The last of the first batch of these Imaginary Friend paintings. I plan on mounting these to panels this week and eventually giving each one a specific name. I’m also in the process of looking for a gallery to show the group of 30-36 of these when they’re completed, maybe late spring-ish. Anyone have a connection they’d like to share?

Hope everyone had a Merry Holidays, if that’s your thing…

The second “what I want to be when I grow up” kid. This one turned out a little goofier than I had initially planned, but I still dig it.

I am now officially on winter break from school, so will, for the first time in months, have the ability to work on some big personal art projects as well as more of these imaginary friends. No classes until January 21st!

This one is my favorite of the lot so far. Just in case you’re curious, no I didn’t paint over anybody when I painted the tongue. The original card just had this girl staring off into the whitespace that was the right half of the card.

Crazy BT’s Print Sale!
A few weeks ago my school had its annual “Holiday Art Sale.” It is an open excuse for all students to sell whatever it is that they make; you are allowed to enter as many pieces as you wish, so I put in A LOT. Anyways, inspired by this sale, and the fact that I’m taking an etching and lithography class next semester, which means I’ll be bursting at the seams with new prints in a few months, I’m doing what I can to sell off some of the work I have sitting around my apartment.

I have posted on my Etsy store, every print that I have ever done that I still have left, some of them go back as far as 2004. Here’s the crazy part, each print… only $5!!! Click on any of the images below to go to my store. This deal won’t last forever, so if you’ve been meaning to pick up a print (or five), now’s the time!

This is the first one of these that I actually painted, but it’s not “Imaginary Friend #1″ because it was hanging up on the wall at my school for a while, so I couldn’t grab a picture of it.

In case you’re curious (it’s come up before with this one), the reason I didn’t paint the tentacle beast all the way to the edge of the card is because the original art for the cards NEVER bleeds off the edge, if it comes close, there’s just this ragged dry brush stoppage point, so that’s what I was going for.

One of the goofy disturbing ones. I like this one a lot.

So, a few of these cards portray kids dreaming of what they will be when they grow up. Sadly, I’ve only got two of them; I absolutely love the concept of a child assuming that her imaginary friend will still be with her into adulthood.

As promised, I finally took some decent looking photos of these paintings. The posts from last week have all been updated with the new photos if you care to take another look.

No Imaginary Friends today; I’m really upset at the awful photo quality of the ones I’ve shown so far. Later today, I have to document all the work I’ve done at school this semester and I’ll get to use a nice camera and a proper light setup, so I’m going to re-photograph the Imaginary Friends and start posting them again on Monday. In the meantime, here’s a very quick gouache painting from my sketchbook, of another student in my Illustration Painting Techniques class.

I also bought a cheap fountain pen yesterday because I’d never used one before. If you ever find yourself in the area of NW Portland, do yourself a favor and go get breakfast or lunch at the Byways Cafe. It’s some of the best “diner food” and some of the nicest staff of any place in town, in my opinion. They are so courteous that 5 minutes after I was finished with this quick coffee pot, one of the servers asked my permission to pick it up and pour someone some coffee. They didn’t want to screw up my angle if I was still drawing it.

It’s a book worm! I still might paint in a tiny pair of glasses on this guy.

Also, this month’s show in the “art corner” at the Acorn Deli and Cafe in lovely Portland, Oregon, is the “PNCA Tiny Showcase” group show that I put together. 47 students faculty and staff participated, each creating a work of art on a 2″ by 3″ countertop sample tile. Here’s what the show looks like, then my piece in it, and then a stellar Sharpie paint pen portrait of me by my friend, WC Williams. I put my portrait in the show informing people that if they wish to buy a piece, look for me (arrow to my portrait) because I might just be hanging out at the Acorn. 10 minutes after I arrived at the show opening, I was discovered and art was purchased, thanks to that portrait!

Continuing the series. This one might be a little harder to understand if you can’t see it close up. The book at the girls feet is entitled KNOTS and each one is practicing with a piece of rope.