Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Lots of stuff happening lately!

-I got my artwork back from Fenario Gallery in Oregon today (relief)

-Working on a t-shirt/poster image for a band

-got word from Double Punch Gallery in San Francisco today about an upcoming show I will be in. JULY 25th. I get an 8' x 10' wall to display my work on. I need to decide what artwork to send. The show is called "We Are Awake" and will feature new works by John Casey, Nick Mann "Doodles", Shawn Wisenau, and me!

-Working on 2 of my own zines. This is a first attempt.

-Also, just found out today that I have artwork featured in the new TEST EVERYTHING zine. The theme was "I'll See You in My Dreams"

-Working on new stuff to be featured in Faesthetic! I got bumped up from issue 13 to issue 12!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Mail from Abroad!

I was very happy to receive this package today from Paulo in Portugal who I traded art with recently!

You can see more of Paulo's work on his blog HERE!


Included with the artwork was some stickers and a little painted bird.


I love this part of the painting with all the creatures, some familiar and some not. I like how the cat is playing with a little ball.


This is written on the back of the work. Nice little drawing too.


Here's a close-up of the little bird.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I gave in and paid to upgrade my monthly traffic quota so now my website is back online.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Off to Portugal! (Haha....no, not me)

Went to the post office today to mail something to Portugal. It's some artwork I'm trading with a guy named Paulo. It's sort of my first official art trade with someone I don't really know, so hopefully it will be a good experience that will encourage me to do more trades in the future.

In other news, I exceeded my traffic quota on my website, so now it's down for the rest of this month. Sucks. I mean, it's great so many people are looking at my work, don't get me wrong, but now no one can see the site until next month unless I buy a larger quota. Kinda don't want to do that, but maybe next month will prove I don't have to. I think I had an increase in traffic this month from two interview things I did and from being featured on illustration mundo. But on average I was getting about 53 mb worth of traffic daily. I remember when I didn't even used to get that much a month, so I'm adjusting still. Adjusting, not complaining mind you.

If I get as much as I'd like done today, I may even gesso some cradled wood panels and try to decide what to do with those. If not today, then tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Framed art follow-up



A while back I sold a sketchbook page to a guy in Syracuse. I requested he send me a picture if he ever got the drawing framed, and he was kind enough to do just that! Mine is on the bottom right.

He said "Hanging next to your art on the left is a piece by an artist named Al Columbia, then a poster for a mexican siamese twins murder movie. Directly above is a heart of a young vampyre boy and a haunted doll."

I think it looks very at home on that wall :)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Commissioned Piece





gesso, india ink, gouache, micron pen on found paper
9" x 11 1/2"

This is a commissioned piece I did for my friends Nikki and Alan. They wanted it in the style of the other animal head portraits I had done with similar media. I don't normally do commissions in the style of a previous work, but they're good friends. I had some fun with this though. It's a portrait of their bulldog Cecelia.

FAESTHETIC!

Oh, I forgot to post my good news. On Friday I found out that I won an art grant from Faesthetic! Basically, I will have my work featured in their publication, Issue #13. If you don't know Faesthetic, you should definitely check them out. They are a great little art publication based in Toledo, Ohio. This is what they say on their website:

"Since its inception in 2001, Faesthetic has grown from a photocopied zine into a high-quality Arts magazine with international participation and readership. Originally an annual, we now release 3 issues a year.

Never to be taken too seriously, Faesthetic is made by artists, for artists. Not so much eye candy, as it is brain candy, Faesthetic supports making art for art's sake. From day one, our aim has remained the same: to provide an affordable, original and accessible showcase for some of the best creativity and new art the world has to offer!

We give the artists interesting themes and a limited palette to challenge and bring out unexpected results. Instead of focusing on ad sales, we focus on quality content. Faesthetic is currently 100% ad free!

We’ve been honored to work with some of our art heroes over the years, and just as honored to be able to help talented newcomers get some of their first printed exposure alongside established contributors."

This is a picture of the current issue.

Another Portrait

I'm still on this portrait kick, so I did this yesterday. I had an oval mat that I wanted to use, and I had an idea to do this for it. I'm really getting into drawing beards and different kinds of headwear. I like trying to think about the sort of materials these things would be made out of considering the kind of environments the characters are living in, and what would be available to them.

I mixed some brown ink in with the india ink to add some warmth.



India ink and colored ink on found paper
8" x 10" - oval measures 6 3/4"h x 4 3/4"w

Friday, June 12, 2009

NEW miniature portraits!

These are the portraits that I've been working on this week. Just finished painting and sanding frames today.







Thursday, June 11, 2009

Just finished drawing a series of six mini portraits today. They are of the various characters I usually draw and maybe one or two new ones. I spent today doing ink washes and a lot of scanning. Then I did a lot of cutting, taping, gluing, using the hairdryer, and then more scanning. Now they're in their oval mats and ready to be put into frames. Tomorrow I will be sanding frames and then spray painting them black. I'm so happy I got this spray paint. It should make things a lot easier! Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny, so it should be perfect weather to do this.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Today I got a few things accomplished. I made a trip to the nearby Joanne's fabrics. Yes, it's full of old ladies buying scrapbook materials and silk flowers, however I got some good deals on frames. They were having a 50% sale on them. I also got some brushes for real cheap and some spray paint which I need for picture frames. I'd been painting them myself and I figured if they're black or white, I might as well spray paint them; far easier. So I went there and then came home and framed some stuff. I also am working on these little mini portraits right now. The main inspiration for that was because I have these little oval cut picture mats that I've been wanting to use for a while. I have 2 done so far and about 4 more to go. Well, 4 are sketched out.

Also, some cool news! I'm finally trading art with someone. Paulo from Portugal contacted me and asked to trade and I gladly accepted. Pretty cool! The internet is pretty amazing like that sometimes. I already picked out my drawing from him and I will draw him something to trade.

Monday, June 8, 2009

GOB Magazine



Today I have a mini interview on GOB Magazine's blog!

Check it out!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Framing

Today I spent a lot of time framing artwork. I painted a bunch of frames white and varnished them. I also backed some artwork and scanned some stuff. Overall a productive day. Here's a picture of the stuff I framed as well as a few process pics.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

So I finished another drawing last night. I was having some difficulty deciding whether it was actually "done" or not, but in the end these things always resolve themselves. Since I've moved I've finished two drawings and completed my website makeover. So far so good. I think before I start some more drawings I should work on painting some frames and putting things in the frames. Also, I told myself that after I finished the drawing I was just working on, I would start emailing some more galleries. I just wanted to create something new before I did that so I could feel like not all the work was old work. It's always good to refresh the portfolio with something current.

There's a couple side projects I want to work on as well, but those will have to wait until the frames are done.

More updates soon.