,),, first,, Lisa is still working on our new site,, she found a way to watermark our art,, so it want be so easy to steal. Hopefully she will have it all done soon,, but this is so differnt from any past site,, for one,, were promotting the heck out of the book covers were doing,, with links to buy and all, and later,, were gonna promote the writers as well with links. but were just trying to get the thing up first lol.
We started a new account on e-bay. This one is under darkvisionsstudio,, and it will be the one we use from now on,, the first one,, we just did under my name,, but we want to promote the studio,, not just me.. because we do have some surprises coming as far as the studio is concerned.
The merch sites should be up soon as well, and we will have calenders to offer as well as everything else under the sun, but the good news is,, that Sarah gave me the okay on the new version of the book cover,, so it will be finished either monday or tuesday,, and i will be posting the progress each day,, starting tommorow evening.
Now to the art........................whats really strange to me is,, that when daniel teaches me something new,, he opens doors in my mind to other things as well. for instance,, when he said " remenber,, that every line on a woman is senuious' it really made me start thinging about other things as well, like emotion. I've always know that the eyes have the most emotion,,, but thats not all, The hand,, male and female,, are very emotional,, the way they look. They can show angry , love ,, passion,,, its all in the way you draw and paint them,, the same with lips, and body lanuguge.. every part of a persons body,, show emotion,, every part,,and now that i understand that,, i will work to achive that.
And i'm also thinking that this would apply to animals,, and creatures as well. So,, i will be be working toward these things as well as the other things the master is teaching me,, but to be honest,, i'm so tired right now,, my eyes are crossed.. peace and blessings my dear friends... see you tommorow

2005-07-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

once again okay gang,, heres my second and final try,, i based this on the writers suggestions,, sooooooooo lets see how this goes over. been a long day all,,got a headache from hell lol,, got up at 5 this morning,, oh the doc says i'm doing very good,, my health has improved bigtime,, and the painting i did for Emy Naso's last book,, great balls,, is for sale on e-bay,, went up today,, bidding starts at 750 heres the link http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7335148322&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESC%3AIT&rd=1 if your not a member,, you have to set up an account,, its free. Also,., lisa will have the Merch sites up probally tommorow,, let you know them then.. peace and blessings all

Sir Daniel's comments

2005-07-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

good morning all, its grocery day,, my favorite day of the month lol. No seriously,, i pick up things here and there,, but i set aside one day a month to go do some reallll shopping,, checking out whats on sale at each of our local stores. This week, they have NY strips on sale for 4.99 a pound,, ohhhhhhh happy days!!!, because normally around here,, there as much as 9.99 a pound, and if you know your steaks,, you know that the strip,, is the tender part of a porter house,, damn fine eating on the grill!!!
Tommorow,, i have to get up very early and head to the VA for my check-up,, joy joy. As long as they keep the rubber glove off. lmao I haven't heard anything from the writer of the Knight book,, i belive her name is Sarah Wren? hell i'll get it right, but i barely know her right now.
i think daniel is pretty escited about the sketches i put up yesterday,, the reason i say that,,is that sometimes,, he doesn't say much at all,, but when he does,, i know hes excited about what i'm doing, which gets me excited. the comments i'm gonna post below from him,, well i can do about 70% of them,, but some i just can't because of "restrictions" of the publisher and the writer,, but i do intead to use as many as i can.

here are a few suggestions ( and I do mean suggestions!)With the knight, you now have a chance to paint some armor, so do it!- make sword larger and more phallic-don't make his hair style too modern.-give him a nice trimmed hairy chest-make nose longer-bring up the castle more, it was too far in the back ground, by almost filling the background with the castle, it gives a more intimate feel to the scene.-some type of arm band.-make his hands a bit largerthe woman-show her face, the viewers will want to see it , unless it's part of the story, like she is deformed and hiding it.-show off her beautiful body, remove the bodice, it cuts the figure up to much and hides her sexy mid section.-lower her belt to show off her sexy lower midsection and hips-curve her body more, remember EVERY line must be sensual on a woman, if not then make it so.-I am not sure what the knight is leaning on, but it is a great spot for some royal fabric, anything to enhance the medieval feel of the scene, a dragon tapestry maybe?Really go for this one Nick, use all the painting tips you have learned and make it wonderful!Daniel

i fell like he is fine tuning me now,, which is wonderful,, and i know with the painting skills he is teaching me,, i axsious to get painting,, because i know it will be beautimus!!!(Thats my word) it means beyond beautiful. Later today,, i plan to start underpainting,, i should have that done by tommorow afternoon, but i have some errands to do today,, and some phonecalls to make,, so my work day will be short,, as tommorow will, because of the VA., and i'm supposed to work that forum, for Torrid, in sometime today...
so got to blast,, i'll let you know what sarah says,, peace and blessings

2005-07-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

the guy,, lol

2005-07-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,, well,, heres the pencils for a Knight in a Dungeon, if the writer request no chances that is. Please leave your comments. Lisa has alreaddy told me, that i mad the guys nose to small, so i will fix that when i underpaint,, which i hope i can do tommorow. hope you enjoy. peace and blessings

an old pain

2005-07-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th all. for me,, it is independence day. The last 8 months for me,, has been about healing. Lisa and i have talked in great detail about this. Not just phsically,, but mentally too. The mental thing is the hardest,, because in my case,, my heart was involved too.
A while back,, a group of ppl i helped and trusted, and called friends,,totally screwed me. Bigtime. I'm a natrual born fighter,, but i was just trying to let it go,, venting here and there to help ease the anger. Well, the last of that group,, the one i was trying to forgive, who in reality,, screwed me the worst, got his walking papers from me yesterday. He was keeping the pain alive,, and it just had to go.
Let me say though,, i do wish all of them well,, and much success.
I have put a great bit of distance between myself and them,, and i hope they will stay away,, as i intend to do with them. Things are just going so well for me and Lisa now,, i want to enjoy that, and i am now. As the song says "The futures so bright, i have to wear shades" lmao..
I guess most of you will be spending the day with your family and friends. I thought about doing that,, but i just want to work.. lol,,, i'm turning into a artaholic!! I did the BBQ thing last night,, made lots,, sit on the porch,, and watched the redneck firework show..lol Ppl around here go all out. It was quit a show.
Dad invited me to a couple of family things,, and i thought about going, but the problem is,, everyone expects me to bring an art show,, and all they do is talk about me,, tell me how proud they are and all that. Thats fine with fans,, but when i'm with my family,, I just don't like that. hell, i want to know about them all, how there doing,, I want to see the babies,, talk to uncle "Jed" about his last hunting trip,, or how the crops are doing.
Daniel is one of the best blessings that has happened to me, but, my family is so abuzz about this all,,its all they're interested in. When i get a call,, or an e-mail from them..No one ever ask,, Nick , how you doing? things well for you? hows Lisa, and her family. Instead,, its what did Daniel tell you this week,, or what new painting are you doing,, you get the ideal. But the bottom line is,, when i was "coming up" these ppl,, except dad,, all called me a dreamer, and could care less about my art.
So,, i would rather stay home today,, and do what i love. I'll do the family thing at christmas. yep,, you guessed it,, i'm a hermit..lmao So, happy holiday all, and peace and blessings, see you tonight,, the new one rocks!!!

Good Sunday Morning!!!

2005-07-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all, man,, i'm hyped. i got a letter from the blogger ppl,, to tell me that this blog is in there top 25 now. We have a lotttttttttttttttttt of readers, with even more coming every day. The wonderful ppl at Whiskey creek/Torrid are just promotting the heck out of my art. The book, April Love,, is there number one best seller this month, and i fully exspect to see Emy's book there next month. The man had a huge following of fans,, and ppl, were very fond of him. I just hate that i didn't get a chance to know him,, before his passing.
Tuesday,, i'm gonna be part of a forum,,(if time permits) for torrid. It will have Bryn there (The Enormus Parsnip) and a fellow that repersents the estate of Emy Nasso, and another British writer,( sorry,, i don't know the fellows name) But, it will be 3 very published british writers,, and little ole country boy ,, me!! lol
Today,, i'm starting a new cover for Torrid,, its called A knight in the Dungeon,, sounds pretty cool to me,, and i might actually be done with it in about a week. Next week,, as far as i know,, the only day,, i'm gonna be hanging out with dad is thrusday. Hes making a trip to Pittsburg Friday. He got word,, that his descessed wife, Paula,, her oldest sister, has cancer,, and isn't exspected to be with us much longer. Since this was Paula's favorite sister,, he wants to see her one last time, while shes alive.
Lisa told me,, that she will have our new domain up this coming week, hopefully by tuesday,, so fans at torrid can check out our site for the forum thing. We both are very excited about everything,, Sept is coming soon, and i will be moving her back here, finally. I miss her so much. I'm going to keep my scheulde light for that month,, so we'll have plentyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy of honeymooning time.. lol
Also,, the infamous Dark Daddy, is making plans to join us for the Nov event. Thats right,, mr Kennith Crist, is coming to hang out with Daniel,, and all my friends. Its going to be one hell of a weekend... I feel a pig picking coming one!!! George,, you've been elected to come up a couple days early,, to help with everything. It will also give us some time to hang together before the crowd shows up,, its probally gonna get hectic. Tommorow when i talk to Daniel,, we'll set the exact dates up for it,, and let everyone know,, so you can start making plans. But, like i said eariler,, it will be either the first or second weekend of Nov.
Well, time for the ole man to get busy,, so everyone,, have a blast this weekend,, just stay out of jail..lol. see you tommorow night,, peace and blessings

2005-06-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

the dragon

2005-06-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

Damn,, i hate i have to wait a month to paint this,, the background is gonna be a misty swamp thing,, real creepy.. hope you like,, tommorow and sat,, i'm off with dad,, then i have about 4 days off,, peace and blessings

2005-06-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hey all,, well heres the sexy part of the painting,, she wil be sitting on a dragons back,, you'll see that tommorow. I wanted to do something differnt,, wann make her look like she has been riding a dragon,, and i wanted to do a more interesting angle,, instead of the normal straight on. George,, don't worry,, the other post was from someone else,, we do get a good bit of traffic here,, just not many comments, but i'me very glad to see ppl starting to talk,, good or bad. Well,, tonight,, is Chucky night,, i've been waiting 3 weeks to watch the new movie,, and i've got a huge t-bone,,, and all the fixings... life is good,, and i love you all,, peace and blessings

a Lesson in Light

2005-06-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

Howdy and good morning. Any day i get up,, and know that i will be home and get to draw or paint all day,,, well, its just a good day. I decided to do a short lesson in lighting today,, but we'll get to that,, lets get caught up a little. First Gary,, you need to sign up,, so you can post comments here lmao,,,Hell, your a writer with your first book out,, you should do a blog,, its good for promotting yourself.
Everything is going very well on my end, Lisa has been very busy,, building our new domain,,its gonna rock. But sshe had a bad lightning storm sunday,, and it fried her phone modem on her comp,, but she will be back online soon,, so if you haven't heard from her,, thats why.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here,, but i think i can safely say,, in less than a month,, i will be painting full time. No more carpet,, I will be able to live my life as an artist. Things are going that well, and i do appreciate all the support of my friends and fans. Thank you very much.
Today,, i'm gonna start the pencils on the Black Petals cover,, but come friday,, i have two back to back covers to do for Torrid,, so it will be a month before i can start painting it. now this one is for free, because Kenny has just been an awesome friend to me the last few years,, and hes always promotted me. But we do have plans for the painting,, such as limited edition prints,, and merch,, i promise you this painting will be far more awesome than anything you've seen from me yet. Were gonna use it for a show piece,, since next year,, Lisa and me will be on the road a great deal,, doing the convention thing.
Okay,, on to light. This applies to b/w as well as color. THERE is always 2 sources of light, always,, and there can be more in certain situtions. This is where you have to turn the common sense on,, and think. Whenever you start a piece,, always think about where the light is coming from. Is it daylight, what time of day,, or is it light from a fire,, is the fire set all aroung the room,, or just in one place,, ect. this would be your main source of light,, but then we also have reflected light. Now this is light, that reflects of such things as clothing. If a person is wearing a red garment,, then on the skin,, there will be a dull reflection of the red,, or whatever color. In Black and white,, you would indicate this with a medium value. next to a dark one.
Lets say that the subject is holding something very shiny, like a sword. The reflections of the light off the sword,, would make some nice highlights, like under the subjects chin,, or other dark areas. An just as there is light,, there is dark. Under most light,, things will cast a shadow. remenber that,, shadows give a piece the feeling of weight, and make things more three dimensional. this is something that you will see me working on more.
Okay,, i don't know if i did a good job explaining this,, so ask questions if you have any, and like Daniel is always telling me,, look to nature,, and study it,, It is the best teacher. so until tommorow,, peace and blessings.

2005-06-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,,, sorry i haven't blogged in a few days,, but i've been busy as heck. Just to give you an ideal,, i brought the seed of chucky 3 weeks ago,, and i still haven't been able to watch it. lol I will be around much more next month,, because i have to turn out 2 and a half paintings for july. heres the parsnip painting,, can't say if its done or not,, until i hear from the writer,, but i spent 13 hours on it today,, because,, i have to help dad tommorow and tuesday. theres a lot i want to catch up on with you all, but it will have to wait,, i should have been in bed an hour ago,, and i'm still cooking. making a quick spagetti,, enough to last the next few days. I'm thinking i'll be home wensday,, if i am,, i'm gonna get the pencil work done on the bp cover. Billy and george have both posted some really awesome work,, need to check it out,, its very nice. peace and blessing..the zombie.. lol

oh hell.. lmao

2005-06-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

hello my friends. yesterday i got a lot done on the painting, but not as much as i would have liked, but, Lisa and I got a lot of the business stuff done. Shes building our new sites and such,, and i've been setting up all types of new business things for us. Which brings me to a question for the ppl who know my work,, i'm setting up accounts on cafe press, lulu,, and another,, can't remenber the name right off hand,, but what i want to know from you, is this,, of the paintings i've done,, which ones would you spend money on to buy like ona t-shirt, coffe cup mouse pad,, ect? old and new.. please give me a list of your favorites. your opinions mean the world to me.
I figure if ppl are stealing my work, and making money off of it,, then i should too. lol My dear friends,, i want to apolige for not being in touch like i used to be. I love you all to death,, and think the world of you. Its just that i have been working so hard on the things Daniel is teaching me,, trying to bring more money in,, so i can do this full time,, and then working with dad 3 veryyyyyyyyyyy long days a week. But it want be much longer till i have things the way i need them to be.. and i can be with my friend much more.
I just want to say,, that things are going better than i could have ever hoped for. My health is improving in leaps and bounds, and the dreams i've worked for, for so many years,, are becoming reality,, more day by day. There is much i haven't said here about the things going on,, when the time is right,, i will though. Even Lisa's career is taking off like a bat out of hell. I am so proud of my darling,, and sept is almost here,, thats when i'm going to move her here.. were both very excited. Life and Karma have truely blessed us.
By Monday at the latest,, you'll see the finished parsnip painting,,, daniel and i are both excited about the way its coming out. An the paintings after that,, i promise will be far better than anything you've ever seen out of me. Tuesday,, you;ll see some of the pencil work for the new BP cover. it will rock,,, i promise.
So my friends,, till next time.. take care,, peace and blessings

2005-06-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was kind of a bust,, kept getting distracted with ppl dropping by, and helping some neighbors move, but i did get some work done. Using the color combinations Daniel taught me i got her face finished,,(except eyebrows and hair) and i must say,,it just looks fantastic,, (thats what Daniel said too) I'm gonna lock the doors today,, and try to get finished with this one. Tommorow its back to helping Dad on that house. Were almost done with it,, just a little more painting and putting new floors in it,, then its readdy to be sold. July is going to be a busy month for me, as soon as this ones done,, i have to start on a cover for BP, and then i have 2 paintings to do for Torrid,, one is a Knight type of thing,, and then i start on the werewof/vampire triolgy. Then to finish the Bp cover. its gonna be very large,, so its gonna take a little extra time,, but i'm hoping to put prints out of it, and its gonna be one of the pieces i take to shows again,, after christmas. Next year,, there is a lot of traveling in my future Hopes you all have a wonderful day peace and blessings

continued

2005-06-21T05:51:00.000-07:00

as i was saying in the post before,, we have a new thief http://sensual.artmam.com/-3096-1-0-82--.htm This was found by the lady heading up the fan club for Honey Jams,, the writer of the april love book. So, because of this,, there are gonna be some changes on the new site,, like watermarks on everything,, and no right click.
We wrote to this company,,, and they have ignored us. I'm guessing since there in the Ukraine,, they think we can't touch them. Well, that mayyyyyyyy be true, but, a lot of ppl are being brought in on this, thanks to daniel. I think he's madder than me about this, and as he told me,, he has a lottttttttttttttttttt of infuence in the publishing world..
I would have ignored it,, if they weren't trying to sell the drawing, and merchandise it. But it time to put an end to this sort of thing. Us artist work very hard at creating our work, and if there is money to be made,, it should be us,, not a hack tracing our images,, and re selling them. Its not fair to the company that paid me to do the cover for there book, its not fair to the person who paid 1700 bucks for the painting,, and its not fair to me and mine.
So, thats all i'm going to say about it for now, but i'm very curious to hear your comments on this,, ways we can stop this ect. peace and blessings

2005-06-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

Here we go so far. there really isn't alot to the background,, i want to give it the feel of a farm, and corn stalks work so well for that. I got up way early today,, i'm axsious to get painting on this one. Lisa is working hard on our new sites,, and well anounce that soon,, along with our new e-mail addys. These will be permanant. One piece of bad news. We have another thief,,, http://sensual.artmam.com/-3096-1-0-82--.htm

2005-06-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Heres the finished Mithre drawing,, hope you like. I hope to use this young lady in some future paintings. today, i got the background done on the parsnip painting,, looking good,, by tommorow,, i should have most of it done. i have to tell you,, i really love the look of my recent work,,talk about a man inspired. lol so i will see you all tommorow,, gonna watch some of those old Hercules movies tonight,, and pig out on taco"s peace and blessings

old masters trick

2005-06-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

You know, the best way to start out a monday, is to have pizza for breakfast, and watch Jerry Springer. If the pizza and springer don't put a smile on your face, you best get back to bed lol.
I hope everyone had a wonderful fathers day, i know had a good time,, i finished up that Mithre drawing,, i'll post it later, after Lisa has a had a chance to put the 2 parts together for me.I watch a triple feature of some new movies i got last week. Lets see, Day of the dead, blade trinity, and Resisdent evil 2. All 3 movies where great
I think Dad was a little depressed, but hes doing good. Were doing pretty good at the old house, getting it readdy to sell,, were painting the walls now,, and after that,, all we have left is to put new floors in. Theres alreaddy been several ppl stoped and asked how much. Its a very nice house, i had even thought about buying it for Lisa and me, but, for one,, i don't think were going to stay in this area, and two,, about 2 blocks away,, the neighborhood goes downhill pretty bad.
Well, back to painting today,, with a little luck i might get done with this one by tommorrow,, wensday for sure. When i was talking to Daniel on the phone last week,, he told me about an old Masters trick, to make your skies come alive. He said to underpaint the area where the sky is, a reddish color. And then when you paint the sky in,, let some of the red show through,, here and there. He said this will give the painting a wonderful feel to it. I'm gonna try that on this one. So, well see how that comes out.
Here lately,, i've been turning down a lot of work, as it is, i'm booked heavy up to christmas, and after that,, i intead to move up in the world, with Daniels help, maybe sooner, if he thinks i'm readdy to hang with the big boys. Theres an old saying down south here, "If you can't hang with the big boys, then stay off the porch"
Well, its time for my morning call to my baby,, and then work time. Have a good day all, and see you soon, peace and blessings.

2005-06-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

underpainting so far i am so excited about this, I have took all that daniel has taught me so far,, and put into this from the start,, and i'm just thrilled. to me,, they look alive already. The cool underpainting is working so awesome with the warm colors. i tottally feel in love with painting again today. daniel is the best teacher that ever lived... damn i'm pumped lol peace and blessings all

2005-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Enormus Parsnip ok,, heres the pencils for it,, waiting to hear back from everyone,, to see if its cool. i got some more work done on the Mithre pic too,, its really looking good. I'm gonna be working with dad the next 3 days,, sooooooooo i'll see you when i can.. peace and blessings

2005-06-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Mithre, so far. Hey everyone, i've been really busy the last couple of days,, but i got to go shopping today,, i got a new light for the drawing table,, and this things rules.. its called a ott-lite and its the bomb,, it should,, cost a 169 bucks. Got a ton of art supplies,, and a ton of new movies,, including.. bubba Ho-tep,,, everyone tells me its funny as hell, kinda like elvis meets the mummy,, starring Bruce Cambell. (from Evil Dead fame) I'm a happy little camper,,its so nice to get paid for your work. the pic here is for Black Petals, and i've been working on it here and there, when i'm waiting to hear from Daniel about a painting in progress. I got the thumbs up on "parsnip,, so in the morning,, i'll show you the original rough i did,, and then after the changes daniel suggested, and then tommorow night the finished pencil work. There is gonna be more elements to the Mithre drawing,, but for now,, i'm just consatrating on her. hope you enjoy,, and i'll see you in the morning,,,peace and blessings