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blog Personal Spain/France '22

Mysterious 2022 European Adventure

I was teaching several subjects online for Varsity Tutors, including AP Art History, Java Script, Geography, Animation, Drawing/Painting and even Minecraft Coding Camps. My father, Timothy Szal, wanted to go on an extended trip to Europe for more than two months. So, I took a brief sabbatical from teaching, and we planned to go to Paris for three to four weeks and then walk across Spain on the famous “Camino Trail.”

My father had recently employed me to redesign and renovate a second building on the 1342 Meadow Glen property in Southlake. We had discussed my being able to rent out the place for two years in exchange for payment (I also spent a good deal of my own money on extra design elements like the turtle knobs on the bathroom cabinets).

My father “accidentally” pushed me down a steep cliff while we were passing from the border of France into Spain near the Pyrenees Mountains. The fall hurt my leg, and about halfway through the “Camino Trail”, I was forced to stay back and rest in Burgos while my father continued without me. He returned after several days with 5 Spanish thugs who tried to subdue me. I was able to run off, and they followed me on the trail for a day until I doubled back. I told my father I was going to the American Embassy, and we flew back to Dallas from Madrid.

I had several strange signs that my father did not plan on me returning. The most significant sign was that my Capital One bank account was closed because I had not had any activity in 60 days – yet my Adobe account for Photoshop, After Effects, and other Adobe products had a payment from that account on May 8th. I also had over $600 in Federal Savings Bonds that I mailed to the bank to turn into money, which got returned as a check (possibly so that anyone could cash them).

I can’t help feeling that after some of the events that took place last year, some of Timothy Szal’s behavior seems quite a bit more suspicious. I just pray that someone on the State or Federal level looks into what has happened. I have a small claims court case in the works now, so hopefully, this will all be resolved from these proceedings.

Categories
Studio The American Game The American Game Deck

The Making of the “American Game” Football Tarot

NFL Football season is back once again, so I thought I would share some more information about a project I have worked on for the last couple of years (there are three different deck versions in total).

This video covers much of the physical process behind the making of my “football tarot” cards. I used emblems from the 500-year-old book Devises Heroiques. Each emblem has a conceptual or actual reference to a modern-day NFL team. For example, I used an emblem with a bear for the Chicago Bear’s card.

Below is an example of what the emblems look like in the book version:

Categories
blog The Flying Dutchess

Flying Dutchess Update

Howdy everyone, I thought I would give all my blog readers a sneak peak at some of the new The Flying Dutchess (TFD) content in the works.

The idea of having a “broom-craft carrier” is influenced by WW2 style aircraft carrier’s with planes that take-off and land. Instead of having the flying units (mid-ship mages) run off the deck, an opening door in the rear allows magick users to fly in and out as well as hippocampus (Greek: water horse) drawn boats/individual riders.

I have also been working on several aquatic scenes with ocean animals such as this seal, dolphins and turtles to name a few. Every magick user in the series has a naval dirk that they use to cast spells and a flying animal plus a land/water animal that fly on the end of their broom.

The first battle of the Anglo-Dutch war takes place near the Straits of Dover ( also called the Battle of Goodwin Sands). This is Dover Castle which is visible from this area. It has a magickal shield that protects it from attacks in the air and sea.

These images show off the new style of the series (it has gone through several different stylistic variations), which is an 8-bit/16-bit retro Game Boy Advance aesthetic. This image below is of Astrid casting a spell with her naval dirk, in the finalized look for the show.

Visit the www.theflyingdutchess.com for more content and updates along with the instagram account: @theflyingdutchessoffical

Categories
blog watercolor

Pershing Square Watercolors

I was blessed to move to Los Angeles last year at the end of September 2022. As many of the Old Masters once painted the buildings and sculptures in the parks and squares of cities they lived, I have endeavored to do so in reverence to them.

Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building – watercolor on paper, Oct. 2022

In an attempt to cure my insatiable love of Art Deco buildings, I visited Pershing Square. The Title & Trust building is an Art Deco gem situated off the square, named after prestigious WW1 General Pershing himself, mastermind of the Argonne Forest Campaign. In this watercolor, I did not do any underdrawing with pencil or pen and painted this with the brush from observation with no reference photographs. This process increases dexterity with the brush and better economy of line with each brush stroke.

View from Pershing Square Two – watercolor on paper, Oct. 2022

Pershing Square was redesigned by Ricardo Legorreta in the 1990s and these elegant, orange spheres feature prominently in the square vibrant new look.

A photograph of the Title Guarantee and Trust Building with Orange Sphere in foreground
Categories
acrylic blog gallery oils old gems Studio

Ft. Worth Weekly ft. Fringe Gallery Exhibition May 2013

View the article online here: https://www.fwweekly.com/2013/05/15/gallery-47/


“Urban Bull”- 2013, acrylic and wax on canvas
Categories
acrylic blog Studio

Veteran’s Day Art Competition 2009

I found this from my Junior year of high school in 2009, was blessed to be the winner of this ‘Southlake Carroll Veteran’s Day Art Competition”

“Pledge to Lady Liberty” \\ 16 x 20 – acrylic on canvas, 2009

I was obliged to give a speech at the award ceremony during the ‘Veteran’s Day’ pep rally. I saluted and walked off the stage since I knew they would rather see the picture than hear me talking about it. Sometimes the frame can bring out a mood or more profound statement by monumentalizing the picture plane. I always have been drawn to the play of middle red and blue, like the colors of 3d glasses.

Categories
blog Sketchbook

Virgo de Irunbidea

Virgo de Irunbidea statue drawing from sketch book – April 2022, Spain
Photo of statue
Categories
Press

Sept. ‘03 Newspaper feature

This is an old newspaper article with photo of my friend Travis, Kent and myself at Westlake Academy. I went half a semester in 6th grade before transferring to public school again with Southlake Carroll School District.

Bottom of Front Page – North East Tarrant Morning News on Sept, 3rd of 2003
Page 4 w/ photo feature
Categories
europa watercolor

Burgos Fountain Watercolor

Fountain in Front of the Burgos Cathedral – Watercolor on Watercolor Paper ( 7th of May 2022)