They're Coming . . .

The Second Batch.

Last year I got three out of the 7 intended Franken-Bread Men created in time for the Holiday Rush, and this weekend, I took the time to create #4.  I've already printed him out and shrunk him down into the beginnings of ADORABLE earrings.  They will be posted in the shop before the end of the week.  Seriously TINY and cute.

With any luck the next three Franken-Bread Men will be done in the next couple of weeks and (as was my intention last year) will be turned into a charm bracelet.  :)

**UPDATE**

Earrings are in the shop now!

The Pumpkin Party

"Pumpkin Party"  9"x11"  Gouache;  2011

Ahhh!  Finally finished.

It turned out pretty decent.  Spent a lot of time on this one trying to figure out how the light from the fire place and light from the TV, along with light from the pumpkins might work.  Pretty happy with it.  Wolfboy, the Boogervampire, and the Mummy are getting in the Halloween mood by carving their pumpkins as they watch a "Munsters" marathon.  :)

Speaking of marathons, I get to happily report I enjoyed a lovely Vincent Price marathon while working on this little gem.  Enjoyed The Raven, Comedy of Terrors, and Twice Told Tales.  Then for good measure I threw in the original Boris Karloff Universal monster classic, the Mummy. 

If you're in the Silverlake, CA area, you can see it in person, along with a whole bunch of other "Spooky" paintings, plushies and toys over at Monkeyhouse Toys.  The show is up until November 9th!

Progress Report: Halloween Show Painting

 
The painting is, as of now, still untitled.  In all honesty, I'm sweating it a bit.  I'm supposed to have it turned in by Wednesday, and as you can see it's still far from finished.  But it will be done this weekend, wether or not it's part of the art show.

I had been waiting to post the details of the Show itself until I'd received a flyer advertising it.  But alas, no flyer yet.  So here's the info I know so far.  I'll update this post with a flyer and more details as I find them out.

If you're in the area, the show is happening this Saturday, October 15th (2011) at Monkeyhouse Toys in Silverlake, CA.  I'm assuming the opening will start around 6pm, as that is when shows there have started in the past.  It is a group show, and I'm sure there will be at least 50 artists.

Tiny Purple Bat

Well, I've had a crazy couple of weeks, but thankfully I'm back to being able to work on my own projects again.  No updates this week on the Halloween Show painting, as it's really not much further than it was two weeks ago.  It's just been transferred to the water color paper.  I hope to start blocking in the background base color tomorrow after work.  We'll see.  There'll be an update next Sunday on it's progress.

This weekend I did do a couple of color tests for the painting though.  I usually mix my own colors, but in an attempt to expedite the process, I finally broke down and bought some purple gouache.  I wanted to test the purple and some lime green I bought a while back and see how they look and flow.  I'm really glad that I did, because had I not done this test, the final pumpkin carving piece would have suffered a horrible fate.

 So yeah. . . little purple bat painting.  Decided to throw it in the Crypt of DOOM!  This one is 1.5" wide and 3" tall.

Also, I enjoy having a textured ceiling in our apartment.  Earlier today I was laying in the bed staring up and spacing out (because I could), when I saw this little guy.  It was basically just his head and shoulders on the ceiling, so I quickly filled in the rest.  :)  I may have to paint this guy later.

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.