My name is René Brandt-Barr. I'm a Taurus by western astrology and born in the year of the Fire Dragon by eastern astrology. So, all around, I'm strong-willed, emotional, eccentric, stubborn, lucky, full of pride, warm and yet highly-demanding of myself. Sheesh, what a double whammy, huh? Anyway, I live in Missouri now with my husband and four footed, furry son named Ein. Yes, he was named for the Cowboy Bebop Ein-and yes, he's a corgi too! Having been a freelance artist for going on five years now, I can say that it's not an easy field to break into, but you know, it sure beats the hell out of flipping burgers. Er-no offense to those at ninja-burger.com of course :D I've always wanted to be a professional artist. I discovered in college that commercial art was certainly not the direction in which I wanted to take my career. Illustration! Now that's where all the glamour is, right? Heh. Well, I wanted to follow in the path of my hero Tony DiTerlizzi. Bit by bit, I think I'm finally finding the assurance to do that. My husband and my in-laws have greatly supported me in my efforts. In fact, my father in law is the one sponsoring this website. Otherwise, I'd just be a starving artist mourning my lack of exposure. Professionally, I've been printed in several different publications including a core rule book for a small role-playing camp out of Boulder, Colorado, Scrollworks Press, and a small art magazine called 'Montage' printed in Illinois. My art has been featured on Planewalker.com, Pokémsters.com and a few other small, amateur fantasy galleries online. Most of my professional pieces are character portraits by commission, though. In fact, I'm usually availabe for comission. For more information, check my pricing grid. Aside from my art career, my hobbies are cooking, singing, playing video games (of all sorts but mostly rpg's) and playing with my dog. I absolutely adore anime and manga and made a concerted effort last year to learn that style. In my spare time, I often draw on one of several oekaki boards (Doodle BBS). Spare time is scarce now-a-days, though you'd never know it from the number of finished oekaki I have laying around ^__^ Oh yeah, and let me tell you about Ninja-Monkey.com. The domain name was suggested on the Fourth of July by my husband after a character that I'd invented some time ago for an oekaki on which I'd been drawing. Ninja Monki is a wee primate who battles the forces of the Moo-Tang clan and tries to win the heart of their princess Orange Tang. (Though why a bunch of Kung-Fu cows have a cute little orange monkey for a princess, we'll never know.) Ninja Monki somehow became a mascot of sorts. So now, he has a special place on the web along with all the other ninja and monkey wackiness.