In Memoriam: Cujo

I ended up with a very unique commission last week from a co-worker at my day job. Tim called me up from our service department about his German Shepherd, Cujo a couple of weeks back.  Through some unfortunate and cruel actions on the part of a couple of young local soldiers (I live next to Ft. Campbell, KY,) Tim's dog was poisoned here in town.  The guilty parties are being held accountable financially though the military but the loss of Cujo left a large empty space in Tim's life so he explained to me his idea for a memorial to remember the big guy by.  He delivered to me a 200 lb concrete statue of a German Shepherd and asked me to paint it to look like his dog which I was happy to do being a dog lover and understanding what it meant to him.

Here's a picture of Tim with his Cujo memorial as well as some process pictures from where I painted him.  The statue was too big to carry up the stairs at my apartment building so I stayed after work at the office and painted him there.

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Filling the Nail...

I've been a Stephen King fan and avid reader for as long as I can remember. I picked up the Dark Tower series in the 7th grade, my Sophomore English teacher in high school didn't believe I read IT for my book report because it was 1100 pages long, and I ended up writing my final essay on him my Junior year. I was at the bookstore the day the last Dark Tower book came out and read it more slowly and patiently than any other book in my life, savoring every scene. And if you are a constant reader of his, you'll understand my glee in the manner the Crimson King was "erased." (And of course, now Marvel has me hooked on these gorgeous hardcovers they're putting out of The Dark Tower comics.)

In King's On Writing, he mentioned a nail he kept in the wall next to his typewriter, which he posted rejection letters. After a couple of years, he had to replace the nail with a spike. I've had a nail next to my drawing table for just over two years now. I guess I need to start looking for a spike...