I couldn't get myself to draw today. Besides reading news all day, all I did was post a message on Instagram to anyone going out protesting or demonstrating. Basically asking them to please be safe and not make things worse. Things have gotten crazier. San Jose is one of the many cities now under a citywide curfew. The curfew is in effect from 8:30 PM to 5:00 AM, starting tonight, for the next 7 days, or until further notice. 

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.

Friday started off great. I met up with my buddy, Jon, at Lake Cunningham and we went on a (socially-distant) walk around the park. After one lap Jon split and I stayed to do one more then ran into another friend, Adam, who was getting off work at the park. He drove up to show me he was rocking my San Jose shirt. That made my day! I didn't realize I was wearing my San Jose shirt till afterwards. On the way out of the park I snapped a picture of this awesome hand-drawn found-dog flyer posted near the entrance. When I got home I showered, ate lunch, did some crossword puzzles, and started drawing. It was an awesome day up until that point. Soon after, I heard about protesters downtown and on the 101 holding up traffic. They were protesting in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police. Soon I was seeing friends videos on Instagram of people smashing car windows, police firing tear gas & rubber bullets, crowds throwing objects at the police, a trash bin on fire in the middle of the street, a car running over people, people looting a Starbucks, a cop getting knocked out. This shit is crazy and there are protests/demonstrations/riots happening in multiple cities across the US. I wonder if this is going to continue through the weekend and what will happen in its wake.

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.

Besides going out for groceries, I didn't do anything productive today. 

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.

About a week & half ago I asked people on Instagram to send me song requests so I can record a mix. I got a whopping 3 requests. They were, "Big Pimpin', Lookout Weekend and El Sonidito" (the beep beep beep song.) Today I set up the rig and recorded a 5-minute mix using 5 songs. 

1. Point Of No Return - Expose
   
2. Look Out Weekend - Debbie Deb
   
3. Big Pimpin’ - Jay Z
   
4. Like That - Cardi B
   
5. El Sonidito - Hechizeros Band

I'm taking requests again for the next mix.

More byproducts from working on the Eyes & Mouths drawing. I draw these to warm-up and test the different pens before inking the main piece. It's a great exercise and fun to get loose with these before getting super focused inking the big one.

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  :)

Woke up sick this morning. All I did was go grocery shopping, eat and sleep. No art, just farts.

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.

It's been a few weeks since I'd drawn on the iPad so today I picked it up and did a few "quick" doodles. The timelapse videos were exported from Adobe Fresco and sped up in iMovie.

I recorded another quick-mix set. 14 minutes of 80s rock. It took me all day to pick songs and set cue points but I'm happier with this mix than yesterdays. 
​

1. Africa - Toto
2. I Love Rock & Roll - Joan Jett
3. Tom Sawyer - Rush
4. Dancing With Myself - Billy Idol
5. I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
6. Centerfold - J. Geils Band
7. Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
8. Valerie - Steve Winwood
9. Livin On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
10. Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot

My work requested some recorded mixes of music I'd play at weddings, that's quick-mixed in & out of. I tried a few days ago and couldn't do it. My mixes fell apart after a couple songs. I feel that most music I play at weddings sounds better when people are dancing to it. Without an audience, most wedding dance music feels flat to me. Today I tried again but used a few songs I wouldn't normally play at events, focused on what makes me dance and had fun with it. It took a long time to choose the songs and listen to them to find the in & out points. When I finally recorded it it took me two tries to get it right/good-enough. In the end I made this 13 minute mix that starts in the 60s and works its way to the 2000s

1. ​California Dreamin' - Mamas & The Papas
2. My Girl - Temptations
3. Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel
4. Uptown Girl - Billy Joel
5. When I Hear Music - Debbie Deb
6. Now That We Found Love - Heavy D & The Boyz
7. What Is Love? - Haddaway
8. Boom Boom Boom - Outhere Brothers
9. Fergalicious - Fergie
10. Low - Flo Rida

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. 

This was the only fartsy thing I did today.