"Brother! What a way to run a railroad!"

Today is the 58th anniversary of one of my all time favorite cartoons, "Duck Amuck" directed by the great Chuck Jones. It was a major influence on me and one of the reasons I decided to pursue cartoons as a career. I first saw this it when I was just 14 months old. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and take 7 minutes to check it out now.






Yeah, that's me. June 1981. I swear, that isn't Photoshoped

"Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!"

Looks like the shishkabob won by a land slide! Thanks to everyone who voted (mostly on facebook). I think I'm going to call the piece "Beelzkabob". Here's a preview of the finished line work. I hope to do a run of 50. They will be screen in a variety of colors and hopefully each will have a one of a kind hand painted background. I'm burning the screens tonight, but it may be a few weeks before I start mass producing them. Hopefully they'll be ready to go by October so they'll be available as Halloween gifts. I'll be posting info on where to buy them and how much for anyone who is interested.

Beelzkabub or Heart Burn?

So here's some options (uncolored) for the design of the print I'm working on. The plan is to (hopefully) have it be a 3 color screen and make a limited run, each with a 1-of-a-kind hand painted background for sale. Which design does everyone like best? Vote now! Let your voice be heard! Stand up and be a part of something for once in your life!

Can't you see them? They're everywhere!

HEY! LOOKIT THIS!!

Yeah, that's really sumptin, huh? Eh, not really, but I thought it was worth a share. Okay, here's the stats for those of you that care (and those of you that do, know that you are better than everyone for it).

Title: "Isn't This A Dream Come True?"

42" x 30"

Acrylic on parcel paper

Here's a picture for size reference

The child was based on a weird toy on my shelf. I found this thing at some strange roadside attraction on my road trip from Atlanta to LA. I'm pretty sure that the shop in question appeared from a gap in the tectonic plates that led directly to hell and the figurine is actually a manifestation of a child's tormented soul after she was denied ice cream on a family vacation to Palm Springs.

I've been trying to make an effort to start painting and drawing and just experimenting more. Basically just keeping it loose and fun for the sake of creating and not worry to much about the end result. I haven't been making much art at all this year and its already more than half over! My problem is that I feel if I'm going to paint or draw, it has to be absolutely perfect (to the best of my ability) and since I don't have the time to spend an entire day on painting anymore, I just start getting discouraged and frustrated and decide to skip the whole thing. Yeah, that's pretty stupid. So now, I'm just trying to force myself to spend a few hours everyday just doodling or gesture drawing and get myself back in a groove. That's basically what this was. Just having fun and not worrying too much about the end result. I painted this while listening to an old KROQ recording of an Oingo Boingo show from 1980. The piece itself isn't that strong, but I think the idea is pretty decent and I'd like to revisit it sometime. Maybe do a nicer more detailed painting at some point or maybe making a cleaned up drawing and try making screen prints. I think for now though I should just stick to this kinda stuff and try to develop more of a personal style rather than my usual schtick of 1930s style animated characters bleeding from the eyes or whatever.

Meet The Cretins

Here's a new painting I finished up last night.

It's 28x28 acrylic on (shitty) wood. I had some scrap wood laying around and decided to use it for a quick "eh, I'll kill a few hours on a Sunday" kinda piece. But the lousy quality of the wood and ruff, porus surface made it damn near impossible to get any kind of decent line quality. The original sketch seemed to have much more weight to it that got lost in the painting.

Here's a picture for size reference.

These guys are "The Cretin Brothers". The little one with the switch blade is Fink, and the big one is Runt. They kinda draw from the 19050s juvenile delinquent sorta culture. There's a bit of Ed Roth influence thrown in there (obviously). I first drew them for a T-shirt for my pals/black metal ska-punk heathens/freelance gynocologysts, Stuck Lucky

I've been thinking about developing these guys as characters to be licensed. You know, the whole creepy/cute, gothy-punky, Hot Topic-y sorta thing? I like those sort of characters, but they all seem to be girls (i.e. Emily the Strange, Ruby Gloom, etc), so maybe there's some room for boys. I'd like to do some more drawings with them and flesh them out a bit. Work in some personality. I don't mean to toot my own horn (at least not while anyone is watching) but I think these guys would make great looking vinyl figures.

I love lamp

Here's one 1 I figured I'd post for the hell of it.

I stayed in Los Angeles for the holidays, so on Christmas day I killed some time by making this while I watched the Jack Benny program.

Oh, how the wine talks!

“See, this is EXACTLY the kind of shit I’m talking about!”
8x10
Acrylic on paper.

Not too much to say about this one. I didn’t have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving, so I put away about 2 bottles of Merlot (along with a pack o’ ramen). After I was good ‘n stewed, I blasted the stereo and just started drawing. The nice thing about drawing while pickled on cheap wine is that I’m much looser with it and I’m more free with my exaggeration and poses. I painted this drawing and will be dropping it off for the December ’09 “Price Less” show at Hive Gallery. Details below. Painting this was actually kind of a bitch. The acrylic went on the paper terribly. I had to add several layers and I was left with visible brush strokes. I need to start trying out and experimenting with some new materials. Cel vinyl? Gauche? Anybody have any suggestions or advice? I did like using this paper since it took care of my usual problem of not having a background. Call it laziness. Call it lack of talent. Either way, I’ll cop to it.