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Author Archives: Gaelen

Current Sketchbook

MY SKETCHBOOKS tend to fill up with spaceships and robots and all sorts of things from my head. This may not bad in itself, but it does cause me to burn through sketchbooks without really improving. I have therefore dedicated my current sketchbook to drawings of things I actually encounter (e.g.: not spaceships). This should [...]

Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

  SINCE my last post I have been doing well. I was promoted to a Cadet Staff Sergeant in Civil Air Patrol this past Thursday, I had the honor of serving for the first Mass of a newly-ordained friend of mine this morning, and I am going on a retreat tomorrow evening. My current sentiments [...]

Recent Things

THERE is a neat website by the name of WikiPaintings. I have found it useful for getting the general idea of a particular artist’s career, as the site lets you quickly flip through their work chronologically. It is interesting to see styles develop, themes revisited and models reappear. below are some sketches I did while [...]

Skulls

THERE is no cause for alarm (I am not depressed or anything like that); human skulls are just an interesting subject.

2013 North Dakota Civil Air Patrol Wing Conference

I AM PRETTY TIRED, having spent most of the day at this year’s ND CAP  Wing Conference. Before retiring, however, I wanted to write a bit about Colonel Mary Feik, who did us the honor of coming as a guest speaker. Upon joining the Army Air Corps during WWII, she began working on the designs [...]

Three-Piece Samurai

IN KEEPING WITH this blog’s subtitle, here is this Saturday’s post. Three-Piece Samurai began as an idea for a short video about a well-dressed ronin who goes around fighting giant robots. Even though this never got further than a simple storyboard, I still think about using the character. Maybe I will start a band with [...]

Alfred Leete

EVEN IF I DID have something of my own to post right now, I would still probably post this instead: I am currently reading The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse. While looking at the gallery of covers for this particular book on the Russian Wodehouse Society’s website, this one struck me as familiar. [...]

Billions of Bilious Blue Blistering Barnacles

A FOURTH BIRTHDAY was recently celebrated by my little brother. Like any older sibling, I gave him a present. Like any good older sibling, I gave him Red Rackham’s Treasure by Herge. Like any extra-good older sibling, I read it to him with funny voices and everything (making up a voice for Captain Haddock is [...]

Musical Recommendations

I GAVE UP MUSIC FOR LENT. Since I do not have anything of my own to post right now, here are a few of the songs I have been enjoying again since Easter: The Salamanca Reel, The Banshee and The Sailor’s Bonnet by The Bothy Band The Road to Errogie and The Reconciliation Reel by [...]

The Harrowing of Hell

OUT OF ALL OF THE SATURDAYS IN THE YEAR, Holy Saturday (today) is probably my favorite, owing (in part) to the fact that it gives me an excuse to draw Jesus Christ pulling Adam and Eve out of the jaws of death, represented by a giant monster head. Have a good Easter! If you do [...]

Spring

ACCORDING TO THE CALENDAR, Spring began three days ago. But, as the snowbanks still stand about three feet high around here, you really couldn’t tell. I have, therefore,  found much comfort in the warm, colorful paintings of Boris Kustodiev, who even manages to make the dreaded Russian Winter look inviting.  Above is a study after [...]

De Rerum Novarum

FIRST OF ALL, long live Pope Francis! The above painting (P.S. Krøyer’s Hip, hip, hurra! Kunstnerfest på Skagen) sums up my feelings pretty well. I was naturally as surprised as anyone by the recent abdication of Pope Benedict XVI. All I can say is that I wish our former Roman Pontiff all of the best [...]

March for Life Pilgrimage 2013

NEARLY FOUR WEEKS have elapsed since my return from Washington D.C.. The reason I have not written about it until now is simple: I do not like sorting through pictures. But sort them I did, and here they are for your perusal. Our group followed essentially the same itinerary as we did in 2011 and [...]

I Am Good At Making Newyear’s Resolutions But Terrible When It Comes To Keeping Them

Writing one post per day is not working at the moment. I did say that there would be one post per day (as opposed to a new post every day), so as long as I write 365 blog posts this year, that resolution will still be fulfilled. There is plenty of time, right? :) Later [...]

Happy Epiphany!

Above is a study I did of the figures in James Tissot’s Les rois mages en voyage.

Viking Mead Hall

Happy 121st Birthday, J.R.R. Tolkien!

Speaking of Tolkien, yesterday I read his essay On Fairy Stories (which you can read right now on this Ukrainian website). In it Tolkien writes about the history of fairy tales, the suspension of disbelief, Eucatastrophe, why certain mediums work or don’t work for certain types of stories, &c. I recommend reading it when you [...]

Doug TenNapel on Inking

Doug TenNapel (one of my heroes!) has written a three part series of blog posts about his inking process process. Go check it out! The first post in the series is here.

ANNO DOMINI 2013!

2013 is the new 2012. As one of my resolutions I am going to force myself to post once per day. There. I said it. Now I just need to do it. :) Since I last posted: I had a wonderful Christmas Octave with my family, received a hoard of terrific presents (some of which [...]

GIMP thingies

I’m sick. Blaaaa. So rather than drawing something new for today’s post, I decided to make a compilation of various products of boredom ranging from three years to a few weeks old. They are all pretty frivolous; I hope you don’t mind.