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"Spaced-Out" (0.18 technical pen on 120mm x 35mm card) and "Medusa" (HB pencil on 125mm x 42mm card). Another two simple images drawn on pieces of off-cut card that make great bookmarks.

Soo...This was actually supposed to be alot more happier and brighter. But I accidentally made a mistake with her face, and since I was using a pen, I couldn't fix it...so I decided to go with it fully and make the background behind her dark as well to fit the mood. I'm still happy with how it came out :) it's just...way different then how I planned it in my head.

Happy Earth Day! Today we should reflect on at least one thing we love about our planet. Is it your favorite place in nature to visit? Your favorite animal? A favorite memory from childhood? Now the next step to ask yourself is what part am I playing to preserve our earth? All it takes is one action from you to make a difference. Collectively we will make a difference.

I'm surprised how when I use a sketchbook's back page basically to test media, I end up freed from the pressure to make anything "good" and as a result, the doodles that end up there sometimes tell their own story that I look back on much later and remember.

Morning play. Watercolor paper tests with random colors. Ink on top to make each into a drawing. It was harder than usual today. Haven't done thise exercise in too long.

Some sketches I did a month ago. I'm trying to make "cloud like" trees.

A fun sketch of a painting I want to make.

Suddenly the light goes out and staying in the dark is a test of resistance, but when everything seems lost, it turns on again, so simply: sometimes a single attempt isn't enough, there are many moments to spend without light, but you don't have to be afraid of it, because sooner or later we will succeed in the undertaking and it will make you smile as the thing that seemed so difficult came spontaneously, it was enough not to force the process. I hate the darkness because it shows me a version of myself that I would never want to meet, yet if I accept that the punches of life in some periods are stronger than others, sometimes leaving bruises and burns, but that life itself has granted me caresses like this sweets that I would not have appreciated without going through pain, then everything around me will seem golden. I can only appreciate the hatred and wonder of it. I can feel those caresses, I can savor them with the same intensity with which I feel the pain of the punches, because ultimately they give so much: the strength to take another step, to not give up right now, right now that I am so close to feeling them in my heart those precious caresses.

2023, Ballpoint pen on 5” x 8” acid free Moleskine sketchbook paper, Adobe Photoshop. First sketchbook drawing of 2024! Based on a photo of a model in a makeup company advert.

I have been working on a story and wanted to make it into a comic. I am not sure I am ever going to finish it, but this is the first page.

Luminary Festival - Auren Farkis (Digital Portrait I did as a colour study) Crisp reverberating strings danced through the evening. Notes twisted and echoed up through the emerald, velvet tiers of Ridgedow Gardens. Dusk’s veil had long since darkened to a diamond-encrusted black, and Clarglow was alive with activity. Footpaths were choked with revellers that formed a river of light that coursed and pulsed through the park. Will-o-whisp spots of light also glowed among the neatly trimmed hedgerows and statues. Their magic-addled voices rose up, joining in with the music of the Luminary Festival. A young man, no more than a quarter of a century old, glowed brightest of all. A soft orange radiated from his eyes, and his veins pulsed a brilliant red. He was dripping in gold and gems. Over an outfit that somehow managed to be heavily layered and revealing at the same time, he wore a sheer cape, which was heavily embroidered with blood-red crystals that refracted his own light around him in dazzling, concentrated rays. It was such a dangerous colour of magic, but his expression was soft and dreamy. Excited laughter rose up as a clustered group shot metallic confetti skyward. Gold flake drifted down and settled into his silver hair, cheeks, and shoulders. No doubt he would discover the remnants of this festival in his home weeks from now. He increased his pace, stepping off the cobbled path to overtake the group, when one of their number split from the group. The coils of her dark hair were so saturated with gold that she looked like she belonged on a pedestal next to the other statues. She intercepted him, matching his pace. She snaked a long, slender arm around his waist and pulled him closer. She pressed her lips against his neck, leaving a wake of golden kisses up to his earlobe, where she leaned closer to whisper. — “Aurie, Luv, I know that look. Don’t tell me you’re headed home. The eve has only just begun. “ Her glowing eyes Locked with Auren’s, her grip tightening, slowing the both of them to a stop, causing a temporary blockage in the flow of people. “Overdid myself Mel.. you’ll have to –” –” Come with us to the reflecting pool.” She cooed, meeting his lips in an off-center kiss, smearing his inky wine lipstick. Momentarily, he allowed himself to relax. He considered saying yes. His heart pounding, he dipped his friend backwards gracefully, resenting that he had to leave. An itch in his left arm reminded his fuzzy brain that he was in danger. Gasping softly, he gently lifted Mella upright and spun her out towards her friends, who were growing impatient. He couldn’t make out their faces in the fuzz of the evening. “I can’t, I’m sorry Mel! We’ll talk later.” Before she could protest, he danced, spinning forward in a brilliant display of speed that ended in a stumble as he met a set of steep steps that coiled sharply upwards out of the park and onto the pink brick streets overlooking Ridgedow Gardens. The glazed windows facing the street were empty and blank… their occupants elsewhere, enjoying the festival. The empty buildings were like faces, judging him for his lack of zeal. Auren wound his way through streets and side streets, his pace increasing as he grew more and more alone. Finally, he was climbing a set of steps to his own front door. Smirking at the sight of it he reached down into the front of the bodice that held together the layers of his outfit pulling free a loop of keys that were on a long chain looped around his neck. Aligning it to the keyhole he struggled with the lock, cursing softly under his breath as it initially failed to cooperate with him. In the quiet black of his foyer, he latched the door behind him and stumbled forward, tearing at the ribbon that held the gleaming cape that draped from his bare shoulders. He let it drop on a black lacquered table. He reached up to unclasp an elaborate choker and tore his single, crimson glove down from his elbow. He pressed a gilded fingernail against a band of red ink encroached upon by a spreading corruption. Marginally extending beyond the band were sinews of mismatched muscle and skin; even his hair had begun to glow red. Pulse rising, he wrenched his rings from his fingers, casting them into the ever-darkening room. Precious jewellery piled under him until only the dimmest glow from his own veins remained.. Slumping onto the steps, he tightened his grip on his arm and twisted it ninety degrees. A sharp click of crystal against porcelain met his ears. The room was enveloped in black as his final stone slid away from his arm, rendering the prosthesis inert. He slid to his side, the sounds of the party below overtaken by his own gasping breaths, panic refusing to subside alongside his magic.

“Self destruction is what it takes to make change.”

This lil fella represents my artistic freedom. I am prone to spending too much time in my head thinking about what I want to make and it ultimately results in nothing being made, or abandoning projects that didn't live up to my wild expectations. But THIS lil fella.... he doesn't look like much from the outside, but I am proud of him. Good job lil fella. I am one step closer to rediscovering what I enjoyed about art to begin with.

Critter is the main character who discovers the challenges that life can throw at us, but its who he meets along the way that makes it an adventure. Untold will be a story of challenges, growth, friendship and more.

Title: Heart and Soul Medium: illustration pens on sketch book paper Style: surreal Category: illustration Created: Dec-Jan 2024-2024 Artist: Stephen J. Vattimo Heart and Soul This is preliminary drawing for a painting I am about to begin. The concept for this illustration started as a design for a pumpkin carving contest. I feel the message of the design is so important for people to hear, I decided to make it into a painting. The original design, done in pen and ink. The design only shows the two doors of the entrance to a fortress. It was designed for a live pumpkin carving event in mind. At this type of event, the carver must create their piece of art live on site with spectators watching and asking questions, and there is a time limit. The evolution of the design? I added a wall on each side of the entrance, with matching pillars. Explaining the design of the pillars The triangle top: the triune God. Representing three persons of God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The cross shape opening in the pillars: The cross is the only path to God, to have the debt of sin satisfied. To reconcile humankind back to himself. To be released from being a slave to the Devil. To be a new creation empowered by God Spirit. Explaining the design of the entrance way(gate) The top of the entrance is in the shape of a heart, represents the seat of human passion, ambition, and allegiance. The cultic three petal flower is used to represent God in three persons united. The symbol inside the flower: God’s ministry toward humankind. Crown: Highest authority Cross: God’s loving salvation and restoration plan. The dove: Spiritualty made alive, fellowship with God, empowerment to weather the storm of life, and equip for service to God. Change in the design of the door. In the original design, one door had roses carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. The other door had a grape vine carved on it. The pattern took up the whole door. I modified the emblem on the doors by making them smaller and simplified, so I could place them inside heart shapes, so the new images would more clearly communicate what they are meant to represent. I also added color to the emblems(color pencil) to make them clear of what they are, because of their size and the ink medium ,they were hard to interpret. Understanding the symbol of the two doors. The door with the rose inside the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are focused on the cares, worries, and abstaining riches of the world. Only giving God lip service. I chose the rose to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to the world, because roses are pretty, but you can’t eat them to nourish your body. They also have thorns that can cause injury to the body. So, the parallel point is, just as flower fade and turn to dust, so will the person who chases the thing of the world and has no time for God. For life is very short, we know not which will be our last breath on this side of eternity. But if a person leaves this earth without excepting the gift God offered them which is salvation from penalty of sin and given enteral life through the work that was done on the cross by God’s son. Then that soul will appear before Jesus, and just as they did not know him in their life on earth, He will tell them he knows them not. Into the lake of fire, they will spend eternity. The door with the grape vine in the heart emblem represents a heart whose passions, ambitiousness, allegiance are for God. To know Him intimately, to obey His teachings, to serve his will. I chose the grapevine to represent the heart of spiritual allegiance to God, because grapes are nourishing to the body. Jesus also used a grape vine in one of his parables. He paralleled the spiritual relationship he had with his disciples and the grapevine. He told them just as branches of a vine must depend on the base of the vine to live and bare fruit, so they must abide him to have abundant life. Abiding in Christ is not a religious act. It is outside of religion. It is an intimate relationship. Example: you can belong to a fan club of Paul McCartney and know a lot of things you have heard about him, but he doesn’t even know you exist. Where, if Paul is your father, and you have a good parent to child relationship, then you know him intimately. So, abiding in God, we commune with him through read his word and living by its teachings. It is spending time in prayer. Sharing our hearts with God and spending time listing to him. Trusting in him as our provider and giving thanks for his provision. Living our lives, with the purpose of pleasing him with the work of our hand and loving our neighbors in the workplace as well as in the community. Just as a healthy grapevine continues to grow and produce much fruit. Having an imitate relationship with God should be more and more evident in the way we live our lives. So, when the angel of death pays you an unexpected visit, he escorts you to Jesus’s throne, you know for certain he going to welcome you with loving arms and said welcome home my faithful servant. Now to which door I chose for my life? It’s the one that is open. This bible verse one of a couple that inspired me to design this illustration. 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 King James Version 12 Now if any man builds upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. 13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. This verse is not referring to the rebellious people who have rejected God, this is referring to people who are children of God, who failed to serve God faithful. Written by Stephen J. Vattimo. 3 Jan 2024 .

I like to experiment with various outfit ideas for my cartoon persona/mascot. And with all outfit tests,I make sure her hat and scrunchie match too.

Trying to make sharp shadows without having everything blend toghether. My goal is to convey the warm, pinkish sunlight on the first day of spring, and light is not something i have given enough care to earlier. Removing colors from a photography is an effective way to get an idea of how sharp shadows actually are!

This study is for an upcoming painting about the life of Christ. The drawing itself took about two weeks’ time of working on it off and on. The research stage took about two months. This study is attempting to capture the spirit of being out on the water, walking with Jesus during a storm on the sea of Galilee. I hope the viewer can feel Peter’s anxiety as he is sinking into the lake as a fierce storm drains Peter’s faith in his ability to walk on water through the ability the Lord gave him. I wanted to show how compassionate Jesus is to quickly crouch down to rescue Peter from drowning and get him back to the safety of the boat with the rest of the disciples, which is outside of the illustration. Some people feel that I should have Jesus’s feet visible above the water so people don’t get the notion that Jesus is sinking in the water too. But if I’d done that, it would have altered what it would really look like in the natural world, because even if Jesus’s feet were on top of the water, this might not be visible to the viewer because the waves in front of Jesus might block the view of his feet. This illustration makes me think about trying to accomplish a task that the Lord has called us to do by depending on our own strength instead of the strength of the Holy Spirit. Then we find ourselves sinking instead of making headway, and we must call on the Lord to rescue us and put us back on the right track. (September 22, 2015

Was sick all last week and only had the energy to make this :) I didn't really plan this one out...so I'll call it experimental.

My dod George makes some origami paper animals. Cranes are his speciality.

Not all of us get to grow older. And not all of us that do get to grow up. Let's do what we can to be good to one another and to ourselves. Let's make the most of this life while we have it.

The background of this painting is created by these two girls. I had daughters of a friend paint a canvas and then I painted them into their painting. It could be a commentary on modern art, but it's ore just for fun and makes for a cool image.

I highly recommend the book, Gender and Competition: How Men and Women Approach Work and Play Differently, by Kathleen J. DeBoer. In it, among other things, she elucidates that those with a conceptually masculine perspective (regardless of sex) are drawn to thinking of the world in hierarchies, which I have represented here with a triangle in the mind of the spotter on the left. She elaborates that those with a conceptually feminine perspective (again, regardless of sex) are draw to thinking of the world in webs, which I have represented here with a circle. Those that think more masculine-ly are more likely to expect beginners in a sport or field to prove themselves in the group. They will often not "hold their punches" (i.e. curb their ability) to make newcomers comfortable. All members of the group are expected to "earn their keep," in a sense. When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they move up in the hierarchy. Contrary to that, those that think more feminine-ly likely show acceptance and approval to beginners in order to foster an environment in which they will perform. They will often adjust their skills so that newcomers can more readily "keep up." When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they are expected to raise the status of the group as a whole. The playing field is "flattened" in that sense. I am not advocating for either perspective, but I will share that I have a more conceptually feminine perspective, and that I have previously left groups whose members have a more masculine perspective. Kathleen's book really helped me personally to understand the motivations of people that I genuinely did not understand prior to reading the book. It put a lot into perspective for me, and I hold fewer grudges these days. Cheers, fam~

I take a lot of Genesis as an allegory for birth and maturation, both individually and collectively. The Garden of Eden could easily be interpreted as the womb, and we are all cast out of it at some point. Genesis 2:24 says "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." Though people use this passage to refer to the tradition of marriage, I think that it speaks to something much, much deeper than that. Literally, when two people copulate, they create a child that is of one flesh. They do not "become one flesh" because they engage in a ritual institution and are now "to be viewed as comprising a single identity," but they literally become one flesh because their genetic compositions are joined into a new being (Mark 10:8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”). That being said, I read somewhere once that babies born in every part of the world make phonetic sounds from pretty much every language in the world. It is only after a period of time that they start to key in on certain sounds that the people around them are making, and it is only after that that children key in enough to start developing more advanced language skills (typically). However, in this original state, there is a freedom. There are no assumptions. There is an innocence in that state. There is a lack of judgement. There comes a point at which babies/young children begin to mimic and to incorporate what they are experiencing from the creatures around them into themselves. To small creatures with an undeveloped sense of self or reality, the caregivers around them may as well be gods, at least from their perspective. They will learn from these gods around them and will begin to embody their cultural beliefs, their language, their idiosyncrasies, and their perceptions, often on a deeply unconscious level. Adults contribute to that quite thoroughly and somewhat consciously. (Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..") (Genesis 11:7 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.) In our own way as individuals, we are each a Tower of Babel, and at some point, for each of us, that Tower fell. Barriers to communication of so many kinds were created for and/or by us. Perhaps we still spend time constructing new barriers and thinking up new ways to distance ourselves from the rest of our kind. I chose to use the phrase "materialism" to express how children engender these attributes of caregivers and others alike. However, this can easily be exchanged for a phrase like "socialism," or "corporate capitalism," or nearly any other thing that you can probably think of. Children are like sponges. They soak up even more than we realize. Most widespread religions in the world have some form of renunciation belief or ritual wherein an individual must 'cast off' the old self and put on the new. This is because, regardless of where or when a child is born in the world, the perspectives of the people around them raising them will likely leave much to be desired. It is necessary for beings to continue to learn, and this often entails a serious consideration of what was instilled into them at an earlier time. It is quintessential that we question and evaluate these things since the state of the world will have changed by the time that we reach maturation. The ideas that people gave us may apply to a world that is already different. The story of the Tower of Babel may refer to a state that earlier humans lived in, perhaps on a shared continent, in which the manners in which they communicated were similar. Then, at some point, perhaps these same peoples went off on their travels and developed new languages. In a funny way, we seem to do that as individuals. At some point, we strike out on our own, even if only a little. Though we may differ on surface level behaviors and in the symbols that we use to describe the human experience, human beings are more or less fundamentally the same. We let our differences create so, so, so many barriers between ourselves and other beings. Just think of all of the harm that things like xenophobia, racism, intolerance, and a lack of an ability to communicate verbally with one another have done to our species. Even beyond that, just think of how easily we dismiss the inner lives and inner experiences of creatures different than ourselves simply because they do not communicate verbally with us in our preferred tongue. Research is overwhelmingly in support of other beings communicating with others of their kind, whether we as individuals acknowledge it or not.. Some of us are just really into denial about it. We could achieve remarkably wonderful things, if only we would learn to recognize the similarities of our experiences. (Matthew 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”)

Backgrounds used to be my least favorite part of painting, but now im having fun trying out different textures and patterns. Having a strickt 12 color limit adds to the challenge and makes it feel like a puzzle.

The original sketch came from the prompt ‘organized’ which immediately made me think of my label maker. It grew from there and I first posted it on what happened to be the 25th anniversary of the film Practical Magic! Let me know if you spot the homages…

Just a cute little sketch of Gimble the gnome. I'm going to make some digital versions of this piece. This is my little fella.

(0.18 Technical Pen on 130mm x 35mm card) I did these with a tech pen I was cleaning, deciding to make use of the ink that was diluted within it. The pieces of card were off-cuts, so I was making the best of everything there. They're not too bad for what they are and make decent enough bookmarks.

Drawing done on A6 sketch paper 90 g/m2 using Uni pin fineliners, pen ink and green crayon. Started drawing pointy corners and areas to fill later and along the way I got inspired to do something similar to the ring of Green Lantern from DC. A friend of mine said the drawing makes her think of energy and fury.

"My possibly late husband never learned to appreciate modesty and humbleness, im afraid." Being married to a pirate in the kings service comes with a lot of material perks, but makes it difficult to host a fine ladies party. im just glad to have finnished, i sat for three days painting patterns.