Big Changes in progress!

      Hello my friends. I hope the holiday season is a wonderful one for you. I finished my shopping last week, I hope. Now I am trying to focus on a lot of business things going on, and that includes redoing the website. If you go there, you will see a big red note saying it is  being revamped, and I have cut off all links. I am hoping to have it back up on Dec 23, because on the 24th I am putting the Imac in the shop for upgrades. So for the week between Christmas and New year, i will not be on line much except to check for business mail on Madison's laptop.
    I will be so glad once we get through January. There is so much to do to get ready for traveling to the conventions and art shows. We are making a large inventory of prints, T-shirts, Trading Cards, Post cards, and lord knows what else.  There is also a ton of framing to be done, along with Matting a ton of prints as well. We also have to figure out a way to decorate our space, prepare signs and banners.
   Another big deal that is going on right now and I will announce all of the information involved once all the contracts are signed.  This month, this interview is also out with me at Horrornet.com, and I am doing a new one with another on line Magazine called Liquid Imagination.  Tilly also told me that she wanted to do a follow up interview on Main Street magazine in the near future. Working with Tilly has just been one of the most awesome privilege's  I have ever had. I will be starting on a new painting featuring her in January.
    Here is some photo's of the new painting in progress. I had to take a couple days off from painting because I was starting to feel burnout. But I am much better now!  lol 

    In the one above, you can see since the last blog, I put a layer of orange acrylic paint over the whole drawing and then I start going over the drawing with oil paint.

    Here I have started the background. It is supposed to be Hades, so I figure it needs to look hot. lol

    and here you can see the foreground painted, so I will start painting the beast and adding little details here and there to the foreground as I go.
    I know a lot of you are wanting to see lessons, but right now with all that is going on, I just haven't had time of the brain power to work one up. I am on the verge of panic because of all the things I am trying to do between now and Confusion. After that, I am hoping I can focus on other things again, so please be patient with me please.
   Where we live the snow is really piling up outside, and is not supposed to stop until Tuesday. Such is life in Michigan. lol I wonder how bad it is for my friends in Canada? Wherever you are, I hope you are managing to stay warm. It is 10 degrees here today with windchill of 20 minus, so you know this southern boy isn't leaving the house. lol The bad thing about working in the basement is that it gets colder down here that the rest of the house, so I have to wear 2 layers of clothes to stay warm. But on a up note, I am much more use to the cold now than when I was 2 years ago when I came to Michigan.
    I had a friend send me a box of books the other day on cooking for a diabetic, I was very touched that someone would go to that much trouble for me. Thank you Lisa, that was very sweet and big hearted of you. Another thing I have been getting alot of is audio books. Ever since i said I like to listen to them I have gotten huge collections of them to listen too, including I think everything that Stephen King has ever wrote, including the "Bachman" books.   It just blows me away. Right now I am listening to Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" which makes the movie blow chunks. I have listened to the first four "Harry Potter"  books, and they are so much better than the movies. I will go back to them in the new year. I still have "Half Blood Prince" and "The Deadly Hallows" to go.
   When I was younger, I used to read all the time. I love books. But the older I have gotten, I have found I have little time to read. My friends always want me to read their new books, and I wish I had time. But hey, when it is out on audio, I will listen to it while I work.  I know one thing, I have been blessed in so many ways since I came to Michigan. I would have never dreamed my life would be my dream come true when I came here. I bought Madison a very expensive Diamond ring, and we plan on getting married next December. I have even been able to get off of disability now. I know now that as long as I can paint, I can make plenty of money. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying.... It sure beats the heck out of the years I had to sell my Plasma just to buy art supplies( the scars from the large needles are craved into my arms as a constant reminder of what it took for me to be where I am now.), and my main diet was dried beans and rice.
   I do have a game plan for the lessons when we continue. First we are going to learn to draw, step by step and how to train your eye to see better. Then on to painting, but  we need to start with the basic's first and your drawing skills transfer over to your paintbrush.
    After the "Cerberus" painting is done, I am doing a romantic steampunk sorta thing with Madeline and Darius. That will be very different, but after that back to the Dark Side! lol Much Love my friends. Stay warm and safe! "May the Darkness Comfort You"