Butterbroda Pig Roast

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This is a new piece from my Butterbroda series.

Titled: "The Feast We Made of Us"
Size: 30"x20"

I introduced a couple of new colors, beyond the additions, which I had used on the Alice in Wonderland piece. I tried a green for the apple and lettuce, but decided to stick with the blue and red, green somehow felt too far outside the color space. While adding more colors frees me up a bit in the way shapes can overlap, it also requires some use of outlines, which I rarely used for colored shapes.

New Butterbroda piece

Title: "Restraint, as Yet Unpracticed”

I haven't done a new Butterbroda piece in months, but I decided to jump back in. I also have had an upcoming licensing opportunity which I'll post more about soon.

Butterbroda prints in Europe

UPDATE:Print sale is now running for the next 4 days at Fab.com, shipping is only within Europe

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A heads up for any European  "Butterbroda" fans...The European website for fab.com will selling a number of my prints starting March 28th. This is a 3 day sale only and shipping will be limited to within Europe (specifically: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.) When I have a direct link I'll update this post.

Uggibjörn, Plush Monster

I've been wanting to bring Uggibjörn into the three dimensional world since I first created him for my print "The Perils of Their Acquaintance". I collaborated with Sara at S. Auman Smith Plush, to finally bring him to life. Sara did a great job realizing my sketches and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

The name Uggibjörn is constructed of two separate words. Uggi means "fear/fearsom" in old Icelandic and the Nordic name, Björn, which means "bear". I chose that combination because I thought it flowed well, sounded like a proper name, and in English it still has a connotation because of the sound  of "Uggi", or "oogie".

I had small number made (7), and they are currently for sale on my website.

My front and back design for the plushie. The original design of the monster was altered from the print, so that it was better formatted for being made in felt.

The Norns v1.5

Last night I decided to edit my old Norns image. It wasn't a standard print size and I always wanted to show more of the tree. This new version is about double in height ( 24"x18") and shows the world tree off much better.

Raven art

Title: "A Barefoot Walk Down an Uncertain Path” I think this was originally started in '08, and was a cover for a personal project. The style of the project changed and the image fell to the side. Today I decided to dust it off and get it done.

Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf Final

Title:"Hushed Demons Belie in Pleasantry Strewn Gardens"

I managed to produce this over the weekend, which was much faster than I expected. I spent the rest of the week cleaning up and stray lines and refining curves. I'm glad I had done the smaller botanical piece first,  as I think it really helped my time on this one. The wolf took some experimentation, my first attempts made the fur too detailed, but I finally found a happy medium.

The completed size is 18"x24" and is for sale here. I may also offer it as a diptych, with each print being a detail of either The Wolf or Little Red Riding Hood.

Botanical Art

I had some time yesterday so I decided to test out an idea I've had for a while. I started with this smaller piece as a way to experiment before I moved onto a larger image which will incorporate figures into it.

The taffy pullers WIP

This will likely be a new Butterbroda picture.  For a change, I decided to sketch out an idea by pencil, rather than stylus. Quite a few times I reflexively thought I could zoom, undue or move part of the drawing...it's funny how wired the brain becomes to certain tasks. Years ago I once found myself trying to "command-z" my way out of a spill on the kitchen counter...in my defense, I think I had a bit of monitor burn from many hours of nonstop computer usage.

finished pict

I haven't titled this one yet, I have one in mind that sounds like a proverb and another that's more straight forward..."Young Claude's Dinner Date". (I updated this image on 10/29, there had been something bugging me about it, so I changed the clouds and the mother's face and that did the trick.)

Up and away

I finished off the Dark Horse cover and decided to go back to an old sketch. The colored part is still very much in the "slop" stage, so the shapes haven't been refined and the colors are subject to change, depending on the background that gets used.

Cosmos invaders final

Title: "A Youth Better Spent in an Luddite's World"

Cosmos Intruders WIP

This is another WIP for the Westerly Strut sub-series. I wanted to add some scifi elements, a robot was my first thought, but then I had this Space Invaders style idea the other night.

The beehive Illustration

Title: "An Uninvited Advance Engenders Swift Resolution"

I planned on using bees as a theme for the "Westerly Strut" subset to "Butterbroda", but decided to go with the main series...at least for this one.

Norns Final Illustration

Title: "A Trembled Thread Through Our Hands"

I thought I could get away with breaking this into three images, but after experimenting, I decided that breaking up the thread wasn't working...so I'll be selling this print as one 15"x7" image rather than three 5"x7"s

The Norns WIP

Here's a piece of the new Norns WIP, I should have it done soon.

The Norns Sketch

I've been head deep in another job, specifically a comic book cover, which I can't say much about right now, but it's kept me from getting any personal work done. Before the cover, I had started sketching out a new triptych for Butterbroda with a depiction of The Norns.  The Norns (similar to The Fates), are three maiden giantesses who decide the fates of men through their judicious twinning, measuring and cutting of the tread of fate, of each individual. I've drawn them standing in front of the World Tree (Yggdrasill), which is the blue squiggles in the back. Hopefully I'll be able to get started on this during the weekend.

Flipping the bird

I flipped the colors on this one, it started with the lighter pallet , but I felt it was getting a little lost...at least in the present composition. This is part of the "Westerly Strut" sub-series, but it could really go with Butterbroda "proper" as well. On a side note, I've started to color the "Felled" drawing,  it still has along ways to go, but will post the WIP soon.

Prairie Iguana

Title: Negotiating the Prairie Iguana

Originally this was meant to be a diptych,like the other I had done. Aside from liking triptych and diptych, there was also a practicality angle (in terms of shipping) bc I have the materials for shipping 5"x7" prints, but not 8"x10". But I decided that breaking the images into two halves doesn't work for the flow of the composition. So I reformatted this as well as "We Shall Pop A Cap" to 8"x10". I'll likely have these printed on a glossy stock as it provides scratch protection, which these bigger prints may need. Once they're under glass, the difference in surface finishing to the 5"x7" becomes a non issue.