Should of finished the painting below a couple of weeks ago, but what happened was, I jumped on something new. Okay. Okay. I'll just start something new and get the gist of it going well enough to leave it and jump back on this and finish it. I'll only be gone a second. He's right. You might as well start something new, other artists do it all the time. True story by the way on the painting below. Only problem is I keep jumping on to new artworks. In this case the hold up was the Joker text & spade outline. I was debating whether or not to put Full Metal Jacket wrote out in white on the helmet. Love that movie! You had best UnF@ck yourself... Joker won out in the end. Snoopy! H. R. Pufnstuf!! HOT!!!!!
Winnie the Pooh! That buzzing noise means something. Pooh looks a wee sickly in this painting though, so this painting must be about healthcare. Silly Pooh! You can't fix healthcare with a screwdriver!
Nice Walt Disney feel to this one below, huh? Well, until you look below the eyes and see the blue & red haired chewbaccas. That's Washington man!! Politicians in the midst of battle.
Napoleon!!! How do you want your eggs?
Look!! It's Superman!! Where's that mexican music coming from?
This past Thursday my wife and I went to Tarleton Blackwell's Artist Reception at City Art gallery in Columbia, South Carolina. If you are able, I highly recommend you going there and checking out his exhibition on display there entitled "an exhibition of southern narrative painting". COLOR!!! Look at how Tarleton uses color, individual strokes of color, it just blows my little mind really and just gets me all excited. Makes me want to paint!! I want to go paint right now just thinking about it! Don't do it, finish this post!! Come back to us! Come back! That was a close one. Too close. Anyway, go check it out! Tarleton's got several shows going at this moment & coming up, so if you are unable to make it to this exhibition, check his website and facebook page out regularly because he might be showing near you. You've got to see his art in person, the colorful strokes will amaze you, I promise. Tarleton does not have any of his gigantic big paintings at this show in Columbia, but there are several new big artworks along with several artworks done in recent years. Everything has meaning behind it, lots to figure out. Awesome exhibition! Go to http://www.cityartonline.com for more info on this exhibition.
The photograph below is from this past Thursday night at Tarleton's artist reception. That's my big goofy-self on the left and Tarleton on the right. Tarleton let me into his advanced painting class when he was teaching at UNC-Pembroke back in 2006. I have been grateful to him ever since for opening my eyes to color, and for continually helping me become a better artist all around. You will never meet a nicer man on this planet than Tarleton, he's the real deal folks and one of the greatest artists living today.
You know what, leave here right now and go and check out Tarleton's website and his New Artworks page. It's okay if you don't come back, at least I know I did not steer you wrong. See that painting below, it's on exhibition in Columbia. Here's the link to Tarleton's New Artworks page. Awesome stuff! http://www.tarletonblackwell.com/tarletonblackwell.com/New_Works.html
While I was at Tarleton's reception I met another artist named Palei. That's a hand sharpie drawn card he gave me shown below. I added his email address on top after I scanned it into photoshop in case anyone would like to contact him. Palei told me he was a sharpie artist living in Columbia, South Carolina. Palei uses nothing but sharpies to create his art. I told him I too loved to draw with sharpies and we commenced to chat it up a bit. Oh yeah! I'm better! No you ain't, I am! You poser! I asked him if he had a website and the answer was no and I told him he needed to start a blog and begin posting his art on it. Ooops! I was suppose to email him my website so he could check out my blog and see what I was talking about. Note to self: email Palei today! I'm looking forward to checking out more of his art. I'll keep you posted.
Back in 2004, I met Dr. John Antoine Labadie. He was teaching digital arts over at UNC-Pembroke, and still is today. His wonderful wife, Margie, also teaches there. Both John and Margie are phenomenal artists and leaders in the field of digital art. I would not be working on my art now if I had not met John. The man is scary smart and is constantly trying new things art wise. I took his advanced digital art class back in 2007 and he's been helping me with my art ever since. John is also the reason I took Tarleton Blackwell's painting class. John and Margie Labadie rock in my book! So, it was a real treat when both of them accepted my invitation to come paint with me in my studio the other week while they were still on vacation from school. That's John below drawing with a sharpie on top of an india ink & acrylic painting he created earlier that evening. It's still not finished he says, but it's definitely rocking! I love it!
Here's Margie working on her work of art. Awesome! Margie also brought some handmade papers to show me the differences between them and how they were made. Very neat stuff! She even used some of the papers she brought to get several effects in the painting she's working on below. We had the Seriously Sinatra channel cranking out the music while we were all painting.
John and Margie have several shows and exhibitions going all the time. They are always on the go. I think they are headed to India next. They are both wonderful people all around and I love them both. So, leave here now and go checkout their art website. Some great artworks to view! Here's the link, go now, hurry! http://www.steppingstonearts.net
Big shout of thanks to Margie and John Labadie for dropping by to paint with me! Your both welcome in my studio anytime! I'm looking forward to working together with yawl on some art projects in the future!! PS. I appreciate the invite this past Friday night for the art walk over in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I had a great time and enjoyed meeting your friends. Thank you again.
Coming up through school I was always doodling and drawing lots of cartoons, passing them around. Recently, I joined facebook. Well, the other day I was on FB and was reading some of the posts and saw one that sparked the idea below for a Facebook cartoon strip. The post was a horrible post of sorts, about donating money to Haiti and how this person could not see doing that when people here in the USA could use the donations instead basically. Boom! Cartoon idea. Sorry, I had to censor what I wrote on the cartoon sketch below because it was pretty bad. It was what was said, but it's not what I was trying to get across here. I'm like, holy cow Batman! Do these people know I could turn their post into a funny arse cartoon. Seriously, there's enough cartoon ideas from posts to keep any cartoonist busy. I wish I had the time to do it but I don't. Not saying I won't be posting some Fb inspired cartoons from time to time in the future though. I already have about three I want to work up when I get time. I was trying to think of a good name to call the strip. I was on the phone with my buddy Rodney and he suggested FBFU which was hilarious at the time, then we settled on FBOU812. I'm still laughing on the inside. So be aware all you Facebook posers, I'm keeping a sharp lookout for ya! Muhahahahaha! (Eerie music plays in background. Actually, it's Led Zepplin - 'Since I've been loving you'.) Rock on!
I was in office depot this week stocking back up on some sharpies when I found these woodless pencil stick thingies. I was like, ohhhh me got to try those! So I bought 'em.
Just so happens that before I went to office depot I had lunch at Village Station. Whereupon, I had a conversation with John who works there. I was sitting there doodling in my sketchbook when he sat down with me for a second. He was telling me about his friend about to return back home from Iraq. John wanted me to draw his buddy a tattoo. His buddy is a ma deuce gunner for his outfit, a special outfit that, well I better not say, might be top secret. Now John is also an artist. He has drawn several of his own tattoos that he has and they are awesome in my opinion. I was like dude, you can draw that up better than I can. We argue, blah blah blah and he goes back to working. So, when I get back home from office depot I grabbed a piece of watercolor paper and pinned it to the wall and hit it with those woodless color pencil sticks. Should of used bristol paper because it's smoother, but the watercolor paper was thicker and I went on that premise. Anyway, below is what transpired. I'm currently redrawing this below with sharpies and plan on giving it to John's buddy as a thank you for all that you do. Can't wait to experiment some more with those woodless color pencils!
Lastly, I leave you with two of my favorite sketches from this week. I'm not about to scan in all my sketches again like last time, takes way too long. First sharpie sketch, I love the battle ship in the bottom right. Second sharpie sketch, I'm going to be turning the stick figures under the tree into a 48 x 36 painting. Will post on me blog when me get her done.
This week I'm heading over to UNCP to visit Margie and John and check out what's new in their art department. I will also be talking with Jun Shin who is teaching ceramics over there. Jun Shin and his beautiful wife were in our group at the art walk in Fayetteville this past Friday night. I was told that Jun Shin makes ceramics that you can stand in. Can't wait to see this and talk with him some more. Plus, John has the wacom tablets you can draw on the screen with. Yeah, this week is gonna ROCK!!
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