"Albert Einstein" - Original colored pencil drawing

"Albert Einstein" - An original colored pencil drawing done on colored pastel paper measuring approximately 16"x20."

"Freddy's Revenge" - Colored Pencil drawing

"Freddy's Revenge" - Original colored pencil drawing on pastel paper and measuring approximately 8"x10." 

Christopher Lee - "Vampire" Original Graphite Drawing

Halloween's just around the corner and this has inspired me to do some work based on horror movies.  Christopher Lee scared the hell out of me when I was a youngster and this is my homeage to his portrayal of Dracula in several Hammer films.  It was drawn with Prismacolor pencils on watercolor paper and measures approx 8.5" x 11."

Eddie Van Halen - "Guitar Wizard" Original graphite pencil drawing

Eddie Van Halen

  Eddie Van Halen - the greatest guitarist of an era when hard rock ruled the world (or at least my little part of it).  

  I started working on watercolor paper recently and I am so much happier with it; it is not as glossy a surface and holds the graphite better.  For this drawing, I used several different shades of grey Prismacolor pencils which I fairly roughly applied.  For the background, I used an electric eraser to remove graphite in spots.  It really helped add some good depth (and interest) to the drawing.

My Magic Mural; a look back

This is my "Magic Mural"; my homeage to magicians whom have all performed in Las Vegas at some point in their careers. I painted it on the wall of my studio around 2001 and it measured around seven feet long and four feet high. And in case you were wondering (okay, you probably weren't) it was painted by myself with acrylic paints. How long did it take? Well, since you're asking....it was completed over the course of a few weeks. I worked on it in my spare time; a few hours here and there. Okay you wanna know how many TOTAL hours it took? Now you're getting NOSY! But all right, I'll tell you. It took....around....50 or so hours. I am not sure because I didn't record the time I spent on it but I think that's about right.

As for the mural itself, I believe there are seventeen figures here (I counted the white lion as one I think - HEY I caught his likeness perfectly!) The cast included some lesser-known (but no less awesome) magical performers that I have come to respect and enjoy as well as big time headliners. These performers are (from the left and working clockwise) Shimada - shown here with jeweled thimbles on his fingers as part of a routine). And above him are the husband/wife team of the Pendragons; two buffed performers who are doing a routine in which Charlotte appears to float opon the very tip of a very large sword. To their left, holding the pink balloon which he is beginning to impale with a needle is Doug Henning. To his right is (my personal all time favorite) David Copperfield whom I met on the night of my 18th birthday and whom was so nice and wonderful to me and my mother and girlfriend that I will never forget it. Below him (in the bottom right corner) and lookin just smokin' is Las Vegas favorite Melinda. Directly to her left are Siegfried and Roy; two legendary performers (whom were also very nice to me). To their left; another Vegas duo Penn and Teller. These guys are just so awesome, I just don't know where to begin... To their left and slightly below is Lance Burton whose dove act is one of the coolest routines EVER. Going up and to the right sits Al Goshman with his big moustache and laid back attitude; he was a master of closeup magic. Above and slightly to the right is Richard Ross shown doing his mindbending version of a magic classic; the Chinese Linking Rings. To his right (directly above Penn and Teller) is Jeff McBride; clad in his Chinese Kabuki style makeup and a top hat. To his right is an odd sight; comedy magician The Amazing Jonathan showing off his beautiful Las Vegas ShowGIRL body! (Yeah, I did it. I just took a photo of his head and put it together with my picture of a showgirl and VIOLA!) I showed him a photo of it a few years ago and I don't know if he got it...he just kinda smiled and walked away.... Personally, I thought he had a pretty smokin body.... Anyway to his/her right is Jimmy Grippo; closeup performer at Caesars Palace for many years. He's shown here performing the trick in which he "splits" one silver into two on his outstretched hand. Directly above him is the "Professor" of magic, Dai Vernon performing his legendary version of the Cups and Balls trick. And (finally) to his left and sporting a beautifully embroidered sport coat is the "Master" himself, Slydini. Being an amateur magician myself, I have learned lots from the writings of Slydini as his approach to magic was always so natural and seemless.

Below the group the magicians I added a skyscape scene showing Vegas at night. The surrounding mountains are contrasted against a bright red sky. Look closely and you'll find a of the few hotels out of place. I felt that a few of them had to be moved in the interests of good design (and because many of the buildings were being blocked by others).

If you're still with me here, check out the photos of the next post which show the mural in progress as I was working on it all those years ago...

A Poem By My Great Grandfather "Lightly We Lift Life's Cup"

The included poem was written by Grant White; my great grandfather. He lived in Tracy, California where he was known as the "Songbird of the (San Joaquin) Valley" by those who listened to him recite his works on a local radio station.

A man of many talents, Grant even printed and hand bound all of his poetry books (and did a surperb job).

Criss Angel - Two Versions of pencil drawing

You can see the difference between scanning a drawing and photographing the same sketch. The drawing on the top was photographed with a digital camera and posted online. Everytime I looked at it, I knew the colors were all wrong. Now the new posted image (which I scanned) looks alot more like the original drawing...

"Sammy Hagar" Sketch in Graphite

A sketch of one of my favorite musicians; Sammy Hagar. I've been a fan of his since his days with Montrose and have been lucky enough to have seen him in concert several times and he always puts out 100% for his audience.

This sketch was a bit of a different style for me. I used a vellum paper which has a bit of a different tooth than drawing paper. I found myself using my eraser over and over again as I would build up a layer and knock it back again and again until I had the contrast and texture I wanted. I was very pleased with the results as I feel it has a kind of rough textured look to it and some really wonderful contrast. And this was all done with just a regular graphite pencil.

"Las Vegas Magic" Mural by Dean Huck

Another of my Video Presentations, this one shows in great detail a mural I painted some years ago. This project was important to me though because I really wanted to show that I could adequately capture peoples' likenesses in paint. This mural was an exercise in portraiture as I ended up with no less than 17 images of magicians who had performed in Las Vegas at some time in their careers. Most people will recognize performers such as Siegfried and Roy, Lance Burton, Penn and Teller, and David Copperfield. Less people will recognize great magicians such as Doug Henning, Slydini, Amazing Johnathan, the Pendragons, Shimada, Jeff McBride, Tony Grippo, Melinda, Albert Goshman, Dai Vernon, and Richard Ross. They are are all "greats" in my book and I've had the pleasure of meeting several of them. Anyway this mural was painted on the wall of my old studio and measured about 80 inches across and about 50 inches high. The section on the bottom shows the cityscape of Las Vegas at night. Enjoy!

"A World Under the Sea" Mural Painted on Bathroom Walls and Ceiling

This video presentation reveals a slide show set to music and pics of the "World Under the Sea" mural I painted. The walls and ceiling of this bathroom show some of the highly detailed mural work - a Dean Huck signature - he painted here. Everywhere you turn, even ABOVE YOUR HEAD can be seen various forms of sealife. And the closer you look at the walls, the more surprises you'll find hidden in them...

Handpainted Faux Stone Video Presentation

I created this video as a way to display some of my past "Faux Stone" projects in which I painted Switchplate covers to match various samples of granite and marble. Enjoy.

Newest "Tropical Beach" Mural Pics...

Here's a nice closeup of the waterfall; a part of the mural which is centered on the back wall of the bathroom.

One of My Most Prized Drawings - Walter Payton

Above is a drawing I did while in college - back in around 1987 or so. It shows Walter Payton, one of my all time favorite football players.
While the above drawing may not seem very...uh, good, at least from a technical standpoint, this piece has alot of meaning to me. Besides being one of my very first works in which I used colored pencils on black paper, it offered me a glimpse into the future. I mean, for the first time, I felt that I had the potential to do some great things with this medium. I eventually learned how to draw figures in a photorealistic style and spent the next several years perfecting my drawing techniques but never forgot that this drawing was the turning point.
Again, the drawing is crude; the color blending is very rough, there's not much detail, and there's too much darkness throughout the subject...not a very good composition overall. It's just the fact that, to me, it sparked some real excitement and a vision of what could be...

Ideas for Murals

Some people have trouble deciding WHAT to have me paint in their home. I thought about it and came up with a list of various topics that be used for murals and here are some of them. Click on it to make it larger for viewing:

PROGRESS ON THE BATHROOM MURAL

I did some more work on the bathroom mural. I'm still working on the waterfall and also on the shoreline (not seen). It's looking good....

Hot Sauce Kitchen with Hand Painted Cabinet Doors

Our last house was a full-on showcase for my decorative painting (murals, faux finishing, faux stone, etc). My wife, Sarah, and I would take every person who visited for the first time on a twenty minute tour of it; showing off the various painting projects I had completed.





One of the projects that never failed to impress people was our "Hot Sauce" themed kitchen...
This project featured our kitchen cabinet doors; upon each of which I had painted different hot sauce label designs that I had found in a book. I just loved the off-the-wall names and images that were used on some of these labels and they provided plenty of inspiration me. It took me about three weeks to complete the project which even included installing matching ceramic tiles on the kitchen floor.



As for the doors themselves, I first prepared them for paint by sanding and applying primer to each one. I chose a dark green as a base color as I felt it was bright and colorful without being too overpowering.
Next I laid out each one of the label designs with a pencil. I had to alter some of the designs in order to get them to fit onto the doors.
I used acrylic paints for the door designs and then sealed all the cabinets with a satin clearcoat.

After I had completed the doors, I continued following through with the hot sauce theme by then painting the pantry door to match...

I then painted "faux" or fake tiles around the recessed ceiling onto which I added images of various "chile peppers"....
I finished off the painting by applying a simple faux finish to the ceiling to give it a slight "aged" appearance. As a final touch, I hung a few chile pepper photographs and some brightly colored curtains.
In retrospect, I feel the kitchen ended up being nice and bright and colorful - just like the hot sauce labels themselves.


And here's a video slide show of the completed kitchen in all it's glory. Enjoy.

Here's a another sketch I came up with. I don't know where these ideas come from - I just try to see something in the graphite and then work to bring it out. I guess the interest in scary images comes from my childhood. I always loved scary movies and would try to draw the covers of horror magazines like "Creepy" and "Famous Monsters of Hollywood." Artists like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta are still my idols.

Soon I will be taking some of these sketches and use the computer to colorize them.

Life

This is a small canvas landscape I painted in acrylics. I composed it without using any references - which is great practice and makes you really pay attention to the overall design while working.
I wanted to create a lush tropical paradise that anyone viewing would like to want to jump into and I'm happy with the results.

Here's another photo showing some progress on the bathroom mural. I've put in about 10 hours or so on it. I'll post some more detailed photos soon. I'm still

Graphite Drawing "Castle in the Mist"

Here's a graphite drawing I did recently. For this piece, I didn't use any reference photos. It all just kind of worked itself out as I manipulated the graphite with a kneaded eraser. It was very labor intensive though. In order to get the pencil on the paper smoothly I had to apply it several times while also going over it with the eraser. I'll bet I went over every bit of it four or five times until I was satisfied with the smoothness and contrast. Looks great though and I plan on doing more of these in the future.

Mural in Progress - "Tropical Beach Island"

Here's a photo of a mural in progress. I'm painting this tropical beach scene on the walls of our bathroom. The real challenge here will be trying to photograph it when it's finished. It will eventually cover all the walls and the ceiling in the bathroom although lots of the wall space is taken up by shower stall, storage unit, sink and mirror, etc.. I will post photos as it develops.

For this mural, I really don't have it all planned out ahead of time (as I would have to do for a client) and enjoy the freedom to create as I go.

Colored Pencil Drawing - "The Hottest Band in the World - KISS!!!"

Here's a drawing I completed. It's a colored pencil drawing of one of my all time favorite groups; KISS.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Welcome to all those who are visiting this blog! I'm excited about it and I have great plans to make it an interesting and informative place to learn more about me and my artwork. I plan on talking about lots of different things such as what I'm presently working on, past art projects and how they were created, stories about past experiences (good and bad), my take on various artists and their works, creativity and what it means to me, and all sorts of other things I feel you might enjoy reading about.
I'm assuming that you arrived here after seeing my artwork at one of the sites I've posted on. Or maybe you've arrived here after viewing my website - which is presently being built.
I hope you will be interested enough to turn this blog into a regular place to visit. And because I enjoy talking about the things I create and just about art and creativity in general, I hope you will not be afraid to jump on in with any questions or comments.
In time, I will start a second blog to discuss another facet of my life but I'll explain more about that later.
So relax and come on in...