I had so much fun today vending and live painting with my friends at Local Color at a 4/20 event this afternoon. I sold a couple shirts and a USA print while I painted pot leaves and on this 2 ft x 4 ft panel. It was inspired from the pot leaves I used to doodle in class when I was in high school.

After months of work on the 31 Skulls Fundraiser for Local Color, and all the frustrations that came with it, I still had a fun time MCing the giveaway this afternoon in front of a live audience and online via Instagram Live. I'm so glad it's over.

Tonight I went into work to prep for the 31 Skulls Giveaway + Art Party we're having on Saturday. I laid out black linens across the counters where we'll have all the skulls on display. A couple weeks ago I mounted some lights above the counter to light the skulls as well. There's still much more work to do in preparation so I'm going back in tomorrow to do some more.

Here's the link to register for a chance to win a skull on Saturday.

After weeks of working on this mural design, today I got the news that it was approved and we'll be moving forward with it! The mural is going up inside Eastridge Mall, on the second floor, on the boarded-off entrance where Sears used to be. It's going to be community mural, where volunteers can sign up to help, so I had to make it easy enough for people without mural experience to be able to paint. The scope of the mural design was to celebrate Eastridge Mall's 50th anniversary of serving the community. Inside the letters are objects, or as I've been calling them, "icons," that represent stores, past and present, inside the mall. Outside of the letters, the background, represent the surrounding East San Jose landmarks. I'm officially starting work in a few days and the community paint day is scheduled for December 4th.

This project has been facilitated by Local Color and I'm excited to finally share with everyone what I've been working on.

To sign up for the community paint day please register via Eventbrite. (There is a $5 fee, that goes directly to Local Color, plus a processing fee)

Today I took a break from working on the mural design. Instead I worked on the 31 Skulls campaign for Local Color by posting some pictures of the skulls to social media, made a minor website update, and went shopping for food and drinks for the event on Saturday. I can't wait to finally be done with 31 Skulls so I can focus on the upcoming mural!

I finished drawing drawing/painting everything in black. Tomorrow, I'm going to look over it to see if I missed anything, sign my name on the bottom, clear coat it, and be done with it. I'll then deliver it to Local Color on Monday.

I started drawing/painting on my skull with black markers this evening and it's starting to come alive. I have to be really careful not to smudge the wet paint while I'm holding the it so I only did half the skull tonight. I was running out of spots I could hold. I hope I can finish it by tomorrow night.

In other 31 Skulls news, the video I edited finally got posted on Local Color's Instagram & Facebook pages to promote the skulls giveaway + art party on November 20th.

After a bit of a hiatus I'm back to working on my skull for Local Color's upcoming 31 Skulls Fundraising Event. Tonight I penciled in all the remaining eyes, mouths and noses and did a few white fill-ins, mostly on the eyes and teeth. After I'm done with the fill-ins I'm going to do the line work in black. I'm using Sharpie brand oil based markers on spray paint for this project and kinda wish, half way through, that I'd found a better solution as the spray paint bleeds through the white paint of the marker. Oh well. I'm going to follow through with it and just add extra coats where it's needed, like the cloud shaped eye below.

My finished skull, along with 34 other skulls painted by bay area artists, will be given away in a sweepstakes on November 20th, and Local Color's Keystone location. More details to follow.

After a bunch of setbacks trying to coordinate the 31 Skulls fundraiser for Local Color, I think we've finally settled on an event date and a game plan. November 20, at Local Color's Keystone location. More details TBA (I'm so tired of saying that). I had to make a few edits to the teaser video I put together and added an extra artist, resized the text, and added the date and location at the end. Hopefully now we can put this on the Local Color social media and follow through with the plan.

Today I made a little bit of progress on the skull I'm painting for Local Color's upcoming 31 Skulls event. I'm drawing Eyes, Mouths & Noses on it. I'm using oil based markers, white for fills and black for outlines. I hope I can finish it this weekend.

Today I worked on the sponsorship packet design for Local Color's 31 Skulls fundraising campaign. This was a first for me. I've seen them before and recently learned more about them. Organizations use them for fundraising. They have different levels based on contribution amount, each with different perks for those who choose to sponsor events. I had a little involvement with the actual content of the packet but I handled all the design. I did have to look at a few examples to get an idea of what to do. I'm waiting on the team at Local Color to get back to me with edits and to finish writing out all the content before the board members start sending them out to potential sponsors.  I hope this makes us lots of money!

I'm behind schedule on the skull I'm painting for Local Color's fundraiser, 31 Skulls. I spent most of the day trying to decide what I was going to draw on the skull. I was torn between the Eyes, Mouths & Noses motif or the brains I usually draw. I also tested out different markers, paints and brushes.In the end I went with EMN using oil based markers.

I'm also a day behind on my Inktober drawings. I't's day 10 but I'm on drawing 9. I drew this chunky demon guy marching along.

I finished the background on the ceramic skull I'm painting for Local Color's 31 Skulls fundraiser. I think I'm going to draw a bunch of eyes & mouths on it like my previous work. When it's all done I'll give it back to Local Color and it'll be used as prize for their fundraising raffle.

Tonight I knocked out my Inktober drawings for days 7 & 8. I had to catch up and draw two today because I didn't draw one yesterday. Earlier, I started painting my ceramic skull for Local Color's 31 Skulls Fundraiser. I spray painted the bottom and some of the sides and still need to do the top. After spray painting I'm going to draw on the skull with an oil based marker and clear coat it when I'm done. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

Tonight I worked on this video for the 31 Skulls Fundraiser for Local Color. This is the second annual event where Local Color commissions artists to decorate ceramic skulls which then get used as prizes in a raffle. I'm spearheading the fundraiser this year and thought it'd be fun to make it like a sequel to a horror flick and gave it the subtitle, "Revenge of the Skulls." This video might change a little before it's official release but my goal was to highlight all the participating artists, in a cool way, and hopefully get people excited about the event!

One of my jobs at Local Color is to compile and send out their two email newsletters. One is the A.R.C.H. (Artists Reaching Creative Heights) Network Newsletter. It's a weekly listing of job opportunities, grants & paid gigs for artists. The other is the Monthly Newsletter with updates about the organization. Today I worked on both and sent them out to subscribers.

If you'd like to read the two latest newsletters:

• A.R.C.H.Newsletter for October 1
• September Newsletter

​​If you'd like to subscribe:

• Subscribe to A.R.C.H.
• Subscribe to the monthly newsletter. 

I was up late working last night and didn't go to bed till after 4 in the morning and today I paid for it! I didn't have enough energy to make through the day and had a to take nap before sitting down to work on the monthly newsletter for Local Color. I've crept back in tweaker vampire hours after not needing to go in to work in the mornings. I must get back to normal people hours.

A teaser poster I designed for the 31 Skulls 2021 Fundraiser by Local Color. The image is a still from footage my brother, Sunny, filmed at Redwall Studio last week. This is the first big fundraising event I'm working at Local Color. Wish us luck! 

After biking 13 miles last Sunday, hurting my knee, working 7 days in a row and ending the week DJing the Local Color Estate Sale, I finally took a day off to rest. I spent most of the day in bed watching TV (two episodes of Star Wars: Visions) & movies (The Outsiders & Die Hard). Tomorrow I go back to work on 31 Skulls duty. Figuring out how we're going to run this year's fundraiser.

Today was supposed to be a rest day before DJing the Local Color Estate Sale on Sunday. Instead, I distributed a ceramic skull and shipped another (to 31 Skulls artists). I also had to go to the printers and get the brochure I designed last night printed & folded. I did manage to take 2 hour nap before prepping some music for tomorrow's event. I'll get some rest on Monday.

I pulled an all-nighter working on this brochure design for Local Color. I gotta get a bunch printed and folded on Saturday so we can distribute them on Sunday at the Estate Sale. I really like how this came out!

All week I've been coming into work, Local Color's Keystone Studios, to be available when artists pick up their ceramic skull, cash & gift card, for the 31 Skulls Fundraiser (Local Color commissions local artists to paint ceramic skulls that are used as prizes in a raffle) It's been fun getting to meet new artists and see old friends and watching them get excited for this project!

Holy shit, Viva Calle was fun as hell! I drove downtown and started biking at First Street, then went to the Mexican Heritage Plaza on the east side, Japan Town, and the Alameda before returning to my car. On my ride, I saw some friends wearing my t-shirts and a couple who bought their San Jose shirts at a recent First Friday event. I didn't do the whole route but made sure to stop at all four locations where my friends, TWC (Together We Create), were live-painting. I had to walk my bike through the crowded areas, but I did over 13 miles today! My legs are crazy sore after biking today and hiking yesterday. I'll see if I have Lieutenant Dan legs tomorrow.

I went on a 7.4-mile hike this afternoon at Alum Rock Park. It's been a week since the last time I hiked, and I wanted to get a workout in before Viva Calle tomorrow. Viva Calle is a public event where they block off city streets from cars and open them up for bicyclists & pedestrians. They also have activities at different locations along the route. Tomorrow will be my first time participating, and Tonight I spent a couple of hours learning how to remove my bike's rear wheel and replace the inner tube. It had been sitting with a flat tire for months and waited until the last day to fix it. Hopefully, my bike doesn't fall apart on me tomorrow!

Today I sent the confirmation emails to all the artists participating in Local Color's 31 Skull fundraiser this year. It thanked them all for signing up, gave instructions for picking up the skulls and information about how the fundraiser works. I also hung out at Local Color Keystone for a few hours as artists came to pick up their ceramic skulls. When artists arrived, I asked them to pose with a blank skull for a quick photo. Here are the pictures of me...