New Art Show Coming Soon

Well, as some of my Facebook Followers have seen, I'm working on a new painting.

I was invited into a Halloween Themed show at Monkeyhouse Toys in Silverlake, CA for the month of October.  Don't have all the details yet, but the opening is slated for October 15th.

As with most of the theme shows out there, the subject matter is pretty broad, so as long as it has something to do with Halloween it's good to go.  I've been looking for an outlet to paint the Mummy and Wolfboy for a while and thought how CUTE would that be if they were carving pumpkins.  Since it looked like the boys were making a mess, I decided to invite the Boogervampire to the pumpkin carving party.

I'll be doing bi-weekly "Work in Progress" updates as the painting comes along.

Enjoy and thanks again for stopping by!

Purple Spider Mini Painting

So, Carlos and I have a new "friend" living down stairs in one of the bushes.  It has managed to weave one of the biggest webs I've ever seen.  Everytime someone breaks the web, it's up and functional again by 10pm every night.  The spider is seriously HUGE, I don't know that I've ever seen one as big as this guy, aside from the wolf spiders we had in Seattle (and the one I did an Irish jig on in Canyon Country my senior year in college).  It's freakin' HUGE.

So, I tried to paint it from memory tonight.  The painting is almost 2 inches square, and of course, is in gouache.  Top one is obviously a mess up.  Was smart enough to prep two little squares just in case.  ;)

Deep Sea Diving

As I previously mentioned, the last couple of weeks I've been working on mermaids, one of my least favorite mythical creatures.  The tiny mermaids were for a synchronized swimming team.  One of the team members contacted me saying that they'd like to have necklaces made of their mascot, a mermaid, and that their team colors were red, white and blue.

The client chose the tiny mermaid with her hair in a bun, and with the starfish decorations, because in synchronized swimming, when you swim your routine you put your hair up in a bun with Knox Gelatin and usually bobby pin in some sort of sequined hat.

After the client made her decision I decided to do a recolor of the girl with the octopus on her head in a color pallet that I find more appealing.  It's the little synchro mermaid's cousin, the deep sea zombie mermaid.

Finally, I couldn't let my three day weekend pass with out doing some painting.  Got out the blue paint and another Angler Fish appeared.  This one is just another Mini Painting, and measures 1.5" x 1.75", and is in gouache (of course).

 Above from "Zombies in Love" by Scott C.

And in closing, I had the opportunity to go check out a pretty awesome gallery show/book signing/drawing demo over at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, CA with my friend Brianne.  They were releasing "Zombies In Love" by Scott C. and it was a ton of fun.  They encouraged people to dress up in prom clothes or as zombies, so as I was walking around looking at the beautiful original paintings from the book, I was surrounded by zombie prom attendees. If you live in the Los Angeles area I totally recommend checking it out before the show comes down on the 26th of September (2011).  If you don't live in L.A. you can pick up a copy of the book over at Amazon.

Mermaids

BLECK!!

I'm not a huge fan of mermaids.  I used to be, once upon a time, but I won't get into that.  What I will get into is this:

My mom asked me a few months back for some mermaid drawings.  She's aware of how I feel, but since it's family and they do so much for you. . . you're kinda obligated to do things you don't like every now and then.  I've filled about 6 pages in my sketch book trying to figure out how I want these little buggers to look.  I've tried adult, sexy mermaids, a few really stylized, teenage type mermaids and even a skeletal mermaid (my personal fave thus far), but the need to draw more creepy bug eyed children prevailed.

With any luck I'll have one I'm happy with, put it in the computer, clean it up and color it in flash and be able to scratch this little bugger off my list next weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clue

Growing up my brother and I played a few board games.  We didn't have a ton of them, just the basics.  Candyland, Battleship, Othello, a cheesey New Kids on the Block board game, and my all time fave, Clue.

I seriously loved that game.  I don't know if it's because it was honestly fun, or if it was because I'd watch a lot of Quincey, Perry Mason and Streets of San Francisco with my dad.  Detective TV shows with dad were the best, and a detective board game was seriously the most awesome thing on the planet when I was about 8.  If I could have figured out how to play it by myself, I would have.

Another awesome thing around that time was the Clue MOVIE.  Man, mom got stuck watching that movie with me about as many times as I had to watch the Lion King with her about 5 years later.  Chris had Top Gun and I had Clue.  Madeline Khan. . . man, I wish she was still around.  Today's funny ladies just aren't the same as her.

Anyway, enough rambling.  I decided while spacing out in the shower that I wanted to do fan art of my most fave game ever, and while I was thinking about it, I realized that the movie versions costumes and colors would be fun to paint (especially with flat color backgrounds that match the character's names).  So here's the first of six.  She has two names, the first rather obvious, "Ms. Scarlet".  The second, or true name, of the piece is one of my fave lines that Lesley Ann Warren said in the movie: "True!  Who are you?  Perry Mason?!"  It measures 5" x 7" and is gouache on watercolor paper.  I'm hoping to eventually frame all 6 of them together in one frame.  :)

I was also hoping to have Mr. Green done, which was why I waited so long to post, but he had a few technical difficulties and needs to be started over.  The other 5 will be posted as they are finished.

Shrunken Heads

Did a couple mini paintings today while I was waiting for my Fiance to wake up from his nap.  (His mom is coming to visit in a few days and we needed to make another run to the storage unit but he'd asked for a nap first.)

Top one is a self portrait.  Got my hair done last weekend by my good friend Carla over at the Double O Salon in Eaglerock, CA.  I've been dying to have lime green hair for a couple years now and decided that it was the right time.  Haven't really had the time to take a photo of my hair, so I decided to do a painting instead.  You know, because it takes such a long time to take a photo with a digital camera and upload it to the web.

Since the portrait was so small and I was working on a sheet of 4"x 6" paper, I decided to use up the rest of my paper and paint by just doodling something.  The shrunken head is what happened.  Been thinking about those a lot lately, glad I finally got that idea out on paper.

Fantastic Frida

Fantastic because she's FINALLY FINISHED!

Had some trouble with color on this one.  Note to self, stick to three color schemes or do better planning earlier on.  After many different tries this was the one I settled on.

Work, as usual has been interesting.  A lot to get used to even when you have "down" time between boards.  Revisions were nice to do though.  Got to work with two new directors doing revisions for them and it's nice to work on both sides of the storyboarding process.

. . .and I ramble.  Enjoy Frida and have a safe and happy Independence Day!

Angler Fish and Sugar Skulls

Things I'm learning at the new job:  When you storyboard at a "regular" studio sections take way longer than you anticipate they will to finish.

Finished up my first full episode on Thursday afternoon.  Got 11 full pages of script.  Had a lot of fun doing it and actually got to board a chase sequence with a gun in it.  Still have a ton to learn, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Back a couple weeks ago, right when things were starting to pick up in intensity and pace, Carlos found an awesome Animal Planet toy of an Angler Fish.  He knows how much I adore them so of course he had to get it for me.  Above is what was going on in my head when I opened my eyes to see it.

Now that I've gotten a little bit of free time back, I'm starting my 4th vectorized sugar skull for the Crypt of DOOM!

In high school, my art teacher actually tried to teach us about artists as well as how to draw.  Frida Kahlo was the first artist I actually could remember stuff about.  Her work was really interesting and spoke to me at that age (not that it's not still captivating now that I'm older).  In all honesty it was probably because she was the only female our teacher told us about as well as a lot of her work has graphic elements in it.

Any-who, the time has come to do a Frida inspired sugar skull and here she is, work in progress.

Til I post again, Boogervampire signing out!

Mommas and Bats, Oh my!

Once a year, most recently the first Sunday of May, there is an unofficial event that takes place at Disneyland.  And I must say it's my second year observing the event.

They call it Bat's Day, and once a year, a very large group of Goths decend upon Disneyland for a day of fun and frivolity.  They spend the two day's prior having a little convention of sorts, with a market place, costume party and some concerts.  Then they finish off their weekend of fun by spending Sunday in the park.

I went last year, and honestly I wasn't that impressed.  I don't consider myself a goth.  I appreciate their culture and I'm into a lot of the same things they are, but I'd be a total poser if I said I was goth. 

That being said, I do enjoy seeing them all grouped together in the "Happiest Place on Earth" and watching the reactions people have to them in their full regalia.  And I admit, the main reason I went back for a second year was because this year's goth day fell on Mother's Day.  I had visions of thousand's of goths running around the park and thousands of mother's having to explain to their children that the goths dress they way they do because their mommies didn't love them enough when they were children (I did actually hear that said about me once in college when I had pink hair).

Any who.  It was rather uneventful.  There weren't as many goths as I was expecting and the mom's were all totally un-bothered by them.  Sadness.

And on that note, I give you a new sugar skull.

More Journal Goodies

Well, the last couple weeks have been a little dead here on the bloggy blog for a good reason.  My first storyboard, at the new job, had it's deadline last week.  Or so I thought.  I found out it's actually not due til this week, but I'd rather it be early than late.  As a result the only thing I've been drawing, aside from my evening journal entry, has been a buff guy dancing with some Mr. Pibb . . . and cars. :)

Speaking of cars. . . as you can see in one of the above sketches, when Carlos and I go visit family in San Diego and he drives home, he always seems to want to race people.  Once I realize what's going on and call him on it, he totally denies it.  Until he wins his imaginary race, that is.  Enjoy more of my silly adventures and lets all hope that next week I post something that's NOT from my journal!