The Dr. Ferretstein project

Some of you may have already heard that I have been working on a steam punk project of late. It has been going well, and I am ready to share some rough sketches with you. But first I would like to describe the project a little, so here goes.

The folks at The Gamers Realm have kindly asked me to help them with their project they call "Dr. Ferretstein". This involves bringing to life 10 characters in sketch form (3 views of each character), and 3 polished color images. They intend to brand their retail game store with these characters, and I believe use them as inspiration and illustration in stories later on.

So what's the gist of this story line? Basically, it involves animals who speak, wear clothes, and carry themselves as though they are human. Together with their human friends they have adventures and invent all manner of exciting things in a steam punk world.

What's steam punk you ask? Perhaps this will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

I have had a lot of fun with these sketches so far, and only 5 of the characters have been completed. Please enjoy, and check back later to see the final images I have created for these sketches and later developments in the project.


This is Dr. Thomas Honeysweet, a lemur who is Ferretstein's old college buddy and current rival/nemesis:






This is Sir "Robin" Snuffington, a polar bear who is Dr. Ferretstein's lab assistant:





This is Buck Lattimer, an armadillo who is the pilot of Ferretsteins combat dirigible (and a proud Texan):





This is Miss Helene Fischer, a sugar glider who is a nurse:





This is Farnsworth, a butler who is a blue poison dart frog:

The Prisoner - decoded

In a previous post I suggested a deeper meaning within my painting "The Prisoner ".
I have heard several ideas about what is going on here, some are right some aren't . While I can't know for sure how you will interpret this or any image, I hope that in reading this and reviewing the painting for yourself you may be inspired to look deeper in to works of art ... to tell yourself the story.

What can be seen? Well what can't be seen is another person in the room. He is alone. The work is called "The Prisoner", is this room his prison? Is he reflecting on actually being imprisoned in the past? Is the prison in his mind? Is he a prisoner to an addiction?

We see the man and how he is dressed. He looks like any old fellow we have seen dozens of times down at the local pub. Very clearly he is wearing clothes that are typically American, so he must be American, and he looks to be the right age to have served in either WWII or Korea. A paper at his elbow reads a headline about American Veterans, and this is another clue. Likely it is why he is so pensive. What is he remembering? We can only guess. He stares down into his empty glass that once held what was "hotter than a desert brush fire, colder than a limpet shout", while the liquor bottle points up to another clue about his identity or perhaps what is on his mind. It's the clock with the "Prisoner Of War - Missing In Action" emblem on it. The clock itself sends a dark message about the passage of time, but how deep the meaning may be entirely dependent upon what your relationship is to time and personal loss.

We also see the white walls, and wooden beams behind him. If you look at the texture on the walls, the half circles may begin to look more like wings and the texture like feathers. Notice that there is a white space between them leads up and out of the painting. This is his escape. Is the escape death? I don't know, perhaps. Maybe its not death but symbolic of something abstract that can't be painted in such a realistic scene. Well, hey, at least there is an escape. Right?

I had mentioned earlier that he looks like an average old fella, just down at the local pub for a drink. The lonely figure like so many we have seen, whether its at a pub or a public park. If there is a big "so what" to this painting it is this: that perhaps we should talk to that guy sometime. Hear his story.

Casual conversation may make the all difference for what that "escape" turns out to be.