I dropped off the skull this afternoon at Local Color for their fundraising event on the 31st. It was a little hard giving it up after working on it intently for the last two and a half weeks but only spending one day with it after completion. It was so tired after all that work that I went straight to bed when I got back home and took a nap. Now I gotta get back to all the stuff I'd been putting off these last few days, like my Inktober drawings. I've missed the last 3 days but I will make them up. I already have the sketches I just need to ink and upload them.

I did all the touch ups and gave it a matte clear coat today. This thing is pretty AF! I wish I could keep but instead I'll be dropping it off at Local Color for the 31 Skulls fundraiser event where a lucky winner will take this, or another skull painted by a local artist, home with them.

Buy tickets here. The event, and drawing, will be held virtually on October 31st

It took me all day Sunday, and well into Monday morning, but I finally painted the last set of colors on my Cells Skull. It's due later today but I still need to do some touch ups and give it a clear coat. I'm hoping I can spend some time with it when it's completely finished before handing it off to Local Color for the 31 Skulls Fundraising Event.

Tickets are available here for $10 each and the more tickets you buy the more chances you have to win my skull or one of the other 30 skulls painted by local San Jose artists.

The skull I'm painting looks creepy when it's all masked off and covered in paint and gets prettier & prettier every time I unwrap it. I have one more day and three more colors before I have to turn it in to Local Color for the 31 Skulls fundraising event where a lucky winner will take home my finished Cells-Skull piece. 

Today I prepped the ceramic skull by first spraying it with a clear fixative so the pencil lines don't fade or smudge from constantly handling and applying & removing masking tape. After the fixative dried I masked off everything except for cells I was painting and propped the skull on the wooden bar I'm using as a stand. When I set it down I heard a crack. After painting the first color then removing the masking tape I saw that a pieces had chipped off and stuck the tape. Luckily it only broke into 3 parts and not a million tiny pieces so I glued them back on. I also poured glue inside the skull and let it coat the inside where it broke. That was all for today. Tomorrow I'll sand it down and continue painting. Thank god I didn't totally fuck it up. My Inktober drawing for Day 6 is based on today's mishap. 

It took me all day but I finally finished mapping all the colors for my Cells/Skull piece. Tomorrow I'll begin masking & painting the first color set. I'll also be making up for the Inktober drawing I was supposed to do today.

I drew a zombie with a face mask mask for Inktober. I also mapped out more of the skull I'll be painting.

I snapped pics of the ceramic skull I'm painting for the upcoming "31 Skulls" art show and I'm digitally coloring in the cells before I go and actually paint it. I'm using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to quickly draw and fill the cells. My goal is to have all the colors balanced out and equally distributed around the skull.

I picked up some new colors today for the skull project and I started inking that sketch in my new black book. Double WIP'n it.

I went through my tub of old spray paint and pulled a few cans I might use on the skull. They've been sitting for years so I had to test them first. I then went to Home Depot and bought 9 different colors of Rust-oleum Painters Touch. They didn't have some of the colors I wanted, and I'm not 100% sure if I'll use all the cans I bought today, but I'll need at least 9 different colors for this project, preferably 11 or 12.

I touched up the sketch I started a couple days ago in my new sketchbook. I cleaned up and added more plants coming out of the top of the head and eye sockets. I also think I've found the right pen to ink my protester drawing. It's a Uni Pin Fine Line brush pen, and I can get the different line weights in the range I want for the piece. I've finished drawing the lines/shapes on the ceramic skull I'm painting for the upcoming 31 Skulls show, (more info TBA) and if I counted correctly, there are 61 pentagons & 58 hexagons wrapped around the skull. Tomorrow I'll start picking colors & hopefully begin painting it.

I was recently asked to participate in a fun project to paint/decorate a ceramic skull that will later be sold to raise funds for the local arts non-profit, Local Color. Local Color provided the skull and a little cash for supplies plus a voucher for a free slice of pizza at Pizza Flora, a vegan/vegetarian pizza joint in downtown San Jose. I know what I wanna do and have already started working on it. It's a design I've done in the past and I'll be sharing updates on my blog and Instagram of the process. 

Yesterday, after uploading my "protesters" drawing to Instagram, my friend Catrina let me know that Works/San Jose, a local non-profit art gallery, had a call-for-art and that my drawing fit the theme. I looked into it and found out it's for a memorial exhibition for George Floyd, Breona Taylor, and the countless other black people who lost their lives due to racism.

From the Works website: "Rather than issue corporate statements, Works seeks to amplify creative voices calling for justice. We ask artists to thoughtfully respond with work for a community exhibition respecting those who have faced the ultimate deadly disrespect." 

My drawing fit the bill so I submitted it last night. This morning Works/San Jose posted my drawing on their Instagram page.

The show is online only, since we're still dealing with Covid, and officially goes live June 19th (Juneteenth) 2020.

I went over all 4 of these drawings today and whited-out any mistakes. I probably missed a few so I'm gonna over it again tomorrow. Besides that, they're done. They're gonna go in frames but I want to take some hi-res photos of them before framing them to make prints later. The original plan was to show these at my exhibit at the SJSU/Martin Luther King Library, which would have ran thru May and June but was canceled due to the Coronavirus. I'm hoping there's not a 2nd wave, now that things are reopening, so I can look for a place to hang my work for a future art show. Fingers crossed! I think I'm gonna try and knock out one more piece this size, if not more, while I stay SIP.

Today sucked. I felt depressed all day and I didn't know why. Maybe the loneliness of sheltering-in-place is finally getting to me. I barely did any work on my Hearts & Stars piece, just made a quick digital mock-up with a black background but didn't lay down any ink. I couldn't get myself to workout or go for a walk. I went for a long drive, took Capitol Expressway from east San Jose all the way to Campbell, but didn't feel any better when I got home. Later that night, still in a funk, I noticed the the note on my calendar, "MLK Exhibit Day One." Today was supposed to be the opening of my art show at the Martin Luther King Library downtown. I wonder if that's why I down all day. I wasn't aware of today's date but maybe subconsciously that's what has been bugging me. For the past few weeks I've kept my head down and worked on my drawings for the show. It was a goal I was working towards. I recently got confirmation that my art show, and all other exhibits, were postponed until further notice. Now I don't have anything to work towards, besides finishing my current drawings. There are no DJ gigs till June, if at all this year, and no event vending opportunities in the foreseeable future. I hope this depression was a one-day thing. I don't want to lose any more momentum and risk undoing everything I've worked so hard to do over these past few months. Wish me luck!

As seen on Insta:

​"Next Friday would have been the opening of my exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr Library. The library is closed until further notice so there will be no exhibit but we might do something virtually over the interwebs at a later date."

This is kinda what it looks like when you go to @sanjoseday on Instagram and scroll to my post. It's one long seamless image broken down into 10 slides. I laid out a bunch of different digital drawings & designs I've made over the past few years. It was fun making this and participating in the virtual art show since we're all still sheltering in place. The actual San Jose Day event has been postponed to July 18. Hopefully we'll be over the 'Rona by then. Fingers crossed.

April 8th (4/08) is San Jose Day. There was originally an event planned for this Saturday, the 11th, but it was postponed to July 19th because of the Covid-19 pandemic we've been dealing with for the past few weeks. Instead of just waiting till July, Haley, who runs San Jose Day, thought it would be fun to host a virtual art show via Instagram on 4/08. She invited me and a bunch of local artists to submit up to 10 images/slides that will go on a single post. I had fun with mine and pulled an all nighter yesterday working on it. I can't wait till everyone sees it!

Here's a tiny sneak peak, follow @sanjoseday on Instagram to see the whole thing on Wednesday 4/08

My good friend Arely was recently asked to display her artwork at the Jennifer & Philip DiNapoli Gallery inside the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. She hung it up a few days ago and today I went and checked it out. She's a bad-ass artist and I'm glad she was asked to exhibit in this space. This is the same gallery I'll be hanging my work in in a couple months. I already started asking her questions about the installation process  :)

Arely's work is on display for the whole month of March so please check it out if you're in San Jose.

Also visit her website: www.arelycardenas.com

I forgot to share this yesterday. The promo artwork and short description of my upcoming exhibit is on the website for the Dr. Martin Luther King Library (also the San Jose State University Library) The working title is "A Whole Lotta Frankie" I got the idea from the AC/DC song "A Whole Lotta Rosie"

Link: library.sjsu.edu/exhibits

Last Saturday at The Arsenal's art auction I won this piece by the homie Fernando aka EPH KUE. (@nandoid2485 on Instagram) I fucking love it! It's 19 inches long, 3 inches wide and made of wood. Made to look like a Sakura solid paint marker aka "streaker." It now lives on my desk near my books. Please give him follow and visit The Arsenal when you need art supplies.

I was asked to submit an image and a 30 word description for my upcoming art show at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library for a newsletter going out to San Jose State students, faculty & staff. I hate writing about myself so I started with the image. It began as a pencil & paper sketch then brought in a photo of the library into Adobe Illustrator and started playing around. It's not perfect but I'm liking where it's going. I might make a few tweaks before submitting it and probably do more by show time. Now to go write a description...

I think I'm done with Head Thing 2. I might come back later if I think of a good background for it. The next project is to update these 3 old drawings, from an old art show that never happened, and ink them. They're the same size as Head Thing 2. Big. I originally drew them with 2" white borders but now I'm making them edge to edge, full bleed. They're all based off much smaller versions I drew back in 2014 & 2017

Today I finally shared the news that I'll be showing my artwork at the Dr. Martin Luther King Library, in downtown San Jose, from May 1st thru June 26th. It's happening in the Jennifer & Philip DiNapoli Gallery on the 2nd floor. I've gone and measured the walls where I'll be hanging my stuff and have an idea of what I'll display but there are some things to consider. I'm not allowed to drill or tack things to the walls. They must be hung with wire. It's also in a very public place with lots of foot traffic, and I'm solely in charge of protecting my work from theft & vandalism, so I have to rethink how, or if, I'm going to show my smaller & more delicate pieces. Keeping those things in mind, I want to make it fun and eye catching for everyone who sees it. I'll be posting more details as we get closer. 

Today I dropped off the printed award I designed and helped put it in its frame. Mission complete. I'm looking forward to the event next week where it will be awarded, along with a cash prize, to the recipient. I'll post pics of the award and more details after the event. After delivering the award I went measure the walls where my art show will be next May. It's a big space and I want to turn that sucker out. I'm even thinking of building a miniature version of the walls & exhibit area to help visualize the show as a whole. After measuring and taking notes I came home & warmed up to go to the gym. I'm trying to work off of some of this recently acquired end-of-the-year chunkage. After sweating my ass at the gym I came home to shave & shower then headed out to pick up the DJ gear for my gig tomorrow. I just finished prepping music. All that's left to do it write this blog and maybe watch some Stranger Things before bed. Goodnight.