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.