Spook Show 3 Wrap-Up and Vending Event Announcement

My husband took this picture of a crazy guy running around in a full Barlow  (Salem's Lot) costume in 90+ degree weather.  That guy had to literally be undead to survive the day in that outfit.

Hey All!  It appears that 2015 will be the year of bi-monthly blog posts as I'm obviously off to a bumpy start posting stuff this year.  So, let's get this show on the road!!

Spook Show 3 happened back on the 7th of this month (March 2015, if you read this in the future) and just like all things, it had it's ups and downs.  Overall it was a fabulous experience, again, and I look forward to next year!

Here's the play by play of events:

As good as the booth could get.  The new pop up canopy has removable walls, so it looks fancier than normal.

My normal booth 'babe' Natasha couldn't make it to this year's event so my husband had to help.  He did a really great job, and I say that because at all my past events he usually just runs around the whole day having fun and buying cool stuff from the other vendors.  But this time he had to actually work.  He was super nervous but realized it was no big deal after a couple of hours.  I decided to invest in my own pop-up vendor canopy and decided to be rebel and get a purple one.  It was pretty sweet and made me feel so much more professional having not to borrow from friends.

I unfortunately woke up late so I couldn't get breakfast or a caffeinated beverage, so the first couple hours were the most stressful of the day because 1) I'm sooo not a morning person, 2) as I get older the angrier I get if I don't eat regular meals, and 3) if I don't get a Pepsi first thing in the morning to help me wake up, all hell breaks loose.  BUT, even though I didn't eat until noon, I was still able to get us to La Mirada in time for set up by 8:30am and we were rearing to go at 12 when the first attendee's arrived!

My husband took photos of one of the Hearses at the Hearse Show all lit up after dark with Purple lights.

I sold out of nearly all the cosmetic bags and coin purses and would have sold out of the three pillows I made, but I didn't find out until the end of the day that the one pillow I had placed on reserve for a client could be released to the public and they would buy one at a later date.  (GREAT NEWS:  There is one Candy Corn Pillow for sale in the Crypt of DOOM!! if anyone would like to snag it for themselves before I do a restock.)  I'll be receiving a restock of the cosmetic and coin purses very soon as I'm starting to prep for the events I'll be mentioning at the end of this blog post.

Candy Corn throw pillows!!  6 more on their way soon.

Also in the great news category, the pillows had a very positive response from people online and at the event, so I've decided I'll be making a couple more pillows for future events!  Check out my Instagram and Facebook for working progress images or announcements as to when new product will be dropping.

Janice, the crazy happy owner of the Sushi Gremlins painting.

As for the Sushi Gremlins, we orchestrated a 'Extreme Makeover' type surprise for the recipient of the Sushi Gremlin original painting.  As I may have said in previous posts, I don't do commissions.  I'm just too busy and stretched too thin to add all the worry that is involved with custom work to my plate, but the Sushi Gremlins piece was an exception to the rule.  A very dear family friend asked me to 'do my thing' and paint his wife and two daughters as monsters eating sushi, the result was the Sushi Gremlins.  He told me their favorite colors, told me a little bit about their personality types, and most importantly he related to me stories of when they go out to eat together and what happens at the table.  Oh, and since they love Hawaii he asked if I could somehow make it look like they were eating sushi in Hawaii.

Anyway, our dear friend decided that he was going to bring his wife over that day, knowing that the painting was finished and that I had chosen to put it on display at the event.  She literally gravitated strait to it like it had a tractor beam engaged.  She just kept staring at it and smiling and commenting on all the little details.  My husband was as excited as I was to have it delivered and being admired by the person who it was secretly painted for, that he was like "Oh, so you like that painting huh?  How much do you like that painting?"  When she said she loved it we told her it was her's and that her husband had secretly commissioned it for her nearly two years ago.  She was overcome with surprise and joy.  It was the perfect ending and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better.  I just hope that their daughters like it as much as they do.

Got to see my old Neopets pal Irene!  Thanks for coming by Irene!  Oh yeah, that's me and my husband.

That pretty much wraps up Spook Show 3.  I got a chance to visit with followers, which always brings me great joy, visit with good friends like Irene, Alan, Tom and Nicole, and meet other vendors whom I only see at these kinds of events but are equally sweet and fun to be around.

Now, onto announcements!!!

Bats Day in the Fun Park WEEKEND!!!  May 29th thru the 31st, 2015

Yes, I'll be back at the Bats Day Black Market this year!  2015's Black Market will take place on May 30th at the really fancy Sheraton in Anaheim.  It's always fun and I'm planning on making two new pillows for this event!  I'll be turning the Haunted Mansion/Star Wars mash up painting that I call "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" into a throw pillow as well as the "Kissing Bats" that you can see in my shop on cosmetic bags and a button.  I'm also planning on expanding the Disneyland Tourist Monster Sticker line up by adding two new stickers.  2015 will be bringing Sheldon (Frankenstein's Monster) and ONE of the following: either Prudence, Gillian (Creature), or Booger (as in Boogervampire).  I still haven't decided, but stay tuned in and you'll find out!

My 3rd year doing this event!  Past paintings were "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" and "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners"

Speaking of Bats Day, I'll also be participating in this year's Gallery999 Haunted Mansion Tribute Art Show again this year.  This will probably be my last year doing it, and I'm in a bit of a funk with the piece (if you've been following a while, you know I signed a contract that prevents me from showing any of it until it has debuted at the show on May 30th) but I'm hoping to get over that this coming weekend.

One of my two favorite Conventions!  This and Monsterpalooza are the only two I actually BRAVE crowds to go to on purpose.  It's that good!!  If an introvert with a fear of crowds won't miss it, you shouldn't either!

Lastly, I'll also be vending again this year at ScareLA!!  We sincerely had SUCH A GOOD TIME last year, that we couldn't WAIT to go back this year.  What's more exciting is that they've moved it from Downtown LA to the Pasadena Convention Center!!  It's a much larger place, and the lazy little turd that I am can't deny having it closer to home is AWESOME!!  You can get tickets now to the Event by visiting the official ScareLA website.

That's it for this month!  Hopefully I'll have stuff I can post soon that's new or in progress, but until then, head over to the Crypt of DOOM!! before I get to busy at work and have to close it again.  Going to try leaving it open for another week.  Fingers crossed things at work stay calm enough that I can handle both with out pulling all my hair out!  LATER ALL!

Sushi Gremlins and Spook Show 3

Sushi Gremlins; Gouache 8"x10"; 2015

I'm relieved, and overjoyed to say that this last weekend I was finally able to finish my Sushi Gremlins painting.  I started it back in November of 2013 and is the most time I've ever spent on a single painting.  I honestly lost track of how much time I invested in it, but I'd say it was close to 600 hours (if not more).  It's the most detailed piece I've managed to pull off and probably the most fun.

I also want to announce my participation in the Halloween Club's 3rd Annual Spook Show in La Mirada this March 7th (2015).  For more details, see Halloween Club's Facebook Event and get your free tickets are available here.

In addition to prints of the Sushi Gremlins, I'll have a new sticker featuring one of the gremlins available which you can see here:

Picked up my #sushigremlins #stickers this morning! @stickermule did a fantastic job, yet again! These will be available at the 3rd Annual Spook Show @halloweenclubs in La Mirada on March 6th! #sushimonsters #stickermule #spookshow #spookshow3 #sticker #vinylsticker #spookycute

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Feb 6, 2015 at 1:58pm PST

And testing new product of the following items.  I'll only have one of each on hand, so be sure to get there early if you'd like to take one of these bad boys home:

Alright everybody!! I'll be testing new product at @halloweenclubs #spookshow3 next month. I'll have only one of each of these available on March 7th in La Mirada. Check their Facebook event page for more details and links to getting your free tickets! (The Mothra bag turned out freaking adorable!!!) Pictured: 2 canvas tote bags featuring my Godzilla and Mothra paintings, one cosmetics bag featuring my Museum of the Weird painting and one coin purse featuring a Sushi Gremlin. #cryptofdoom #boogervampire #spookshow #newproduct #kaiju #cutekaiju #sushigremlins #museumoftheweird #cthulhu #godzilla #mothra #spookycute

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Feb 17, 2015 at 7:26pm PST

Hope to see you there!

2015 Begins! (Sushi Gremlins WIP Post 3)

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Jan 18, 2015 at 1:34am PST

Greetings blog followers!!

2015 is starting out much better than I'd hoped it would thus far.  2014 was a doozie of a year for  nearly everyone I know, myself included, and not in a good way.  A lot of things I didn't write about here happened, most on the negative side, thus being the reason I didn't blog about them.  Bad news is, 2014 was a horrible year of art posts as I was too depressed and distracted to work, BUT the good news is that I am now in a good place and my head is firmly screwed back into my body and I'll hopefully do better at being productive this year!

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Jan 12, 2015 at 12:55am PST

So, why have I delayed posting thus far in 2015, quite simply because what I've been working on is taking SO LONG that I was trying to wait until it was finished before sharing it.  Since I've still got at least another two weeks worth of work to go on it, I decided to give up waiting and just post a work in progress post.

As a few of you may remember from earlier in the year, I've been working on a painting 'for fun' (just means it doesn't have a deadline and isn't for an art show of any kind).  You can see the first posts here and here.  In all honesty it's been in some state of work since August of 2013 and I just couldn't either get the time or motivation to work on it, but with the new year and my better outlook on things recently I decided that it was time to wrap this baby up!  I've been working on it diligently now since just before christmas and am hoping to have it done before the end of January.  I hope you enjoy some of these work in progress photos from my Instagram account, and a happy, belated, New Year!  May this year be better than the last!

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Jan 19, 2015 at 2:19am PST

Sushi Gremlins - A Work In Progress Post

Work in Progress image (#1) of the Sushi Gremlins.

The working color comp for now for the Sushi Gremlins.  Some tweaks will take place between now and the final.

The original painting was going to be at night.  These are the futile attempts at making that work.

Well, as I showed in the last update, I've started a beast of a painting for a family friend.  The last commission I took on before I declared "no commissions".  The poor guy has been waiting nearly a year for things to calm down enough for me to get started on it.  I'm so grateful to his patience and hope that when it's finished he, and his family, enjoy it.

As I'm sure you noticed there were quite a few comps that were done at night.  The original painting was always meant to be at night.  That was my choice, but when you take on commissions it's about what the client needs more than what you want.  Each of the Sushi Gremlins represents a member of the client's family.  I deliberately tried to keep them asexual and denote the family member by their favorite color as opposed to trying to make each monster look like the person they represent.  Unfortunately, this is where the problem of night and day came into play.  The gremlin on the bottom's 'person's' favorite color is black.  You  can see in the first 4 comps I tried different tints of black, or close to black, but they kept getting lost in the dark background.  (Comps 5 and 6 were just done out of curiosity.)  Once I switched the time of day the bottom gremlin was far more noticeable.

Next week I'll hopefully have some ScareLA sneak peaks ready.  Until then, follow all the Work In Progress posts over on Instagram!

"Dear Prudence" Portrait and the Sushi Monsters

"Dear Prudence"; 4"x6" Gouache on Watercolor Paper; 2014

Well, I can FINALLY cross a project off my to-do list this hiatus!  I've been feeling very lethargic and uninspired this break.  I think I probably burnt my self out last September when I took on 7 paintings in 8 weeks because I just can't get back into a groove yet this year.  I'd like to blame the infernal summer heat, but I know it's just me being tired, lazy and frustrated.  Anyway, as you can see I DID finally finish something!!

Work in Progress Collage compilation from my Instagram.

Prudence, the Boogervampire's sassy older sister, has been pretty popular since her first appearance in "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" back in May (April if you count the month it was completed but I couldn't show anyone).  I had people come up to me at Bats Day asking if I had anything with her in it.  "Dear Prudence" is just a quickish portrait and is meant to be a companion to the Portrait of the Boogervampire I did last year.  She'll be turned into a postcard and given out to repeat customers of the Crypt of DOOM and as a 'thank you for your purchase' item next month at ScareLA.

"Dear Prudence" Sketch composite

Fun little 'factoids' about "Dear Prudence", since I know that many of you are starting to notice I like to hide personal shout outs in my paintings.  First and, not so subtile, is the Easy Street Records poster behind Prudence's head.  I grew up in West Seattle and there is this super awesome record store there.  It opened in the early 90's and it was always a fantasy of mine to work there.  Sadly, I wound up only being able to get a job at Blockbuster Music and not Easy Street, but I loved going in there and purchasing bootleg Pearl Jam CD's and other grunge import singles.  I'm so happy that they're still there and hope to take my husband there one day when I'm able to go home for a visit.  Next, and not super personal but kind of funny, is the "Jedi" tag.  A few years back some kid in our neighborhood was running around tagging our building with that.  That's pretty much the tag as I remember it, although I think the 'i' may have been dotted with a heart.  The idea that this kid thought they were so bad ass and cool tagging "jedi" just kind of cracks me up because it just shows how 'nerd culture' is 'mainstream'.  Seriously, everyone that made fun of me for liking what I liked back in the day now likes what I like and think they're bad ass.  It's funny.  Last, a buddy of mine back home used to tag a lot in the late 90's, early 2000s.  He'd send me post cards when I was at college with tags on it.  I really enjoyed getting those post cards.  So now whenever I need to put a tag on something I always throw in one of his.

Sushi Monster Sketch.  It took a million years.  Just FYI.

Up next, starting/finishing some Sushi Monsters!!   I actually have been calling the Gremlins.

A very good family friend asked me to paint his wife and kids as monsters at a sushi bar chowing down.  I DON'T do commissions anymore and this is partly the reason why.  I've had to put the poor guy on the 'wait list' for a year now.  I feel terrible.  He's a very patient and understanding person, which is AWESOME, but my catholic guilt has been beating me up for the last 12 months.  I FINALLY got a break in the schedule and I'm getting things in gear.  I'm still assembling a color comp I'm happy with, so for now you get the sketch.  :)

Squid Apron Progress

So I've started, or nearly finished, my next apron. The spider aprons were a success, so now we move onto baby squid. The main part of the apron is finished, with the waist being hand sewn strips of ribbon. For the first time I used clear thread and it was so nice!! I gave the apron satin waist ties that looked super cute in a bow when I tried it on just before the photo. My favorite part still has to be the sushi fabric. I had to scour the internet for enough fabric to be able to make more than one apron, but it was worth it!! This weekend I'll probably start/finish the squid pocket and then take the apron for fancy Ambitious Misfit photos after the new year.

Calamari!!

Brainstorming my next apron. Found some cute sushi fabric and thought it might be fun to do another baby squid.

Caterpillar Roll

So, yet another year in my life has passed and through out the course of this year I have learned a few important things. The most important one being NEVER, EVER feed a 14-year-old female a ton of sugar followed by a frappachino from Starbucks. It spells disaster.

A Caterpillar Roll of Doom for your viewing pleasure. Potato Farm Girl took me out to a sushi dinner for my B-day. Enough said.

Now off to enjoy the bestest b-day gift (for me) EVER!! 18 hours of CSI viewing goodness, here I come!!