The house that Anthony and Mark drew

In the summer of 2003 a cousin of mine, Susan, on my Dad's side of the family, came down to San Diego on business and wanted to get together. We talked about what we both had been doing and things we wanted to do. I mentioned to her that I felt I was at a point in my life where I needed and wanted to get back to painting again. Afterwards I actually had forgotten about the whole conversation and went on with my life as usual and didn't do anything with my art at all. On my second trip to Hawaii between Dec. 2003 and Jan. of 2004, while visiting with her parents, Sue called and wanted to know if I would be interested in helping her boyfriend at the time, Anthony, on some art projects that he was involved in. He was working for an architectural firm in Santa Barbara, CA. doing computer renderings but was looking to start his own business. She had remembered the conversation that she and I had back in the summertime. I am glad she did because looking back I needed something to get me moving forward again with my art. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to not doing the things I know I should! 

When I got back from Hawaii I went up to Lompoc, CA where they were living to see how I could help him. The powers to be at the time still liked the traditional look of water color art. So Anthony was trying to meld the two together. I was amazed at what he was drawing on the computer and it blew me away. I was a little intimidated when he asked me about doing some art on the computer but was willing to learn. Over the next several months we worked on one piece and I did some other art for him but things didn't pan out. It was a lot of fun and it had rekindled the love of art in me again. I remember my first trip up there, one night we went out to dinner to celebrate Sue’s birthday with Anthony’s parents and his Mom asked me what I did for a living. I told her and then my cousin said that I was there to see if I could help Anthony with what he was doing and then made the comment that I was a real artist. His Mom got somewhat mad. Sue was not trying to be degrading to Anthony talents, he is a great artist! It reminded me of my mom and how she would do the same thing when she thought someone was talking bad about my abilities. We smoothed things over with the clarification that Anthony is a computer artist and I am a traditional one. We do the same thing, just use different tools! I enjoyed working with him and would do it again if I got the chance.

Some of the type of art I did while working with Anthony. He would scan the art and paste it where he needed. It could be reused over and over again to save time. 

This is probably my favorite piece I did. The Bird Of Paradise, the bigger one.
I was so proud of it. I should finish it and frame it! 

These are the drawings Anthony emailed me for the house rendering we worked 
on together. I used them to create the pool area and the left side of the 
hose renderings below.

The sky for the background of the house rendering. I did this in about a half  hour while

I was up inLompoc one weekend working with Anthony. My first attempt didn't go 

so good so I started over. I was trying to do the clouds and sky with just the 

blue color but ended up painting a wash and then doing the clouds on top.

The hills here and the two pieces below I did at home.

The left side of the house.

The pool area.

The final rendering. Anthony did the house and the plants in the lower left and redid the color for the pool The rest is my artwork. The art I did was scanned and then Anthony put everything together on the computer. Not bad for a couple of white boys! The house is in Goleta just north of Santa Barbara, CA. It was up in the hills and this view, the back of the house, looked out towards the ocean. I would love to see it now. At the time it was under construction. The roof was done but the rest of the house was pretty much still stud framing. The family room was as big as my house.