Northern Widow

Wow! Look what I found under a big plastic pond insert in my backyard! It's a Northern Widow. They are just like a black widow but less aggressive and more uncommon. They have orange red spots all the way up their backs. Like when a Cylon's spine glows. BSG fans know what I'm talking about! There was also a beautiful black widow under there as well. No males, so I think they might have gotten eaten! However the black widow female did have a beautiful egg sac she had constructed. I was in one of my first Buddhist dilemmas. A deadly poison spider in my yard. If I take it somewhere else, am I not making it someone else's responsibility and shrugging it off? If I put it in a field, well that field belongs to someone and what if it bites them? Then it would be my fault. I don't want to kill it, but it can't stay in my yard. What do you do? After much deliberation I destroyed the egg sac and killed the black widow. I was instantly overcome with terrible remorse and sadness and I cried for two hours. Who was I to kill this beautiful black widow or her hundreds of babies? So now I still have the Northern Widow in a Mason Jar and I try to feed it and take care of it, but what a terrible existence, living in a Mason Jar. I need to find a Buddhist nun and ask options of what to do in a case like this. I still feel really bad about the whole thing.

Metal Goddess Doro Pesch rocked my world!

Well, I tried to get you guys to go. I even offered free tickets. Too bad. I had the experience of a lifetime! I head banged with the Metal Goddess Doro Pesch and screamed my lungs out. I had front and center at her feet with T. She held the mic up to us to sing again and again, as we screamed out our favorite songs, pounded our fists into the air and and acted like we never left the 80's (which we haven't, so what?). Then what, you ask? Then we went to the tour bus, talked with her and she was gracious enough to sign things for us. T gave her a necklace that I hand made out of wood with her sign (Gemini) and she put it on and seemed really excited about it. She even hugged T and said "Thank you so much!" Man, I tell ya...I never have to go to another concert in my life...I will, because I love going, but I can tell you right now, NO ONE will ever top that night. The music, the fans, the venue, the friends we made, and the most gracious, down to earth, amazing woman ever to rock the universe. I was already a fan for life, but now...well hell, I'm already a fan in my next life.

Going to FT. Worth!

Come with us to FT. Worth to see the German Metal Goddess DORO!!! I have 3 free tickets! Friday April 11th, 2008 at the Ridgalea Theater. We are taking the train down there. Ride along! I promise it will be the best concert you have ever attended!

New Futurama Part 2

Disc 2 in the set of 4 Futurama Movies is available from Amazon for pre-order. The title "The Beast with A Billion Backs" is tentatively set for June 24th. Prof. Stephen Hawking will be a guest voice, and I hear rumor of the robot devil (one of my Favorite characters) playing a fairly large role in this tale of adventure! So, go pre-order! NOW!

In the same vein

I know it's for your car, but what a great product name!

Hmmm...I'm curious.

Ha ha. I loved funny burned out signs!

I will be there!

Hey, Med Fair in Norman, Ok is April 4th, 5th, and 6th. T and I will be at a booth selling our wares. Please come by and say hello! Leela will also be there! The blogging has suffered due to the work and time put into getting ready. I will be back to my good old blogging self sometime. I have several pieces of art I have to get done before my May deadlines, but never fear. I will blog again soon! Look for www.warriorsmagesbards.com coming to a search engine near you!

Star Wars Licensed Costume & Armor Replicas!

Cool news! A company called Museum Replicas in cooperation with its new licensing division Windlass studios will begin creating authentic prop replica clothing and armor from all six of the Star Wars movies. The costumes should be available by spring, with armor from the films debuting at the San Diego Comic Con. Characters from Luke Skywalker to Darth Maul will be represented. These are supposed to be quality high end costumes geared towards high end collectors. Now I just have to decide which Luke costume I want, Bespin Fatigues or Jedi knight with cloak....oh the choices in life we must face. Check out more here.

New Hellboy Prop

This Sideshow Exclusive is from the Hellboy II movie entitled "The Golden Army". It is a 1:1 scale replica of the Samaritan Gun used by Hellboy and features real metal with a real wooden hand grip. The barrel is loadable with the 4 metal slugs that come with the gun. It sits on a specially designed B.P.R.D. stand. They offer flexpay on this prop breaking the total price of $399.99 up into payments to make it easier to own for those of us who can barely make the bills. It really is an awesome piece of work and if you love Hellboy as much as I do, you are going to want this prop.

Cool Balloon

I would love to see this floating by!

Another painting!

This one came about due to the experimenting with the door painting I am working on. I am not certain this one is quite finished though. We shall see, but for now here it is in all of it's glory!

Statue and the strange hood

This is a statue at Oklahoma University. Is anybody else seeing what I'm seeing? Every time I walk past this statue it makes me giggle.



If you can't see it I added some color in photoshop to help.



If you're still having trouble, I flipped the image for ya. Maybe it's just me.



What do you think the sculptor had on his/her mind?

Finished "Pinky Cyclops"

Finished. A little black outline and some warmer more loud pink and it's done.

Almost done

Now i have added the main image on top of the stamped background. It is just a base coat of the image and has yet to be refined. It will be smoothed out or textured, then I will outline it with a somewhat heavy black line giving it an almost animation or cel type feel. You will have to wait for the next post to see the finished product though.

Starting the actual Painting

This is my next stage. I painted a white canvas blue, making sure that it is smooth and even so that i could stamp the pink images on evenly. I made a stamp of my original clean drawing with sculpy and stamped it across the blue canvas, trying not to be too uniform.

Next step

This is the refined thumbnail. A clean drawing of my subject.

Art in action

This is the thumbnail. I usually start with a doodle or a thumbnail.

Space Shuttle News!

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer 35 minutes ago

Atlantis' astronauts spent their first full day in orbit Friday scrupulously checking their ship for any launch day damage, as they steered ever closer to the international space station.

The shuttle was brimming with birthday presents for the station's scientific skipper, Peggy Whitson: a $2 billion European lab that she'll help set up and all kinds of spicy salsas.

Atlantis is due at the space station on Saturday, Whitson's 48th birthday.

"My present is a new module that we're going to install on board the station," Whitson, a biochemist, said in a broadcast interview. She put in a special request for different kinds of sauces to spice up the space station food. "It gets a little old after being here for several months," she explained.

Her roommate, Daniel Tani, who turned 47 one week ago, couldn't wait to get some fresh shirts. He ended up spending two extra months aboard the orbiting complex after fuel gauge problems grounded Atlantis, his ride home.

As the shuttle drew closer with every circling of Earth, the seven-man crew inspected its wings and nose for any sign of launch damage, using a 100-foot laser-tipped boom. The images were beamed down to Earth for analysis by engineers; a quick look revealed nothing amiss.

Some pieces of insulating foam fell off the external tank three times during liftoff Thursday, but none was big enough to pose any threat, said John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team. A small piece may have bounced off Atlantis' belly seven minutes into the flight, but lacked enough force to do any damage, he said.

The laser inspections have been standard procedure ever since NASA's space shuttles resumed flying in 2005 following the Columbia disaster. Also mandatory: shuttle somersaults right before docking, so the space station crew can photograph every inch of the ship's thermal shielding.

Shannon said the board in the engineering troubleshooting room was blank, the first time he's ever seen it that way.

"We have a long way to go on this mission, but I absolutely could not have asked for a better start to it," he said.

The astronauts' real work begins Sunday. That's when the 23-foot Columbus lab will be removed from Atlantis' payload bay and attached to the space station with robotic cranes. Two spacewalkers will assist in the operation.

Columbus is the European Space Agency's main contribution to the space station.

Twenty-three years in the making, it was supposed to be launched in 1992 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World. But station redesigns and stalled construction, as well as shuttle groundings, led to 16 years of delay.

Interesting Commision

So I am actually getting paid to sort out a collection of G.I. Joes. I have to sort them, find all the weapons and match them, order rubber bands for the insides of them that have rotted and broken and reattach them, and build a custom shelf to put them all on. How cool is that?! There are over 300 figures and countless weapons. I can't wait to get this all done. It is going to look so nice. I will keep you up to date on my progress and let you see the finished product. Here's a pic of what I was given to start with.

Wave Three of Futurama from Toynami

Yet another exciting installment of the Futurama Universe in plastic! I'm glad we get Kif. I really enjoy that character. I hope wave four will be the Professor and Hermes. I want my Planet Express Spaceship as well. One big enough that the figures fit inside.