Gettysburg National Military Park is a place very dear to me. As a child, my family used to make yearly visit to the Park; and my father would tell me all the stories of the battles and the men that fought them. Begin a curious boy, we came across a monument that featured a small black dog statue beneath the base. I asked my father why there was a dog in a park filled with statues of soldiers. He told me of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and how their mascot was a small Pit Bull Terrier who was gifted to their Captain and had accompanied them throughout the Civil War. After my parents returned home a few weeks ago from their latest visit to the Park, I started remembering this small story about the Dog of the Civil War. As I started doing some research, I found out her name was Sallie Ann Jarett. She stayed along side the 11th Infantry, adapting her life into a well trained soldier. She fascinatingly even followed the soldiers into battle, barking at the enemy and alerting medics to where fallen soldiers laid in need of attention. After the battle of Gettysburg, she was struck by a bullet above her shoulder, causing her to become weak but continued to fight on with the Infantry. On February 5th, 1865, the soldiers reported that her fighting spirit seemed to be returning as she joined the men over their fire for a share of stories and food. Some believe it was because she sensed of the impending dangers of the following morning, that she wanted to join her comrades one final time. The following day, the Infantry advanced an attack on the Confederates, sparking a battle that would be known as the Battle of Hatcher's Run. At some point during the battle, an enemy bullet pierced Sallie Ann's brain; killing her instantly. After the dust settled, she was discovered by the Infanty and was buried alongside her fallen comrades. What I hoped to capture with this painting is the sense of a "Calm before the storm" and to show Sallie Ann with the Union soldiers in a moment of peace that she might have felt on the last evening she spent on this world. I hope that maybe you've learned a new story about the Civil War. If you did, then this painting has done it's job! The Statue of Sallie featured under the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Monument, at Gettysburg National Military Park.
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And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. -John; Revelation 12 Hannibal the TV series has had it's effects on me for the last few weeks. After finally finishing the entire series, I had to do something with The Great Red Dragon. William Blake is a personal hero of mine in the artistic world. I love his style and emotion that he could convey with just the most simplest of water colored works. So actually, this is a tribute to both him as well as his gorgeous painting "The Great Red Dragon and The Woman Cloaked in Sun." (featured below) The characters within this painting are both characters from Revelation 12 as well as characters that are featured within a novel I've been carefully writing for years. I hope to someday introduce you all to them properly, but for now this is how they shall remain. Inspired by one of my favorite scenes from Disney's "Bambi". Not 100% pleased with the Snow, but I just needed to finish this thing :P Huge thank you to FantasyStock on Deviantart for their giant stock of Dog pictures that I used as references for this piece. If you're ever looking for great stock images to use for reference, check them out for sure! http://fantasystock.deviantart.com/ Another revamp of old work.
This was my attempt at a speed painting. It ended up spanning over 3 days due to work and other obligations; but all in all it only took 5 hours to complete. "Abraham" was a personal favorite of mine; and I enjoyed returning to breath some new realistic life within it. Probably my most detailed digital painting as of this date. This one was a lot of fun to do. It was also a great excuse to practice painting plant-life. Inspired by the book "The Sign of The Beaver". Great story, highly recommended. "The Exorcist" was a movie that was my child-hood fear. It took me years to finally over come it, but now I am thankful that I did watch it. It awakened that surreal-horror side of my mind. While I've done a few other Exorcism themed works (click here to watch my short animation:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3pnc5TaVLQ&t=1s) I did this small piece as well. Since I have been revamping some of my old work recently, I figured now would be the time to do this one.
I did 3 versions of the final draft, mainly because I couldn't decide which one I liked more. Remastered yet again another old doodle from a few years ago. I was reading a lot of Junji Ito in between while doing this one. He's an inspiration and any Japanese-Horror fans should definitely check his work out! I recommend "Souichi's Diary of Curses". Without spoiling anything- let's just say the Fashion Model, Miss Fuchi, is my favorite of Junjo's Characters.
Anyways, here's my lovely Succubus after a night's work. While this isn't really a 100% Digital Painting, I wanted to give it a feature here. !!SPOILERS LURK AHEAD!! I love Pretty Little Liars, especially the Villains within the show. A, Uber A, A.D. Big A, whatever you wanna call them, they made that show so much fun and kept it going strong. My favorite Character on the Show is Spencer Hastings. She's the smartest of the group, as well as the one who faces the most dangers in my opinion. So when we were introduced to Alex Drake and her identity in the Final Episode, I was blown away. The clever writing and feeling of betrayal towards what I thought I knew about my favorite character made me love the villains even more; thus increasing my love for the show. So in honor of this great show coming to a final end, I decided to pay tribute to the Series villains aka "The A-Team". Members within the Team are Noel Kahn, Jenna Marshall, Archer Dunhill, Sara Harvey, Wren Kingston, Mary Drake. Featured Heads are the Original A- Mona Vanderwaal, Big A- Charlotte DiLaurentis, and A.D.- Alex Drake. ps. evil british troian bellisario is my favorite troian bellisario BOW DOWN TO YOUR GODI had a weird thought, and I just went with it. "What if the Phantom of the Opera was in the future?" So here's the Phantom with a weird projection mask cradling a holographic Christine. Inspired by "Love Never Dies"; the whole ideal that The Phantom just wants nothing more than to be with Christine; however he's too far from her, and only has her image to drive him forward. Also, some close up shots! Another remastered painting of an old pen & ink doodle I did back in 2014. This image was created based on a poem for one of my poetry classes at SUNY Fredonia. I hope to publish it along with a collection of surreal poems/illustrations in a book someday soon.
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This Month's
Featured Painting "Brian Boru:
The Lion of Ireland"
Catalog of Paintings
April 2020
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