Serious Cycling

I did this painting for a chiropractor who is obsessed with cycling. Its a 24 x 36, normally I don't paint that big, it was an enjoyable experience. The problem is I don't paint fast enough, so it takes me forever. The challenge was to make a painting that was inspirational, I have him coming from the city to the mountains, catching the first rays of sun. What could be more inspiring than that. I might be a cycler to if I could afford those sweet bikes and if I could wear those shorts.

Funny story, when I was a teenager, I cant remember the age but about mid teen. My brother Isaac, my friend Richard and I were biking around. We went up to the McDonalds that was near our house. We wanted to go play on the playplace there. We had no bike locks so we found a place in this dumpster area to hide our bikes while we went into the restaurant, after we got kicked out of the playplace for being too big we went back for our bikes. The bike I was riding which was my dads and my brothers bike which was actually my sisters were stolen. The only bike remaining was my friend Richards and his was the most expensive out of the three, it was a racing bike like the ones above.

Of Royal Birth

This is a crown I painted for my sister in law Amber. To show the young women that they are daughters of God, It was painted on a banner. It included 8 jewels for the 8 young women values, then I added my own symbolism. I wanted it to be a crown that a King or Queen of Israel would wear. Some of the symbols include the dove on top with the olive branch symbolizing the Holy Ghost or peace. The Royal Cross he is perched on symbol of the Cross of Christ.  The cherubim wings that come up both sides of the crown. Cherubim of course guarding the paradise or presence of God. I have the sego lily flowers that the pioneers subsisted on when they were starving (modern day manna). The beehives representing industry and community. The menorah in the middle, of course showing the tree of life. It is in circle and square or in other words heaven and earth uniting. On the sides I put the grapes with the vine. Representing the sacrament and Christ as the true vine and us the branches bringing forth fruit. It was fun.

Be a Monson Missionary

I did this project because I had an excuse to do it. A few years back, I was the ward mission leader, I proposed making I poster similar to this illustration for the benefit of our ward. The message is you don't need to change anything drastically in your life in order to be a member missionary. You just need to follow President Monson's example and go to the rescue, lift where you stand, follow the Spirit. The bishop in that ward wanted to get an ok on doing a caricature of the prophet. I left the ward soon after. Recently I had to teach Missionary Work in Gospel Principles class, so I made up these cards to hand out. (Its hard for an artist to forget about a art project he gets excited about doing)

In this picture, my process was a little different. I was pleased to see it turn out the way it did. I drew it all out, scanned it into the computer, printed the drawing out again with blue lines, inked the lines, scanned it in again, removed the blue lines in Photoshop. Printed a second light drawing out, painted it so it looked more like a watercolor, scanned it in and combined the lines with the painting and there it is.

Baptism of Christ, Baptism of Moses Pack

This is a picture I made for my nephew Moses's baptism, I just wanted to help him see the act he was performing in being baptized was in similitude of the Savior and he did a good job.
My mom wasn't a fan of the shirtless Jesus, probably because it looks very Catholic, but I thought this was a possibility back at his time. Sometimes we like to impose our understanding of the present on the past. Religious or cultural.

This illustration was done by drawing then inking the lines, then scanning in and coloring on the computer. I used to think that you couldn't make it in the art world if you only knew how to draw, I thought every artist needed to learn to paint to find success. I believe I was wrong.

Smarter Than A 6th Grader

I couldn't resist doing this picture of Senator Feinstein. She was so pompous and so absurd, when she started to lecture Ted Cruz who was telling her the Constitution prohibits gun control. She exclaimed, "I'm not a 6th grader." She believed she didn't need a review of the 2nd Amendment.

I would say a 6th grader would know what the Constitution says about gun control, she is probably as smart as a 2nd grader because she has no clue or she could care less about the Constitution she has sworn to uphold.

It was fun to do a political cartoon, kind of challenging making something using just values and line work to create interest. If I had more time I would do more political drawings. Maybe some wouldn't enjoy my bantering.

House of Light

I painted this picture for a friend, it was more like a trade. He has done a lot of car work for me, so I thought I needed to do something in return.
He wanted a picture of the temple he was married in. I have seen a lot of pictures of the temple and I wondered how I could do something different. So I brought all the buildings close together to make some good negative and positive space. The advantage of painting or creating a picture with your hands as opposed to shooting a picture with your camera. Temples usually stand by themselves as does the Salt Lake Temple, so that is why I had to pull these buildings in.
The other thing I wanted to convey was that the world is dark and lonely while the temple brings light and happiness. I know the buildings that are darker in this picture are church buildings but that's what I had to work with gathering all the light to the focus which is the temple.

Bachelor of Fine Arts Final Project

Sacrifice of Mrs. Lewis

Independence Now, Independence Forever

Fugitive Signer

Cannoneer Nelson

Bulletproof Washington

Black Paul Revere

This was a series of paintings I did so I could graduate from Brigham Young University with an Illustration degree. It was fun to do, I really admire these individuals, they are all from the Revolutionary Period, they all sacrificed to bring about the glorious liberties that we have enjoyed for so long that are now being lost and in the balance. The show was called Revolutionary Heroes, I wanted to tell what I believe is the real story of the Revolution, that has in it sacrifice and miracles. Sometimes we get revisionist history that is really critical of the founding fathers, trying to negate what they brought about.
The thing that was really amazing to me was the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. I thought that was just a saying but many of them ended up in prison, their families and they were hunted down. One guy I painted John Hart, he stayed in the woods for about a month during the winter hiding from the Hessian troops. Comes back to find his wife had died in the meantime, he dies prematurely a few years later due to exposure.
The style I tried was puppet looking characters, big heads, hands, and feet. I think if you want to make a good painting or drawing, you have to nail the head and hands, the rest of it doesn't matter as much.

Ron Paul Wins

I did this digital illustration during the 2012 Election Season. As you can tell by now, Ron Paul is my hero. This was based off of the Republican debates where Ron Paul challenged Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney to a 20 mile bike race in Houston in the heat of the sun. So I had fun with this one. Santorum is rockin the sweater vest with a Jesus Fish tatoo. Mitt is a Mormon missionary on a bike, Gingrich is a pimp with hat, cane, goblet and all, referring to his loose morality, and Ron Paul is a principled colonial Constitutionalist. I hoped they would have done that race, more so I hoped that Ron Paul would have come off victorious in the Presidential Race.

Keynesian Chaos

Maybe you can tell by now, I am a bit political in my pictures, and in some of the things I say. I did this picture when thinking of all the free money the government was giving Wall Street in hopes of saving them.
In the back I have the Keynesians, John Maynard Keynes himself and Ben Bernanke.
They are trying to save our country by doing all the wrong things, regulation, pumping up certain well connected businesses, and running up trillions in debt.
In the front I have the Austrian School of Economics, with Ron Paul, Friedrich Hayek and the Ludwig von Mises. They are building a solid foundation on gold, or sound money. They believe in saving, not regulating businesses out of existence, not favoring certain companies over others, and letting the market work. Financially their ideas would save our country. But unfortunately our government agrees with Nixon who said, "We are all Keynesians now."

New York Breakin

This was the second of the series of music dance city pieces. I thought New York is a little more gangsta, so I did the old school boombox with break dancers. I was looking at Rudy Gutierrez, he does a lot of great music pieces in his art. I hope I captured a little movement. I used Herman Cain's head for the guy on the right to dance on. (It would look more like him if you could see his mustache and if he had glasses on) If that's disrespectful, that's ok.

Rudy Gutierrez

Chicago Steppin

This illustration is highlighting how cool Chicago is, at least their music and dancing. Their politics are terrible. Chicago Steppin is a style of dancing that I first learned about listening to R Kelly music, he is obsessed with that type of dancing. It looks fun, I would actually like to take lessons with my wife.
My grandma married my grandpa because he was a good dancer and a looker. I know I didn't get my wife due to dancing, I don't have two left feet but I'm not great.
The painting was fun, I was influenced by my brother Nate Pack's work, he does a lot of music pieces in his paintings with these crazy hands, I can't get as crazy with my work (although I wish I could sometimes), I'm more reserved with my style. Below is a picture of my brother's work.

Nate Pack

Sin, Circus, President

In this picture I have Abraham Lincoln pulling the rug or the flag from underneath Jefferson Davis as he is trying to juggle the Confederate States of America. In some ways I really side with Jefferson Davis, I don't like how our country Nationalized during the Presidency of Lincoln. The original intent of the Constitution is for states to have their Sovereignty. I don't agree with people having the freedom or right to own slaves. It goes against life, liberty, and property for everyone. the massive death toll of the Civil War makes me think there could have been a more civil way of handling the slave issue. I am not sure that was the reason for the civil war, I think it was because the North was losing revenue, the people who were being majorly taxed through tariffs were leaving the Union. Lincoln, was he a hero or a villain? I dont know.

Ben Gogh

This was a personal piece I created for my profiles online, my avatar. I can relate to Van Gogh as an artist, his work is amazing. He was a little unbalanced, if you remember this portrait which I painted my face on was the one he painted of himself after he had cut off his ear. (I added blood to the bandaging) Some think that you can only be a good artist if you are unbalanced or a little crazy. Probably true. My only critique of this picture I painted was from my mom, she doesn't like how I am smoking. But if I took out the pipe, it would make no sense, it would no longer represent Van Gogh.

Franky and Glinda

This was a fun piece, the only direction on this was to paint a picture about Halloween. My favorite activity before Halloween is carving pumpkins so I thought it would be fun to have Halloween characters on a date doing the same thing. It was fun to modernize these characters at least Frankenstein with a mullet.

None of the Prophets Have Written, Nor Prophesied, Save They Have Spoken Concerning This Christ

I did this piece for the most recent LDS Church International Art Competition, I was please to have made it in. I always loved to go to see the winning art at the Church Museum of Art but to be a part of it was a really cool experience. Plus refreshments were served opening night, I felt like a celebrity. Not so much, but it was nice. My blub on this painting.

The message of this painting is that Christ is the source we look to for our salvation. Prophets have testified of Christ’s mission and His saving role throughout the ages (see Jacob 7:11). Prophets today repeat what has been said concerning Him, prophesy of His future coming, and teach us what He would have us do. The prophet in this painting represents all the prophets throughout time. The words coming from his mouth are statements found in the scriptures about Christ. How marvelous are God’s works in giving us prophets to lead us to Him.

I loved incorporating words with the image, I did the word digitally then painted on top. I was thinking of Greg Manchess when I painted this. His illustrations are beautiful, he paints with oil, I actually tried to use his process on this piece. He starts with dark muddy colors pretty thin and as he builds up he paints over the paint he has laid down thicker and more vibrant color.

Richard III

In this picture I have Richard the 3rd gloating over his king brother's death, conspiring how to take the reigns, how to put those who are in his way out of the way. Shakespeare's play is amazing. I added Shakespeare's face to the two characters in this poster. Also I wanted Richard to touch his spiny fingers together much in the same way that evil Mr. Burns does it.

Portrait of Kellie

This assignment was to paint a portrait of someone we knew, it could be ourselves. My teacher didn't want to see a direct portrait just sitting on a chair or just showing their face but capture who they are. My wife was a good subject because she was a free model and I hadn't painted a portrait of her before. This painting is an example of a happy accident. I did my color study on the computer and printed it out, it printed out the gray area in the middle and cut off the top and bottom, so I used colored pencils and finished those parts on the paper. The result was saturated top and bottom, grayed down middle. My teacher saw it and was really excited, he couldn't wait to see the finish. So I finished it that way and it was a success.

Faces of Arnold Schwarzenegger

In this illustration, I wanted to do people with buildings on their heads to represent the type of people they were. I was going to do a Christian with a church building on their head, like Joel Osteen. I thought about doing a shopaholic like Paris Hilton with a shopping mall on her head. But I ended up choosing Arnold Schwarzenegger because he has worn many hats, he was a bodybuilder extraordinaire, a movie superstar, and a not so good Governor. I thought about doing him as adulterer but couldn't think of a building to represent that. Maybe a brothel?

Boy Who Cried Wolf

This is a picture that started with a plein air study, I had to figure out what I would put in this boring empty field, (no it was beautiful in it's own right). I thought the boy who cried wolf and some sheep was a perfect fit. I really love the paintings that have a main subject in shadow. And in this case it made the wolf look more sinister. I liked the silhouette that the wolf made. In order to make the boy look like he was leaping to get out of there I had to add the strong shadow behind him.

River Otter with Buffalo Fish

This was a painting that came from a plein air painting. We were supposed to do something with this landscape we had just painted. We painted out in Utah Valley near the Utah Lake, it was pretty marshy out there. Swatting mosquitos while your trying to paint. I took the studies home and decided to do the big catch pose. I did a drawing earlier of this mythological creature that I made up called a buffalo fish. It was based off a painting of Native Americans on a hunt, one of the buffalo looked weird and reminded me of a fish so I drew one. And I added the river otter to be the fisherman. It was fun to paint fur.

Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning

This was another project that started with a plein air study. The Provo Tabernacle was burned down. It was a building with a lot of history and much sacrifice in building. We spent several days doing on site studies of the building. The LDS Church decided to rebuild it and turn it into Provo's second temple. I painted this building as the finished temple and wanted it to have ghost flames representing the fire that took place here but also the spiritual flames that will be emanating from this building once it is dedicated as a House of the Lord.

Cowboys and Indians

This painting was for my Plein Air class, we went out to a site, in this case the Provo Center Street. Then we had to come up with some kind of illustration that used that background. The building I was painting dated back to the late 1800's, so it made me think of the skirmishes of the early Mormon pioneers with the Indians. In Provo I believe there was a battle between the two groups, so I wanted to portray them having a good time together, hanging out.

With this piece my paint was a little more watery, so it looked washed out. My teacher Greg Newbold commented that it looked like some of the old 80's illustration, that he liked it. I want to experiment more with it.

Obama Devolution

This is a personal piece I did after listening to too much conservative talking heads. I tried to show Obama's path is taking us down the road to serfdom or Socialism. I believe this is a devolution of freedom and liberty.

Fish for Club

I did this for a Fishery club at BYU. They weren't so much fishers as fish studiers, they were biologist that loved fish. They wanted a design for a t-shirt. Hard client to please because I wanted to do something stylized, but they wanted more representational, they would tell me to add this or that anatomical feature. I did this one on Illustrator. It turned out well to where I was pleased and they were pleased.

Nate the Mechanic

This portrait I did for a show called "Players". The show required painting a portrait of a contributing member of society. I chose to paint Nate who owns a mechanic shop in Provo called Car Doctors. I painted this piece almost life size, it stands at about 5'8'', I painted it with oil on masonite board. I cut it out so it looks like those stand up cardboard celebrity cutouts you see at stores. (Like Justin Bieber below)

When it was in my studio, my wife and others would walk by and get scared that there was someone there. My plan is to make portraits of my family (My wife, my child and myself) all life size and all cut out.

Jesse Ventura's Smackdown on Conspiracy

I did this picture for a Zine in my Illustration 3 class. Jesse Ventura host of Conspiracy Theory and former wrestler is here breaking up a conspiratorial meeting between former President Bush and President Obama. It was a fun piece to do, I wish I could see this in real life. Someone needs to put an end to this madness.

Still Life

Tiger Lily's Capture

This painting was done for my Narrative 1 class. The scene is from Peter Pan. Tiger Lily has been taken by Captain Hook's crew. I have her here with Smee who is playing the violin for her. He is a lonely pirate and thinks she may be impressed. It's unfortunate that they have taken her against her will. Otherwise she may have given Smee a chance.

I have the crocodile that Hook hates under them. Unbeknownst to them, they are riding on his back. By the way I am taking artistic license. Much of what I am describing is not in the book. I am making up story between the lines.

Big Friendly Giant

This was a book cover I did for my Narrative 2 class. The book is the BFG by Roald Dahl, as a kid I loved Dahl books including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. BFG was one of my favorites.

When I created this picture I was thinking of N.C. Wyeth's Pirates.

There is something beautiful about combining gray scale with one strong color. It seems to make a successful piece.

The BFG is of course the Big Friendly Giant, he is a vegetarian (actually he eats mainly one vegetable which is a snozzcumber). His brothers our man-eating, children-eating giants. So in this piece I have the BFG hiding his little friend Sophie cupped in his hands behind him.

While his brothers show up unexpectedly to harass their little brother. I modeled the brothers after motorcyclists, because they can be a rough crowd.

Old Maid

This was an assignment I did in my Illustration I class at BYU, the project guideline was to make a decorative illustration. I chose to redesign the Old Maid card from the Old Maid card game.

Whenever I would play this game with my brothers, whoever was dealt this card at the first usually kept it throughout the game because the corner was bent, so you knew who was in possession of the Old Maid card.

In creating this picture I used Doze Green as my inspiration. He is a street artist who uses lots of lines. I love to use lines in my artwork because it keeps the art looking flat but then I use modeling inside the outlined area for interest. I know it takes away the realism but I guess I couldn't ever get away from the coloring book look.

old paintings

 Apples

 Birdman

 Kellie

Rza