Recently, I was approached by a co-worker to ask if I would help out with a display featuring Holocaust survivor portraits for an event called Unity Day. She had heard through the grapevine about my art hobby, and thought it might be good to team up for some portraits and biographies at the table she was planning. I am pretty
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I’ve talked about my affinity for stock photos on many occasions. In previous posts, I’ve written about royalty free images, photo spamming on social media, and my general love of memes (which tend to lean heavily on stock photos). I just find these images to be very appealing from a portrait study perspective. The facial expressions and/or subject positions are
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This is going to be yet another piece of artwork dedicated to Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki. Considering this is now the fourth drawing I’ve done of Dirk, I guess it’s safe to say I’ve long been a huge fan of his. I grew up watching the Mavs, and especially remember watching those difficult 1990s seasons with guys like Jamal
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As with my original post from a few years ago, I am once again a bit late in writing about Stranger Things. This time though, when it comes to Season 4, at least I’m only a couple of months behind the actual release and pop culture/meme frenzy. As I’ve previously discussed, I am a huge fan of Stranger Things. I
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Somewhere in the neighborhood of a decade ago, my wife and I took a honeymoon trip to Europe. To celebrate this anniversary, we decided to make another voyage overseas – this time with a couple of little ones along for the ride! I am planning a full write-up on this trip, to include some lessons learned…but I think that post
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In my last post, I wrote a bit on the fact that my posts are often a bit delayed from when the artwork is actually finished. As I said previously, it’s probably a fairly common phenomenon for many artists to delay sharing something by a month or two. But there have been times when those delays stacked up quite a
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I am often slightly backlogged on writing blog posts. It’s something that I’ve mentioned previously and is probably fairly common for many artists who write about what they do. Not anything too crazy, but it’s not uncommon for me to share something I sketched a month ago, or to be writing about something that isn’t even my latest drawing. In
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I’ve finally beaten Elden Ring, which feels like quite a milestone for someone who isn’t a particularly skilled gamer (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally rolled myself off a cliff). Since I’ve finally beaten the final boss, or really “bosses” to be more accurate, it’s given me some space to reflect on the full experience Elden Ring
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As I’ve discussed quite a bit, I am a big fan of Elden Ring by From Software. The challenging and deep combat of Dark Souls, combined with a massively engaging open world along the lines of The Witcher 3, have already elevated this game to my all-time favorites list. I’ve discussed the minimalist storytelling Elden Ring employs, but I haven’t
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The question of what to do during a long flight is much easier to answer than it used to be. Our kids have been on planes a few times, and we’ve been fortunate that they handle flights pretty well. Of course, we have to thank the existence of kids’ tablets and the practically unlimited number of apps, games, and shows
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This post is written in memory of Javier Homero Garcia. Javier, my wife’s father, recently passed away. We were fortunate that we were able to travel to see him shortly before he passed, and my wife was able to spend a solid week with him and say her goodbyes. She was close with him and loved him dearly, so healing
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Apparently Amdall Gallery is turning into an Elden Ring fanart site, because I just couldn’t move on yet without getting into some of the interesting bosses (also called “demigods” in the game). Specifically, I wanted to draw a couple of the ones I find most fascinating: Starscourge General Radahn and Malenia the Blade of Miquella. The huge battle between the
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I thought I had sufficiently scratched the Elden Ring artwork itch with a couple of drawings I shared last week, but apparently that is not the case! I was sitting at my desk feeling the urge to draw, and I thought about how much I enjoyed working on the previous Elden Ring pieces. So, I figured, what’s stopping me from
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Like many people, I’ve been completely transfixed over the last couple of weeks by Elden Ring. The game is basically like wild mashup of Dark Souls, Zelda, and the Witcher 3. As it was developed by From Software, Elden Ring has all of their usual fare; unforgivingly difficult enemies, well-designed combat, and a leveling and currency resource that can be
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I am often amused by the strange processes that seem to govern how I decide what to draw. Personality-wise, I tend to be a planner and a creature of habit. I like routines in life and in drawing, and tend to seek a predictable path to art however I can. That’s probably noticeable just from browsing through any sample of
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