I'm proud to say that this one is all finished.  It was 3 weeks of work + a lot of sketching and compositional studies.  I didn't end up doing an oil sketch for this one, but I probably should have.  
​  I'd never attempted a painting this large (32" X 24")  and this complex, but I'm very happy with the final finish.
  I'll be shipping this along with some signed prints of "The Butterfly" to Dog & Horse Fine Art within the next few weeks.  I still have to varnish this one also..

  I can't find other parts to this video, but this is worth watching.  It's absolutely beautiful.  I can't believe more people don't write about the connections between japanese animation and academic painting..

  So close to finishing this one.  I don't want to go overboard on the background with the detail.  My initial thoughts were to have a mosaic of glowing leaves behind the golden retriever and I want to stay true to my first ideas.  I'll sign it and call it finished at 95%.

  ​I have to write a post about how much I truly love skateboarding and everything that it has taught me.  I'll preface by saying that I'm not a great skateboarder by any means.  I have the basic tricks down, but I'm far from an expert.  I've loved skateboarding for a long time, but it's this naivety that allows me to be so happy if I land a trick.
  I went skating today down my local street and ran into a friend who also skates.  We're about equal in skill level so we tried to jump (ollie) over some curbs.  The curb in the video below was fairly high and had a patch of grass that we were trying to land on. I kept rolling up to it, trying to ollie onto the grass, but I couldn't commit to the jump.
  In skateboarding of any level, it's all about psychological commitment.  There's a moment right before you do something where you say: "I'm going to land this or I'm going to bail."  And this moment of clarity is extremely zen.  It took me  a while to build up the guts to jump over the curb.  And when I finally landed one, I realized that I could roll through the grass onto the sidewalk.  Also, once you land a trick, it's as if a switch is turned in your brain and you feel like you could land it anytime you want.  
  The satisfaction that consumes me when I land a trick is based on the fact that skateboarding is scary.  Even doing a small trick like this one in the video is terrifying.  There's something so rewarding about conquering small fears.  I also feel it more deeply because I'm at a low level of skill with skateboarding.  
  As for painting, I still find satisfaction in my work, but it's harder and harder to come by.  And with painting, it's also more of a drawn out process with no physical prowess involved.  
  For a guy like me, I need the yin and yang balance between skateboarding and the sedentary pose of painting.  In some ways I learn more about painting by skateboarding and more about skateboarding by painting.  I hope to do both for a long time.