Black Pearl of Hungary

Shagya Arabian Stallion O'Bajan XIII, "The Black Pearl of Hungary" done from a black and white photo taken sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. Pencil.

Eastern chipmunk ACEO

This is just a cute little eastern chipmunk nibbling away on some seeds while perched on a log in front of some beech leaves.

2.5 X3.5 inches (6.5X9CM) Charcoal on bristol.

Computer overpainting done in Photoshop. It's my darling guinea pig, Cinder, who I managed to catch lying down to take a nap. Usually she flips out when she hears the camera and immediatly stops doing whatever cute thing she was doing that I wanted a picture of. The overpainting was done over the original photo, and then had the background removed. (you didn't really want to see wood chips and a water bottle)
Cinder's actually an Abysinnean, but she's kind of light on rosettes since I think the father was probably a smooth coat. Rosettes didn't come out as well as I liked, but I'm very happy with the eyes and the shading to the black portions of her fur. She's got a very nice expression that says "why have you interupted my nap and what is that thing you're pointing at me?"

Coyote Skull

Mixed media. Hot wax for the skull and background. Eyeballs done in acrylic. Original is 4.5X12 on cardboard.

Hey, haven't I seen this pose before? Yes, yes you have. It's the same pose used on glass. This is a colored pencil version of the pencil sketched used for glass. It's just fancing a different way because the glas piece was then flipped over.
It's a little experiment with different media. Easiest to tell how the media behaves if you do the exact same picture several times, in different materials.
One foot is screwy, but I'm otherwise happy.

Detail from earlier dhole hunter on the prowl.

I really liked the feet. They came out really well considering how few times I've used Painter before, and I drew these freehand too. So I uploaded a detail to show them off, as the detail gets lost in the full size image.

Duck and Cover- line work

Line work for the card "duck and Cover" for the Rage CCG.

Colored version forthcoming.

TINY piece as the surface is only 2.5X 3.5 and the figure doesn't fill it so he has some room to 'duck'.

Fast Food Fox

ACEOs seem to be one of those hot things at moment so I wanted to try one. My paintings have slowly been shrinking anyway, so going all the way down to trading card size didn't seem too hard.

Why is this called Fast Food Fox? do you seriously think that little duck can outrun a fox? We all know how this will end...

This picture is actually bigger on screen than in person! It's a tiny 2.5X3.5 inches. Acrylic, colored pencil and charcoal on bristol.

This is also the first fox I've drawn in about 7 or 8 years.

Framing Mad

After breaking yet another custom frame, slicing open my hand twice, and taking the skin off my knuckles with a wood rasp I gave up on framing existing pieces to take to Anthrocon in July.

I cut the stock to the exact dimensions of an existing frame and painted this ode to how I felt about framing. So not doing that again!

Mixed media on bristol.

A photograph of the glass piece I did as an experiment, all nicely framed and signed for a Rage Apocalypse tournament in Ohio.
The picture was done by painting front and back on a piece of glass while it was laying on top of a sketch. The background was done freehand. The irregular shape is because it was done on a broken sharp of glass from an aquarium. I like to recycle and reuse stuff for artwork. It was kryloned to keep the paint from rubbing off accidentally, and then framed in this little frame behind yet another piece of glass. Most of the depth of the piece got lost in the photograph. I believe the frame is 5 X 7. It's not very large.

Highland Cow

Scotch Highland Cow done in hot wax on cardboard.

Original 11X14

African Wild Dog

Experimental piece. Hot wax on cardstock.

A random comic page for Ursala Vernon's weekly art challenge (this week, comics). This is sadly enough based on a dream I had at one point, yes, with an eldritch horror falling out of the sky talking on a cellphone and wearing a Hawaiian shirt. And a ferret that looks like a dragon. its a rare galapagos ferret, that's why.
I did orginally hand letter this, but determined my handwriting was illegible, so added text with Fireworks. some of the original handwritten text survived in spots.

A hyena mother gazes lovingly at her cub. Soon he'll be up and running, but for now, she can hold him in her arms and pretend he'll always be her baby.

Done in Painter 8 with a graphics tablet. Used as an experiment to try out a new technique for creating fur. Acrylics drybrush function used over oils underpainting. Brickwork in the background done as oil underpainting with chalk on top.

iCepatch. Drawn freehand in photoshop, thus the slightly choppy edge.

16" of New England snow and black ice, meet iPod spoof. Play nice together.

I will post real art soon to make up for inflicting yet another iPod spoof upon the world.

iPod is the property of Apple Computer.

I went nuts and inked in all the details on this while watching "The Future is Wild" on Animal Planet. Too bad they didn't have any 'dillos in their South American section. They're neat, and hardy, specieswise. Armadillos have been around for somewhere around 25 million years. Says its pretty good design.
I'm fairly happy with the inking on this considering much of the texturing was done without pencilling first and I have NO CLUE what I'm doing with a pen.

Sample of an card from the upcoming online release of the Rage CCG. This is using some old artwork of mine, now on a card. More info on Rage: http://www.rainydaypaperback.com/rage.html

Why upload a card version if I've already got the art uploaded? Because not only did I do the artwork, I did all the layout! Laying out text and images may not be as glamorous or exciting as painting, but its still hard, and I'm proud of how it came out.

Rage and associated terms are copyright White Wolf Game Studios. Posted with permission.

Computer overpainting in Photoshop. Done with a mouse. The original phot used for the overpainting wasn't so bloody and the wolf on the right had it's tail tucked up under it's belly. Didn't seem properly agressive considering the gore, so it was moved.

It might look slightly familiar since the wolf on the left is my avatar head on the forums.

The original pictures used for the overpainting is on page 88 of "Wolves" by Candace Savage, put out by the Sierra Club. Photo taken by Peter J. McLeod.

Poster version of King Albrecht, intended as a free download for people wishing to advertise Rage in their area so they can find some new play mates. It will fit on a standard 8 1/2 by 11 page. (poster's actually 7.5 by 10, to ensure the edges aren't cut off during printing)

King Albrecht's pose based on the famous Uncle Sam poster by James Montgomery Flagg. The framing and lay out here is based on the character card layout for Rage.

King Albrecht, Rage, and its associated terms are the property of White Wolf Game Studios.

I seem to be doing a lot of inked pictures recently. This was originally on 8 1/2 by 11 printer paper, but I cropped out some of the road and the fence in the background. Two different sizes of pen, and a tiny bit of white acrylic paint to add the highlight on the pupil, since I messed it up inking it.
I've been suckered into playing Werewolf: the Apocalypse online in the dreaded New Breman chats. Gasp! This is my character, Litany Santiago, a Homid Ragabash Uktena dowser. With a flash light for making people see the light... upside the head.
I like her head and expression, but am not as happy with her feet and the positioning of her torso. I like the background as well.

Off topic. Back to our reguarly scheduled furriness next time.
More pen and ink, and the other half of my new Werewolf: the Apocalypse character, Litany Santiago. Homid form. The look was based on a real life photo I found. Need reference photos for just plain people? try online dating services, you can search by age, ethnicity, all kinds of things. Just don't expect them to be the best photos.

Pen and ink on cheap copy paper. A mechanical mouse building anest amidst trash. The can and contents (paper shreds, a dog choke chain, a pencil sharpener barrel, and a screwdriver) drawn from life. The mouse of the mouse is based on an illustration of a spotted mouse from the World Encyclopedia of Animals, illustrations by Sergio and Lorenzo Orlandi. Of course it wasn't mechanical in teh book, but same pose. added little nesting materials.
Done for Ursala vernon's irregular art challenge http://www.livejournal.com/community/art_challenge/ This weeks challenge, machinery and robotics.

For the February 2003 compo. I did a bookcover version of this painting earlier, but this is the whole whizbang one with a back cover and spine and things, not just the front piece.
The pose of the dog is based on a black and white photo on the cover of "Beggars and Thieves: the Lives or Urban Street Criminals". The original painting was done in acrylics on bristol.
The ISBN code is lifted off the back of "The Dragon on the Border" by Gordan R. Dickson (good book, guy transforms into dragon, read it). Iona, so far as I know, is not a real publisher. The Iona symbol is a "d" in the Wingdings font. Most of the rest of the text is either Times New Roman or Matisse.

If Our Brother's Keepers interests you, send me e-mail to prod me into getting on with writing it. I started, then got distracted by trying to computerize the inventory of my bookstore. (thus I had LOTS of references to do this piece with)

Pose is based off a photograph on the cover of "Beggars and Thieves: the Lives of Urban Street Criminals".
This is just like the other version of Our Brother Keepers, but cropped to the size of a paperback bookcover and with lettering. That was the entire purpose of the painting really, to focus my thoughts on a story I have kicking around in my head. The mood of the tale was giving me problems, and this came to my mind, this vision of what made the whoel thing come together thematically.
So I made a bookcover for the jacket. I hope to start actually writing the story soon, now that I've sorted it out mentally.
E-mail me if you'd like more details on the story.

Promo poster for upcoming Rage set, Periphery. Set features artwork by many artists on VCL, Yerf, and Deviantart. Available Feb. 15th, 2004. http://www.rainydaypaperback.com/rage.html

Poster is sized so you can print it out on your home printer, no need to resize it.

Artwork and layout by H.C. O'Neill.

Rage is copyright White Wolf Game Studios.

I am Pika, see me cute!

What's a pika? They're abominably adorable animals related to rabbits. They typical dwell in burrows in mountainous areas. They're frequently seen scampering over the rocks with a mouthful of grass to line their burrows with. They typically weigh less than a pound.

This little guy is seen munching on some alpine flowers, one of their favorite snacks. This is an American pika which can be found in the Rocky Mountains and western coastal ranges of the US. Other species of pikas are found in Asia and Eastern Europe.

ACEO in charcoal on bristol. This has been sprayed with krylon fixative to prevent smudging from handling. 2.5 X 3.5 inches.

Raccoon skull

A simple life drawing (death drawing?) of a raccoon skull I own. I'm not sure how the break in the left cheek bone occurred since it was like that when I found it.

ACEO original charcoal on bristol paper. Playing card size, though it appears larger on screen here.

I ran a contest for artists to make a window design for the front door of my bookshop. This is actually the "runner up" of sorts, but I liked it so much, I found a different home for it on a side window! However the original design was for a slightly different shaped window, one that was a lot narrower. So fill out the space, I mirrored part of the background to either side to widen it. The original design's width was from the edge of the book to the fox's tail (the tip was actually missing!). Shade (http://vcl.ctrl-c.liu.se/vcl/Artists/Shade/) did this design, but I did the actual back painting on glass. I took the original pic she designed and in Photoshop, converted it to greyscale, than twiddled with the levels and such until I got a black and white version that I could cut out and use as a stencil. The whole project to tranfer it from the original design to actually being on the glass took about 15 hours of work. It's a little hard to see the shadeing in the picture because of the reflections off the glass from the outside (note the refelcted Citgo logo). I'm considering adding another layer of paint on the inside to even out the texture inside. It's a little streaky looking from the inside, but looks a bit like stained glass. Very, very cool. Grunt work of painting by H.C. O'Neill (Fenris Lorsrai) original design copyright Kristin Rakochy (Shade).

Another photo of the lovely design Shade did for me. I really love the way back painted glas looks as its so luminescent. It's a paint to photograph though with the reflections. (see the van reflected.) The shading is a little more visible from this angle. I bought about four times the amount of paint I actually needed for this project since I thought I'd need a lot more to get the colors sufficiently well saturated. I could have done a bit better job with the lettering, but otherwise, I'm incredably pleased with it! grunt work of painting by H.C. O'Neill (Fenris Lorsrai) original design copyright Kristin Rakochy (Shade. http://vcl.ctrl-c.liu.se/vcl/Artists/Shade/)

Poster to be used at a Rage CCG demo at ConnCon in Stamford CT, March 3rds 1-5PM in Stamford, CT. Get more info: http://www.conncon.com/ConnCon.htm

The design is based on the old propoganda poster of Rosie the Riveter designed by J. Howard Miller in 1943. The painting was done is only five colors of acrylic paint, with lots of water and drybrushing. The poster and text were put together in Macromedia Fireworks.

The image is presented here at full size so that if you're interested in running a Rage demo, you can print it out yourself. You are free to print the image for that use, but please do not alter it.

For more info on Rage, visit: http://www.rainydaypaperback.com/files/ragestuff/