Daily Creativity: CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Daily Creativity: CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Daily Creativity: Chocolate CupcakesMmmm chocolate…. This will count as yesterday’s daily creativity, I made it on Friday but I couldn’t share it until I shared it with the birthday boy. I made these for my friend Chooch’s birthday, and when I drove to Niagara Falls on Saturday, I left it home. Oops, so I brought it when I met up with him on Sunday. I asked his wife Viv what his favorite cakes were, and she said Chocolate, nothing else. No nuts, no other flavors, just pure unadulterated chocolatey goodness. So that was my mission. I first made a nice fudgey cupcake, I do this by making devil’s food cake and using pumpkin to really get that fudgey texture and taste. Then I made a ganache using ghirardelli’s dark and semisweet, mixing them to come up with a great flavor that isn’t too sweet or too rich. Once that cooled I whipped it so I could pipe it out as roses, my favorite way to frost cupcakes. The roses always look really pretty and they give maximum frosting coverage without a risk of toppling over. Plus the frosting is distributed evenly. Yes, I think about this way too much. The only thing I may have added if I had the time/supplies is  a bit of gold leaf for color. Still I say these tasted even better than they looked.

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Daily Creativity: Niagara Falls in my memory

Daily Creativity: Niagara Falls in my memory

Daily Creativity: Niagara Falls in my memoryToday I visited Niagara Falls for the first time. We didn’t actually get to see the falls till after dark because there were so many things we were doing. This piece is me trying to remember it and draw it. I’m not great at landscapes but I think I got a bit of the flow. I spent the day with Chooch and Viv of SpecFicMedia.com and two of my co-hosts on Beyond the Wall. Also, I spent the day with the Skinner’s of Flash Pulp. Also today my friend TABZ got married and it is a bit fitting since thanks to TABZ I met Chooch and Viv. We couldn’t watch the wedding but we saluted them as they married and celebrated in our own way. When I was drawing tonight I watched the stream recording and got to share in something I’d never be able to see ten years ago. Colored Pencils on natural unbleached paper.

If you’d like get your hands on some of my original art check our my Patreon Page and snatch up one of the limited reward levels.

Daily Creativity: Elephant Judo

Daily Creativity: Elephant Judo

Daily Creativity: Elephant JudoElephant’s practicing Judo? Why not? Tonight’s art was requested by Tek aka UpsideDownandFlying on tumblr. Tek loved the race picture I did and the Ele-family picture so he wanted to see them practicing Judo. We both love watching the heavyweight judo, it really is the most entertaining of the IJF highlight videos. Of course one of the reason I might like the heavyweight matches is because that matches my body type and my type of martial arts. I practice yoshinkan aikido but both aikido and judo have the same root. I really enjoyed drawing this and how it came out, so there may be more of a series of theses in the future.

Colored pencils on paper

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Daily Creativity: A Shamrock for St Paddy’s Day!

Daily Creativity: A Shamrock for St Paddy’s Day!

Daily Creativity: A Shamrock for St Paddy's Day!Shamrocks are often associated with the Irish and St Patrick’s day, and there is a good reason for that. St Patrick used the shamrock to explain the trinity, and it was one of the things that helped me understand it as a child too. How do we say we believe in one God but then talk about Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Much like the shamrock, it has three leaves, three sides, three aspects, but they are all one plant, one thing. So the father, the son, and the holy ghost are all the same thing, but they appear to us as separate because they come to us in different aspects of our lives. I think it’s fitting St Paddy’s day is often in the middle of lent. I know some people think it’s a pain when it lands on Friday, but to me having a lesson on the trinity right in the middle of lent is a great way to prepare. That’s what lent is all about, to me, we are preparing ourselves, we are thinking about God and how we are influenced daily, and how we can bring the teachings of Jesus into our daily life.

This description got a bit on the religious side, but it’s important when I talk about my process. I wanted to reflect the lessons I have learned from the shamrock, the lessons about the trinity. Doing this I incorporated the trinity knot into each of the leaves to put the idea in there a bit more. I made this using ink and colored pencil on natural unbleached paper.

If you’d like get your hands on some of my original art check our my Patreon Page and snatch up one of the limited reward levels.

Daily Creativity: Rory as The Punisher, The PunishRAWR!

Daily Creativity: Rory as The Punisher, The PunishRAWR!

Daily Creativity: Rory as The Punisher, The PunishRAWR!Rory as The Punisher, The PunishRAWR, Rory Castle? You Decide. I love drawing Rory as comic book characters, and each time I am surprised at how well it works out. This time I was working again with forced perspective, with the front on view of the guns. This is something I find very intimidating but I think I get better at it with each attempt. Watercolors on paper.

If you’d like get your hands on some of my original art check our my Patreon Page and snatch up one of the limited reward levels