Ah, the classifieds

I saw this in our local paper this summer, which normally has pretty mundane ads. Wonder if the bird has a new hairy man to love.

Website Updates

Well, I finally got around to putting my artwork back on our website. (go to Sheila's Gallery) Yay! So to all the great unwashed masses out there that have been nagging me can now quit naggin'!!! Sheesh! I've even put some never before seen drawings on there, too! Not that they're new, but they're new to you, ain't they? I've got my drawing table set up again so I'm hoping to have some fresh new work to show, possibly in time for the Boskone art show? Maybe.
-Sheila

Battle? Duck!

We just spent a few days gallivanting about with artist Rick Sardinha and his equally talented wife Manuela. We went to see Manuela bellydancing at Efendi's restaurant. It was kinda surreal with all the women shimmying and dancing about the tables, what century were we in? The next day Manuela and I did some costume shopping, she helped me pick out some things for my big New Year's Eve performance coming up. This will be my first real bellydance performance in public. Nervous? Me? Naaaaaaaahhh! My hands always shake like that!
We also got to see the behind the scenes workings in Rick's studio. Busy little badger that man is! Does some amazing stuff. Check out his website RIGHT NOW!!! www.battleduck.com
-Sheila

Romance Novel?

Omar and I just finished working on the cover for a book for NESFA Press. It's a collection of short stories by Bruce Coville that NESFA is publishing for their upcoming Boskone. Omar did the painting and I did the cover design/layout. It was a lot of fun to work on because we got to design a romance novel! Okay, so it has an ugly troll and some rotting fish on the cover, but hey, that's Bruce Coville (and Omar) for ya.

Spot

Since the new website redesign, we've had some complaints that Spot is nowhere to be found.
So to quiet the great unwashed masses, heeeeeeeeeeeerre's Spot! and Sheila showing off their better sides (?!)

Moebius

Moebius (Jean Giraud) was artist guest of honor at World Fantasy this year, and we had the privilege to meet him. He let us peek in his sketchbook. I'm still in awe. His work is so amazing, he was so humble and funny, I wish we could have spent so much more time with him. Here's a pic of Tom Kidd, Omar and Jean during the art show tear down. Tom is looking a bit dazed because Jean had just bought one of his paintings. Lucky fella!

Chesley Award!

Omar won a Chesley Award this year for Best Interior Illustration. Since we didn't go to the WorldCon in Japan where they had the Chesley award ceremony, they had an informal awarding at World Fantasy Con in Saratoga Springs, NY. Here's a pic of the gang mugging with their awards: Todd Lockwood, Steven Hickman, Donato and Omar.

They redesigned the awards this year and they are stunning!! They look like a galaxy trapped inside a meteorite.
Very cool.

New website up!

I've just uploaded our newly redesigned website. If you're reading this blog, then you have already visited it! Lucky you! I wanted to try to get our website to fit a little better in the 21st century. It took me a looooooooong time to get the tech part figured out. But considering how little I know about web design, I think it came out well. (fingers crossed). I still have a few pages left to finish (like my gallery), hopefully I can get to them soon. I'll also soon be posting some photos here of our recent travels. So keep checking back! Now that we've got the new format, I'm hoping to keep the website a little "fresher" than it has been in the past.

-Sheila

Who the heck are we?

Yes, who ARE we, anyways? Well, heh heh, that's for us to know and for you to find out. We'll give you this, though: we are a married couple living and working together in our small cozy home/studio in a semi-remote area. We somehow manage to not drive each other crazy and step on each other's toes (welllllllllll...most of the time, anyway.) We both have been creating art in its many guises since we've been but wee babes in arms, and have now somehow managed to make a living at our creative endeavors.

But, this Rayyan name, where's it from? Ah, if I had a penny for all the "my that's a different name" comments...For a BIT of insight on the possible origin of the Rayyan family name, read this excerpt from Omar's bio:

"...Omar Rayyan is an artist born in the Middle East and now living far away from there with many adventures in between the two. During his early travels he came under the the tutelage of Suenteus Po, a famous Tibetan/Persian collage artist. There, Omar was able to hone his talents, but was soon forced to leave due to an influx of yaks, to which he is highly allergic. So he took his talents to the road , and, at the tender age of seven, he was on his own making his way back across the Arabian peninsula. He worked for a short time in the puppy fields of Istanbul (not Constantinople,) and some say that that is where his imagination took a wild turn. He was discovered here by Jan van Cuyp, a Dutch philanthropist, who recognized Omar as being too talented to be a mere poppy picker, and placed Omar in his employment as his personal parrot preener. Omar came to be known as Europe's most prestigious parrot trainer. He once trained a small flock to perform "Man from La Mancha " in its entirety. After an unfortunate incident involving the birds and an overturned truck full of oyster crackers, the young illustrator-to-be was turned to the streets of Stockholm to scrape a meager living sculpting portraits of tourists in peanut butter.
Now, in happier times, Omar has settled down, married, and even has a few parrots of his own..."