A few months ago, I was contacted by Imagine FX magazine. Imagine FX is primarily concerned with digital art which I do but they were interested in showcasing me as someone who still played with dirt and oil on top of wood. Old school, I think it is called. Terrific, not only am I getting older but it is starting to get pointed out. Anyway, the one page expose showed up in the December 2008, issue 37 and below is an image of my day in the sun. Cheers!

     If dead cats can dream so can dead mice! Looks like a rough day for Mickey.

     In the spring of 2007, I was contacted by the people at Electronic Arts do some concept work for Warhammer Online: The Age of Reckoning. It was an exciting opportunity that I readily took up. One of the things of working for gaming companies and film are the non-disclosure agreements commonly called NDA’s. Basically, you are bound not to talk about a project, what you’re doing or show anybody what you’ve done for a set period of time. This tends to wreck havoc with your portfolio because you would like to show what you’ve done to prospective clients to get more work. Sometimes, by the time you could possibly show someone your work, it’s been such a length of time that not only have your skills increased but your style has changed.

     Anyway, I was out trolling on the Web looking into playing a new MMORPG (massive multi-player online role-playing game). I love these. They are such great fun. I played Dark Age of Camelot for about three and half years and more recently Lord of the Rings. The really big problem with these games is that to play them and really immerse yourself into these worlds, you have to put time in. The more you put in, the more you get out of the game. However, time happens to be one of the rarest commodities I have. For every hour of game play that means it’s one hour less of reading, watching movies, drawing comics, painting, etc., etc., etc. So what it boils down to is a prioritizing choice. That and the fact that these games are so addictive, are reasons that I really try to resist them. But as I said there I was trolling for one on the Web, lol.

     I went to check out Warhammer Online and saw a link for concept art. Always interested in that, I clicked and went through a few of the pages and suddenly I was taken back because there was my work. How cool is that! So here is the link:

http://www.warhammeronline.com/conceptart/conceptArt_2007.php

Below are just a few of the other concepts that I did for them. The work I did was High Elf shields and zealot talismans.

     This past week, I was contacted by the Curator of Fishes at the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History otherwise known as the Smithsonian Institution. They are writing a new book on biogeography through the University of California Press and wanted to use my Paracyclotosaurus davidi illustration for within the pages of the book. What a lovely surprise! What a feather for my hat!

     The book is due out in the summer of 2009. Paracyclotosaurus davidi is below.  They can be seen along with a few other long dead critters in the prehistoric gallery of my website at Prehistoric Beasties.

 Day of the Dead kitty dreaming of past culinary delights. Oil on board, 2.5×3.5″.

 Kitty has made his way out onto an Ebay auction. Click if you would like to bid : )

More silly imagery inspired by the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities. This is the second in a run of ACEO cards that I am in the process of doing. These are quite a bit of fun to do, actually. This skeletal mariachi is ready and willing to entertain. It is always interesting to paint new subjects because you learn a lot from the preliminary research.

This little fellow has made his way out onto an Ebay auction. Click if you would like to bid : )

This  small oil painting was executed at Cape Cod Sand Dunes National Park. This is near Pilgrim Lake area just shortly before you enter Provincetown.  The brilliancy of sunrise colors is so fleeting. It last only a few moments and begins to pale dramatically as light begins flooding the sky.  Oil on birch panel, 5×7″.

Some silly imagery inspired by the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities. I plan on doing a small run of these and trying my hand out on Ebay ACEO market. Pretty small oil at 2.5×3.5″ but still took an hour and some along with wearing some pretty powerful glasses to get it done.  It was actually quite a nice change of pace. I usually paint quite a bit larger which works wonders for reproduction purposes but also is so much kinder on my eyes….yep, getting old………..hehehehe.

This little fellow has made his way out onto an Ebay auction. Click if you would like to bid : )

     I have begun posting dailies out at http://ricksardinha.blogspot.com/. I really should call it near dailies like it says on the banner. It seems silly with all the things I’m trying to do but it actually is helping me get things up onto the web. Whatever works. Thinking about it is just going to make it worse. I will mirror the dailies here along with a bit more information if it’s available. We shall see how it all works out. As much as I am committed to doing a painting a day, life keeps sticking out her size 12 boot and tripping me up if not just outright giving me a swift kick in the nethers. This is a small oil painting, 5×7″, executed at Cape Cod Sand Dunes National Park. This was up somewhere near Race Point.  Sunrise here is really brisk not only in speed but temperature. Paper mounted on board.

This small jewel has made his way out onto an Ebay auction. Click if you would like to bid : )