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.

Good news! I got my Covid test results back this morning, no cooties detected. I also finished inking Eyes & Mouths today. Next I gotta erase the pencils and go over it, and my the other two pieces, Brains/Guts & Hearts & Stars, with white-out to fix mistakes. I'm finally beginning to see daylight!

I laid some ink down on my Eyes & Mouths piece today. I want to remember what's happening now with the Black Lives Matter movement so I changed one of the pupils from an egg shape (I think I drew it around Easter) to a rising black fist. There are other icons on here, like a tooth for when I got a root canal and a roll of toilet paper (pictured below) for when it was sold out at stores due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

I took the day off from protesting, watching police brutality videos and constantly checking the news. I wanted to work on Eyes & Mouths after a few days off. I looked to see what I had to ink next, lots of straight lines & almost perfect circles, then practiced on a separate card. I was super rusty and wasn't feeling good about my lines. After a while I decided not to work on the main piece but to keep drawing on the cards. The only thing I drew that I kinda liked was my Cells pattern with little pupils all looking towards the center. Simple but good practice. Tomorrow I'll try again and hopefully finish the piece.

With all the chaos that's been happening in my city, and around the US, I've just been trying to focus my energy on finishing this piece. That's not to say that I haven't put thought into current events. (George Floyd's murder protests) What I'm reading and seeing online has been weighing down on me, stirring up all sorts of feelings and I've been processing that while working on this drawing these past couple days.

It finally cooled down enough for a couple hours, before the sun went down, for me to draw a few more eyes & mouths. Since I took a couple days off I did some extra warming-up.

I can deal with the heat but the last couple days I haven't been able to work on my Eyes & Mouths piece because my goddamn arms get all sweaty and I would ruin the paper while drawing on it. It feel like I've been thrown all sorts of curveballs since I've been working on these larger pieces. Now I need to figure out a solution or wait till the temperature drops.

A few days ago I started using a fresh Copic marker and today as I was warming-up I saw a little thread hanging from the tip. I pulled it, thinking it was lint, and it turned out to be the nib itself. It was damaged and I made it worse by yanking it. I was pissed off at myself. I tried cutting with an X-acto knife what I had pulled but I couldn't get it back to normal. Afterwards I didn't want to use the marker anymore and I didn't have any extras. I thought I wasn't gonna be able to work on my piece for a few days till I got new markers delivered. When I went on Michaels.com I saw that the store closest to me had black Copics in stock, and was doing curbside pickup, and had a coupon for 20% off the order. I ordered a couple Copic markers and a Pentel brush pen and they were ready to pick up in less than 30 minutes. I lost a couple hours, total, trying to fix it and picking up a replacement it but it was better than losing a few days waiting on a delivery. I don't know if Michaels stores have been doing the curbside pickup the  whole time during the pandemic, or if they just started doing it, but it saved my ass today. And this is not an ad or endorsement, shopping at Michaels is usually pretty disappointing.

No, you'll just have to stink.

I inked a few more eyes and a mouth today and drew a spider preparing to eat a fly after witnessing it in real life. True story, bro...

Everyday before inking my latest 3 pieces (bottom pics.) I've been warming up by drawing on these 4"x5.5" cards or the backs of old envelopes (not pictured)

Pardon the shitty quality of my iPhone 6 camera. I'll be upgrading soon  :)

Just went thru emails, updated my calendar, made a couple phone calls, worked out at home, walked for a few miles, and rented Jojo Rabbit. Tomorrow I go back to work on this sumumabitch.

Today I worked on Eyes & Mouths for a few hours after taking 4 days off. I spent the first hour warming up by drawing on the back of an envelope and a couple cards before putting ink down on the actual piece. I must have still been rusty because still I fucked up a few lines.

I took a break from inking today, and didn't do anything artsy at all, so here are a couple of videos I recorded yesterday of me filling in a mouth. That sounded dirty.

This is turning out to be the most challenging and the most fun to ink because every eye & mouth is different and it keeps me from getting bored. It also forces me to tackle each character with different pens & techniques. 

I spent a few more hours on this today.

I finally started inking Eyes & Mouths. I put in 2-3 hours today and filled in about 1/8 of the page. I may be here a while.

I still haven't started inking the 18x24 Eyes & Mouths drawing but I did ink a smaller 11x17 version, freehanded, for exercise. I also drew that melty monster on the right with a dying Copic marker. I was about to throw away the marker when I was finished but remembered that they're refillable. 

Inking for Hearts & Stars is complete. Now I'm on the last level, Eyes & Mouths. I saved the hardest one for last. This one has a lot more detail than the previous two and will require a few different size pens. I tested them out today. My main pen will be the Copic marker but I'll also be using most, if not all, of the different size & shape Microns. Wish me luck!

Except for go on a walk and make this animated gif.

I gave it a full sleeve of eyeballs then I ate it. 

I think I can officially say I'm done with the pencils on my three pieces, Hearts & Stars (not pictured), Eyes & Mouths (left), and Brains/Guts (center & right.) Next, I plan is to use Sharpies for the main lines and Microns for the details. I can't wait to be done with these fuckers!!!

Almost done with pencils! I worked on this piece for a few hours before taking this picture earlier today. I worked on it again before bed and got a most of the bottom right corner filled in. I just have to redraw a few of the parts bleeding off the edge then it's time to ink. I'll probably hold off on inking this till after I've finished the pencils on my Brains/Guts piece. I want to ink those and the Hearts & Stars all together and be done with these fuckers!

Check out the video. I've just about finished penciling the bottom half. All the Eyes & Mouths are pretty much done so I gotta finish the details in the skin, or whatever it is that surrounds everything and keeps it all together. I can't wait to ink this and be done with it.

Today I finished reading the book Erotic Comics. I've had it for almost 12 years and it took a pandemic for me to finally read it. I also did my stretches & warmed up at home to go running at Lake Cunningham Park again. It was a great workout, and as an added bonus, the entrance I came in from was locked when I was done so I ended up walking to the next exit and I got some extra steps in. I did some more pencil work on my Eyes & Mouths drawing. Just a few more things I gotta do before inking. Despite all the shit going on, today was pretty damn productive.