Happy Christmas From Three Headed Troll

Neecie's Fart Collection

Behold fellow bloggers the Art that fills our apartment courtesy of Denise my Gurlfriend.


I really like this oval shaped oil painting by Hyulami
it currently resides in our shitting room (sitting room).



I love this nightime sea scene, very fantasy looking (just add a Dragon)
It is a large oil painting (3 foot X 2 foot) and signed A.J Wiseman, may 1969




Nice if your Neecy (this is just a print)


This scary monstrocity is something else, I cant work out
the signature (initials are H.T in red) Denise came home
with it from a car boot sale last year. It resides in the hallway.
Sometimes I scare Denise with it by just busting into the
toilet when she's on the can and just pushing the Bulls face
through the open door, its a crazy big thing too (about 3 foot
by 2 foot).I really dig this for its whacky composition, a bull
and a bird? Denise's Art taste is definately diverse.

Denise had this Oil painting commissioned about 10 years ago.
It is painted by a local Arteest called Ann Turner....nice.


Another tasteful print. Bedroom

Speaking of Bulls, I've heard the Artist of this particular
piece is a veritable well hung bull of a man!

Actually its a print of a digital painting by myself.......


The Titanic at full steam, just off the south coast of Ireland.
Denise loves the Titanic, and anything Titanic related.
I painted this piece (albeit crappily) last year for her birthday.
Acrylics & Ink on watercolour board. I have been meaning to
do her a better rendition.


Small oil painting by a F.Murphy, I dig the limited colour palate
on this piece, the artist shows his blending skills pretty well.
I like this particular piece. I would dig seeing him paint a
fantasy scene.


Old prints by myself Denise & a Troll and a
small model of the Tiger tank I drove during the war.
(I climbed inside the Tiger II in Bovington tank museum)
My niece Rachel and her Dolphin friend Snorky nestle
in the background, the Gargoyles gaze on malignantly.


Denise likes this particular piece. It has its merits, I like
the way the background trails away and the foregound is
laid down thick in an inpasto effect with a pallet knife.
Oils again. It needs a few Otyugh's or something...


One of my favourite pieces belonging to Denise.A very small
oil painting, brilliant painting skill, very Bob Ross. I have
probably studied this piece the most.By W.Cramer....nice.




Sort of African Savannah look to this Oil painting.
Largeish (3 foot by a foot and a half) cant make the
scribbly signature out.(pauses to sip hot Chocolate)
Yes straight men do drink that particular beverage.
Presently in our bedroom above the headboard.
It may very well fall one night and squash my melon head.

Conan the Cimmerian

Sahuagin Attack!

Here's my latest doodle of a commission I recently got.

Sahuagins....they're like flippin' cock-a-roaches!

Completion, progress and another meowth to feed.

Howdy Folks,

I've been busy trying to get some pieces together for Con on the Cob. Here is a sampling of some of my latest work. If you get a chance to pop up to Ohio to attend Con on the Cob, be sure to track down Brian and myself. We'll have art on display in the artist alley. I promise we don't bite.

I finished that Chanticleer piece. Pretty pleased with how it came out:

I also completed a Harpy, at the urging of my friend Stace, who thought it was a shame that none of my work had boobies. Enjoy!

On to the work in progress. Well, I've had a piece sitting on my easel for over a year now. It's a gessoed masonite board, 12" wide x 36" tall. Very tall and skinny. I laid down some initial background shapes in acrylic, then completed the rest in oils. You can paint oil over acrylic, just never vice versa ;)

I want the piece to be something of a sequel to my Grave Robbers (oil and kitty litter on canvas), below:

So, I got the acrylic tones in and a little bit of oil, then the poor thing sat neglected forever. I think my problem is that I'm used to working in acrylic and as a result, I'm spoiled by the quick drying time. Oils take sooooo long to dry, and I can only work for so long before everything gets muddy. Eventually, I set the painting aside to let it dry, then never get back to it.

Here's the poor painting, sitting dejectedly in my studio. It's that tall pink vagina-shaped monstrosity nestled beneath the stand-up easel in the corner.

Several weeks ago, I took it out and dabbled a bit. The idea has always been to have the Grave Robbers being confronted by a spectral, translucent detective. I made a bit of progress on the figures and the surrounding caves. Then it sat again.

Well, I finally got the notion to work on it a bit more today, with further fleshing of the Robbers (and their cat), and the initial stages of the ghost. For obvious reasons, I'll have to wait until the Robbers are fully resolved before I can add the trench-coated shoulder and raised .45 automatic of the ghostly detective. You'll be able to see the other figures through his non-corporeal shoulder.

Things started to get a little muddy, so I decided to call it a day and took a few pictures to share. However, in reviewing them, I just hated the tall skinny guy in the top hat. He looked like some half-assed Gandalf, and his posture was uninteresting and stiff.

Stepping away from the painting, indeed viewing the pics on the small screen of my iPhone, drove it home. He needed a complete do-over. So, I went back to the easel and picked up the brush in order to make him a little more crooked. No matter that his shadow would no longer match - Maybe he's got some Bram Stoker's Dracula action going on. As they say, "Kill your darlings". So, I killed him. I was instantly satisfied, as a more dynamic shape took form. The new crooked form fit well into the compositional space of the figures. For now, he's just a black shape:

Love it! So long, Gandalf!

But wait... now the shape looks like an awesome anthropomorphic crow! If I gave him a black beak that pointed toward the cat's ears, and worked on some feathers...

So, that will be the next step. Materialize the crow-man and make the tall, mismatched shadow INTO the 2nd Robber, complete with top hat, curly beard and whacked-out eyes. Those features will definitely help bring the eye up to the otherwise neglected top half of the painting.

I'll post the results as soon as they happen. For now, it's the "let it dry" game. But with Con on the Cob a mere 3 weeks away, I don't have the luxury of sitting on it this time.

Finally, I've added a new "helper" to the household. My coworkers found a poor little stray kitten and brought him to me because they know I'm a sucker. Here he is, doing routine maintenance on my WACOM tablet. Damn, is he cute or what?

"Chewy! Hand me the pixel spanner!"

Entering Acererak's Tomb

Here's my latest drawing of an adventuring party just entering the deadliest D&D module ever created....the TOMB OF HORRORS. Arguably my favorite module from back in the day. Hope you enjoy....

Stirge Encounter!

Here's a recent sketchbook commission that I just completed this weekend. The only stipulations by the person wanting the commission was that he wanted it to have an adventuring party and stirges in it. This is what I came up with...

L4: Demonspawn module cover...

Thought I'd post one of my latest pieces. This one was my first attempt at acrylics and while I struggled a bit, it's definitely lit a fire under my butt to do some more painting in the near future.

Pipe Dreams

Acrylic and ink on 6"x4" canvas. ©Jason A Braun (click to see full pic)

"Pipe Dreams" by White Ghost Shivers

I see faces, on the ceiling.
As the smoke begins to rise.
Always staring and beyond caring.
And they never close their eyes.

I hear voices, that keep me reeling.
So tender and so shrill.
Some are singing, but some are screaming.
And they bind me to their will.

Someone is choking, beneath my fingers.
And I thrill to feel his fight.
Tomorrow's grieving can be deceiving,
And it haunts me through the night.

Morning has broken, the sun has spoken,
As I stumble through the door.
To join the living, the less forgiving,
I know that I'll be back for more.

I know that I'll be back for more!

Jaybird's personal work

Howdy Folks!

It's been forever since I posted, so I thought I'd drop a couple of things up here. A recent goal has been to carve out as much free time to paint as possible, and it's finally beginning to show dividends.

Up first, an Egyptian Mau Cat that's being donated to an auction benefitting the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition. I'm not ashamed of the soft spot I've got for our feline friends. Meow! 8x10, acrylic on canvas.



Next, here's a work in progress that I like to call "Chanticleer at the Joust". This piece started life as a quick figure painting that I belted out to test some varnish before attempting to apply said varnish to a larger, commissioned piece. Better to ruin a test canvas, right? Turns out that I hated the varnish, so I'm glad I tested!

I sat down and started making random shapes to cover up the figure and the varnish. Then it was sort of a Rorschach test... what did I see in the shapes?



I turned it around and around and thought of a few ideas, but it was a co-worker who said "It looks like a rooster in knight's armor". So, I decided to push it in that direction. The runner up was a purple alien landscape. I may yet explore that idea digitally since I have a nice scan of the purple stage.

A rooster in knight's armor:



A little more brush time and I think we'll have a wrap! Thanks for reading.


Buh-GAWK!!!
Jaybird

Last Stand Against The Frost Giant Lich King

Hey everyone, long time no blog. I thought I'd post my latest drawing up for the blog viewers to check out. I thought it would be fun to do a Lich encounter but have the Lich a bit different from the norm that we tend to see in gaming supplements. So, I thought a frost giant lich king would be sort of a cool take on a classic "creature." It was my first stab at a female dwarf too in any drawing that I had ever done. I was torn as to whether I wanted her to have a beard or not. In the end, a small tuft of chin hair won me over.

*Click on the small pic and she'll get all big for ya'!



Peace!

Ossuary of Horrors

New first edition module I'm currently working on. This is one of the many
Player pullout art pieces to be included in the mod, as player aids.
Ossuary of Horrors plays homage to the original "Tomb of Horrors" by Gary Gygax.
It will contain all new monsters to keep the players on their toes, and be playable
by character levels 10-14. My other two fellow Troll Heads Brian "Glad" Thomas and Jason
"Jaybird" Braun will be assisting in this endeavour.



The Crawl Ghouls abode

Restoring old Photographs

I got this commission lately to try and patch up a 1920's photo in pretty bad condition.
The original was cracked, badly illuminated & torn up. I decided to go for a quick repair
job in Adobe Photoshop CS (version 8) I intend to do a bit more with it, but this is as far
as I got today. When I'm happy I will obtain a couple of A4 prints on glossy paper at my
local printers.

She's a biggun!

In my previous post, I mentioned an 84" x 60" semi-abstract painting that had been commissioned. The client is a brand new high-end seafood restaurant, so they'd like a painting of their building with a lot of madcap activity spilling out of it: music, people, wine, seafood, etc. All in the vein of my previous Wein & Saenger Fest posters. Naturally, I'll find a way to get Sir Winston into the piece. I'm thinking about picturing him with a fishing pole, in keeping with the nautical theme. Well, they've approved my price quote with one caveat: the size went from 84x60 on stretched canvas to 108" x 72" on gessoed board! Holy schneikies!

The good news there is that they're having their carpenters build the board to my specifications, so it will keep me from having to tackle stretching such a mammoth canvas (and from footing the bill for the materials). Initial sketches will go over to them on Monday, and once they are approved, I can get started layin' down the paint! I purchased a good quantity of paint today and can already visualize the color scheme, so I'm rarin' to go.

One problem with the increased size is that there's no way such a huge, heavy and fragile monstrosity would survive the trip up the winding stairs to my 3rd-floor apartment. So, I'll either be painting it after hours here at work or in my boss' graciously-offered pool house.

I'll post here as the job progresses. Right now it's nothing more than a pile of supplies and a whirlwind of the mind's eye!

Jaybird Update

I've been quiet lately, but it's for good reason. I'm swamped with work! Now that I've settled into my new apartment and have my studio space back in working order, I'm churning away at some pretty fun projects. Most are still secret for the moment, but I'll share them here when the NDA's are lifted. It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks for me.

One interesting commission is for an 84" x 60" abstract painting to dominate one wall of a brand new restaurant. A canvas that size will about fill my entire work space, but it should be lots of fun! They want something along the lines of the whacky characters and settings I've done for a local wine and music festival:

2008


2009


In further news, I've been invited to be a special guest at the inaugural North Texas RPG Convention, June 5-7. It was really great of the guys to invite me up to Dallas, and Jess and I are really looking forward to it!

Finally, I'm in the home stretch of the Mr. Sasquatch 2009 competition. Beard photos are due April 1, so I only have a week left to push my face follicles to the MAX! I'll post here again when voting opens. I won in 2008, so I'm trying to defend my title. Here's a recent in-progress shot:

My Honda CB250rs Motorcycle Restoration.

I started the ardous task of clearing out my garage yesterday.

It has been used as a bulk storage area for the past few years.

I uncovered my old Honda CB250rs motorcycle today, it had

been buried beneath boxes and bags at the back of the garage

since 2007.It was still running when I stored it away, but the

m.o.t & tax were up on it. It also had developed a rather annoying

oil leak from the drive sprocket engine seal. That job requires a

complete engine and gearbox strip to fix properly. *sigh*.I had

meant to restore the 28 year old little thumper, but had two

other bikes already on the road so really did not need it at the

time.I know the CB is a basic & old little thing, but I had fallen

for its charms years ago. They really are a great little bike,

hit 85 on a good day, handle like a dream and definately ooze

character (and oil).Anyhoo I scrapped the original registration

so need a new frame, V5 and reg. I secured one in Feburary

for £50 complete with year's m.o.t. Yesterday I degreased

the replacement frame and swingarm, in preparation

for painting tomorrow. Today had me clearing out my garage,

and uncovering my old donor bike. The fun starts tomorrow.

Degreased, sanded and painted the frame & swinging arm yesterday.

Fully stripped my donor bike, minus the engine. I could not remove the

siezed rear engine mounting bolt. (I have three skinned knuckles to

proove it). That's a moot point however, as I'm using another spare

engine I have. Little F**king Miffway lent assistance! (well sat in her

cage looking bemused, probably stoned on paint fumes?) I also took

the time to start cleaning up all the various fastners and components.

I have two other lock-ups that are crammed with bike bits, so it will

take a few days rooting to obtain the very best parts to use on this build.

I must have over three CB250rs's in bits at this stage. When the m.o.t's

and tax were up, and they needed a major stripdown, I just took them apart

for spares. Two years ago I had one "RS" that the frame around the footpegs

collapsed from corrosion.I bought it cheap for parts, but the owner lightly

tarted it up with a brush to conceal the rust. I'm using the motor from that

particular bike in this build.

Hopefully it will look like this when completed!

I'm currently about a third of the way through my build.
My time this past week has been taken up with sanding,
cleaning, degreasing and polishing. Monotonous stuff.
Today I located all the extra components I require for the
rebuild. I also cleaned and sanded the engine, and gave it
a first coat of engine lacquer. Tomorrow I should make
considerably more progress.(hopefully)

These two following images are from last Tursday and Friday.Thursday seemed to be the most productive day, as I assembled all the major components onto the waiting frame.The engine, front end,forks and wheels were installed. Friday had me installing the carb, cables, brakes, drive chain,electrics etc. Then I had a weekend break and got stuck in again on Monday.I finished the wiring and reinstalled the exhaust and another battery.The afternoon had me finally fire the old girl up after a three year hiatus in my garage.She started at the second push (I jump started it on the nice hill outside my garage).The old fuel was still fine,as I had the petrol tank full to the brim to avoid any evapouration. So Tuesday had me just going over everything,safety checks and then a 30 mile round trip blast (which is not entirely recommended on a brand new frame up rebuild, in case anything goes wrong) but she behaved perfectly.So a completed bike rebuild in a week worked out just fine I'm happy to say. And importantly it has turned put to be the cheapest rebuild I have even accomplished (about £85 all told, including the frame, V5 and M.O.T cert for £50).I still have some polishing work to do, some paint touch ups and I'm also planning to re-spray her in a month or so.I have a few spare body kits lurking about. One is a rather fetching metallic blue and black colour.But the replacement V5 lists the prior bike as being red, so I just rolled with that colour scheme.(I had the red body work lying around too)That motor is really torquey and sweet. A trip to Rykas cafe in box hill is on the cards this weekend.......they do the nicest burgers in the South West, and as many of you guys already know, its a popular bikers meeting spot.