Wonderfest news & other updates

It is official! I'm a guest at this year's Wonderfest! Behold my profile from the Wonderfest website:

Also, I did this art for the Wonderfest kids t-shirts this year:

I did the art in B/W, because the shirts are going to be a one or two color screen print. But then I started thinking about just making a limited color version for fun. This is what I came up with:

I thought it turned out cute, so I decided that I would use it for my new blog banner. 

ZaPow! is having their "May the Fourth be with You" Star Wars themed gallery show & party next Friday (on May 4th). Here is the poster for the event.

I think it's going to be a real good time, so if you are in the area, come check it out. I DID get my piece finished for the show, it has been printed, and I'll be picking it up and taking to the gallery next week. I will post the final art next Thursday, the day before the show opening. So until next Thursday...

Small updates, more to come

Wow! For those of you who use blogger, you must know they've changed the set up. I'm so confused!

Just a few things I wanted to mention. I have prints for sale through the awesome gallery ZaPow! Here is link to the prints that are available. I still have my prints for sale page active, where you can buy them directly from me, but I may disable it soon and just work through the gallery site. I will have work at the gallery through June, and depending on how well I do there will determine whether or not I'm going to keep my wall space. As long as I sell enough prints to cover my space rental each month, I'll continue to use it. If not, I'll probably have to withdraw. I would like to stay through October, as I have plans to make prints & cards with my Halloween art. But if I can't cover my rent there with sales, keeping the space is not an affordable option. Sales have been pretty good so far, so we shall see.

In other ZaPow! news, they will have a group show opening on Friday, May 4. The show is 'May the Fourth Be With You', a Star Wars tribute show. I am working on something new for this show, and hopefully will have it done in time. I've been crazy busy with work and deadlines, so I can't promise I'll be a part of it. However, I do have something in the works, and it will be available as a very limited edition print. I won't say what I'm doing yet, but it's a single character, one that appears breifly in 'Return of the Jedi'. I will post it here with links to the gallery, and I'll try to post it the day before the show.

Also, my Vertigo prints are for sale through the Gallery 1988 website. Go check out some of the amazing pieces created for this show. I was kind of amazed at how many 'Birds' pieces there were. Seemed like a lot.

For those of you making the journey to Wonderfest this year, I will be there with prints for my THIRD year! I'll have some new prints and some old favorites. My name isn't listed on the site yet, but I will be in dealer room B again. Wonderfest is in Louisville, KY, May 26-27.

And last of all, I did something wild & crazy. I entered a contest on DeviantArt. Wow! As I've mentioned before, I love DA, it's my favorite time waster. I usually ignore the contests and stuff they've got going on BUT they are having a Dark Shadows contest called 'The Barnabas Portrait Project'. The contest is basically to draw Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins. And hey, what do you know, I just did that last month. So I added a few little things to my 'Can You Dig It, Man' piece, slapped it on an official contest  template and submitted it. I don't imagine that I'll win, but since I have a stake in it now, I am interested to see what pieces do win. I've actually been picking out my own personal favorites as it's been going along. Might dedicate a post to it once the contest is over, which is next Tuesday.

Until next time, I'm off to do some more work!

Madeleine/Judy Vertigo poster for Gallery 1988's Hitchcock Tribute show

I'm very pleased to share with you all my SECOND contribution to an upcoming group show with Gallery 1988! Opening tomorrow night (Friday the 13th), it's 'Suspense & Gallows Humor' A tribute show to Alfred Hitchcock.

When I was asked to be part of this show, there was no question in my mind of what I would do. 'Vertigo' is not only my favorite Hitchcock film, but it happens to be one of my favorite films ever. I'll put it this way, if I ever had to make a list of my favorite top 10 films of all time, this one would make that list. Some of you might remember a piece that I did in 2009 for the CHFB Hitchcock challenge, if not you can see it here.

10th Annual Rondo Awards – Final Voting Week!!

Just a quick reminder to those of you who would like to vote in the 10th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, this is the FINAL WEEK to cast your ballot! Go to the Rondo Awards website and follow the instructions to vote for your favorites from 2011. Some people are intimidated by the size of the ballot, but you do not have to vote in every category. I haven't had the chance to vote myself, and I'll be doing that sometime this week.

Good luck to the nominees!

Can You Dig It, Man?

Groovy Baby! Okay, so after I saw the new Dark Shadows trailer, I was inspired to do this piece. I've been reading people's reaction to the trailer online, and it has been interesting to say the least. Many Dark Shadows fans are crying 'Foul' and are outraged by the comedic tone that the film seems to have taken. Although you can't always judge a film by it's trailer, it will be interesting to see if the second trailer is the same or if it plays up the darker elements of the film. For me personally, I can't wait! I think it looks like a lot of fun. I follow the blog 'Dark Shadows News Page' and today he had an excellent, thoughtful post on the new Dark Shadows movie, and I encourage all of you to read it (click here). It sums up how I feel about the movie, and written much better than I could have done.

I'm really hoping that this movie turns out to be great. I was a big Tim Burton fan for many years, up until he made re-made 'Planet of the Apes'. After that, I just didn't have the same enthusiasm I once had for his films. 'Corpse Bride' was the biggest disappointment ever.

So in case you haven't seen it, here it is. The sticky sweet seventies Dark Shadows trailer:

And here's the song 'Our Favorite Vampire' by Vampire State Building. With images from a comic spoof called 'Darn Shadows'. I'd love to have that comic!

Those of you interested in seeing classic Dark Shadows images from me, you'll be happy to know that I'm doing a series of characters from the show for an upcoming issue of Video Watchdog.

Tim Burton's Dark Shadows official trailer, released tonight

The first look at Tim Burton's vision of 'Dark Shadows' premiers tonight. The official website is currently running a countdown to it's release. Now, I must confess, I've already seen the trailer by way of a hand held camera/phone/thingy. It apparently aired on the Ellen DeGeneres show earlier today, someone took video and posted it online. BUT even though I've seen it, I can't wait to REALLY see it in HD in a few hours.

I love this shot from the film. I found this at Dark Shadows News Page.

Kids in the Hall 'The Pit of Ultimate Darkness' Prints Available

Yes, I'm posting this again. It's mainly to let anyone who is interested know, that there are prints available for sale through Gallery 1988. The show opened on Friday, March 9, and on Saturday, all the pieces from the show were posted online. I was thrilled to see that my framed print has already sold! So get your Sir Simon Milligan & Manservant Hecubus print today! I only made 25, since it's my first show, and I don't know how many are left.

Also, there is a bunch of really great stuff, including John Rozum's cut paper Bill Cosby. Go check it out!