It was a long but fun day. It started with visiting a few comic book stores and thrift shop I’d never been to before and bringing home a few sweet books. Later, I went to Meeting of the Minds to paint. I got paired up with my buddy, Henry. We made graffiti-like 3,W, E or M, depending on how you look at it.

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.

At Meeting of the Minds tonight I got paired up with Eddie Ramirez and we painted this little gem!

This morning I met with a couple guys at their establishment to talk about doing a mural there. So far, so good. I measured their walls and will start working on a quote and maybe some sketches tomorrow. After that meeting I went hiking at Alum Rock Park. I hiked the Penitencia Creek Trail again and did a little better than before. It still kicked my ass but not as bad. At night I met up the Meeting of the Minds gang. That's where we get randomly paired up with other people and have to work on a canvas together. I got matched up with Tom and we did what looks like a giant red eye above the horizon, a yellow planet and a red sea monster.

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.

I'm done applying white on my skull I'm painting. Next I'm going to outline & draw using a black paint marker. I should be finished painting, then clear coating, by the end of this week.

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.

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.

This morning, with the help of my cousin, Jose, and artist-friend Rayos, I installed 9 art pieces at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. I had kinda been dreading this day for a while but with the extra help today it wasn't bad at all. The pieces on display are:

• Cells 1
• Cells MK2
• Square Jellyfish 4
• Square Jellyfish 5
• Shoe
• Head Thing #?
• Frankie Mcfly Pink & Blue Sign
• Big Mama of the Psychedelic Spaghetti Sisters
• Frankie Mcfly USA 

I plan on installing 4 framed drawings soon. Those 4 are currently on display at Orange Moon Salon.

Tonight I drew my Inktober drawing for Day 3 and I'm still 2 days behind schedule.

After a long day of webinars & work meetings, I was happy to end the day hanging out and painting with friends at Meeting of the Minds. That's where artists and non-artists meet up, are randomly paired, and paint a single canvas together. They're always a lot of fun and laid-back—a great way to end the night.

After a long day of working in front of the computer I got the urge to start painting a new canvas. I had one lying around that I'd been wanting to paint over. I got the hankering after Meeting of the Minds on Wednesday night. I really liked the way my canvas came out that night and I wanted to do it again but on my own.

After work today I met up with the Meeting of the Minds group for a fun painting session. It's a group of artists that get together once a month and are paired up at random and take turns painting a canvas. Tonight I was the odd man out, painting by myself until another artist arrived, Jessica. We both worked the canvas below.

I spent hours today looking for alternatives to the shirts I wasn't able to buy, either because they were out of stock or had to be bought by the case. Then I emailed  those alternatives to everyone whose custom orders were affected. Now I'm waiting on their replies. Today was also my install appointment for two new tires. The old tires, one had a big crack in the sidewall, both had tread that was pretty low. While I waited on my tires I started researching my first assignment from work, using CRM (customer relationship management) software. At night I went to Meeting of the Minds, where artists get together then partner up to paint a canvas. I wasn't going to paint, just hang out, but then a local artist Chuck invited me to work on the canvas he'd been painting by himself. Busy day!

My idea for the live outdoor art activation on June 26th has been approved so I'll be moving forward with it. Next on the agenda is getting the supplies and figuring out how I'm going to set up. It's going to be a small 4'x8' paint-by-number mini-mural where passerby's can jump in and paint. I was invited to do this by the amazing folks at Local Color, San Jose's own arts non-profit. That's all I have to share about the project & event for now. More details to come!

I was going through old pictures yesterday and today and found some cool process pictures from when I made my Cells MK2 painting. I completely built it out in Adobe Illustrator before painting the panel. I also had to take a headshot today and I worked a little more on my Sticker Monster collage. It's got fangs now.

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. 

I spent most of the day working on the skull and a few hours on the drawing.

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. 

Today my friend Catrina hosted a paint party at Orange Moon Salon in San Jose. It was my first time and I've been wanting to do one for a while. Our buddy Joey also came to paint. Catrina did a great job, so did Ruth & Kenny, the owners of the salon, being awesome hosts. It was a lot of fun and it kinda made me want to paint canvases again.