What a funny week its been. My husband's band left for their Mexico tour, so Ive really had a chance to get lost in work.

The Stumptown Comics Fest was last weekend, I unfortunately had to be at the tattoo shop, so I missed out on that.

I did make it to the 'Dark Horse Presents' launch party, ate a few cupcakes and had a free beer, realized i was in a comic book store with a wad of cash in my pocket and promptly had to leave in order to prevent some misappropriation of the electric bill money.

I signed a new agreement with Paxton Gate for BoneFetish. They will be carrying my bone jewelry for the summer at their Portland location on Mississippi St. Thats awesome.



Also trying to keep up with commissions, NOT working on that oil painting I promised myself I would have finished by now. Though considering all that Ive managed to accomplish this week, Im not going to be too hard on myself.

last night was the Dr Sketchy's Comics edition, I had a blast drawing the two models dressed as 'The Wasp' and 'Black Widow'.






The very nice gentleman sitting next to me for the evening was super generous with his suspiciously vast wealth of drawing knowledge. Grateful as I was, I didnt think much of it at the time, since I had seen him at previous Shetchys and had actually gotten a great tip on a figure drawing book from him earlier this year.

We spent the breaks between models chatting about whatever came up, spiders, carpel tunnel, comics, long pose figure drawing, the ruins of his family castle in germany, tattoos. Turns out he is related to a rather famous tattoo machine maker Dan Dringenberg, the name sounded WICKED familiar so I grabbed a pencil so I could look it up later, he was impressed I spelled it correctly and I told him I knew I knew the name and I would feel like such a dummy as soon as I was looking at something...

Eventually one of the other regulars, another guy I had spoken to about comics in the past, came up and asked to see what we had been drawing, so I finally peeked over to check out his sketch pad and I definitely shit my pants a little.

It was Mike muthafukkin Dringenberg.



Four hours sitting next to the guy and talking about art and I totally didn't put it together, then, it took me about two seconds looking at his drawings to figure out why the name was so SO familiar... Its on half of the books I own.

Dummy.

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...

Snow Painting Update

Alright, so Ive gone ahead and taken a couple photos of the in progress stages Ive dont so far. Im going to post this and tomorrow I'm hoping to get a chance to start painting.

Here is all the clutter Ive got on the drawing table. Thumbnail in the top left, wicked rough value study top right and then the quick drawing on a huge gessoed board. The photo cam out wicked dark, I apologize for that.


I never used to do thumbnails like this before, I don't know why, probably because I'm so impatient to get to the fun part, but from now on I do because they are really helpful. Same with the value studies, I kept them really rough, kind of more like a map you draw on a napkin at a bar for the cab driver getting your drunk ass friend home. Now I have that to look back at if I forget where I'm going while I'm painting.

Here are a couple quick studies of the main characters.



I really cant wait to get going, I wish I wasnt stuck at work today, as usual, Sunday appointment canceled. Stupid drunk Portland.

I'm really excited about this piece, mostly because its going to be my first real oil painting. An ambitious first perhaps... But Ive been doing a whole lot of reading on oil painting, and Ive been asking lots and lots of questions... I think Im ready. Lets see if I can make it happen.

Figure Drawing Sessions!

So, I had initially planned to continue that last train of thought with that ugly painting I posted last time. Ive been working steadily on it for the last week.

But, I forgot my camera at work the other day. So, Im posting a few images of some of the figure drawings Ive been doing over the last two months.

I've always been a fan of Dr Sketchey's so Ive got a couple of those, but I gave most of them to the models, so they're not my favorites.







Then, Ive also been going to Hip Bone Studio figure drawing sessions on Wednesdays.









Doing all this figure drawing has been really, REALLY helpful, Although it was incredibly frustrating the first two months, Ive been good about making myself go every week, and I cant believe how much easier its been to keep up, not just at the sessions, but for drawing in general. Ive never had the chance to do it before and I cant believe what a difference its been making.

I feel so much more confident now when I have to draw from imagination. You always hear that drawing from life is vital to growing as an artist, well now I understand how true that is!

Next post Ill put up those photos of the progress Im making on that snow painting. Im pretty happy with how its going so far.

Some New Stuff & About Kicking My Own Ass

So, here I am again attempting to be a responsible adult and maintaining a blog. Im going to make it stick this time.

I don't have much news that I can mention yet, I have plenty that I am eagerly waiting on, but for now here are a few things I've finished up this past week.



Quick Acrylic painting I did, Ive been doing tons of face studies lately and was in the mood to play with color. 8x10" on canvas. Its hanging up in the tattoo shop now.



This one is acrylic ink on HP watercolor paper. Was supposed to be for a handbill style ad for the shop, that's why the letters look funny. I had to add them way after the rest of the image was finished. The actual handbill is going to have some digital elements to it (in theory anyway, lets see if they print it ever).

So, about kicking my own ass...

Ive been working on a couple of paintings in between other projects, the problem with doing large, involved paintings in between other things is that it takes forever so by the time its this far along it looks wicked inconsistent. Im still working obsessively to better both my technical and storytelling abilities, so these two pieces are great examples of me condemning myself to devastating failure, by outrunning myself.

Both were started almost a year ago, and right now my abilities and technique are changing so rapidly, they look like some sort of frankenstein nightmare.






My plan to remedy this; stop doing this to myself.

I cant use either of these for anything, including my portfolio because neither are finished, or any longer relevant.

If I'm going to work on a large, detailed, portfolio piece in between other things, I'm going to treat it with the same process i use on real jobs. The theory here is that Ill actually finish these things in a timely manner, on an actual deadline. Im hoping this will enable me to be able to use them in my portfolio use them in my portfolio, instead of just contributing to the huge reject pile in my basement.

Changed My Name & New TrenchArt Blog

Here's and update for ya'. Yesterday at the courthouse in Portland I married Kevin Adams in witness of two of our close friends.



We do intend to have a ceremony in the year or two, possibly two, one in PDX and then a 'real wedding' back in Boston. We're still working out those plans.

In addition, Ive separated this blog from the Trench Art Studio Project Blog, the metal/punk collaboration I have been trying to start for the last two years.

Moving across the country and beginning a new life has drastically slowed its progress, but there is hope yet!

As of mid- February, TA will be operating as an illustration studio out of Blackwater Records in SE Portland!! Halsey Swain ( Halseycaust )and I have already begun construction on the new space up above the record shop.

Halsey and I are going to be working on illustration out of there for the summer, we're looking to get one other local artist in the space, its it too amazing not to share. Ill have photos once we've set up a bit more.

Later Ill let folks in on what were going to be working on together this summer!

-out

Awww jeeze...

I cant believe its taken me so long to get my shit together enough to write a new post. Ive been busy lately, finally got a job at a tattoo shop and Im working wicked hard on BoneFetish stuff and I'm hoping that all the things Ive been slaving over the last year finally begin to come together. It may be a little ambitious of me at the moment, but I'm hoping to start getting paid what I'm worth for some of the work Ive been doing. We'll see how that goes.... Perhaps Ill hold mu breath.

Anyway,Ive also been playing with some new styles of flash for the shop. These are a couple Ive finished this week. They're both acrylic and india ink on hot press watercolor paper.

Im still experimenting with color, this first one scanned darker then I expected which is weird. Ill go back and play with it a bit.



This one was just a doodle I worked on while the other one was drying. I can never stick to just one painting at a time.




Anyway, Ive been up to a whole lot actually. I'm going to try to get better at updating. I have all sorts of cool stuff. including my very first ever oil painting (unless I just scrap it) and some stuff on canvas... I know weird, right? Im really working very hard to push my limits and expand out of my comfort zone.