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More insanity happening this week in the world. Sort of feels like we are living in bizarre movie plot (“Wag the Dog” maybe?) but what do I know….I’ve been really busy at work and have projects and chores to get back to. So, I spent a little time cleaning up a few things here onContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 11, 2026”

Super weird typing, “2026”. Ok whatever. I got a drone for Christmas and at first was disappointed because I live too close the Reagan Airport to fly it at my house. Then, as I was fooling around with it, I also found out I needed to pass a test to be licensed to fly aContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 4, 2026”

It’s January again and I’m eager to look forward. The past few weeks have been really nice with the kids coming home and spending time with family and friends. I made a lot of nice progress on personal projects and as the year turns over, I think I’m more excited about keeping those balls rollingContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 1, 2026”

Snow day. Came out to the shed, cleaned up my desk, got some inking done on a Wandering Cities drawing, and updated a few things on the website. Work has still been tough and the past two months maybe were the hardest I’ve ever had to work at my job. No fun but we gotContinue reading “Back in the Shed – December 5, 2025”

Last week I spent a little time putting together a list of horror movies to watch during October. I’ve got 9 so far and that is probably plenty for the month. I like the list so far and I’m excited to get started. Mostly these are new or from the last 2-3 years and someContinue reading “October Horror Movie List”

Will Davies and I are launching a Kickstarter for “The Wandering Cities” zine project we have been kicking around for a little over a year. The preview page went live today and I’m really excited about it and you should be too 🙂 Will is a really creative guy and I have worked with himContinue reading “The Wandering Cities!”

Saturday morning here in the shed. Just spent a little time decluttering getting ready to watch Leeds. 108 square feet isn’t a lot of space and there is a palpable weight in here when it gets crowded with stuff. Cleaned the desk, put away my pens and brushes, threw away the crap, separated the booksContinue reading “Back in the Shed – September 13, 2025”

Took a few weeks off of my normal routines to shake things up and I’m happy to say it’s been a really nice. Especially the last 10 days or so: Anyway, things are good. The world is the world and sometimes it can really suck but it’s also full of good things and sometimes weContinue reading “Back in the Shed – September 7, 2025”

Quick post for Sunday night to wrap up the week and look forward to the next one. Times are still hard in the federal contracting world and next week will be another tough one for my company as we are doing another layoff starting tomorrow. I think I will be ok but it’s still stressful.Continue reading “Back in the Shed – August 10, 2025”

Just got back from vacation and for the second year in a row we went to the U-P (upper peninsula of Michigan). Land of the “Yooper”. This was a trip that I needed pretty badly. Work has been stressful and I was in need of getting away and out of my head for a bit.Continue reading “Back in the Shed – August 3, 2025”

Nice quiet weekend of getting outside: running and kayaking on Saturday; riding bikes and watching soccer on Sunday. Sun and exercise tired me out in a nice way. Got to bed really early on Saturday and even a little early on Sunday. Feeling pretty good and ready to start fresh with whatever this week wantsContinue reading “Back in the shed – June 30, 2025”

Just back from a short camping trip to wild and wonderful West Virginia. The camper has been sitting in the garage for over a year now, camouflaged by little bits of stuff – things that don’t have a proper place – plopped on top or propped up against it, all pulled in by its gravity.Continue reading “Back in the Shed – June 22, 2025”

Back from a few weekends away and found some time to finish the colors on the ‘Wandering Cities’ piece. Made the hunting party unis brown instead of blue and de saturated the whole thing a little. I like it.

Random stuff. Company left on Tuesday AM and I sort of checked out from working on projects to stress about work/life, spend time in the garden and fart around on the couch. (Re: the bouquet of poison ivy below- don’t try that at home kids – I’m a professional!)

Wandering Cities – Colors WIP I did a little work on this Wandering Cities piece over the weekend but had company from out of town so didn’t get to make much progress. Mostly finished painting the background and got into blocking out the figures. My first thought was these people would be wearing dark blueContinue reading “Back in the Shed -May 7, 2025”

Last weekend Danette and I did a mini tour of Virginia – driving with Rocky to see Marcus in Blacksburg and Colin in Richmond. It was great to see the boys and already looking forward to seeing them again 🙂 Here’s a little round up of other things I’ve been up to this week:

Finished inks, erasing and touchups. whew!

Update on “Chiro”. Made a big push to finish the pencils and get started inking this drawing last week. trying to finish inks today and move to color. This is close to the biggest ink drawing I’ve ever tackled, and it’s making me want to go bigger. [25″H x 17″W bristol.]

Ran two miles yesterday. Swift as the wind – if the wind was very light, or maybe like, no wind. It was slow and tough. But the weather wants to be warm now, and I want to be outside, so it’s a good fit. Broke my bonsai’s out of winter slumber and spent a fewContinue reading “Back in the Shed – March 19, 2025”

3/10 Sharing a decent drawing of a dragon I made in February and finally made a scan. 16×20, Ink on Cold Press illustration board.

Random things. Mostly in a bit of a panic the past few weeks. Thought maybe I’d make a post to look back at the good things that I’ve been doing lately:

Doing some research/practice for a project with another artist around dragons. Here’s a sketch. Hopefully this project goes somewhere and I can push out a few cool drawings.

Snow still on the ground here. Trying to find some time and energy to move forward on three projects I’ve been stuck on for a minute. Found a little inspiration in Jessica Abel’s Autonomous Creative podcast from a couple days ago. The whole thing had some good ideas about how to approach creative work toContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 12, 2025: Imperfect Action”

[Ipad| Procreate| digital sketch] It’s 2025. No big declarations here. 2024 was a fine year and I had plenty to be thankful for. I think for 2025 I’m just going to try to be more present with people and more conscious of my time. Maybe that leads to more blogposts…maybe not. Hopefully more drawing. IContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 5, 2025”

Catching up on the last 6 weeks in pictures. It’s been hectic but a lot of cool stuff too. First thing is the hot-tub. We I spent a good deal of August and early September fretting over the idea, but we pulled the trigger and it was all setup by late September. A bit ofContinue reading “Back in the Shed – November 7, 2024”

Lucky enough to have a great friend in Ann Arbor that can get tickets to see Michigan Football games. We try to get in for a game every year and this year we got to see a doozy against Southern Cal. Compete with a 4th quarter, 4th down, goal-line win for the Wolverines. Incredible! TailgatingContinue reading “Back In the Shed – September 26, 2024”

Last week I took a sort-of-spontaneous trip with my Mom and Dad as they were passing through town on their way to the U-P to stay at my Uncle Bill’s cabin on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Side note: It’s funny how “The U-P” – The Upper Peninsula – is such a common termContinue reading “Back in the Shed – August 22, 2024”

I had planned a longer post to cover some of the things I did this week, but that will wait. For now, I want to say farewell to my old dog, Pebbles. We got her back in 2009 when the kids were in 1st and 4th grade. I’ve never had a dog like her. BeforeContinue reading “A Final Goodbye to Pebbles: Our Loyal Protector”

Weekend Bits: I slept terribly on Thursday night, so I ended up taking a sick day from work to rest. Colin was home, so I went with him and Danette on some errands. Afterward, I took a nap, then caught a Nats game in the evening with the family. The rest of the weekend hasContinue reading “Back in the Shed – August 4, 2024”

We finally got a heavy rain early last week after weeks with barely a sprinkle. The last time we got a decent rain feels like it was in early June. Back then I got a handful of cool mushrooms around the yard including this all white one growing in the front lawn. (Side note: IContinue reading “Back in the Shed – July 29, 2024”

Spent some time in the backyard with my plants today. I’ve got a few I’m kind of excited about – Joe Pye Weed and this Tall Coreopsis. Joe Pye Weed is named after a Native American herbalist known in New England for helping the settlers treat typhoid fever. Fun times. Last year, I bought theseContinue reading “July 20, 2024 – Back in the Shed”

Holy crap this weather. I know it gets hot every summer but the combination of the lack of rain and the heat is rough. I like to get out in the back yard and water my trees but everything else is just crisping up. Pictured is a Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly hatching on the frontContinue reading “July 18, 2024 – Back in the Shed”

Back from vacation yesterday with a cold, feeling tired and fat. Trump got shot at a convention and I’m feeling like unplugging from politics and focusing on some personal goals for the rest of the year. Currently watching: Reading

Lots of stuff going on last week with my nephew graduating High School and one of my best friends getting married. So the past week has been very busy and very social full of evening hangs with family and old friends, backyard parties, reminiscing, catching up, laughs, hugs and even a pause or two toContinue reading “Back in the Shed – June 11, 2024”

It’s been a minute since my last post…but that minute has given me time for an update on my twin trunk Spruce bonsai from my last post. Recall, I was worried that it would die….well it did…. And it didn’t!!!! Here is it this weekend. The one on the left died but the right oneContinue reading “Back in the Shed – May 19, 2024”

In late 2020 I bought 10, 2-year old Alberta Spruce seedlings from Virginia Department of Forestry for about $3 per tree. I put them in some cheap pots and just let them grow. Here are 5 of them. Just pulled out of their winter beds. They’ve been growing in these plastic pots mainly untouched sinceContinue reading “Back in the Shed – March 6, 2024”

Blog post about the weekend

Goings on: Reads:

New year etc. Still recovering from this cold/gunk/crud. But I thought I should get a post in. Looking back on 2023 I think I did ok on my goals. We ended up having a blast in the UK and I did end up getting to 1,000 miles on my bike. Even after completely losing myContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 4, 2024”

Holidays are finally over and I’m dealing with the back end of a mean little virus (COVID/FLU/Cold? does it matter really? I dunno). Annoyingly, this is the third time I’ve been virused since August. I’ve been lucky enough to have not been sick during the pandemic so I guess I was due. Maybe I needContinue reading “December 29, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Blog post about some stuff

Short blog post today. Spent the weekend doing chores and spending a little time outside. I did a round of raking leaves, cleaned my bike chain and gears, replaced the back tire (after literally wearing a hole on the old one last week), watched the Hokies play football, and played a little Baldur’s Gate. ItContinue reading “November 12, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Post about the weekend

Back from a trip to the UK on Saturday. Felt crap and took a Covid test and ended my streak of not being positive. But I’m all vaxxed and boosted so hoping it’s mild.

Got a morning ride in. Hit the road around 6:45AM and it was already hot and oppressively humid. Ugh. Not sure if I was up for it this morning: just had no energy out there. But, whatever. I’ll be on vacation for a week starting Saturday so I’ll have time to rest. Time to buttonContinue reading “July 28, 2023 – Back in the Shed”