Getting bored of doing all the landscapes, so opted for a bit of freestyle fun with these colorful clouds. :)

I'm getting spoiled with the ease of taking photographs over the standard video taped progress.. any preferences as to which ones are more fun to watch?

Also, sorry about the color difference (if you noticed) between when I was indoors painting and when i took it outside to snap the final photo. Seems the indoor light yellow the colors more than i realized. You can get a better feel for the color (if you care) by looking at the snapshot here http://flixray.deviantart.com/ art/Colorful-Clouds-108828747

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This round I opted to send the video camera into timeout and just snapped a handful of photographs of the painting as it progressed. I still failed at the knife painting portion, but kinda mickey moused my way through it and am actually fairly okay with the results. I still need to improve much on my color blending and paint consistency. Still chugging away..

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Bah. I can never just get each piece right. Love the clouds. Some improvement on the mountain, but everything in front of the mountain turned to doo doo. [6.4/10]

Sorry the video got so dark. I got a late start and nightfall crept in midway through the painting. I didn't realize the camera wasn't planning to play well with others, so it got a bit drab video wise at the end (and painting wise for that matter).

So be it. At least I got a bit of a grasp on the knife - thanks to ArabicBobRoss who gave me a very helpful pointer on how to hold the knife - it helped! At least for the mountains... now doing an evergreen tree with the knife... i tried and gave up early. :) The knife continues to be a big struggle for me. That, and getting the trees to take shape without overworking the heck out of them.

Oh well, more practice for me... either that or try a different technique.

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I felt it was only appropriate to put something up in response to all the coverage of the recent Swine Flu outbreak. Pigs are getting a bad rap on this one. The government is supposedly renaming the virus to H1-N1, but it doesn't seem to be catching on.

SONG LYRICS
Miss Piggy, Arnold Ziffle,
neither has a little sniffle
Porky Pig and Pooh's Piglet
No fever yet

Putnam, Gordy, Toot and Puddle
Not contagious safe to snuggle

Ask Petunia Babe, Noelle
All of them feel well

Wilbur, Hamm Hogzilla too
None of them caused the flu

Wash your hands, wear a mask
How'd this happen, people ask

How it started I don't know
Stay away from Mexico

Now it's in the USA
No one's safe this day and age

Pigs didn't start the swine flu
Blame the laboratory
For this awful Story
Pigs didn't start the swine flu
No we've been betrayed
The strain appears man-made

Viral codes of human flu
Bird influenza's in there too

The only thing i seem to find
People blame the swine

Read the papers, post your blog
Blame it on the lowly hog

Down some aspirin, take a swig
You're infected by the pig

Everyone thinks I'm contagious
Read it on my twitter pages

You can hug me you won't die
Come and hang out in my sty

Eat your dinner throw it up
No one blames it on the pup

Run a temp and get the chlls
Everyone run for the hills

Pigs didn't start the swine flu
Blame the laboratory
For this awful Story
Pigs didn't start the swine flu
No we've been betrayed
The strain appears man-made

Name diseases after pigs
Everyone throws dirty digs

I'm a virus people think
I'm not sick I'm clean and pink

I"m your friend your little buddy
I don't know why you feel cruddy

Don't blame me I'm not the cause
Government should change the laws

People sick across the nation
Looking for a vaccination

Center for disease control
Someone there has got to know

This disease it needs a name Which animals should we defame

Nobody will likely mind
If we named it for an ugly swine

Pigs didn't start the swine flu
Blame the laboratory
For this awful Story
Pigs didn't start the swine flu
No we've been betrayed
The strain appears man-made

The pigs are innocent I tell you
We didn't do anything wrong

We didn't start this disease
But we're taking all the blame.

tbt_PuVAVTU

Here's my entry for the The Punk Goes Pop Vol. 2: Burry V.S. Binks Battle. The contest is to lip sync to the song "Toxic" as covered by the band "A Static Lullaby"

Things got a little crazy during this video shoot... I hope I didn't scare anyone...

HGjruIy5Y-s

Watch the incredible Adam Matta Beat box on ART or something like it! This is a special sneak preview of the ALL NEW second season of A.O.S.L.I. Watch the series online or on CUNY TV cable channel 75 in all 5 boroughs of New York City. Season 2 premieres September 8th 2006! Online and on CUNY TV Cable Channel 75.

CcopmE2srOU

Okay here's the scoop. I'm not telling you who I'm drawing this time and instead am making a bit of a contest out of it. The winner will receive a free print of the finished drawing. If nobody guesses correctly after this first video, then I'll add another with the drawing further along and so forth until somebody guesses the correct answer.

TO ENTER:
Visit the Fun & Games section at http://www.flixray.com/forums/ fun-games/64595.htm
If you leave a guess here during the contest, then i'll end up having to delete it (sorry). You must enter at the flixray forums.


RULES:
* You must enter your guess in the flixray forums.
* One Guess Per Person, Per Day.
* You must have at least 10 sensible posts in the forums to enter (they don't have to be long, but they do have to make sense).

* You must reside in the US so that it's not a major ordeal to mail it to the winner(s)
* In the event of a tie, I will reserve the right to chose the recipient(s).

HINT:
It's someone famous

PRIZES:
* Up to three winners may be chosen to receive a signed, high quality print (on professional grade paper, mind you).

PBeLi5RZ3ws

*** PLEASE READ RULES FOR CONTEST BELOW ***

Okay here's the scoop. I'm not telling you who I'm drawing this time and instead am making a bit of a contest out of it. The winner will receive a free print of the finished drawing. If nobody guesses correctly after this first video, then I'll add another with the drawing further along and so forth until somebody guesses the correct answer.

TO ENTER:
Visit the Fun & Games section at http://www.flixray.com/forums/ fun-games/64595.htm
If you leave a guess here during the contest, then i'll end up having to delete it (sorry). You must enter at the flixray forums.


RULES:
* You must enter your guess in the flixray forums.
* One Guess Per Person, Per Day.
* You must have at least 10 sensible posts in the forums to enter (they don't have to be long, but they do have to make sense).

* You must reside in the US so that it's not a major ordeal to mail it to the winner(s)
* In the event of a tie, I will reserve the right to chose the recipient(s).

HINT:
It's someone famous

PRIZES:
* Up to three winners may be chosen to receive a signed, high quality print (on professional grade paper, mind you).

KTrTuAzdzZ0

** WE HAVE A WINNER **
Congratulations to Perroquet51 who correctly guessed who I was drawing in my very first YouTube contest! He'll receive a free print of the finished drawing.

I'll be working on the next contest very soon, so if you want to prepare ahead of time, you'll register at http://www.flixray.com/forums and get your 10 posts out of the way so you can get your guess in for the next contest and be eligible to win!

Hope you enjoyed this - i know it was a quick one, but sometimes you gotta act fast :)

ah7-FEqjRg0

This is a quick tutorial on how to create a basic flesh tone using four colors:

* Brown
* Red
* Blue
* White

Originally this video was going to just be a private video for one of my good YouTube friends to help him learn how to make a general flesh tone, but then I figured no guts, no glory - I might as well put it up for all in case it helps someone else along the way. (So please forgive the lack of slick editing and the jumbled narration).

Keep in mind that everyone has their own style and preference when it comes to how they approach their art and personal techniques. As far as portraits and creating flesh tones, my preference happens to be that I prefer to make my own using a combination of colors rather than relying on a flesh colored pastel sticks. (So no offense to those that prefer the flesh colored pastels, it's just not my own personal thing).

The technique shown in this video is just for a very generic starting base to build off of. Everyone's skin tones are different based on nationality, lighting, reflections and so forth, so your mileage may vary considerably on these ingredients. Best method is a bit of trial and error, and training yourself to see beyond what you expect to be there, but rather what IS there. I have a couple cool little techniques that I will share later (if you want) on how to pick out different shades from a picture, I just simply ran out of time to show anything more than what I could squeeze into under 10 minutes.

Feel free to discuss your take on this in the comments as well as if you like the tutorial, what else you might like to have explained, what i could do differently to make it more informative and so on.

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Due to popular demand :) I have added in the sketch portion for this portrait. I threw in a couple quickie comments to give you a general idea of what I'm doing. If there's enough interest, i can do a real time tutorial of how I go about sketching out a portrait from scratch.

Anyway, here's my tribute to my buddy Lunatik21 which I hope he enjoys. I really had fun with the different perspective and the colors in this photo, though it did prove to be a bit challenging to get the angles and proportions right. They may be a bit off, but then, that is what makes art unique and interesting. If it was carbon copy, you'd be just as well suited to hang the photograph and be done with it. :)

=== MUSIC By Fresh Body Shop ===
I love the music by this group - you'll be hard pressed to find a bad track on any of the albums, the music is incredible.

This particular track is called "My Great Descent" and is off the "tasteless" album, used under Creative Commons Licensing http://creativecommons.org/lic enses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

I found Pedro of Fresh Body Shop on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/pedrofb s - go twist his arm to put more videos up!

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