the Artisan Rogue

Once again, NakaKon never ceases to amaze me with it’s amazing amount of Cosplay and it’s East meets West aspects. I’ve gotten into the groove of the show somewhat now, and so that leaves a lot of time on Friday and Saturday to work on ideas and showcase my art skills to new people. I find convention time to be an odd time for me though.

You see, under most circumstances, I prefer to be at home drawing while listening/watching some History Channel in the background, but for the most part, usually isolated and quiet. Occassionally a cat or two will pop in to walk across the keyboard or sit on my artboards, but otherwise I just work away in my quiet zone.

So maybe it’s the overall energy and vibe of being at a convention that gets my creative juices flowing. I had been struggling with a character design and in no time, it was coming out and coming to life as fast as I could put pen to paper.

Of course, when I am at these kinds of conventions, I try my best to accomodate people wanting me to do some sketches for them. This year seems to have been the year of the sketchcard (I’d like to blame the economy, but why get on that soapbox? You all know what’s going on in the world.) Andrew (below, next to me) helped me brush up on my Naruto knowledge, because lord knows, my knowledge of Anime is really bad unless we’re talking Macross/Robotech stuff, with the slight exception of Gundam Wing which I am a complete fan of.

But more importantly, it helps keep my skills refined and polished because I don’t want to look like I don’t know what I am doing when I am out and about illustrating. Everyone has those days when you can’t even pull off an illustration of stick figure theatre, but thankfully that has yet to happen to me at a convention.

Like I had mentioned earlier, Anime cons are usually heavily loaded down with cosplay, much more so than your average comic convention, and this year had a lot of really fun and well done ones. Luna Lovegood is completely awesome above, and the Jester/Harlequin was very nice, and even though the fairy was extremely well done (evidently she is a pro costume designer) I literally was losing my mind over the amazing job that the fellow did below with Mojo Jojo.

But those three above were far from the only ones around, and I have a lot more photos that I hope to add to the gallery soon. Otherwise and aside from that, Nakakon was a blur to me. One thing that all reenactments and convention shows do to me is wear me the heck out. In a good way. But the best part about going to these conventions is being able to see a lot of people of like minds come together, old and young, (but in the case of NakaKon, mainly young) and have fun together.

Battle of Lone Jack Museum and Memorial – Lone Jack, Missouri

Although I keep a pretty busy schedule, I am making it a point to go out to places in the KC and surrounding areas that I had always wanted to go to. Since I’d recently gotten into civil war reenactment and living history sort of stuff, I thought it might behoove me to finally make a stop by one particular battlefield that I have driven by for well over 18 years and never bothered to stop and look at.

The museum is a small but really nice building with an impressive and well maintained collection of civil war era artifacts that specifically have to do to with the Battle of Lone Jack.

The one lady who I got to talk to there knew the story of the battle both backwards and forewards and filled me with a sense that she truly loved the history and times that she was talking about and had come to be a curator for in this little museum.

I usually tend to gravitate towards my favorite kinds of items, namely weaponry, which they had some wonderful examples of there. But in truth, I don’t want to take away anything from the experience of going there and seeing the place yourself, so I don’t want to put up images of all the stuff that I had seen.

The admission is $3 for everyone unless you are six years old or younger, and goes to support the Historical Society’s upkeep of the museum.

FanCon #33

On a final note, here are a few designs that I came up with for the show this past weekend. I went even more stylized and simple than before because I wanted to refine down the speed I am trying to get these done in.

Granted, my cat Radar wanting to help, so the Rocketeer art is a part collaboration between myself and a one year old cat.

I’ve got some new things on the horizon that I hope to talk about in the next update, and hopefully some previews of other projects that I have been working through. This has been one of the busiest months I have ever had in preparation for shows, personal projects and a lot of other stuff. Unfortunately, there was a severe lack of time to do some things that I had some high hopes for, but who knows how next month will pan out. Heck, because of the way that things are, that’s why I’m updating my website at 1 AM.

Until next time, appreciate everyday that you have, and live life to the fullest! – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

I love a good movie theatre when I can find one, and I’m not talking about ones with sound so loud that I develop tinnus ear. No, for me it’s more about the ambiance, the history of the place, and the beauty of a 50 foot screen. Well, the Englewood theatre is absolutely the combination of all of that. I recently had the chance to go and see the movie “The Sound of Music” (which I had up until that day, NEVER seen). It was showing in it’s original form, no updated re-coloration all in non-digital sound. In a word, it is a very, very good movie and I can see why it’s been a classic for so many years now.

The interior of the theatre also had this incredibly cool poster for the sci-fi movie Rocketship X-M, and the feature poster outside was the original one used when The Sound of Music came out. The story I’ve heard about the owner of this wonderful place is that as a kid, around the age of 11 or so, he fell in love with cinema and consistently pleaded to get the movie posters of the films he would see. Finally as time when on, he got a job sweeping floors at the distribution center downtown here in KC. Years later, after decades of collecting and storing posters, props, memoribilia, and the original prints of many of these movies (evidently he owns thousands of them) he re-opened the Englewood and brought his life long love of the movies out for others to enjoy.

There is one fifty foot screen inside. But what a screen it is! The entire theatre is covered in velvet and the acoustics were utter perfect. I remember during intermission (it was a more than three hour movie…) that I could hear the people’s conversations down in the front row, perfectly.

When it came time for the movie to begin, the huge curtains parted and an animated short featuring Tom & Jerry (the name of which escape me at the moment, if any of you know please feel free to let me know) came on. One of the things I noticed that of course is absent from most of the animation that graces the television today is that these shorts were developed for the cinema screen. I’d seen this particular short many times over the years since I was a child, and seeing it like this, I was just marveling at the background artistry, the clean design, the smoothness of the animation.

It reminds me of when Bill Waterson decided to stop doing Calvin and Hobbes because the papers, especially with the Sunday editions, had truncated the space that artists had to tell the comic strips in, that it was just a joke to create anything for them. Having seen this as it was originally intended, makes me understand what I have been missing out on watching them on television for so long.

I only took the one screenshot above, and I took none during the actual movie, out of respect for the venue and the film. But The Sound of Music is a resounding masterpeice. Yes, Family Guy and many others have lampooned it so much that I felt that I practically knew the movie (some might have to do with seeing a fantastic dinner theatre production of it last year), but the reason I held off watching it for so long was that I always thought it would not be something I would be all that interested in seeing. And honestly, maybe even up until a few years ago, I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I did seeing it like this. There was film grain, scratches, and the warm glow of the screen that allowed me to transport back to 1965.

A miniature work of art.

I never pass up the chance to go to any gallery, and while I was in this one (that was also located in the Englewood art district, but as of last month, has now closed down), I noticed a small humorous work of art on the floor. I don’t know who painted it, but my mind went into overdrive upon seeing it, and I imagined that a small family of framers and painters all of them mice, were living in the walls there. They were decendants of a line of mice that had been involved in the Salon des Refuses of 1863, and after realizing that no one would take them seriously as artisans, moved to America and settled in the midwest to start life anew. It is also rumored that they had a hand in Walt Disney creating Mickey Mouse, but who truly knows? ;D

“Suessical” by the KC Coterie Theater Group

The Children’s Coterie Theatre’s production of Suessical was another amazingly well done bit of visual art, that in all honesty, was completely off my radar. It’s also one that you should see if you get the chance. It will drag the kid out of you and that kid will smack you in the face for ignoring them so long.

There was practically only standing room in the performance I went to, and the floor out in front of the stage was piled with children of various ages all eager to experience (or were shoved up there by a parent) the magic of “Horton Hears A Who”.

Often I’ve seen plays where you’ll seen good individual performances, but this cast came together and you felt a true unified cleft of professionalism and comraderie that flavored the roles they took on. The costuming had a modern edge, and yet played a good homage to the art of the book. Stage design was minimal, but very powerful in the abstract way that it was put together.

It’s all Greek to me.

It always takes me three or four times going to any museum before I see everything there is to be had. But sometimes museums will pull stuff out and display it out of the blue, just to change it up a bit. I swear last time I was at the Truman Museum that I had not seen this ancient helm!

At anyrate, this was a beautiful example of a Greek helmet, that had been worn by an Athenian citizen who was killed in the Persian Wars around 485 B.C.

A “hoplite”, as the owner of this helm would have been known as, was primarily a free citizen who was usually individually responsible for procuring his armor and weapon. In most Greek city-states, citizens received at least basic military training, serving in the standing army for a certain amount of time. They were expected to take part in any military campaign when they would be called for duty. The Spartans were renowned for their lifelong combat training and almost mythical military prowess, while their greatest adversaries, the Athenians, were exempted from service only after the 60th year of their lives.

This came to be a part of the museum after Alexander Matsas, the Greek Ambassador in 1967, gave this artifact to President Truman to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of ththe Truman Doctorine.

The National Cartoonist Society at the White House

Ah there is so much I enjoy about the images above and below. On October 3, 1949, Truman posed for a group of forty cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society, in the White House Rose Garden. There is a feeling of such sadness for me in the fact that something like this would never, and could never happen today.

Just to have been able to stand there and watch these masters work at it, would have been a rare privilege. Maybe the museum has these tucked away somewhere. One can always hope.

Other mediums creeping back to the forefront.

Ace might be the place for all my hardware needs, but when I want some serious paint to do some mural work with, I have to have good spray paint. When I was younger, you could do a lot with a can of Krylon (the original cans, not the one out now…). But like any good hobbie or medium, it evolves, and now there are a plethora of new options that I am becoming familiar with now. ALIEN and Montana Gold are some of the newest tools I’ve added to my toolbox of creation, so this summer, I hope to have some new work up in grafitti format.

And while idle hands can be the devil’s playthings, far be it from me not to want to do some quick mini sculptures for the fun of it. I was inspired by the insanely popular Angry Birds game and so fifteen minutes after grabbing some super sculpey, I had these Kennedy half dollar sized mini sculpts. Certainly nothing I am planning on selling or marketing, but a fun exercise nonetheless when my pen and pencil habits are seeming futile.

Well, that was a fun update, and with a whole new year ahead, I hope to bring you more info, more places, and more of what I am up to in the world of comics, art, and travel.

Make the best you can of this year, and live life to the fullest. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Growing up, the Peanuts were a HUGE influence and no end of the year time is complete without catching some of the television specials. I got to thinking about it in fact just tonight and did the quick sketch above as a little homage to Charles Schulz’s characters Linus, Sally, and Snoopy, and used Melanie, Mandy, and Monty from my comic.

So before we get into this month’s update, I hope you and your loved ones (including your pets) have a safe and fun Halloween!

Jones Gallery Show – KC Crossroads and SunDog

Well, where to start? How about the show I was a part of about two weekends back? I was part of a show at the Jones Gallery (formerly the Glaspur Gallery), that is owned and run by David Jones who was kind enough to give me a tour of the building’s interior all the way out onto the rooftop which had a spectacular view. The whole building was this stalwart construction of cement and brick. Not one ounce of wood was apparent as any kind of structual support. The area that my work was showcased in was towards the rear of the gallery, and as you can see the walls are really tall so I was able to easily get my works hung up with space to spare. I ended up pulling out some really old originals to accompany my more recent work, which is something I don’t normally like to do, but I had them, so I thought why not? I had a lot of space to fill. And as it turned out, Necrobeastial Nightmare (the re-envisioning I did of Frankenstien’s monster) proved to be super popular with the crowd.

This I believe was one of the last weekends for being an active First Friday downtown. I’ve always liked going downtown to the Crossroads area for First Fridays since there is always a great energy and pageantry that is on display as you’re walking around to the different galleries. While I was out on the streets for a bit on this particular night, my ears were caught by a thunderously powerful bit of heavy musicianship in the form of the mask wearing 3 peice band Sundog.

I had literally ran to the source of the sound (the corner of 18th & Baltimore) to see who was making this beautiful noise, and was instantly impressed and after they got done performing I had to tell them so. Do yourself and favor and download their FREE DEMO from their site. If you like surf music, heck even if you don’t, give them a listen. You will not be disappointed.

KC RenFest 2011, great performers and terrible audiences…

After what has probably been at least four or five years I finally went once again to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. For a long while, I’d gotten a bit burned out going to it. Not with all the elements of it, actually, it had little to do with the people working AT the festival. It had more to do with the attendees.

The performers were all as usual, in top form, and some of my favorites like the older bald fellow who although I’ve seen him for years prior to this, I can NEVER REMEMBER HIS NAME, were hilarious and ever the professional in both method and attitude.

I think what sort of changed things for me has been my own recent foray into doing art shows. Not that what I do even begins to compare with the efforts these guys put forth. No what it had to do with was how much more obvious it was to me what the attendees and audience members were like.

Probably a good 90% of the performers make their entire living doing what you see. They live off of the tips that people leave them.

I was astounded to see more people than ever checking facebook, talking on cell phones, or even to each other, DURING the performances. But even more alarming was the look of torpid disinterest on the faces of so many of the younger kids that were there at the festival. The worst I saw was during the acrobat’s performance (the fellow above, doing a handstand holding a flame balanced with his feet), there was a family in the front that had the father going on and on about how he used to be able to do stuff like that when he played football back in high school, with his wife rambling away to someone on her cell phone, while the two kids in between them were playing Nintendo 3DS systems. Now you might wonder why I was able to describe that in so much detail, but that’s just the point. It was that painfully obvious what disrespect they were showing.

You know, I get it though. Most of these people have 9 to 5 jobs, aren’t performers, and have never had to put what they do out there for everyong to criticize, pick apart, or worst… ignore.

Has it gotten so bad for the vast majority of people that even when they go to somewhere like RenFest, that they can’t look away from a screen? I remember when Wall-E came out, that there was this opinion that Pixar had been making fun of people who were overweight and or lethargic because of the surroundings and stimulus that was at their holographic screens within reach of their fingertips. That is exactly what is happening!

Art was immitating life in this case. I mean, there was a guy messing around with FIRE and doing a handstand in front of two kids playing on a system that touts a 3D experience. Yet for these two, the device in front of them held way more sway and excitement. I mean I paint pictures for a living, if a guy who’s a fire stick twirling acrobat who does handstands can’t get people’s attention, what kind of chance does someone like me stand?

But I digress, I had to let that feeling of disappointment in my fellow audience members go and allowed myself to enjoy the shows. I at the very least owed that to the performers.

The show with the various birds and their handlers is always a lot of fun to see, and thankfully I had a camera on me, because, really, when else am I going to get this close to an American Bald eagle?

You always see it’s visage plastered across all kinds of media, but man, when you see one of these beauties up close, it really hits home just how striking and magnificent a bird the Bald Eagle really is.

There was also a phenomenal gypsy inspired group that was performing up by the front entrance area. The whole troupe was of course talented and had some hilarious banter between each other.

Sketchbook glance

I used to try to carry around a larger 9×12 sketchbook, but have found that I have an easier time with a smaller size of 4×6. I seriously think that prior to getting this book I forgot more good ideas than I can remember. There’s an illustration idea that I had been struggling with to visualize and of all places, it came to me while I was waiting to get the oil changed on my truck.

Old buildings mean there are old basements.

In an otherwise overlooked four story building down in the West Bottoms of Kansas City there is a smattering of various studios placed throughout the floors. When I first walked up to the front door, I noticed that the basement lights were on, but I wasn’t sure that anyone was allowed to go down there.

After wandering around for a while in the building checking out the studios and all of the artwork that was on display, there was indeed a staircase that led downstairs.

Once downstairs, I was pleasantly surprised to see a very traditional and incredibly cool printer’s set up complete with a Heidelberg Press. Papers, tools, ink containers and notes were strewn about in a sort of organized way that only someone caught halfway through a project could do.

The fellow who owned the studio space had quite the impressive collection of assorted presses, all of which were at least seventy years of age or older. To hear him talk about them, he knew the histories, functions and quirks of all of them, and you could hear the true fondness for his craft tinge every word that he spoke.

Jealousy does not begin to adequately put how I felt just in how much hardware and work space this guy had in his studio. But I mean, it’s a necessity for what he does.

And I imagine I’d have to brush up on my organizational skills as I have a feeling I’d be misplacing letter blocks left and right and without a proper cleaning, the place would become infested with spiders if I ran it. I tend to be a magnet for the 8 legged variety of patrons. Is that a side effect of being an arachnophobe?

After leaving there that night, I got to thinking about basements, and then wondering what things we pass by as we all go out and about daily. As it turns out, this past weekend I would get to see a much more obscure sight just under the street level in another part of the downtown area.

Below a friend of mine’s apartment complex, there was a series of elevator doors, room and hallways from the early turn of the 19th century which eventually led to…

a HUGE abandoned bank vault! Look at the size and thickness of the door! When I first laid eyes upon it, I didn’t have words that I could formulate. I LOVE old industrial design and this old bank vault was a phenomenal sight to behold.I mean it was so surreal to get past some old rarely used doors, and walk through some age old labyrinthian areas to find THIS.

The details and condition of the vault door were in exceptional condition. All of the interior mechanisms had the original luster and finishes, not an ounce of rust apparent anywhere internally. The glass covering the components was flawless and so clear it’s not even readily apparent in the photos you see here. As my friend noted while we were down there, the release wheel’s handles even looked to be made of Ebony. Ebony (Diospyros spp., family Ebenaceae), for those of you that don’t know, refers to species of tropical hardwood trees that were harvested for their hard and beautiful wood. The black or brown heartwood was used commercially and in high frequency in the earlier part of the 20th century. Although there are more than 300 species of ebony, ranging in size from shrubs to trees taller than 100 ft (30 m) it is becoming increasingly rare to find. The material is some of most dense wood you could work with, dulling even the most sharp wood working tools within minutes and giving termites pause to want to even eat at it. How dense is that? Well, for one, the Macassar ebony variety is so dense it doesn’t float in water. Sinks like a brick. Seriously!

It’s odd how out of place the vault seemed, and there was an air of almost forgotten or relic like importance to seeing it as it was. It felt like a movie set peice, or something totally out of place beneath an apartment complex. (At least until I found out that that building had indeed been a bank many many years back, I feel a want to research into it’s history now.)

It’s an amazing work of craftsmanship, and I hope to be able to get some good HD footage of it when I have better lighting conditions. It’s times like this that I wish I had the means to turn something like this into an art gallery. I wonder how much of the substructure of America in general has overlooked gems like this, either wasting away, or sitting silently in a darkened overpaved series of rooms. I have a lot of respect for the archeaologists that do field work. Here in this case, I was alerted to the presence of this by someone that knew it’s whereabouts. Not so much if you are working in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

Making the best of a slow show.

There are times when you work an art show, and maybe the attendance is down because of bad weather, or because people had something else better to do.

When that happens, I find it handy to have a book on hand, or my art supplies, my Nintendo DS, ipod, really anything to make the day go by faster. And just my luck, I was in such a rush to get ready for this particular show that I forgot all of that stuff at home.

Luckily, at this particular show, there was an arcade machine dealer that had some table top games set up, so I spent hours brushing up on the classic shooting game “1943″ until I started getting scores up in the Top 5 ranking area.

The second day, I was fairly tired, so I only got a bit of character concept work done. Maybe it was the slowness of the show, but this was all I got done on that particular day.

And on a final note…

Here is a shot of some of the latest artwork from the children’s book I am working on. It’s quickly coming together and I hope to be making an announcement soon on when you all can place orders for it.

So ending this update, have fun this Halloween weekend, enjoy your time with your family, take time to smile, and be nice to your fellows, four footed and otherwise. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Two things about the photo above, although I do not look like I am smiling, I am. Why? Because 1) I am in an old style telephone booth, and 2) that booth is out in a wonderfully drizzly, dreary, and cold day. Very few things put me in this good of a mood when I am out and about except this kind of weather. One would think I grew up in Germany or something.

So I’ve got all sorts of new bits of stuff to tell you all about this month, but I promise to not be too long winded. I also promise that all wars will end and a little blue unicorn will herald the advent of world peace and Scrabble games for everyone.

FreeState ComicCon 2011

One of the shows that I enjoy participating in and helping out with is Craig Klotz’s great Comic and Toy show out in Lawrence, Kansas — FreeState ComicCon. This year I did a series of boxes featuring: Judge Dredd, Catwoman, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Power Girl, Venom, Lady Blackhawk, Wonder Woman, ROM, Bone, and a special full color wrap around design featuring the Tick and Arthur.

The show was a lot of fun, and that’s mainly because of the wonderful people that attended and my fellow artists and writers who went this year. I did a trade with the writer Bobby Bierley, writer of the independent comic “Yellow” which has been a joy to read so far! (Full review coming soon just in time for my Halloween update.) All of the fellows I was around in my particular corner were just a blast to be around. All with similar interests, all knowing how challenging it is to make it as a comic creator, but it’s moments like these, that I truly enjoy.

The artjam work above was an odd and fun one, but I didn’t get it until near the end of the show, so I quickly inked in panel 2.

I also want to take the time to thank those of you that came out to the show and spent time talking with me and picking up my work. In all seriousness, it is a humbling and grateful aspect to my life when people talk to me about my art and characters (or history and Civil War era stuff as two wonderful people, Don and Cora, did).

Bots Cubed or BOTS3

What you see above is a new project initiative that I started based on my love of the Periodic Table of Elements, Robots, Woodworking, and my love of toy culture. The first edition of Bots3 is of the charater Ra-88 (Radium on the Periodic Table) and there will me many more forthcoming characters in this series over the next few years.

Art Fairs and the nomadic lifestyle of a semi-transient creative.

My uncle Conrado was an interesting man. He had served in the military when he was young, had grown up as a nomadic sharecropper that worked cotton fields all over south Texas. Later in life, he took to traveling in a massive RV and sold his wood working trade at fairs and shows in the 80′s. I still remember being introduce to that kind of life and the effect it had on me. It was dormant for many years,… to some degree because I moved around so much as a youth myself because my father was in the Air Force. I always had to try to make new friends and try to fit in. Little did I know that years later, those experiences would help me out to do comic conventions and art shows of all kinds.

A lot of people out there assume that because you are in an art show or have a table at a convention, that you’ve “made it”. No… not even remotely accurate. In fact, most artisans you will see, whether they are circus performers, the accordianist at the corner on your local 1st friday art walk, the reenactors at Dodge city, the people working at Ren Faires,… really ANYONE associated in the creative arts have had to trudge through a fare few hoops to get to where they are now.

I am constantly amazed by how little people are aware they actually do more harm than good to our egos and desire to want to keep doing what we do, when they want to see art or performances at a distance or in passing, and sometimes treat the artists and their endeavors as little more than a distration from whatever “life changing” text message they could be missing at that very moment.

People don’t realize the hours of practice with pencil and paper, or mic and instrument, or the sleepless nights trying to bring the ideas and stories you want to tell, and how really raw, open, and vulnerable we are when we put our best out there. We don’t just STAY good, we have to keep at it, and come up with new and imaginative things that truly will entertain or capture your eyes and minds. And,… quite frankly, try to make a living at it. A lot of us work day jobs and/or do freelance jobs as well.

Then on the days that you have shows, whether the show is one day or a slew of days in a row, there is the transportation of all of your equipment, tables, displays, etc. Anywhere from an hour to a few hours of setup, soundcheck, quick rehearsals… all in the hopes that people will want to look at and appreciate what we have to offer.

But in those times, there is comradery, a joint feeling of effort when shows are done among the people showing their works and efforts. You learn new things, trade show information, talk about travels and trials you’ve gone through. Sometimes you talk about the cost of the show you’re in (yes, shows cost money, at least most of the good ones do, and I’m talking usually a couple of hundred in most cases), or the travel costs involved, even how much or how little you’ve sold, and my favorite subject, the weather.

Remember, with art fairs that are outside, we are at the mercy of the elements, from heat soaked pavement spaces, to devastating microbursts that flip your tent and destroy your work, to rainy days that drive down attendance to the show you’re hoping will help you make ends meet at the end of the month.

I’m not saying that it’s always overwhelming or that if you are a young artist looking to try your hand at doing shows of whatever kind that you should NOT do it. But I am saying that it’s an acquired taste to do it. One that over time, I’ve grown to really like because the good does outweigh the bad if you’re in it long enough.

In fact at the last show I did, there was a lot of down time, and although my artwork was not really what the crowd was into (turned out it was more of a craft fair than one that really held any place for an illustrator like me), I did find out there was a small book sale going on nearby, and when I went to look, I happened across the old fellow above.

With a faded fabric cover, a worn out spine, and faded gold lettering, this nearly century old book literally caught my eye instantaneously. Nevermind the fact that I have a minor interest in writing poetry, mind you none of it memorable or good…, but to see a collection of poetry like this for just $2.00? I could not pass it up.

I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful state of the pages from within. They actually felt as smooth as silk, and had a soft white luster to them, the type was still a deep black.

Sometimes at shows, especially comic shows, if I’m not working on commissions, I have time to work on personal projects. Here’s a few of the initial bits of artwork from my first upcoming children’s book.

I’ve found that working on my illustrations at the shows I do, gives people an understanding of just how much time and effort goes into the art I create. Especially when it’s not digital work. When it’s all hand drawn from my head, no reference, on the fly.

The best part about doing that is that I find people more willing to ask questions and interact with me when I am working on a drawing. That’s what I actually enjoy, is getting to talk to people that are genuinely interested in the art I create. Or when younger artists will ask questions about my techniques or artwork in general.

Being an artist is a full time effort.

Some of my friends give me a hard time in jest because I’ve never let the Boy Scout saying of “Be Prepared” ever leave my head. It’s true! So many times I have to have my camera at the ready because I never know when photo opportunities will present themselves. In this case it was a series of these beautiful little mushrooms that had grown overnight underneath the area where I had parked the camper. After I moved it the next morning, I figured I needed to get my camera out and get some interesting and new angles with a macro lens on my camera.

I mean think about it. Let’s say I have an idea or a project that calls for a mushroom design, or even an interesting texture I can use. These mushrooms were gone the next day literally! Reference of ALL kinds, I have found to be infinitely helpful. It’s one of those things where sure, everyone knows what a mushroom looks like in general, but for my part, until I’d taken the shots you see above, I can see more detail and intricacies that would only add to any future work I would use the reference for.

Gaming – WAR the only MMO that matters… as in Warhammer not World of Warcraft.

The table top miniature game Warhammer had been a favorite of mine for quite a few years, so the interest I had in EA/Mythic’s effort with Age of Reckoning, was pretty profound. But honestly, I was worried that it would be a watered down effort and since Games Workshop was only really marginally involved with the art direction, maybe this was going to be a terrible experience. I was wrong.

For those of you out there that don’t know much about MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), they go back to a game called Island of Kesmai designed by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. Released in 1985 for $12.00 PER HOUR on the Compuserve online service (please note that this was also prior to thethe advent of 14.4 to 28.8 baud modems from what I remember) and supported up to one hundred players total. Everquest though, is the one that most gamers today would remember as being the beginning of the modern MMORPG. Nowadays everything from EA’s football franchise to Call of Duty have team play aspects that play out online.

The aspect of an MMORPG that gets most people involved is the same as it would for the people that would play pencil and paper, dice rolling D&D games. Huge worlds, dark dungeons, fantastic monsters, enemies of all kinds and numbers, guilds and factions to join, treasure and rewards for special quests and doing PvE (Player versus Environment).

WAR has all of that, AND some of the best and most vicious PvP (Player versus Player) fighting I’ve ever seen. Granted in more recent days the amount of active servers and overall player population has gone down quite a bit, but it is still a heck of a lot of fun.

The general interface and tuturials for getting started are fairly easy to understand, but it helps if you’ve played other MMOs before as this one is fairly diverse and allows for much exploration of the environment so that the player has more ability to do what they want, how they want for the most part.

But like I had mentioned earlier, if the art and overall feel of the world had not been compelling, I probably was not going to play it that often. But day after day, and level after level, I was exploring and finding out about more and more stunning locales that were in the game.

One that particularly struck me is the Land of the Dead, an area heavily influenced by Egyptian themes. Everything from the shifting sands that reveal long lost chests and antiquities to the large number of hidden secrets whetted my appetite once again.

But here’s the best part, the trial, is free forever, so you can build a couple of characters up to Level 10 to try out the game. And if you want to subscribe, it’s less than $15 a month. If exploring a large fantasy world, finding and searching for rare items and armor, or participating in large seiges in an effort to take capital cities, then this very well might be the game for you. But if you just want to give Critical Hits to Chaos Giants in the jimmy,… well this game is for you as well. ;D

Junkfighter – my art out in KC

Here’s a bit of work that I did for Junkfighter.com. I still get giddy when I see my work out and about in public. I really enjoy the simplicity and impactful quality of the final design of the firefighter in the logo.

And on a final note…

I have an odd habit of not usually catching movies or television series when they first come out, sometimes it’s through fault of my own, sometimes it’s because television networks really don’t know what the public wants.

A series that I tend to put up there with Briscoe County Jr. is the early 90′s adventure comedy show “Covington Cross”. This was the year that I graduated high school and was just beginning to get into the SCA, so this show fell directly into my interests.

The show was rather good from what I remember of it, and thankfully it can be found online for sale, albeit in a sort of bootleg format. Maybe the show was too original for what it was.

So that’s about it for this update, have fun in the sun, live life it to it’s fullest, take time to smell the non man made fragrances of the world, and be nice to your neighbors, four footed and otherwise. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Thanks to the incredible and easy to use commerce site of Storenvy, all of the stuff I make for you wonderful people can be found on there for sale! Who would have thought it?! An artist trying to make a living SELLING his art? Perish the thought. ;D Click on the image above to go to the store, or click on the “Buy Stuff” link here on the site over to your upper left. It works now. I swear.

It’s been another long while since I’ve updated anything, and that’s because I am a busy man. Okay, that’s not totally true, I spend some time gaming on Warhammer Online, and occasionally I eat something, but aside from that, I try and stay in the creative flow of things, but sometimes I take a welcome and different trip that leads me into new knowledge and hobbies.

If any of you remember from my last post, I was recruited by Jim Trent and Fox Whitworth of the 2nd Oklahoma unit to partake in a civil war reenactment. The image from above is from the last day we were out there. I am actually behind the giant of a man (who is 16 by the way, they grow them BIG in Iowa…) so my face is completely obscured. But what you see is a rather awesome group of guys that were primarily gamers of all kinds, computer, board, miniatures, you name it.

But before we get to the battles and other information, let me start at the beginning…

There was a full and powerfully bright moon out all of the nights that the event went on, I remember as I walked with Fox White up to the encampment how the Southern forces were firing artillery and sending out skirmish units, and this was 11:30 at night! I have no photo of the Union area from this night, but let me tell you, without a doubt, it was 1850 something in my head when I got in there.

Nothing but tents, simmering campfires, someone playing the harmonica in the background, moonlight filtering down through the trees, bathing the ground in a hazy blue. My unit was actually downwind of a cavalry unit, which added to the… ambiance of the moment.

After one of the most peaceful and rested nights I have ever had sleeping out under just a bit of canvas on hay, I awoke to the bluest sky I have ever seen. Let me tell you, that’s a far cry from waking up and seeing a drab ceiling everyday, and it brought back memories from my days as a boy scout.

The new recruits, including myself, were given uniforms and equipment for the day’s first battle reenactment and all accoutrements as well.

From here, we went on to do some drills and learned how to march and react to orders out on the field. The first time I was out there with the rest of the unit, is a blur to me. It was all I could do to reload, stay in formation and listen to Captain Price’s orders.

Notice something about what I am wearing above. WOOL PANTS. It’s August, and although very period and accurate, they are blindingly hot. But whether lady luck or my penchant for odd happenings was at play, I would soon be parted from them. Literally.

Asture observers will note that in the FIRST photo as in this one, I am now in BROWN pants.

In the battle from the day before, I was preparing my gear when I felt,… “breezey”. At some point in the day, I had procurred a small but worrisome rip in the rear, making for a buttflap like effect of ventilation, that although gained on a hot August day, was something that I felt was not going to have a good end to.

Indeed, when in the battle prior when a terrific volley of gunfire from a Southern unit hit us, I went down in an utterly FABULOUS way (theatre major came back in me for a moment there) and did a weird back flip twist thing, where upon I hear something dreadful. Actually two: 1) my mother having asked me if I had remembered to bring clean underpants when I called her the previous night, and 2) this earth shattering noise (to me at any rate) of the space time continuity in the form of my woolen trousers ripping from my “southern states” to the “union north” as one would say. Worst thing was, I was a casualty that happened next to the people at the event WATCHING and PHOTOGRAPHING the event. I am sure years from now I will find it on YouTube.

Needless to say, I ran, (with increased freedom and leg room) to the sutler’s market place and requisitioned a sturdy, VERY sturdy pair of trousers, and a rather stylish hat.

After the first engagement for that day, we all came back to camp to relax. That meant getting my boots off, hanging my shirt out to dry out the sweat, and laying back on my straw and canvas bedding. That, is my foot in country air happiness, and what you see across from you is very much what my area looked like. Super exposed to the elements, but comfortable as hell.

Note that others had their weapons near them, I was no different, and having become quite attached to the loaner I was given (The 1853 3 Band Enfield was used by both the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War. This reproduction model I believe, was representative of the ones manufactured between 1853 and 1863 by companies such as The Royal Small Arms Factory and the London Armoury Company. This one was serial # 7497, believe it or not, my two lucky numbers (my birth year 1974, and 1997, when I became serious about being an illustrator). Although the ram rod was hell to get off for cleaning, this was a beauty of a gun.

The main possessions I had out there were my hat, my canteen, mess kit, gun, and ammo pouch filled with hand rolled gunpowder.

I could go on and on about it, and in an upcoming podcast, I will go more indepth about the event. But needless to say, I had a blast and will be going back to more events. Jim and his unit are a fine bunch, and I cannot remember the last time I had that much fun or made that fast of friends in 4 days, and it was a healthy dose of getting out and away from the doldrums of everyday.

My favorite memory though was probably when I went down to the sutler’s area late on Saturday night. I bought myself some Root Beer (that’s a tradition of mine at ANY event I go to) and sat on a set of hay bales out behind a talented musical group that was playing music from that era. I had brought all my equipment with me keeping in spirit with the idea that one is always prepared and looking proper, so as I sat and drank my root beer, I looked up at the moon and just let my mind go free with thoughts and just enjoyed the moment. I could see couples coming down the hill for that evening’s Cotillion. The whole ambiance was just amazing. I seriously cannot recommend this enough to anyone that’s not done it, and I’ve only scratched the surface of the tales I have from that weekend.

Claude Monet, the coolest old guy I wished I’d met.

I had been in a creative dead end prior to the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, so any chance I get to see artwork from one of the masters, I jump at the chance. For this particular outing, the Nelson Atkins Museum had a showing of one of Monet’s works on display.

First off, if you’ve never seen Monet’s work outside of a textbook, they are MASSIVE. Monet was all about cutting down on the surplus of paint and canvas that must have been plaguing France about that time by making one off works the size of a Mack Truck. And I get annoyed when I have to finish a background on an 8×10 illustration. Well, this certainly put me in my place.

I asked the security guard how close I could get to it, (which I forget is universal speak for “can I touch it and you not kill me” if one is a security guard). I was able to get within an inch of if everywhere I could.

To drink in the details, smell the age of the pigments, SEE firsthand the visceral and techniqued motions of a master like Monet is powerful and humbling. His legacy of work is at once daunting and overwhelming. I have no doubt that God must be asking Monet for input on color usage on new and forthcoming aspects of evolution and species. His eye for color is unequaled.

Allan the Angry Dwarf

A recent work that has prints for sale in the store, this is the first in a series of artwork that will accompany a visual novel that I have in the works. I will have more information at a later date, but I thought you’d all enjoy seeing what 13 hours later, an initial sketch turns into.

The Truman Memorial

When my parents came up to visit (after dropping off the armada of cats they own at the veterinarian’s) they offered to take me to see the Truman Memorial Museum. I never pass up on any chance to see a museum of any kind, so off we went.

No one thing to remember is that I tend to enjoy museums on a whole other level than most people do. I look at set design, graphic design, and over all presentation and creation of all of the motion media that any museum has to offer. It’s my inner geek, my mind is never still. There’s also the capitalist in me that wanted that dining room set and the television set (an not just because it had the illustrious George and Gracie on it either, but it was a bonus).

Much to my surprise, the Truman Memorial is more than just an ode to a past President, it had a rather nice collection of original works of art, of which my favorite was the one above by Norman Rockwell..

Breakfast Table Political Argument, (alternate title Dewey Vs Truman — oil on canvas painting, 35 x 34 inches, I was so close, I am sure my faceprint would still be on the protective acrylic panel over it if the cleaning crew were not so good) appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published October 30, 1948.

This painting was Rockwell’s 256th overall out of 322 total paintings that were published on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell’s career with the Post spanned 47 years, and in today’s marketplace for illustrators, that’s unheard of, if not legendary.

Rockwell has always been a huge influence to me as he is the first actual professional artist’s work I knew anything about as a lot of his work was featured in my Boy Scout handbook and in the issues of Boy’s Life magazine.

His attention to detail is staggering, his draftsmanship is incredible, and the thickness of the paint and knowledge of human anatomy and facial artistry is enviable to say the least. I hope that someday I reach a level in my own art akin to his.

A beautiful resting place for Truman, next to his wife, and near his daughter and son in law.

An unusual flag that was made by a P.O.W. (as noted in the text in the lower right hand corner). and held by the members of the prisoner camp below in the photo.

Amazing that the below newspaper would have been how people primarily gotten in depth reports on the state of the war, and now the newspaper business is a quaint relic of the times anymore.

A huge mural that Thomas Hart Benton had done for the Museum. Truman had himself picked Benton (although I find that bizarre as personally Benton was an odd one, having been a Communist, and not the most approving man of anything different, although in an odd twist of events, one of his most famous pupils was Jackson Pollack) because he liked his work and style.

Regardless of my feelings of Benton’s personal character, I do have to admit that his stylized take on the midwest is dreamlike and derivative of almost a primary color palette, but still damn good.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that there were a few civil war relics that abounded in the exhibit as well.

There evidently, as I am finding out, were a lot of battles and skirmishes that were fought all over the Kansas City area.

and in closing…

I had been walking down the street the other day thinking about everything and anything when I saw a newspaper dispenser that was beginning to show a bit of age and rust and this is literally what my thought process went though in the next few seconds.

I’ve got plenty more to write about, but this has already been a record breaking length for me. so until my next update, be sure to check out my Storenvy area, attend a civil war reenactment near you (150th year anniversary) enjoy life, live it to it’s fullest, take time to smell the non man made fragrances of the world, and be nice to your neighbors, four footed and otherwise. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

One of the things that I do enjoy about doing most conventions is that no matter how busy the shows can be, most everyone has downtime when you are able to work on artwork just for the fun of it. It had been some time since I had really done an extensive graphite work from start to finish. So using only a #2 pencil, I slowly worked on this Disney style inspired bit of work.

I then followed up that bit of work with another character idea for my comic Pagan Zoetrope. I’ll have the full version up soon, but here is a preview of the character Cora Delgado.

Witchita Anime Fest was the show that I had been at, and and usual, there was a nice spectrum of cosplayers. The attendance was not too bad overall at about 1500 or more people, and the vast majority of them were in costume.

There were a fair number of Steampunks at this show, I always tend to marvel at the intricacies and detail that I see in so many of the outfits. I also got a good chuckle out of the guys doing the Dragonball z cosplay.

This young lady did a fantastic job pulling off the LIttle Mermaid, and from what I heard and saw, did a great rendition of “A part of your world” in the talent contest.

The crowd was fairly upbeat, but the temperature outside (in excess of 100 degress all three days) made keeping a smile on your face during the show a chore at times.

And no show is complete without at least one DC and Marvel character each being represented; in this case, Black Widow and a pint-sized Harley Quinn.

And then everyonce in a while you get a cosplay that is just really out there and creative. If anyone has any clue as to WHO that character is, I’d be grateful to know.

The show even had a couple of chaps that did American Civil war reenactment that were looking for volunteers to enlist for the Battle of Wilson Creek in early August. So of course, I jumped at the chance to join up. Click here for more info!

FanCon #30 Sketchbox designs

The last set of boxes I did were the standard set of 10 for the show featuring Captain America (those two bozes are not shown), Bucky, Red Skull, and for some independent flavor, Savage Dragon and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.This again, was the first time I’d ever drawn any of these characters except for the TMNT crew. I don’t know that I have a favorite out of this set, but the box with Leo and Don is probably the one I enjoyed doing the most.

Traveling memories

I do get a chance to travel and one of the things that I’ve enjoyed is that it brings back memories that I have of the great car trips that my parents took myself and my siblings on when I was a kid. One of the places I had wanted to see and eat at again was the Texas staple, Whataburger. I think everyone can relate to a restaurant in their lives that has a fond set of memories attached to them. Maybe it’s the first place you ate out with your family or it’s someplace associated with a particular event. This place is definitely it for me.

Comic Book Review: Mahou Shounen Fight
DustyJack (the mohawk) and JadePrince (the talent) are the creative team behind the hilarious and extremely well written independent comic “Mahou Shounen Fight”. If you are a fan of Sailor Moon or possibly the wit and oddness of Crayon Shin Chan, I can tell you, you will LOVE these books. I was literally hooked the moment I started reading it. Do yourself a favor and head over to Scuttlebutt Ink’s site and pick yourself up a copy or two, or better yet, check out their show schedule and catch Dusty out on the road at any one of the shows they are doing this year.

and in closing…

What else has been going on with me you might ask? Well, I’ve been keeping as busy as I can, figuring out the next shows for the rest of the year that I hope to attend, trying to play catchup and work on the next issue of my comic; and work on my next podcast episode. Just today though, I took a welcome bit of creative respite to enjoy the last Harry Potter movie. In a word? Phenomenal. A much better end to the series than the book was (if only because Luna and Neville end up together in this version,… AS THEY SHOULD! [end fanboy moment]

There have been some moments of trying times professionally, because in this kind of economy, marketing and art creation are always the first aspects to be cut out. But I keep in mind that no road is completely smooth. All journeys with troubles amount up to experience and make for great stories… so until my next update, enjoy life, live it to it’s fullest, be nice to your neighbors, four footed and otherwise. – Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Under normal circumstances, I would NEVER post an image of such low caliber quality as the image above, but that is the ONLY image that I believe has survived to this day of what was my first home on the internet. Geocities neighborhood Area 51.

It’s hard to believe that I actually started my website over 21 years ago… somehow that just seems so surreal it’s not funny. Makes you wonder where the time goes. I can still remember struggling to understand what a table was, if I wanted to use “frames” in my layout, and wondering how to make an animated GIF file.

So, as you can see, the site has now been revamped and updated to version 15.0. I’m still adding new stuff daily, and the photo area is still in development, but I had wanted to get this revision up and running.

At anyrate, I thought it was pretty newsworthy that I had managed to stick with something for literally over 21 years. Granted, there have been periods of inactivity, and MORE than once, I’d been so frustrated with how web standards would phase out some stuff and add new things all the time. But it’s been a fun ride, and one that I hope to keep going with for another 21 years and onward.

The most amazing thing for me actually is that America Online is STILL around. A true relic from the days of the dotcom era.

In other happenings, I had a moment of extreme pride when I finally cracked the iTunes playground by having done the full album artwork for Patty Shukla. It was a heck of a fun project, and my infatuation and love of children’s media and television shows really helped me out.

The songs are a lot of fun, and Patty and her fellow band mates are a talented group of people. Do yourself a favor and go check out the album for yourself and then download a track or two or maybe even the whole album! It’s available from Amazon.com as well.

The album artwork as a whole was a wonderful blend of traditional illustration and digital coloring. The above is the digital mockup of the album that I created for final visual reference. I’ll have an image of the real cd digipak in my online portfolio soon.

NakaKon 2011 – My first Anime show.

Comic book conventions can be a special kind of crazy when it comes to energy and overall feel, but even having gone to Chicago last year for Wizard World didn’t prepare me for my first Anime show. NakaKon 2011 here in KC was a wonderful and overwhelming assault on the senses. All in good way.

I had a few people that asked for commissions, and Pagan Zoetrope went over really well with the crowd. Also, getting to meet so many people face to face is probably one of the things that I was really enjoying. Everyone has a story, and I am always fascinated to know who, what, why, and where when cosplayers and manga fanatics alike talk to me.

The first commission piece I did was a quick image of a viking warrior on the back of one of the security member’s vests. I think he was pretty happy with it and posed for a photo with me.

Sometimes you run across people that are just dressed up too cool. I had to ask where the fellow below had gotten his armor from. Turns out, it’s a small world and both were members of the SCA (so that means that at some point we might both have seen each other at some past event, but oddly enough we all meet for the first time at an Anime convention.)

All commissions I do are fun for me, but this show also marked the first zombie request I got. For a zombie Captain America. Then as I am working on the art, I see what is seriously the coolest cosplay of the show, a fantastic lady that showed up as BAYONETTA. Just for being so nice to allow me to get a photo with her, I gave her a print of my own Bayonetta artwork.

Planet Comicon 2011

No sooner had I managed to get my brain back together from that show, I had Planet coming along. Chris Jackson really seemed to have upped the ante this year and put on a heck of a show with great guests. The attendance was pretty killer, I saw a lot of new faces and a lot of old ones as well.

I signed a lot of stuff and did a lot of sketches for people. Again, it seemed that the zombie thing was all the rage. You have to understand, I am NOT the hippest cat on the block, so when fads come into being, I am always months behind in what is popular.

Anyway, I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of you below (and the others I didn’t get pictures of) for wanting my work to grace your sketchbooks. It means a lot.

I do have to say that the best cosplay of this particular show had to go to this lovely young lady who came as Bettie Page. The true tragedy was that most people I’ve shown this photo to have no clue WHO Bettie Page is. That’s a shame, but kudos to the people who remember her and keep her memory alive.

Most of the show I spent with my face aimed at a sketchbox that I could use as a promotional item. I wanted to go beyond the ones I had been doing for KC FanCon recently and go all out full color wrap around. I will not lie, I about lost my mind.

I lost track after 15 hours of exactly how much time went into creating the box you see above. All of it was drawn and colored freehand and 90% of it was pulled from memory. Needless to say, these are not the kinds of boxes I will be offering at every show. There are some others that I plan on doing, but no real price point has been set for this one.

This year I was pretty excited to get a chance to meet Tom Kane (currently and probably best known as the voice of Yoda in the Clone Wars tv show). Towards the end of the show on Saturday I had a chance to talk to him for a while. I’m happy to say he’s a very down to earth fellow and super friendly. I finally got some great answers to questions about getting into voice acting and what it’s like to be involved with the Lucasfilm universe. Turns out he lives here in Overland Park, Kansas which surprised me, but as he noted, you had to start out in voice acting actually living IN the Los Angeles area if you want to have a chance to make it.

In closing…

There were some other things I wanted to touch on and show here, but this update has been long in the writing, and I have the rest of the site to finish building. So until next time, have fun, support your local artists, be kind to the animals and people around you, and do your best to make every day you have, count. – Mario

Let’s pretend for a moment that the Mayan calendar is right. That 2012 is the year everything will go insane. Does it matter really how we live our lives now? What we do with our time?

Maybe Jesus actually surprises the hell out of us, and shows up.

Or, maybe a fleet of UFOs show up, and every last concept of who we are changes…

Every end of the year is filled with doomsday speak. Now, it’s up to you if you give any credible thought to any of this. But I say, just for today. Imagine that we are literally in the newly started year of 2012. Would you act any differently?

Why is this particular journal entry so odd you ask?

Well, the reason is actually quite simple, and is tinged with a bit of a soapbox ranting.

Ever year that comes to an end fires up a proliferation of people swearing, proclaiming, and promising to do many things THIS year that they just couldn’t find the time to do/contribute to/accomplish/build/create/learn/finalize… oh hell, just pick a verb and put in in there. You get the picture.

I’ve seen it all from weight loss, to wanting to vacation in more exotic spots, to wishing/wanting more money, to reading more books, to finally getting going on what matters for that person. So many self worth goals.

I’m all about self improvement. I’m the most rough around the edges and awkward fellow you will ever meet. But something about the way that the overall mentality of people today and how they view life struck me as this date with all the ones in it approached.

The majority of people are in it for ourselves. And if you don’t believe that, then for one night, I would challenge anyone to do my side job. I work as a security guard part time on the weekends, and do trash and clean up detail afterwards. I work for really good people, but some of the customers leave a lot to be desired. I believe that if you want to know what someone is really like, get them drunk. ALL inhibitions go away and you are left with the raw details of how people really are inside.

Isn’t that a sad state of affairs?

I can honestly say that I read well over 100 different people’s lists of things they wished to accomplish this next year. With the exception of 3 people, I never saw the one thing I was hoping to see.

“Make the world a better place.”

Now, that sounds like something that is just SOOO overwhelming and just hard to be able to do, but the truth is that it’s not.

I can give you a list of 10 things that you can do that are FREE. And require so little effort that it’s not funny.

1. Smile more – Yeah, that might sound cheesy. But nothing more alienates people and makes a situation uncomfortable than someone who doesn’t smile. There are always exceptions to this rule, but I think you all get what I mean.
2. Turn off your phone – Chances are we have NO idea what kind of cancers we’ll get until we are 70 from these phones we all carry around. But more importantly, we miss out on the everyday happenings when we are glued to our phones. Just one day a week, turn it off and tune into your surroundings. I’m not saying go all “Yoga” and “One with the Universe” and whatnot. Just understand that at one point people got along fine without them. People got along fine without toilet paper once too.
3. Embrace the world – No I’m not saying hug every person you see. I’m saying to indulge your senses in the most wonderful and incredible place you and I will probably ever know… earth. Grow a garden this year, with hand tools. Lay in the grass in your yard and look at the clouds. When you see barnwood, close your eyes and run your hands over it and drink in the age, the weathering and the moment. When it rains, take a walk. Find a place in the woods and lose yourself (don’t worry, most of you haven’t left the damn phone behind, and if you don’t have a gps on it, you can call someone to find you. )
4. Volunteer at/ Dontate to an Animal Shelter/Outreach Program – Of course it’s not always easy to do this, but nothing worthwhile ever is. The truth is that more than ever today there are animals and people that need help. Not just sympathy or kind words, but actual HELP. And there is always room for one more when it comes to offering up a helping hand. You think you don’t have the money to donate? You’re also the person that’s probably going to a drive thru at McDonald’s later, so don’t give me that.
5. Offer to help at a State Park – I know my local state park is always looking for people to walk the paths and check for damage, litter, and other small requirements. You can’t beat that. It’s also a chance to get out and get some exercise and enjoy the world outside (see number 3)
6. Support your local artists -  From theatre to burlesque performers, to photographers, ceramicists, painters and re-enactors. These are people with creative drive that strive to bring you unique experiences that you won’t find anywhere else. Sure you can buy a painting from Target of Paris that costs only $20, just make sure you understand the rest of the herd you follow has it as well. Do yourself a favor and experience something unique.
7. Eat better and smarter – It doesn’t have to break your wallet to eat essentially HEALTHIER. It can lead to all kinds of other avenues that help us in the long run. If we are healthier, we have more energy, we get more accomplished, and we learn, we live, we evolve, in ways that the laziness of a microwave dinner could never allow us to. Hell you might even have the energy to actually work out.
8. Recycle – I don’t believe for a minute that anyone has any good reason NOT to recycle. Have we become so jaded as a race of beings that EVERYTHING has become disposable? That we don’t care what happens to plastic wrappers, cigarette butts,… the list goes on.
9. Think – One would be led to believe that this is a given, but if you work in the service industry, you’ll find that 90% of people  out there don’t do this. This world would be so much better if people would actually give some thought to it. Of course if that were the case, Paris Hilton would be an unknown, Jersey Shore would only be a geographic area, and Palin would not have a television show.
10. Give a Damn – A friend of mine said some words to me not that long ago that were worth millions to me. “kindness like yours is a rarity in this world” It made me realize that true and unwavering friendships are few and far between in this world. My father once told me that if you want to know how many friends you truly have, ask them to help you move to a new place. The people that show up to help? Friends. We’ve insulated ourselves as a people. World events wash over us, and as long at the local Subway still serves lunch, the car still runs, the sun still shines, and the mail still comes,… well then we want to believe that all is right in this world. It’s not. But it’s not going to get any better if we don’t start to give a damn.

I hope that by the time 2012 rolls around, I can say I’ve done all of the above more so than I normally do. Life is what we make of it. And I’ve learned over the years that it does me no good to complain about it, but everything in the world to rectify it. I’m proud to say that there are people I’ve met that do all of the above and THEN some. Those people make me believe that ever day on this planet is worthwhile. The love they have for life itself is intoxicating and exciting. The true high in life is nothing tangible. It’s that creative infusion of a heartbeat of accomplishment and the tactile vision combined that make it all worthwhile.

The fact is that if something cataclysmic happens, or doesn’t happen… I want to know that I am making a difference every day. That I don’t let myself get lazy, because everyday is so unique and is exactly what we make of it.

Until next time, – Mario

Nature never ceases to amaze me. In a weird and unorthodox aspect of life literally imitating art, some of the oldest and most rare artwork in the world has “evolved” into what could only be deemed as living art…

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A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found.

While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the “Bradshaw art” remains colourful after at least 40,000 years.

Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonized by colorful bacteria and fungi.

Close up of an area of the fungus that has usurped the original pigments.

These “biofilms” may explain previous difficulties in dating such rock art.

Professor Pettigrew and his colleagues studied 80 of these Bradshaw rock artworks – named for the 19th-Century naturalist who first identified them – in 16 locations within Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

They concentrated on two of the oldest known styles of Bradshaw art – Tassel and Sash – and found that a vast majority of them showed signs of life, but no paint.

The team dubbed the phenomenon “Living pigments”.

‘Living pigments’ is a metaphorical device to refer to the fact that the pigments of the original paint have been replaced by pigmented micro-organisms,” Professor Pettigrew told BBC News.

“These organisms are alive and could have replenished themselves over endless millennia to explain the freshness of the paintings’ appearance.”

Among the most frequent inhabitants of the boundaries of the artwork was a black fungus, thought to be of the group of fungi known as Chaetothyriales.

Successive generations of these fungi grow by cannibalizing their predecessors. That means that if the initial paint layer – from tens of thousands of years ago – had spores of the fungus within it, the current fungal inhabitants may be direct descendants.

The team also noted that the original paint may have had nutrients in it that “kick-started” a mutual relationship between the black fungi and red bacteria that often appear together. The fungi can provide water to the bacteria, while the bacteria provide carbohydrates to the fungi.

The exact species involved in these colorations have yet to be identified, and Professor Pettigrew said that the harsh conditions in the Kimberley region may hamper future research.

However, even the suggestion of these “living pigments” may explain why attempts to date some rock art has shown inconsistent results: although the paintings may be ancient, the life that fills their outlines is quite recent.

“Dating individual Bradshaw art is crucial to any further understanding of its meaning and development,” Professor Pettigrew said.

“That possibility is presently far away, but the biofilm offers a possible avenue using DNA sequence evolution. We have begun work on that but this will be a long project.”

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Could you imagine the astronomical chances that had to happen for this to occur?

Things like this always bring into sharp relief (no pun intended,… okay, yeah it was.) who or what might look and see our own artwork after we are long gone. Could da Vinci have imagined that his imagery would live on in television commercials and other popular media of today? But for every da Vinci, how many other works of importance have been lost to the ages?

The works and writings stored in the library of Alexandria spring to mind for me. What knowledge, art, and wisdom have we lost because that library was burned no less than four times? (Since when did rape, pilage, and burn ever grow to encompass a library? I bet the libraries where the ONLY buildings not hit in the L.A. Riots a few years back. But back in the sand and sandals day, it was all the rage to burn that sucker down to prove that your invading army was bad ass. )

But I digress. The beautiful point here is that it seemed like nature stepped in, whether inadvertently or maybe, just maybe… on purpose to preserve history. Maybe we aren’t so different than mold ourselves.

Until next time, thanks for reading. Have a Happy and safe New Years! – Mario

For the past month, I’d been keeping busy with some freelance jobs that were straight up illustration gigs. I relish getting these, because it’s when I feel the most in my element.

Wheel Doggy is an up and coming site that I had done some work for where a character needed to be developed that could act as an informational guide on the site for people. The character needed to be a green furred dog that had a bit of an anthropomorphic touch to him, yet could still remain very dog like. Sort of Snoopy like, but closer to how Brian (Family Guy) would interact with objects in the world and be a bit more tongue in cheek.

After a couple of concepts, the look of the character was locked in to have a baseball cap, a collar, and a shirt. And the following myriad spot illustrations came out of the efforts.

The next illustration was of two Scandinavian characters called Ole and Lena and was used in some food packaging. If you’ve never heard of Ole and Lena, they are the main characters (along with Ole’s friend Sven) in a series of humorous stories that were spread around by early American immigrants. An example of some of the adventures that they would get into go like this:

Ole and Sven are out deer hunting. Ole bags a buck. After they dress the deer and tag it, they grab it by its hind legs and start dragging through the woods back to the car. A game warden happens on the pair and, after checking their tags and admiring the buck, tells them that they are dragging the deer out all wrong. By dragging it by the rear legs, the snow, leaves and dirt are getting caught by the animals fur, and the horns are getting all tangled in the brush.

The warden suggests that they drag it by the front legs. They agree to try it and much to their surprise, it is much easier dragging the deer this way. After a half hour of this Sven turns to Ole and says, “Boy dat game warden was right, it sure is easier dragging de deer dis way, but ya know, we are getting further away from de car.”

It was kind of odd how quickly these two characters and how they looked, popped into my head after reading just a few of the stories they were in.

And then more recently, I also worked on more packaging illustration for a set of barbeque sauces that were based off of a redneck theme.

Living in Missouri, I was not lacking for reference, and it wasn’t hard to pull the reference for the illustrations from just having lived in this state.

I really tried to make him likeable and the kind of guy that although he lived for fishin', grillin', and Nascar, he's still the one guy that if a scenario like Red Dawn ever happened, you'd want him around.

In other news, I’ve been working to update my site, but it’s been slow going. Only so many hours in the day and all. My Twitter account finally has a new updated look to it as well, indoctrinating the new AR logo: @theartisanrogue

Well, it looks like the clock is going to hit 3am soon, so I’d better sign off of this entry. To one and all of you, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful and Merry Christmas, and a very happy and safe New Years. – Mario