Homage to the Sopranos

Don't forget to pay homage or you may find yourself sleeping with the fishes... on a one way ride to the bottom of the Atlantic...

wearing cement shoes.

On a side note: Thanks to all the professional artists that take the time to share their process online. It is helps immensely! This week I learned a gem about changing the layer mode to Multiple in Photoshop to keep your line work on top of any coloring you do. An even better tip was to use the Multiple mode to deepen the shades as you color. This was a freaking epiphany for me! I'd been trying to color using flat colors and manually adjusting the color and opacity.... how ridiculous now that I know better.

Pet Peas

Yes, I am a dork... Sorry for the stupid take on Illustration Friday's topic "Pet Peeves". I asked my 4 year old what her pet peeves were and she started naming names for pet garden peas.

Octopus's Garden

The idea for the song came when Ringo Starr was on a boating trip with his family in 1968. The the boat's captain told Starr how octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens. Starr said that hearing about octopuses spending their days collecting shiny objects at the bottom of the sea was one of the happiest things he had ever heard, inspiring him to write this song. (long live Wikipedia!)

Thanks Sticklet for the idea!

Another interesting little tid-bit... Discarded beer bottles lying on the bottom of the bay make an ideal home for mother octopuses and their babies. The female is able to squirm her way into the bottle at the neck and then lay her precious eggs inside the glass. It offers security from predators for the eggs and momma.

FYI - The Active X bar is to play the music.

Cliff Jump

Pequest Falls
and the
Swimming Hole