It's HERE!

The calendar is in my hot little hands and

I am eager to share it with the world.

Click here to see all of the art.

Of course I'm selling it and you can get yours right here.

We went to a lure course over the weekend and

I snapped lots of pictures of Salukis other than ours.

Here is one. Her cream color is inspiring a soft pallet.

I posted a rougher version of this composition.

Now we have color! The top of the rock looks

like the Matterhorn.

I have this photo of Wyatte with the

most beautiful flowing ear fringe.

My goal is to simplify it and use a limited

but attractive color pallet.

Partial painting of Shay.

I'm working on a composition of three dogs leaping from a small cliff. This is a line tracing that will hopefully tell me whether or not to pursue it as a digital painting. Too late, I've already started.

I fret over color alot, but I'm pleased with the combination in this sketch.

The Saluki Savior is inspired by the devotional tattoos that I've been seeing on inmates. I think it would be a great sentiment gracing the chest of a truly scary dude.

Another Saluki tattoo idea, prison style.

A characiture of a Saluki with no definite spot in the calendar. Sometimes I just draw without purpose and hope that something of value sneaks in.

I'm looking at lot of painters for inspiration. I hope to channel them into my work, but I really end up confirming my own abilities and limitations.

Saluki tattoos, everybody's going to want one.

Some sketches of Shay. I used the reference photo on the postcard that announced the 2011 Saluki calendar. At this time, I don't plan on including any photographs in the finished calendar.

I'm trying for something dream-like.

I have this wonderful picture of Tux taken while he was lure coursing. He spotted me lying low trying to get a good shot, and came to a sudden stop. The intense look in his eyes is my goal for this painting.

This is the photo of Shay that I'm using for the cover. We've been experimenting with Susan fake throwing Shay's favorite frisbee toy this way and that way just to get her to leap and twist about. There are more pictures of these wonderful "poses" on my Saluki tumblr site:

topofthefoodchain.tumblr.com

Another drawing for the cover. I used Illustrator for the line work and Photoshop for a quick stab at color.

I'm starting to work in earnest on my Saluki Calendar for 2011. Normally I'm pretty secretive about my work, sketches, bum ideas that go nowhere and all of that. However, inspired by friends and desiring to cast off my hermit habits I'm going to post lots of stuff that will show the calendar in progress.

I guess I won't worry too openly about being able to pull it off. I'll just press ahead to the finish.

To start, here is an idea for the cover.

No, I'm not posting anything in order.

Just reacquainting myself with old scenes.

That isn't a dog in the box.

I found this picture somewhere on the web. It reminds me of my own youth and it is a perfectly illustrates the viewpoint I want for my book.

I recently took all of the pages that I have been creating for the final graphic novel of noburbs and was blown away to find the page count numbering over 300. I'm pleased and intimidated at the same time. 300 pages and I'm still not finished with my page layouts. They I will need to go back over the entire book and start editing, elaborating and finishing the art.

I hope I don't die before the book is finished!