Atomic Tiki Terrors WIP Post #1

Sketch for my new, yet untitled, painting for Creature Feature's Atomic Tiki Terrors show.

Greetings again, all!

Well, as I mentioned in the last Bats Day follow up post, I'm getting to work on my new painting for Creature Feature's next group art show taking place in July over in Burbank,  CA.  I just wrapped up the sketch Sunday night/EARLY Monday morning and am chomping at the bit to get to work on the color comp.  I've only got about two and a half weeks to paint this one, so I'm already getting nervous.  Thankfully I've learned from my Sushi Gremlin painting how to handle bamboo so hopefully it goes smoothly.

The 4 movies I reference in my painting.

If you're curious, I'm referencing 4 different movies made during the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties in this piece:  Anna from Hammer Film's The Reptile, Janice from The Wasp Woman, Jan from The Brain that Wouldn't Die, and Gor from The Brain from Planet Arous.

I'm not sure if it's the weather over here in Southern Cali, or what, but there seems to be a lot of Tiki themed shows popping up here over the last couple of months.  Creature Feature's has decided to do a Monster/Tiki mash-up show and their description of the event is as follows from their event page over on Facebook:

The flier artwork for Creature Feature's Atomic Tiki Terrors show.  Opening takes place Saturday, July 19th from 12-5pm.

This summer, Creature Features presents Atomic Tiki Terrors!, a group art show that focuses on 50's and 60's monster movies, and vintage Tiki Culture, two seemingly disparate subjects...

Mid-century America, at the dawn of the Atomic Age... to dodge the concept of nuclear annihilation, our fine citizens found refuge in exotic worlds and fantastical situations:

Kids thrilled to Monster Monster movie matinees and collected Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, where mutants, giant bugs, and space invaders all tempered (and fed on) the fear of atomic armageddon. 

Adults escaped into an exotic, make-believe world of tiki bars and backyard luaus, where Polynesian trappings and rum-based cocktails took them away from their urban surroundings and allowed them to forget their radioactive reality.

Atomic Tiki Terrors! pays tribute to this fascinating era of fads and crazes, of tikis and terrors with artwork from over 50 artists in the fields of film & TV, fine art, comics, make-up & visual FX, children’s book illustration and more!

The show will also feature a Tiki Trading Post vending area in the lot behind the gallery, live tiki-inspired music, a special tiki cocktail provided by Tonga Hut (LA’s oldest Tiki Bar!), and more surprises to be announced.

The opening reception for the show is Sunday, July 19th, from noon until 5pm. The show will be on exhibit until August 9th, during regular business hours.

This event is free, and open to the public!

Exhibiting artists include:
Abbybelle
Atomikitty
Baï
Christine Benjamin
BigToe
Robert Bowen
Kevin Cannarile
Anthony Carpenter
Ken Daly
Eric Diaz
John Eaves
Kimber Grobman
El Gato Gomez
Gris Grimly
Michael Flemming
Dawn Frasier
Thomas Fernandez
Jake Geiger
Kenneth J. Hall
Mary J. Hoffman
Doug Horne
Robert Jimenez
Phil Joyce
Junkhauler
Lake Tiki
Rebecca Lord
MP
Scott Mabbutt
Chris Mason
Woody Miller
Ken Mitchroney
Ken Morgan
John Mulder
Nesshead
Eric October
Brad Tiki Shark Parker
Doug P’Gosh
Alex Quintero
Ken Ruzic
Matt Reese
Mireya Romo-Bowen
Michael Sbicca
Ethan Spaulding
Eric Swartz
Mark Tavares
Tiki Diablo
Tiki tOny
Michael Uhlenkott
Amy Watson
Paul Wee
Woody Welch
and More!

Hope some of you can make it out for the event!  If not, have no fear, you know I'll blog the final painting (once finished).

ScareLA Weekend Recap

Greetings Boils and Ghouls!

The last few weeks leading up to the ScareLA (or Scare Los Angeles) convention have been full of wild craziness.  Most anticipated (making new product and restocking stuff) and some was unexpected (my car breaking down while out purchasing last minute supplies for the convention).  But after all was said and done, ScareLA was just as wonderful, fun, stressful and tiring as I had been told it would be.

My always wacky and supportive husband posing at the table  on the morning of Day 2.

Let's get strait to business in this post first (that way if you get bored and decided to stop reading you'll at least get the important news first)!

If you had been patiently waiting for the "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" (a.k.a. R2D2) coin purse and cosmetic bag restock, I do have bad news.  I sold out of the coin purses over the weekend and need to order new ones, again (it'll be about a month).  I do have ONE cosmetics bag left after the weekend and it's live, in the shop, right now.  I've reordered some of those as well and should expect them at the same time the new coin purses come in.  I also sold out of the "Kissing Bats" coin purses, the BRAND NEW "Wee Emily Dover" coin purses (still ONE cosmetics bag of that left, btw), the "Truly Outrageous" cosmetics bags, and quite a few necklaces.  I'll be gradually listing the new product that was made for ScareLA thru out the week, so check the Crypt of DOOM! frequently to see what's popped up!

One of the many new necklaces I made for ScareLA.

My newest cosmetic bag and coin purse design went over so well I have to reorder!  At the time of writing this, there is one Cosmetics bag left available over in the Crypt of DOOM!

This little guy found a new home this weekend!  Goodbye my little Batty friend!

Decided to offer a new, larger size option for the "Master Gracey" prints.  They were popular.

One of 3 sketch cards made for the event.  The left overs will be listed in the Crypt of DOOM by the end of the week.

Business done, now is time to wax poetic about the weekend!  I had a wonderful time.  It was my first two day event and it was overwhelming, at times, how many people would be at the booth at once.  I ran out of one of my more popular business card designs and almost ran out of a second (I now have 6 design options for people to choose from at events).  If I can judge by the amount of Prudence post cards I have left over, since I was giving them out to people who bought something, I made a lot of sales because there is barely any left of the 100 I had made.  I discovered that I'm not the only one that loves Prudence, the Boogervampire's sassy older sister because she had a LOT of new merchandise with her on it sell this weekend.  I tried making sketch cards for the first time on this outing, and although none sold, people's reaction to them was positive.  I got to meet a BUNCH of my Instagram and Facebook followers, and fellow artist Lupe Flores came out to say hello and brought me a beautiful print of her work!  (Thank you, Lupe!!)  I got super socially awkward when artist Gris Grimly stopped and looked at my "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" painting, and at one point Director John Landis was walking the floor and leaned in to look at my table and smiled.  It was so exciting.  As usual though, I only ever left the table to use the Ladies Room so I didn't see too much.  Thankfully that's where my husband comes in.  He runs all over these events taking photos and showing them to me later.  I hope that one day, after I've gotten used to going to these kinds of things, I'll feel confident enough to leave the booth and go take a look at my surroundings more.

The print that the talented Lupe Flores brought to me on the 2nd day of ScareLA.  Thank you again Lupe!

This show will be up and on display until August 23rd, 2014

Saturday night, in addition to the all day convention, I headed over to Creature Features in Burbank, CA to check out the Creature from the Black Lagoon 60th Anniversary Tribute Show.  I had submitted my painting "He's So Dreamy!" into the show when I realized I didn't have time to create anything new.  I was overjoyed (and a bit sad at first) to discover that my "baby" had sold.  I only hope that whomever purchased her finds joy every time they look at it and love it as much as I do/did.

Green dots are bittersweet things!  Goodbye my friend, you'll be missed.

A pic from just after He's So Dreamy was completed from November of 2012.

There were many amazing, fun and nostalgic pieces in the Creature show, in addition to mine.   My inner geek loved the Uncle Gilbert costume from the Munsters TV show!  If you're in the Southern California region you might want to head over to the shop and check the show out before it ends on August 23rd (2014)!

Come on out and see my latest creation September 6th, 2014!

Up next?  Well, against my better judgment I couldn't pass up an opportunity to take part in the Museum of the Weird Tribute show for Imagineer and Animator Rolly Crump that will be taking place at Creature Features next month.  I hopped on board a little late so I only have until September 6th to conceptualize and create the piece.  Wish me luck!

That's it for now.  I'm going to go crawl into bed for about a week.  Until the next update, LATER GATORS!

The Pink Parlour Festival is Coming

Greetings and salutations boils and ghouls!!

Well, as I stated back at the beginning of the year, 2014 is my year to try going out in public and vending at events more.  Since my first outing last Bats Day I'm becoming a little more relaxed and accustomed to being in public representing myself.  I'm not saying that the week before an event I don't freak out. . . cause I do, but I am saying that it's becoming easier every time.  That is due, in part, to all of the wonderful people I encounter at the events.  I really enjoy meeting people who actually turn out to meet me and see what I have to offer in the flesh.

Anyway, that being said, I'll be vending at another event in the very near future!  A couple years ago I was invited to participate at the Pink Parlour Festival that takes place at the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, CA every year.  At the time I hadn't gone out in public before and was intimated by the idea of going, but when they asked this year, I was like, "What the hell! Why not."

Event info:  The Pink Parlour Festival; Sunday, June 22nd, 2014 11pm-7pm at the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, CA.  There is an entry fee and tickets can be purchased ahead of time here:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/667924

So here's the low down and dirty of what to expect from me at the Pink Parlour Festival.  If you've been to one of my previous vending events I'll have a majority of the same stuff with me.  All the Prints, necklaces, earrings, hair clips and original mini paintings I have in the shop right now, and yes, that does include the coin purses and cosmetic bags you've grown to love (or hate, to accommodate negative Nancys), BUT I'm also trying to have a new sticker debut at the Pink Parlour Festival.  Prudence, the Boogervampire's older sister, had such a positive reception after the reveal of "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" that I decided to give her her own sticker!  You can see the rough of the sticker here in this post and I'll post the finished sticker (hopefully) before the event on Sunday, June 22nd, 2014.

This week is a short update, which I'm sure you're grateful for, since my two favorite things apparently are painting and rambling on and on over here on the good old bloggy, blog.  One last thing before I go today, though.  Have you been over to Boogervampire.com lately?  I recently switched from my chicken scratch, home made website to a Wordpress template.  It's more streamlined and modern looking.  I'm still fiddling with it and adding new images (and trying to figure out a bug that apparently I only have) but check it out when you have a chance!

Later!

Bats Day 2014: Wrap Up

Composited Sketch for "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" made up of 5 separate layers.

So many things to report about this year's Bats Day since I didn't do my usual multi-post ramp up to the event as I did last year.  Overall it went well.  There weren't as many attendees this year, which I think was due in part to the Hotel.  The hotel they had been using in previous years raised their prices and the organizers had to find a new one.  Sadly this place wasn't as large and there was a dentist convention the same day so I think a lot of people had trouble parking.  BUT, the people who did brave all the dental congestion were awesome!  Got to see some friends, make some new ones, meet some followers and just have an all around great time.

The final painting, unframed and cropped to the size of the mat's bounding.

Friday night was surreal.  Last year, the night before the Black Market was spent frantically trying to finish my limited edition Bats Day hair clips before the morning.  We didn't get to enjoy any of the festivities or go to the Gallery999 preview night.  This year, everything was all made and ready to go by Friday evening so we got to go to the Nightmare Before Bats Day Dark Park thingy and the Gallery999 Preview.  More importantly (for me)  I got to finally dust off a dress I'd purchased for our company Christmas party and finally wear it!  (Pin Up Girl clothing is the best for girls with curves, and I pretty much bought over half of their halloween line last year.)  We dance a little bit and just observed people.  We also tried our first Monster Energy drink.  All I can say is DAMN PEOPLE!! How the hell do you drink that crap on a regular basis?!  It was disgusting and kind a looked like your mouth after you rinse it at the dentist office.  I'll stick with pepsi for my caffeine, thank you very much.  :P

The framed painting prior to dropping it off with the curator of the show.

Saturday started earlier than we had been hoping it would.  After the party Friday night, just as I was dozing off and planning table layout in my head, I realized I left my print rack at home.  So, Saturday Morning started at 6am with a quick jaunt back to Burbank to pick up the print rack.  We got back just in time to meet my ever diligent assistant and buddy Tashi and got the 'real' day started.

Carlos and Natasha are always the best assistants for these things!

We  had a fairly decent spot this year, only down side was it was right in front of the DJ booth.  I have horrible hearing to begin with so imagine me talking to potential customers with a DJ booth right behind my head.  The Disneyland Tourist stickers were a hit, which I was hoping for.  Sold a couple of the mini paintings and a few prints of the Godzilla and Mothra paintings.  I'm thinking that if I do it again next year I'm going to need to come up with a bunch of new stock, though, because most of the stuff was the same as the previous year.

Above you can see the designs and finished stickers that were made especially for this year's Bats Day Black Market.  They will be added to the Crypt of DOOM's inventory when the shop reopens June 1st.

Sunday, the actual Bats Day in the Fun Park was entertaining to say the least.  The whole day was one of those days where strange little things would go wacky.  We tried to get on Big Thunder and it broke down after we were 30 minutes into the 50 minute wait.  When we went back, we got on the ride this time, but it broke down with us on it just before we got to the end of the ride.  Plus side to that was that it was in the mine shaft so we weren't out in the sun AND we got to do the behind the scenes evacuation.  They did also give us a fast pass good for any ride so we totally went on Space Mountain with it!  We over ate all day because there were limited edition Bats Day treats and we went on a scavenger hunt to find them all and we never seemed to run into any of our other friends, but those are all minor little things.  It was a great day overall.  Great weekend.

Many of the special "Bat Day" treats they had around the park for the occasion.  Wanted to try the Red Velvet cake but settled for a cookie and cupcake.

Next up on the Docket is the reopening of the Crypt of DOOM!! for the summer.  The Crypt will only be open as long as I'm on Hiatus from my day job.  Once I go back to work, the Crypt will close up so I can focus on that and try to not stretch myself too thin.

A 'Lil Parisian Mishap

And the first painting of 2014 is here!  Technically this piece started back in December.  We had a charity art auction for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles at work for the Holidays and I wanted to contribute a piece of non-work related art to the event but a whole bunch of random things happened all at the same time and the painting got shelved.  It was a good thing it did too!

Originally this piece was supposed to be a companion piece to "'Lil 'Zilla's Wish".  It was going to have a similar color scheme as well as a similar theme.  The natural, woodsy color scheme didn't look  as nice though and during my winter vacation I approached the piece from a different angle and I think I'm happier with it.  Below you'll see the original daytime color scheme and the sketch.

Things have gotten a little crazier than usual over at the day job.  Next Season's American Dad episodes are in production and have a little more involved than usual so I've got a heavier work load.  Taking this into account I decided it would be best to close my Etsy Shop, the Crypt of DOOM, for 6 months (until my break between seasons starts).  As with my other shop closure times, if you need any of my more popular prints (Ice-Scream Social, He's So Dreamy and Truly Outrageous to be specific) you can pick them up at Halloween Town in Burbank, CA.

Story Time Group Show at Monkeyhouse Toys

"Wee Emily Dover"
8"x7"; Gouache; 2013

"Wee Emily Dover
Laid amongst the clover.
With her trusty bear she'd play
and color the night away.
Until the Sandman made her yawn,
Which coincided with the dawn."

Greetings all!  Well it's been a few weeks since the last post. . . and painting.  I should have never taken that week off after finishing the "Tech or Treat" painting for the Macross World Convention.  It took a good two weeks AFTER the week off to get back into the groove of things, but thankfully I DID get back into the groove.

This past Saturday was the Opening Reception for the "Story Time Group Show" at Monkeyhouse Toys.  The show, as I said before, had a fun concept.  Take an original character and tell it's story.  At first I was going to just use some of my other monster characters, but at the last minute (about two weeks til deadline) I decided the time had come to cross a painting off of my "to do in the future" list.

The more defined sketch for the painting.  Tombstone designs were figured out later because I wanted to make sure they were different than previous one's I've done.

The color comps.  So many of them.

About three years ago I told my husband about this idea of having a cute little skeleton girl coloring in her coloring book with her stuffed animals. . . in a graveyard.  Every now and then I'd doodle what I thought the little skeleton girl should look like, but I could never get her right.  I'd put the painting idea on this list I keep in the back of my planner of ideas that I'd like to eventually do when I feel my skill level has improved enough to do them justice.  And it was here that the little skeleton girl idea sat, until a three weeks ago, when everything fell into place.

Below are pictures from the opening reception.  I went early to check out the artwork and because I got sick on the last day of finishing my painting. :(

The Wall o' Art at the Story Time Show opening.

A giant standee of one of the Bleenkies for people to take photos with.

I found Emily on the wall!

Monster Girl Challenge 2 - Days 12 thru 20

Day 13: Sphinx

Well, this challenge's days are not matching up anymore, but I'm still truckin' along.  I WILL finish all 30 of the challenges even if it takes me 45 days instead of 30.

Day 15: Will-o-Wisp

In this batch, we have some fun ones:  a sphinx, a creepy gargoyle and a cameo by by the Boogervampire (in no particular order).  Enjoy!

Day 16: Gargoyle Girl

Day 12: Maenad

Day 14: Djinn

 

Day 17: Tengu

Day 18: Troll Girl

Day 19: Oger Girl

Day 20: Vampire Girl

So happy to say that in two days I wrap up on season 8 of American Dad, which means, it's HIATUS TIME!!!  This year's hiatus is not nearly as long as last year's, but looks like it will be a month longer than I had expected so I'm going to announce here first that I'll be reopening my Etsy shop, the Crypt of DOOM, a month earlier than originally anticipated.  So, I'll be reopening the Crypt of DOOM for the Holiday season on October 1st, 2013.

Boogervampire Mini-Painting and Another Monster Girl Challenge

"Snotty Big Slurp"; 4"x6" Gouache; 2013

 Greetings all!  It appears that I let half of July slip away from me again.  I recently looked back at all the posts from 2006 and back then I updated like CRAZY!!!  Now I'm lucky if I remember once a month.  So sad.  Of course, every time I start to think about how I'm not updating my blog I remind myself that it's been over a year since I've truly updated my website and then that makes me feel better about the blog.

Technically the 13th color comp was the charm.

Anyway.  So remember that "Boogervampire Mini-Painting" I did some color comps for a month or so ago?  I FINALLY had the opportunity to get back to that!  I wound up sitting down and doing one last color comp.  I truly wanted to do a purple and green background and although the other backgrounds were great and fun, at the end of the day it just wasn't what I wanted.  So I figured out how to make it work.  Why was I so dead set on the purple and green color scheme?  Well I'd like to use this little guy to help with website promotions (#1) and I've had a frame floating around the house for over a year that I wanted to use really bad.  And it was lime green.  Wanna see?

Lime green frames are always awesome.

July 1st, at 12:01am I closed the Crypt of DOOM down for an extended hiatus.  Since then I've already been up to all sorts of creepy cute fun stuff.  Specifically, I decided to take on the second round of the 30 Day Monster Girl Challenge.  I had so much fun back in February, that I wanted to see if I could challenge myself to do it again!

Day 1: Nymph

Day 2: Werewolf Girl

Day 3:  Yeti Girl

Day 4: Minotaur Girl

Day 6: Gorgon Girl

Day 6: Golum

Day 7: Selkie

Day 8: Witch

Day 9: Ghoul Girl

Day 10: Reaper Girl

Day 11: Banshee

Sadly, I've been slipping up on my dates, but I'm trying to get on track.  Here you'll find the first 11.  I'm hoping to catchup in the next week or so.  There have already been three I'd love to take the time to render digitally.  I'm thinking when I go on hiatus from my day job in August I might try teaching myself (or, take a class on) how to paint in photoshop.  As times change and evolve, I need to start adapting as well.  BUT, I'm never gonna stop painting for real.  I HAVE to disconnect from the computer or I'll go nuts.

So what's next?  Let's see. . . I still have to finish the wedding thank you card, which as I said previously, I'll spare you the in-progress shots of; trying to learn how to paint in photoshop; and possibly starting a Macross themed art piece for a Macross convention in August.