Fan art of Ivy Pepper from Tracy Butler's latest Lackadaisy Cats animated short! As cute as she is as a teen, she's even cuter as a child! From sketch~ To finished painting~ Sepia tone~ My fan art video~ The much better animated short! "Oh no,it's precocious"

 Yes,it's based on the 1982 song by Duran Duran! Preppy boy meets party girl~from sketch~ To finished painting~ To video!

 There was a time in the Grand Canyon that burros and donkeys were used to navigate the trails. More sure-footed than horses,but more stubborn for sure! That is why I chose this gal to represent the state. From sketch~ To finished painting~ To video featuring the state song~

A LONG, long time ago, in a small country-village in Japan, there lived a poor farmer and his wife, who were very good people. They had a number of children, and found it very hard to feed them all. The elder son was strong enough when only fourteen years old to help his father; and the little girls learned to help their; mother almost as soon as they could walk. But the youngest child, a little boy, did not seem to be fit for hard work. He was very clever,-cleverer than all his brothers and sisters; but he was quite weak and small, and people said he could never grow very big. So his parents thought it would be better for him to become a priest than to become a farmer. They took him with them to the village-temple one day, and asked the good old priest who lived there, if he would have their little boy for his acolyte, and teach him all that a priest ought to know. The old man spoke kindly to the lad, and asked him some hard questions. So clever were the ...

 It was a lovely day in November.  At least Tom thought it was November, the air was crisp and cool and it felt Novemberish.  There were no calenders here, while he had a clock he rarely looked at it.  He never had to be anywhere at any particular time in any event, when he had to be somewhere he always showed up on time, if that's the word for it.  Anyway, it was a nice November day. Tom stood on his porch that surrounded the small field stone house, he could see and smell the smoke from his neighbor's fires, someone was cooking fish and the big cat was salivating.  Since he had had his coffee he wasn't hungry, but once a predator always a predator.  Odd, he thought, I haven't had meat since I got here.  When did I get here?  he thought to himself, I don't remember.  Maybe someplace in town sold meat, although he had never seen such a shop.  It didn't matter, what with the bread and potatoes and butter and honey he wa...

 The title for this painting is from a early 1900's Edwardian song about a little bird on the lady's hat that knew her better than her"beau" did! Hats of this era were fantastic creations decorated with flowers,bows,birds,ribbons,you name it! From sketch~ To finished painting~ To video with the song that inspired this~

  There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers. They were all brothers, born of the same old tin spoon. They shouldered their muskets and looked straight ahead of them, splendid in their uniforms, all red and blue. The very first thing in the world that they heard was, "Tin soldiers!" A small boy shouted it and clapped his hands as the lid was lifted off their box on his birthday. He immediately set them up on the table. All the soldiers looked exactly alike except one. He looked a little different as he had been cast last of all. The tin was short, so he had only one leg. But there he stood, as steady on one leg as any of the other soldiers on their two. But just you see, he'll be the remarkable one. On the table with the soldiers were many other playthings, and one that no eye could miss was a marvelous castle of cardboard. It had little windows through which you could look right inside it. And in front of the castle were miniature trees around a little mir...

Prologue   Benvento Cellini wrote that ' All men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done anything of excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they be persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand'.  Of course, Cellini was a genius artist and a psychopath who had something to say.  I'm not even a man, not anymore.  I have never been one, the Transition took place when I was a boy, I no longer remember my human body or appearance.  Hell, I no longer remember anything before the war, just the endless training and the soldiers I served with.  I was younger than the others, most of them were condemned to the Enhanced Infantry program, I was part of the 'Operation Ten Thousand'*, which took orphans and juvenile delinquents and bound them over to the Combat Modification program.  Of course, nothing like 10,000 went through the process, I think I was in the last group selected.  After a...