I finally framed these four drawings because on Saturday they're going to be on display at Orange Moon Salon in San Jose. My friend, Catrina, is a hairdresser there, and also an artist, and she asked me to hang some work. These were originally going up at my exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in May but covid ruined that. Six months later and they're finally going to be available for others see. Please wear a mask if you go!
Day 28 was originally going to be a hand coming out of a grave in front of a headstone inside a graveyard but everything else in the scene was taking away from the dead hand holding the pencil so I scrapped the rest.
Day 29 is how I feel sometimes when I draw. I love that I can do it, and have the patience to draw, but hate how long it takes. Hours and hours alone solely focused on my hand, the pen or pencil and the sheet of paper. It reminds of the chorus to the song, "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by the Persuaders. I took some stickers with me on my hike at Alum Rock Park today. I didn't stick them anywhere but I did leave one for someone to find at one of the information kiosk things. It's at the bottom of the Eagle Rock trail across from the Rustic Lands parking lot, inside the compartment above the letter R. If it's still there when I go back I might take it and put it somewhere else.
I sketched a ghost wearing a Frankie Mcfly shroud for day 26 but haven't inked it yet so Tuesday will be a twofer.
Lately I've been thinking about my next t-shirt design. Originally, I wanted to do a design similar to this but with three heads instead of two, each one a different color. Today I drew it out with only two heads to see what it would look like and I really like. It doesn't look much different than the three headed variety and it would be easier and less expensive to print. I would tweak this image a bit and draw it digitally before going into production but this might be shirt number 4.
After drawing out some names as extra goodies for a couple kids who received t-shirts of mine as gifts I was asked to do some for my cousin. One is for his girlfriend's daughter and the other for his little brother. The difference with these is that they're going to be created digitally versus hand-drawn like the last two. I worked on Layla-Mae's all day Friday and just finished sketching it out around 5:30 AM Saturday. There's still a lot more work to do, besides digitally inking it, like tweaking the letters to make them look more like the others and coloring it all in. I've been having fun with this and can't to see it finished. When it's done I'm going to print them out on adhesive vinyl sheets to make stickers.
The computer head was how I felt after working on that CD layout job on the puter all day yesterday.
This morning I received a text from a groom whose wedding I DJ'd two years ago. He said every time he heard a song from the wedding he was reminded that he forgot to tip me. He Venmo'd me a very nice tip and totally made my day. It also inspired my Inktober drawing for Day 22 My buddy, Adam, contracted me to design the cover for his band's upcoming album. I finished it a few weeks ago but he recently asked me to also do the layout for the CD packaging. He sent me the photos and I had to do a bit of editing to finesse them into supplied templates. I also had to drop in the lyrics for 8 of the 9 songs. Once it's approved, and I get permission from Adam to share the artwork, I'll post it on here and Instagram. This will be the second CD I've done artwork for and can't wait to have the physical copy in my hands.
It's happened every year for the last three years that I've done Inktober, I start running out of ideas and spend more time thinking of what to draw than actually draw. I think I've just entered the slump. Today I spent hours trying to come up with an idea and only sketched a few with pencil. Tomorrow I'll have to draw & ink two drawings to catch up.
I drew myself as Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk from the cover of his first comic book. I sketched it out a few times before laying down the final lines and inking. I included a sketched a did a couple weeks ago when I was considering doing "Jacktober" which is a variant of Inktober that pays tribute to comic book artist Jack Kirby. If I had more time I probably would have drawn Betty & General Ross equivalents down in the right corner to fill out the space.
Now that I'm done working on the skull I've been trying to catch up on my Inktober drawings. I only managed to ink three of them today.
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.
Incase you missed it... a fly landed in Vice President Mike Pence's hair during the vice presidential debate tonight. It hung out for a little while and the vice president didn't even notice it. Instantly, all the social media platforms lit up with "flies on shit" jokes & memes. Kamala Harris is lucky it didn't land on her head too. 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.
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Frankie Mcfly's
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