Zombies, Whine and Cheese

So, here are zombies (with extra cheese)



7x5" Acrylic on CP Illustration Board.

Ive been trying to expand my understanding of colors and pigments, so Ive been challenging myself to try out colors that make me want to vomit and shield my eyes.

Since Ive had these two huge tubes of Napthol Red that Ive been hauling around for the last two years, I figured that would be a great, pain in the ass exercise to get me started for my work week.

Im really glad I made myself try them out because, I learned that you can make a whole lot of gross looking colors out of this orangy-red.

In this painting I combined it with Pthalo turquoise, Green Gold and a little bit of Unbleached Titanium. I really wish I had these colors in oil, cuz I bet they would be unbelievable.

Someday...


And now the 'Whine'

Ive been spending a whole lot of time over the past few months trying to figure out what the hell I want to do when I 'grow up'.

Obviously I LOVE tattooing, but I'm stuck in Oregon for the next two years, so Im going to work my ass off trying to make it happen, but its like many of my tattooing heroes have said "If you want to be a serious tattoo artist, why the $&^@# would you move to Portland?"

So, while waiting for some hipster to try to decide which issue of High fructose style bunny with a human heart she wants that week, Im going to keep working on illustration.

Goat heat Im tattooing on Jason this week:



But what kind?

I enjoy doing murals, but I have neither the equipment, nor the time to spent a week on site. The same goes for faux finishing, sign painting and auto/bike detailing. Unless I can bring it to my studio, I cant really make it happen with any regularity.

I would really really LOVE to paint bikes.

Im in a place right now where my drawing skills have almost caught up to my imagination and while I still have a long LONG way to go, I will make better progress if I choose a direction and stick to it for a while.

So what then? Record Covers? Comics? Book covers? Concept Art?

My problem has traditionally been that Im interested in absolutely EVERYTHING.

I know I love fantasy and horror- things that are both beautiful and make people cringe... I know I love drawing and drawing a whole lot. I love the stories you can tell with a good image, i love that it can give you goosebumps, or make you get all misty eyed...

Do I get back into Comics? Do I have the anatomy, design and storytelling skills required to do that?

Do I spend the next year+ learning digital techniques and become a concept artist? The fast pace and tight deadlines would enable me to crank out the shit that my head is absolutely overflowing with. At the rate that I work now, I could never ever be able to keep up with my own ideas, but if Im conditioning myself to work that quickly, maybe I could record more of them...

Ive also recently been playing with oil paint and I'm in love with that already! Do I maybe want to start aiming to do book covers along the vein of Donato Giancola, or Dan Dos Santos? (yeah right, in like 15 years maybe).

Do I go to art school? Maybe I should teach, I love teaching...

Oh, what to do...