a little taste of my day.
I did this for a commission. Things like this are the reason I love commissioned work. I started drawing, imagining a pen and ink, monochromatic fabio- and somehow managed to make him start to be golden.
At that point I was screwed- golden aquatic beefcake, it had to be done.
Done with watercolor wash and prismacolor pencil.
Note: the seahorse is enjoying itself.
what I did at work today!
one finished, one in progress!
excuse the crappy photos,
I left my good camera at home, and had
to use the crappy phone camera.
What I finished today. I also started a huge full-sheet landscape, but that won’t be done for a while yet.
I’ll be building three of these creepy little monsters- this one, another for a friend as a commission, and then a slightly larger rat-size one. This one is made of a full mouse skull, rat jaws, bird and mouse and rat bones, possum vertebrae, bone glue, and oil pigment.
It’s on a tiny coffin lid, and hangs on the wall, for all your horrorfully-decorated rooms. I think he would do best in a library, in a genetics lab, or in a tattoo and horror fanatic’s studio or office. But what do I know? It might be that he is happiest in your nightmares.
This one is for sale, the second has already sold.
I do not know enough about lettering to call myself any kind of expert.
seriously. (check out some of my art with lettering in it for verification of that)
I am sometimes shaky, I am often confused by fonts, and although I have done thousands of tattoos with text in them, I still struggle with the forms and shapes. I owe the little I DO know about lettering to B.J. Betts, who is well-known in tattooing as a real expert on this stuff- he has some books out, if you are a professional tattoo artist you should keep your eyes peeled for them and buy them. (but if you work in a shop or have been around a while you already own all his stuff…)
I learned to do lettering before I ever heard of his work- the way I learned was through calligraphy, and through sign painting. A combination of those things and Betts’s work has formed my meager abilities.
Here’s a walk through on drawing this stuff. If you’re a tattooer you will naturally make the proper adjustments to the text as you go in order to make it applicable to skin, so I won’t be explaining the precise tech needed for that. If you just want to add a tattoo to a painting, a drawing, if you are not a tattoo artist you can use this how-to to make script lettering … or if you are doodling reference for your tattoo artist to build you a tattoo from, you can do this to give them an idea of what you’re after.
This is a step-by-step for script, cursive lettering in a slanted style in which the letters are connected.
I will post a separate one for block or stylized lettering next.
My tools:
Liquid acrylic ink,
fountain pen
(with round nib- just what I prefer)
colored pencil
(for beginning sketch/marking symmetry)
standard black #2 pencil
tracing paper, paper that is easy for ink lines
(I am using a scrap of srches hotpress here)
The rest of the steps, after the jump.
Formerly known as Wardian cases, moss terrariums are pretty easy to take care of, if they’re put together right.
I’ve been making these off and on for years, and have a few well-established ones growing in my house.
They’re really nice for times when you want to see some outside nature but for some reason(such as cold or work), you can’t go hiking.Since I moved to Alsea, I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods.
I live next to the Siuslaw forest, which is one of the least-developed natural areas in the northwest.
It’s gorgeous, silent, and old.
The house I live in has its own patch of woods, which is its yard. I spend a lot of my days poking around there, growing things, picking mushrooms, and gathering moss. This is what I do with all that stuff, and it’s not hard to do yourself.
(here’s a supply list, and another, and another, in case you need to buy some of these things)
When I die, please pile all of my creative work high on the pyre.
Burn it all down.
Please don’t go through it all, re-edit and assemble it for sale,
and then make a million dollars from my sad,
overworked corpse.
Kafka was firmly of the opinion that if they don’t want it now,
while it can do me some good to sell it,
they can’t have it later,
the bastards.
He worked full-time, NOT as a writer, throughout his life. He would come home tired from long workdays and stay up all night writing.
I’d have been pissed too. They always blame his lack of confidence in his own work- but I think, deep down, it was his fury that he had had to work so goddamn hard all the time while lesser authors had the leisure and funds to write, and to enjoy their lives.
Every time you think “I wish he had written more” ask yourself- when is the last time you PAID A CREATIVE PERSON for something, and spread the word, so they’d have time to write or paint more? People didn’t pay HIM either, so there’s your answer. He never had time, because he had to pay the rent. That’s how most creative people tend to live- I am lucky because my day job is art too, but even so, it’s not free, it’s not MY WORK wholly. Even so.
did this at the Portland expo today.
I spent the day napping and drawing. I haven’t finished anything. Everything I’m working on is half-done, waiting. It’s been a strange day.
Here’s an older picture to tide you over until I find some motivation to finish something.
…
oh yeah, and an awesome video for you to watch.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh-hdLKITZA&w=420&h=315]
April 26, 2012.
Quote fromthe event’s page:
“April 26, ’12 is the next “bring-your-child-to-work” day. If you do NOT have or want children, and your workplace participates in this; if you are tired of co-workers who chose to reproduce leaving early, taking extra time off, and generally being slack because of their own life choices; if you think maternity leave should be mirrored by sabbaticals given in equal time to nonparents; if you are sick of your insurance rates being driven skyward by rampant breeding among your employer’s policyholders; in short, if you find it offensive that an entire workday is sacrificed because of the personal choices of others…
bring your child to work in a jar day
Take the day off.
Do your co-workers bring the kids in and then spend the day “teaching” them, so that you end up doing more work on their behalf? Do they abandon the precious creatures in the office, forcing childfree colleagues to entertain or supervise them? Do they wreak havoc at the workplace, and find it adorable?Does your boss think this is a great idea?Do you wish you could spend an entire day being paid to do no real work?
(made & posted for a dear friend.)
This is a unique website which will require a more modern browser to work!
Please upgrade today!
