ALL PROCEEDS OF THE SEA GRYPHON PRINT WILL BE DONATED TO HELP THE ANIMALS OF THE GULF!

Buy any greeting card or any sized print and 100% of my earnings on this print will be donated to the International Bird Rescue Research Center (http://www.ibrrc.org/) and The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (http://www.imms.org/).

Please help spread the word!

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This is a WIP for my entry into the Werewolf Calendar.  It's a project I've admired for a while and I thought I'd like to give it a shot to be a part of it, even if not as a month of the year :)  

I thought I'd go a route I thought of almost as soon as I saw the contest- two alphas battling for lead dog!  If you know about dogs, when two dominant animals get around each other, the results are usually pretty fierce.  There's a lot on the line!  I've worked up the one wolf's face up a bit.  The jaws seem a little off still, any critique at this stage is appreciated!

Check it out now and consider purchasing a print!

Done for the "Unusual Cowboy" contest over on Parka Blogs, a betta fish cowboy :)

This one took about 2 hours start to finish, which is sort of rare for me, but I wanted to keep it loose and unrefined to a certain extent.  Hopefully I succeeded in achieving that effect!

As Kramer says, "Giddyup!"

I know, I know- SO many gryphons! :D  I'm obsessed, what can I say?  I'm taking part in this year's ArtSlam over on Livejournal.  I started last year's, but wussed out pretty early in the game.  This year I'm on hardcore mode, 3 months of dedication to this project.  I've already put a week or so into it, so I'm on a roll, just have to keep going.

I've made my other WIP's and projects take a back seat to this project for the time being.  I'm going to try to work in some more studies, but as far as the challenges go, I'm going to give them a break for a little while.  If one sounds really intriguing I might give it a go, but I find while I work really hard on those challenges, they don't necessarily yield all that much in way of results.  Whereas my gryphon project is picking up steam and people are excited about it.  I can't get people excited about my one entry in a random contest.  It's not my baby, I'm just not PASSIONATE about every contest that comes along.  I think people can tell and your artwork suffers.  Not to say you shouldn't go outside your comfort zone- that's what my studies will be there for.  But I just want to focus on this project for a little while and stop guilt tripping myself when I miss 1 out of the 1,000 contests due this week!

Hopefully you won't get too sick of gryphons by the end of summer! I promise I'll make them varied enough that I'm sure you'll like at least one of them ;)

Can't get enough gryphons? Check out All Gryphons Great and Small for the final versions of these critters!  Don't forget to follow AllGryphons on Twitter too!

This is the first WIP shot I've taken for my Discover A Muse challenge going on over on ArtOrder.  Still working on it... Just been distracted by a flurry of gryphons, not unlike this one:

 ;) (See more here!)

I just did.  

I came to the realisation that I keep doing things for other people expecting everyone else to notice- but the big secret is this: The most famous, noteworthy, creative people all came up with their own ideas and then executed them.  Sure, some people have made a living essentially doing "fan art", but in the grand scheme of things, the products, movies, books and art that people recognize and remember the most are ones that the creator came up with themselves. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Avatar... Who are the people that come to mind when you hear those titles mentioned?  The fans? Or the person that created it?

Now the hard part is YOU coming up with that unique idea.  You certainly can't force it.  You have to listen reeeeeeally closely.  To yourself.  What is it that sparks you?  That ignites you?  That gets ideas flowing and buzzing around in your head?  It may be looking at other people's works and imagining you being a part of it, but there's got to be more.  That's been me all this time, all the time I've been creating.  Drawing fan art and being in love with everyone else's art and ideas other than my own.  But the people who I admire so greatly, they all have that spark, that ignition from within themselves.  They love what they're doing and they know it.  And it shows.  It's what attracts you and me to their work.  Why we like it.  We see it, that spark of life that doesn't appear in a piece unless the creator somehow puts it there.  A lot of artwork, books and movies are like shells, husks- apeing off of someone else's spark.  But it's a thing that can't be duplicated. 

So what's my spark?

I'm starting a new blog.  It's called All Gryphons Great and Small, A fantastical bestiary of the animal: Gryphon.  It found it- my thing, that spark, that ignition.  I remembered it from way back when I was in high school.  Back when I wanted to be a wildlife artist.  Now I'm going to blend my two passions- wildlife art with fantasy and create my own thing.  I know a mythic bestiary isn't the most original concept, but I'll add my own twist to it.  I feel energized about this.  And the best part is it'll be mine.  I'll own it, it'll be my pet project.  

And I want to share the journey with all of you.  I am so pumped about it, I'm planning on adding my first post this weekend.  I hope to see you there!