Duffy's Tavern Acrylic Painting by Stan Levine

This is a painting of Duffy's Tavern, located in Chico California. Chico is a little college town where my wife went to school to study Philosophy.
The acrylic painting on canvas is 18"X14."
It took about 2 days to complete, and I used a photo reference that my wife took with her Nikon digital camera. She is always taking pictures with her camera when we go on trips, and I like to paint landscapes using her photos as references. See my Mt.Diablo collection on my website at www.stananimation.net.

10 secons sketches

Outside the art studio; out in the living world things move really fast. You can't ask the businessman who is already late for work to pose for a 10 minute life drawing. The solution is to get good at doing fast sketches with a black Sharpie Marker. I like these markers because they are permanent, and that forces me to make strong decisive lines in each drawing.
On the left is our cat, Lady Light. She is a Siamese kitten perching at the window sill, but she won't stay there for long. She likes to jump up and paw at things she sees outside the window. Lady Light never sits still for more than 10 seconds, unless she is sleeping. Even then, if you try to draw her when she is sleeping, it always seems like she can feel you studying her. She will wake up and run away to find a place of peace where she can rest undisturbed. To make the 1o second drawing you must have the awareness of a sniper. You have see your subject in the moment of whatever it's doing in that very instant that it's doing whatever it's doing it in. Your mind must be like a camera burning the image from your eyes into an everlasting impression in your mind, that lasts long after the cat has left the stage. You have to see the anatomy, and the size and shape relationships to get the feeling of the spontaneity of the subject's action in the drawing.
I will be doing a series of 10 second sketches of my cats in the months to come, and try to capture the essence of their personalities as a starting point for what may evolve into a series of acrylic paintings, or perhaps even a 2D, Flash animation.

Fiction Friday Challenge #122

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #128 for October 30th, 2009

A couple of adults get dressed up for some Halloween fun but the night doesn’t go as planned…

I remember when I was 19 years old some friends came over to my parents house to party. We played Dungeons and Dragons and drank shots of Tequila. My dad was worried that the police would arrest him, but my mom was like hell it's Holloween, let the boys have some fun. Then we went out to the local cafe. One of Dave's friends drove my car, and I was in the back rocking my head like I was at a rock concert to some alternative rock station. Everything was all blurry, and they thought it was cool that I was drunk. I had never been that drunk before in my life. When we got there, my friends were out in the middle of the street directing the traffic. I was seeing doubles, and had to sit down. My head felt like a watermelon that could not balance on my shoulders. I put my head down in my arms on the table thinking that I could just pass out for the night here, but even though my eyes were closed I could still feel the world spinning. I felt like I was being flushed down a black hole. The spinning kept getting faster and faster until I just had to open my eyes again to get it to slow down. At some point I just knew that I was going to puke, so I got up and made a mad staggered rush for the bathroom in the cafe. Brown bile spilled out of my gullet into the toilet below me. I was on the floor now. My body was numb. I didn't care what was on the floor. My life was over now. I was so drunk and sick, I thought I might die. The door flew open and everyone was standing there shouting PUKE! PUKE! PUKE! I was touched that my friends thought I was cool for puking. I was glad that I could provide entertainment for them. I stared into the toilet water looking for answers as to what my destiny would be. I began to hallucinate. There were little animated cartoon men dancing around the bathroom, and in the toilet water a reflection of God appeared. In my head I could hear him speak. He said that I need to be careful about the decisions I make. That the course I am going is not where I am supposed to be. Then everything went dark, until I woke up the next evening on the couch of Dave's apartment. "It's about time you woke up man. We thought you were in a comma or something. Scared the sh*t out of us." I was alright...I thought. I went to the bathroom to put some cold water on my face. I looked in the mirror. My skin was pale. "Here man," Dave said. "Have some of this." He had made some Top Romin. Eating would be good. I felt better after. Everyone was smoking. I knew I shouldn't smoke, but I liked having friends that thought I was cool. It would be cool to smoke. Smoking was cool. I took that first cigarette that day, and lit it up with a Harley Davidson Zippo Lighter. It made a cool sound when the lid flew open. It was like a sword being unsheathed for battle, before the flame jumped up with a WOOSH. The paper crackled and turned bright orange, as I inhaled my first drag. The smoke invaded my lungs like a blanket being stuffed down my throat. I coughed for a few minutes. My friends laughed and took their drags all cool without coughing. I vowed to myself that one day I would be able to smoke as cool as them. Then a short fat woman took my arm, and forced me to make out with her. All the guys were watching. If I pushed her away, I would look gay, so I had to go all the way with her. She took me to her room. Their were candles everywhere. She was actually beautiful in the dark with the candles lighter up her skin all golden brown. Her head went down on my neck, and I felt pain. I tensed up, and endured for the sake of maintaining my cool. When she came back up to look at me, there was blood dripping from her mouth. She backed away naked and laughing. She was a vampire! I could see her sharp fangs, and she laughed at me pointing at me as if to remark at how innocent I was. I groaned and closed my eyes to sleep it off. The next evening I woke up on the couch again. My parents must have been worried sick about me. I looked for a phone around the apartment, but there was none in sight. All I saw were empty cigarette boxes, beer cans, and wine bottles all over the floor and counter tops. The place seem to be empty except for one man. He had long dark hair, and wore leather. With an out stretched hand holding a box of Marlbro Reds, he offered me a cigarette. I took one, and he lit it up. I didn't cough this time. "You've come a long way bro." The biker remarked. "Come on. I want to show you something." I followed him out to the parking lot where he stopped to stand by the coolest motorcycle I had ever seen. It was all black and shimmery, with Japanese letters near the speedometer. "What does that mean?" "It means warrior." He remarked. He offered me a helmet. I strapped it on. The bike started up with a roar. "Have you ever ridden before?" "No." I remarked. "Hold on tight, and what ever you do, keep your feet on the foot pegs." "Ok." The world blazed back as cold air rushed in through the helmet. My body was shaking with adrenaline. There was a tall bearded man on the street giving us the middle finger. We stopped. The biker drop kicked him in the chest, and the bearded man hit the ground with a thud. "Kick him." The biker advised me. "I don't want to." "Don't be a wuss." I didn't want to look weak in front of a warrior. We beat the man to death and drank his blood.
All this from one drink of alcohol. Let this be a lesson to all of you. Drink responsibly, and remember: It's not about being cool. It's important to be you, and stick to what you know is right.

What I've been working on

Sunset On Civic Drive
9"x12" pastel painting
I made this in about 10 minutes. It was hard because the sun was setting fast. It's weird how time can pass so slow when you're not doing anything, and so fast when you're racing against it. The light constantly changed like somebody had with remote control on the sun was pulling the sun down like a dimmer switch on a dining room light. I didn't have time to show every detail. My main objective was to capture the way the light effected the street and the general street scene. I feel that I was highly successful in this painting. One of my finest works yet.
This one on the left here is the overlook on Muir Beach. I used a photo reference that my wife provided from her wonderful photography that she does on our romantic getaways. The painting is acrylic on canvas 18"x 14". Painting is something that comes naturally to me. I don't have to think too much about it. I just mix the colors and brush them on. I like to paint because it's exciting to create an imitation of life, or even to invent something purely fantastic from my imagination. Sometimes when I paint things don't go as I expect them to at first. Then something happens by accident that I like. I think, wow, I really like what's happening here, and I'll just try to create more of it. I like to move my body and have music on when I paint. I like to feel excited about what I'm doing and make it a fun enjoyable experience that will show long after I'm finished within the painting. Can you see the fun I had with this Muir Beach painting?

A month or so ago my mom asked me to paint something for her bedroom. She gave me a bag full of fabrics I could use as references, so that I could see the colors of the room. I wanted to make sure that I got all the colors in the room in the painting. Originally she wanted me to paint a Japanese Geisha sitting by a cherry blossom tree, but by the time I got the sunset in over the water with the land form in the foreground, it seemed that including a Geisha and a cherry blossom tree would make the painting too busy. I'm going to bring this painting over to my parent's house tonight. They will hang it up, and see how it feels in the room. If you need a custom painting for your house send me an e-mail, and we'll talk about it.

Love Remembered

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #123 for September 25th, 2009

The house lights dim, the curtain goes up… you’re on.

Love Remembered

I can't think of what to say.
I forgot my lines, and everyone is staring at me waiting to see what I'll do.
My scene partner says "Ray what the hell is wrong with you?" In an annoyed, frustrated tone. I begin to improve the scene with the first thing that comes to mind.
"Uh..you're fat."
Her eyes widen as if she was a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.
"How dare you....How dare you call me fat. You're stupid!"
"I hate it when we fight."
"Me too."
"I love you."
"really?"
"Are you sure you wouldn't be happier with someone else?"
"I'm lucky I have you."
"Where's that coming from?"
"I'm a failure. I don't know why you married me."
"Please don't talk like this. You are talented."
"No I'm not. I'm stupid remember?"
"I didn't mean it. Come on let's have a drink and watch a movie honey."
"Yeah. A good drink will kill the pain."
Then we hug for what seems like an eternity. Her hair spray smells like coconut. I'm in love for real now.
"I love you."
"I love you too.
We kiss. Then I say "scene."
The crowd applauds, and what was once an anxiety attack is overcome by a sensation of excitement and accomplishment.
I had forgotten my lines, and had put on the greatest performance of my career.
After the show a fellow actor/friend approached me and said "Joey, your performance was outstanding! Would you be interested in trying out for the part of Dr. Drake Remoria in "Days Of Our Lives?"
"Ha ha..Good one Jim!"

Fiction Friday Challenge #122 Picture Prompt

Fiction Friday Challenge #122: Picture Prompt: Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

It was a calm sunny day that dwindled away they way ice cream melts in your bowl. What was once solid and full of texture became a sweetened liquid stagnant without motion. All the townspeople turned off their lights, and tucked the young into little beds. Just as Papa closed his eyes to rest for the night he heard a howl of wind rush up against the windows. It whistled and rattled around the house like an angry demon looking for a way in. One by one, the lights of the town turned back on illuminating a soft yellow glow from each of the little houses of this once sleepy quiet town. The wind danced and raced around the stars and through the sky like wild kittens at play. The towns people watched from their windows with growing curiosity. The dogs barked and a child's frightened eyes peered cautiously out from under the shelter of his mothers arms held tightly around his fragile body.

Stanimation Productions New Update

On July 24, 2009 a heavy metal band from West Virgina messaged me on my Youtube Channel, Stanimatorblue to request that I collaborate by using their music in my animation. I recently responded by creating an animated music video to the song "Bl99ding Into The Sunset" It's a song about mortality,and the perpetual angst of not knowing what the purpose of ones life is.

On September 2, 2009 I entered an animation into the Aniboom/History Channel People Speak Animation Competition. The voting process has begun. The winner gets a cash prize of $35,000, and a further development deal with History and Aniboom. So far, my entry, "Brother Can You Spare A Dime," has a two star rating, and 68 views. Your vote could really help me out here, so please watch and vote. Than you!

On Labor Day, 9/7/09, I was invited to the Congregation B'nia Shalom Labor Day BBQ to draw caricatures. My wife video taped me doing one of the caricatures of a little girl with her parent's permission of course to be part of a series of video demonstrations of my drawing talent.

These videos can be viewed on Youtube on the Stanimatorblue Channel.


My wife and I also found a great book called How To Draw Dragons And Other Mythical Creatures by Emmett Elvin, available at Barnes & Nobel $7.98.

I have never seen a better book on the subject matter for such a great price. Emmett explains how to draw different kinds of dragons, a centaur, a chimera, Medusa, a phoenix, and many more classic mythical creatures using a step by step process that is illustrated in detail. The first step of drawing a dragon is to draw what is called the"line of action." This is like a stick figure only it should be drawn in the pose that the dragon is going to be in the drawing. Then he draws basic shapes over that. A sphere for the head, a cylinder for arms, and cone shapes for claws, etc. Then Emmett explains how to draw the details of each part of a dragon's anatomy.
As a caricaturist I draw with a sharpie marker; without the ability to erase. Emmett's process seemed counter intuitive to me at first, because I have always just drawn what I vision in my minds eye without all the planning and the construction lines. Using a number 2 pencil, I followed along with the exercises in this book. My first dragon drawing looked really messy, and I thought "This doesn't work. I'm going to just draw it my way." Then I ran into the problem of losing the pose. With caricatures all I draw is the face, which is far simpler than dragons. In fact, a caricature of anything is far simpler than the style of illustration Emmett demonstrates in his "How To Draw Dragons And Other Mythical Creatures," book. I found myself having to draw the line of action, and the construction drawing before adding in the details in order to get the super detailed look for the dragon drawing that makes it look convincingly real. I have uploaded my dragon drawings to Flickr here:


Then I used tracing paper to clean up my lines before scanning it in to Photoshop CS. The magic wand tool allows me to select all the negative space around the lines, so I can create a PNG file to import into Flash Professional 8. There's something about Flash that I find far superior to any painting/design application I have ever used before. The pencil tool has three modes: curved lines, straight lines, and freehand mode. Using the curved line mode makes each line so precise, you would think I used french curves to draft them in. The paint brush tool has a "paint behind" feature that will paint behind lines and brush strokes as if they were on a separate layer. Sections of your work can be grouped and pushed back and forward within layers. All of these features, not offered in Photoshop saves hours of time.
After importing my PNG of the cleaned up illustration of my dragon attack scene, I created a new layer and traced over the PNG with the pencil tool. Then I locked that layer, and made a new layer to add in color. The fire spraying out of the dragon's mouth lights up the knight's shield. Making the fire a "movie clip," allows me to access filters where I can blur the flames make them look more convincing. The knight's shield casts a shadow over him. Making the knight a movie clip, allows me to adjust brightness. Toning his shiny armor down gives me the look I'm searching for in this illustration.



You won't find this exact illustration in Emmett Elvin's book, because I have used the lessons I've learned from it to create my own original illustration. I have a hard time with just copying a drawing out of a book, unless it's my first time drawing in a new style. It took several attempts to achieve this level of proficiency in this illustration. I intend on developing my skills more with an ambition to use my skills to draw for role playing games online and children's book illustration.

I am always trying to hone my creative talent into something that will have commercial and public appeal. When you have a wedding how do you proclaim your love for your solemate so that it's perfectly clear to everyone how deeply in love you are to each other? A caricature can exaggerate the expressive features of your face such as eyes, lips or hair, but especially the nose or even the ears! Drawing these features in a way that says who that person is makes it clearer than it could ever be in any photographic medium without computer aide. When you have a caricaturist perform at your party event, you get to see the magic of the artist's creative process.
How do you show your grandfather how much you appreciate the fact that he is still alive on his 80th birthday? Giving information, music selections, photographs, and family video footage, I can create your very own custom 2D animation. This is like a caricature, only it comes to life on camera to tell everyone your grandfather's story or any story for that matter. Animation is the best way to show someone what's on your mind.
Stanimation Productions aims to provide all of these services (caricatures, custom illustration, design, and 2D animation) to help you reach your goals with your family and at the workplace for affordable prices that compete with the more well known studios in your area.