Mosaic Project 2 the Vikinging

It is once again time for Benicia Artists Open Studios which is may 5th and 6th,  and this year they are doing the Mosaic Project again where they will be raffling off 144 little panels created by some artists in the community. Laura and I created panels for the exhibition. The tiles will be

Last year I made an octopus, this year after buying some art from Miss Monster of a viking berserker I was inspired to make my own viking. I decided to use this paint set that I have had for a really long time and it didn't go quiet as planned. I think I ended up with a cool little tile, but if I had it to do over again I would do a few things differently and use the paint in a different way. I need to try and paint more. Maybe a painting every 3 months.

Giant's Head

I dislike selling paintings, they feel like they need to be something more then what my hands can make. However they needed work for the auction and I think I usually am underwhelmed by what I make because I see what it is not instead of what it is. Though I am excited for a severed Giants Head to be in a silent auctio0n at Arts Benicia. Usually the show is filled with flowers, landscapes and abstract pieces, so I am interested to see if any one makes a bid on my strange piece.
The origin of this piece had to do with a threadless design competition for Adventure Time I was drawing Finn the human slaying a giant and I drew a few really cool severed giant's heads. It was really fun I kinda want to do some more and really develop something here.

Giant's Head Study

I am working on a painting for Arts Benicia's Annual Benefit Auction and before I started working on the larger final piece I decided to do a color study of the work first. I busted out my water color Moleskine, which I had been neglecting. I am really happy with it and I plan on doing the big one tonight, because it appears to be due tomorrow.

Arts Benicia Mosaic Project

During the Open Studios (I also created the flier for the show) which was may 1st, (I finally got around to uploading the pictures) this year they did the Mosaic Project for the first time where they will be raffling off 144 little panels created by some artists in the community. Laura and I created panels for the exhibition.

144 tiles
It was a smash success and all of the tiles were sold. I have no idea who got my tile but I got a tile of one of the artist members whom I like very much.
My tile, The Octopus and the Skull
Laura's Tile, The Bunny Skull
It was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.

Cup Cake Skulls: Hostess of Death and Inks

I wanted to participate in Arts Benicia's Small Works art show this year and I had planned to submit 4 pieces though do to my own poor time management (and usually putting too much on my plate) I was only able to get one done on time.

Hostess of Death.

When I started working on this project I knew I wanted to do something with skulls. I started doing some Dia De Los Muertos kind of sketches, but I couldn't get them to look the way I wanted and I asked Laura what I should do. She said I should so something like the Gloom Cupcake painting that I did for her last year. I thought that was a good idea, but I wanted to incorporated a better skull into the piece. So I drew a cupcake with a skull on it. It kinda looked like a Jeremy Fish, piece who has an awesome graphic style, so I went ahead and designed 4 different Cup Cake Skulls.

Now I just have to wait to see if my piece is excepted. Though I have an in with one of the judges, so I am optimistic.

I have the other 3 started, they are already inked I just need to paint them. I plan on painting them this Sunday, After I get my homework done and get ahead on CT

Deadly Frosting

This was the first one that I drew that made me want to create the other ones.

The Gourmet in the End

I guess this is my gourmet one seeing as it has the cinnamon stick in them.

Sprinkles of the Dead

SPRINKLES! That is the only thing that this one is missing, when I did the original sketch for this one I did a little burst with the word SPRINKLES which was one of my favorite parts though I feel like it would break from the style of all the other ones.

Now I just need to find some frames that these pieces will fit into.

Gnomes: PIG RACE

In December I was commissioned to do a painting of gnomes hunting for mushrooms for a friend of mine and it turned out really great (I forgot to take photos, so I still need to ask for a photo of that particular work). When working on it I did five different sketches for the piece, and I quickly became obsessed with drawing the gnomes with pigs because pigs are used for hunting truffles. One of them was of gnomes riding pigs in a race.















Here is the sketch of the gnomes riding pigs in a race.



















And the final painting.
This is a photo so the colors look weird, I'm not the best photographer. I am pretty happy with the results; I'm trying to to have more of an emphasis on lighting and tone in my newer pieces, so I did some small lighting effects. This is the 3rd painting I have done using watercolor pencils (I forgot to take pictures of the other 2) and they give me really good results. I'm really enjoying painting and drawing gnomes right now, so I'm sure there will be more to come in the future.

I have submitted this to the art of a community show for Arts Benica which runs from January 21st to February 28th. This peice, which is framed, can been seen as well as purched at the Arts Benica art gallery at 911 Tyler Street, Suite 144, Benicia , CA 94510. Any one who can should come up or come down and check out this art show it is really great.

2010 Calendar

Laura was lamenting how boring her office calendar was, so she asked me to populate the landscape photographs that filled the calendar with monsters. These are the monsters that I came up with; they are now happily cohabiting with Laura in her office.

Christmas Ornaments

This week I painted two Christmas Ornaments for Arts Benicia. This was designed as a fund raiser for Arts Benicia, where the artist members were invited to come and get a blank ornament and decorate it to be sold for their gallery and education programs.





















Here is the first one, a Daruma Santa, or more a blue eyed whited haired Daruma. I figured with this one I would try and be more commercial with a Santa-esque figure. Though I don't know if appropriating a Daruma for Christmas was the most socially sensitive thing to do, I liked the idea and the colors are similar to Santa.
My second idea was going to be for me and for fun. For my second ornament I decided to do a skull and tentacles. After I told Laura what it was she told me she hoped it didn't sell so that she could have it for herself, no such luck.





















Here it is half way through painting it.





















Here I am painting the tentacles on the skull in the Arts Benicia gallery.





















A close up of me painting a tentacle.





















Here are my ornaments on the tree during the Holiday Parlor Tour. I volunteered to help out Arts Benicia and their very talented program coordinator to set up the room, which involved me helping to carry lots of heavy things up a flight of stairs. The event wasn't much of a sucess, where as we didn't sell too many ornaments, just three. One was mine! I sold the skull one the day before the event to one of the Arts Benicia board member who loved it.