RedRobotMonkey

Feels like coming home

2011-06-24T17:59:00.011-04:00

Grimm Life (Watercolour, ink, acrylic, Gouache).

Haven't done a painting in so long. It's so nice to pick up a brush, feels just like home. I did some painting outside in the sun, that was fun, but way too hot! I changed the tattoo she has on her arm at the suggestion from a threadless member. I'll be up for voting soon.

Health Care Heroes

2011-05-22T19:14:00.005-04:00

This was originally designed for the band Dr.Acula. I have yet to hear back from their manager, oh well. Many more to post. Just too lazy to get it all together right now.

Hopscotch at midnight

2011-02-15T23:26:00.006-05:00

I wanted to do some patterns in my latest illustration. And I found a lot of inspiration from henna tattoos.

Had to play around with the perspective a bit. I took so many pictures to see which angle would suit this design best. I settled on this one.

Here was a rough sketch to see what the character would look like.

Done. Finally! It's a wolf (although it kind of looks like a cat...) playing hopscotch.

But I guess you could say it is little riding hood, trying to find her way home. And walking through the woods; her worst fears are in her own head, hence she is her own big bad wolf.

Scurvy is fun!

2011-02-04T00:04:00.009-05:00

I have wanted to do a pirate themed shirt for a long long time. But I just didn't have a theme. Then the subject of scurvy came up not once but twice in class/clinical. Still, this did not draw any inspiration on me at that point. However, while sitting in my Pharmacology lecture last monday, with my attention span completely depleted past half of the lecture, I doodled this:

It was then that I thought of making the pirate into a spokesperson for scurvy. And I knew I needed to work on this ASAP.

2010-12-29T00:40:00.002-05:00

Pretty excite about this new piece I am working on. This is not really a part of it. This is just the pattern I need to make, to import into photoshop to use as a texture. Inspired by the Arabian theme of Craig Thompson's new forthcoming graphic novel Habibi.
I am currently working on 3 art projects simultaneously. Only one week left before I have to go back to school so I have to make the best of it.

New painting, just in time for Xmas.

2010-12-23T23:15:00.004-05:00

Felt like it needed something else, so I added in these poison dart frogs and some girly flowers. I wanted to add the cryptic skull on the frog's skin. This is an idea I want to further develop on my next painting.

Antithesis (Watercolour)

What I have been working on

2010-11-09T11:33:00.001-05:00

Z-day

"V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a young woman in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945...Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the celebrations he didn't have an opportunity to get the names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either person involved in this embrace and several people have claimed to be the subjects."

This piece was inspired by such a spontaneous display of the human spirit; in a time of much needed morale. Conveniently, I finished this piece around the time of Remembrance day. Up for voting at threads click the link below to vote and stuff.

Ps. Bet you thought this blog was dead, ha.

Crazy Ecology fact that ties into Post Rock

2010-09-22T22:39:00.010-04:00

In the 1950s, the Chinese government underwent an serious self-improvement campaign to increase the efficiency of its nation. A part of this plan was to annihilate all pests in the country: flies, mosquitoes, rats, and SPARROWS. That's right, Sparrows!
Through research, scientists found that if a Sparrow were to stay in flight for more than a minute straight, it would die of a heart attack. So Farmers from all over the country were "encouraged" to bang pots and pans, and scare sparrows they saw into staying in flight.

Millions of sparrows were killed in the following months, and as a result, its natural food source, the locusts thrived. With few sparrows around to eat and control the locusts, the latter species thrived to the point where they were eating most of the crops of China. Millions of people died as a result of the ensuing famine.

This was the premise for the 2006 album from the Red Sparowes which I have heard all these years, but didn't know the whole story about until now. The names of all the songs make a lot of sense now. Anyways, what a random fact about them. Neat.
They might seem pretentious, but if that's what you view post rock as, you will hate every post rock band no matter how unpretentious they really are.

Here are some of their songs from the 2010(best album of the year) and 2006 album:

newest submission

2010-08-18T15:28:00.008-04:00

"The Incredibly Mixed-up Toons Who Were At Some Point Cancelled And Went On A Muderous Rampage Anyways!!"

The following is a log about the making of my latest shirt design. I really hope it becomes a threadless tee. This design kinda came out on it’s own, and evolved through many stages to be this final product.
Originally, I was just going to do a bunch of my favourite cartoon characters as zombies. It was only after I drew the care bear that I remembered Alexmdc just had a design about them printed recently. So I chose to get rid of him. I would have really liked to have the bear in there, but I also like Alex’s design and there would be no point in including something so similar to it.

So I got rid of the care bear and replaced him with good ‘ol Astro. I also decided to go with my alternate idea ( at the suggestion of my friend Shawn -> aka brownstar) of having only characters of cancelled tv shows. Only problem was I really liked how the futurama guys turned out and technically they were on the air again. However, techincally they were cancelled, so its ok (technicalities are sometimes a good thing). So I was forced to take out Cartman, and aded other canceled toons. All the toons being killed are still on the air ; )

I decided that only Heffer was needed to represent Rock’s modern life, and went with The Brain instead of Rocko. I also thought Andy French could look a bit more beat up.

It was brought to my attention that Heffer looked too much like he did on the show, so I decided to redraw him, and add the rest of Kenny’s body into the mix. I liked how he turned out after the redraw. Added hatching. And Bam! Done!

On a shirt.

2010-07-24T21:28:00.002-04:00

Partition the empty sky (Photography and digital media)

The location for this photograph was somewhat unplanned. It was a hot and humid day as we made our way to Riverdale farm, to do a photo shoot at the Necropolis cemetery. We had to cross a bridge overlooking the via rail tracks, and it was pretty much a must shoot situation. I am pretty happy with our choice, because railroad tracks, although somewhat are cliches, still make great shots.

2010-07-19T17:06:00.001-04:00

Just playing around with pen and ink, and then did some colours in photoshop. I wish I didn't have such a crap scanner though.

2010-07-15T11:47:00.001-04:00

WIP

2010-07-14T12:07:00.001-04:00

Just started this last night while watching world cup reruns. Yes you heard right. Re-runs. I missed a lot of matches. No spoilers.

More photography...

2010-07-12T16:57:00.001-04:00

Another in the series featuring the rabbit.

Electric Easels art show!

2010-07-12T04:00:00.007-04:00

Some of my art at the show, I had more on the other side of the room.

It was somewhat packed, but mostly a high turnover rate for people there.

Some of Elan's work

So this was the reception for the "Do artists dream of electric easels" art show. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I think I was a little drunk by the time I remembered I needed to take pictures. I don't even have pictures of all my work that was at the show, but I will post them on here individually anyways.

Photography!

2010-07-10T16:47:00.003-04:00

Thanks J for helping out. So yeah, here is the final product.

8-bits

2010-07-02T16:32:00.002-04:00

The finished product on paper

Sea of 8-bit souls (watercolour and digital media)

This is the final product after some illustrator and photoshop. What was at the art show.

Sneak Peak

2010-06-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

I am in a group art show at the launch projects (in toronto) which will be happening on June 30th. This is a sneak peak of what I will have at the show. Other pieces include: a flash cartoon, painting (with digital media added), inked drawing (with digital media added), and more photography.

Update

2010-06-08T18:53:00.001-04:00

So, here is what I have of the pencil sketch, for the new painting. I am pretty much ready to add colours now, except I have to draw a bit of the background, but that can be done later anyways.

photography

2010-06-03T20:54:00.005-04:00

Some panaramic photographs that I did sometime ago, but didn't have time/motivation to upload here until now.
I know I have been all over the place lately. I am doing a ton of drawings, paintings, 3d sculptures, a flash cartoon, and some photography, all at the same time. The next month is going to be nuts. On top of that, I am still making my webpage, which I am going to link to this blog of course.

2010-06-01T18:43:00.001-04:00

New drawing I am doing for the upcoming digital art show. This will look pretty different once I am done, and have scanned it and stuff. But this is what I have so far.

D&D

2010-05-26T16:57:00.002-04:00

Come one come all to the semi-annual drink and draw event at the Toronto School of Art this June 12 (Saturday)! Admission is free, the alcohol is cheap, and the art will be fun. With good music playing in the background, I promise. RSVP to make sure you have a spot.

New painting

2010-05-18T18:00:00.004-04:00

Working on this new piece. I had the idea while I was on the Yonge subway, and had the red note pad you see up there, and just came up with this image. I was also listening to Converge at the time, which makes me want to call this piece that. However, it is bad luck to have a name for a painting that hasn't been done yet, I know...

Here's the good draft, I actually have more done as I write this, but I will upload that later I guess.

Art Show

2010-04-20T18:47:00.004-04:00

This art show was called I'm so pleased with myself. It was held at the Launch Projects gallery near my school. The show went well, but could have been much better, if we had booze. Next time we will keep that in mind. Some of the images might be familiar, like the last image, you can see some of my stuff on the right corner. Next time, we will have a lot of stuff per wall, promise.

2010-04-14T14:07:00.002-04:00

(Swings - Photoshop)

2010-04-12T17:00:00.001-04:00

(Shoes - Photoshop and a camera)

Fire escapes are rare in Toronto

2010-04-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

(Spidey)

Here's another offering of my panaramic photo series, ha. I wished that someone hadn't placed that pile of garbage on the bottom right of the image!

Playground

2010-04-02T03:17:00.005-04:00

(Playground - Quang's attempt at photography)

PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Caspian Spade Sub

2010-03-26T12:00:00.004-04:00

I am pleased to say that I have a new submission for Threadless. It has been way too long since I made something, so just click on the banner below, to go to the flash presentation, and vote/comment. Thanks.

Finished!

2010-03-21T18:08:00.000-04:00

(Caspian Spade Watercolour)

R.I.P. Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous

2010-03-15T03:28:00.013-04:00

A while ago, I randomly discovered a version of the song Wish you were here. It was not like anything I had ever heard. It was: sad, eerily beautiful, and strangely nostalgic. It was like that dew smell you got when you woke up really early on a summer day. Music has never been the same for me.

I know this post is belated, and I wasn't going to write anything about this, but I guess I should, since I am a huge fan of the band. On March 6th, Mark Linkous was drinking heavily, and exchanged text messages with someone. He was at a friend's house, and became quite upset. He later went upstairs, where his belongings were, and left the house to go for a walk. That walk turned out to be Mark Linkous, taking a rifle and shooting himself in the heart. Literally. Although, many great musicians have taken their life, I have never been as huge of a fan of one, as that of Sparklehorse. I hope that last sentence made sense. It is 3:36am after all.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come as a surprise for me. I have come to the conclusion that many of the greatest minds of our time only exist, because they are fucked up in the head in some way. This goes for writers (Virginia Woolf, John Kennedy Toole, ect.), Actors (Heath Ledger for obvious reasons), Artists (insert most names here), and finally, musicians...

I think that it takes a certain type of mind, to create great art in any form. And to create beauty one needs to be extra receptive of the world, see it in a way that others don't. I believe this comes with a consequence. That ability to see such beauty in the world, can also cause a person to see it's ugliness, and be extra susceptible to it.

Sparklehorse was about to release a new album, Mark was about to finish recording all the songs. If this new album somehow gets released, I will make it my mission to buy it from a local toronto based music store. Keep in mind, I have not bought music in over half a decade. That's how much I love this music. My favourite song is Cow. Other great songs in extremely particular order are: Go (with the Flamling lips), Sad and beautiful world, Hundreds of Sparrows, Ghost of his smile , Saturday. However, if you pick up any album, and listen to almost any song, you will not be disappointed, yeah, it's that good.

My favourite piece of art that I did is Unicorns come from Whorses, which I made inspired by Sparklehorse's horse. And my next painting(my last one, that I didn't finish, but will as soon as I am done the current), is also influenced by the same horse mask. Damn.

Sadly I have never seen them live. I wished they had toured here more <: (

2010-03-02T20:17:00.002-05:00

So this is what I have of it so far. I changed the make up on the girl, to make her more "spade-like". A way to separate my work from Sylvia Ji, so I don't seem like that much of an art asshole.

2010-02-28T22:06:00.003-05:00

Something new I have been working on. Its a mix between the Day of the Dead/candy skull works of Sylvia Ji, and the super sexy Harley Quinn. More updates to come.

Field trip

2010-02-26T21:04:00.006-05:00

Lateral relationship of the Branches of the facial nerve and vessels to Paratoid gland and duct
(Graphite)

5 month of fetus (Graphite)

Recently went to the Grant's Museum at the University of Toronto. These were some of the goodies I drew there. A pretty crazy place for UofT students to study/eat lunch, considering the room was filled with body parts in jars.

Limiting reagent

2010-02-24T01:10:00.004-05:00

In chemistry, a limiting reagent is the one chemical in a recipe that drives a reaction, that is the slowest (or least in amount). It slows everyone else down. Hence, the reaction can only make as many products (or as fast) as the limiting reagent will permit. The limiting reagent is the weakest link, and determines the strength of a team.

If you own your own place, and I don't mean a student, or recent grad, that lives with roommates (parents). I mean, if you have a career and are a yuppie, or on your way to owning a fancy place. What's the one limiting reagent that determines a person's impression in your mind? That's right, the quality of the TOILET PAPER in their home.

Imagine them having really shitty and low grade toilet paper. Its the most basic of human needs, the least you could do is dish out a couple of more cents for a quality wipe. So next time you are out shopping for toilet paper, don't settle for the no name/cheap/tree-bark/cheese-graters rolls.

Disclaimer: This post was inspired by my random thoughts, and does not reflect any recent events having to do with the toilet paper of anyone acquainted with me ; )

More photography

2010-02-16T19:49:00.005-05:00

(Ed Hopper Metropolis pt.2)

So here's another photograph I made, taken near the corner of Spadina and Queen, Toronto, Ontario.

Photography

2010-02-11T09:00:00.007-05:00

(Ed Hopper Metropolis pt.1)

This was done for my photography/photoshop class. It is mainly inspired by Ed Hopper paintings, only with a twist. If you look carefully, this is actually an intersecation, and all four streets can be seen in this photo. A panoramic view with a gradient ranging from a lonely street to that which is busy with cars.

2010-02-10T00:15:00.004-05:00

So I started school at the Toronto School of Art recently. And a few of us got together on the weekend to do renovations for the student lounge. We painted a Mural (based on the tattoo design in the previous post) and the walls.

This is a panoramic-styled photograph. The room is actually quite small and has four equal walls. Like a box. That's where we hangout at TSA, a box. Fun times.

Tattoo?

2010-01-24T17:39:00.003-05:00

So this is a tattoo design my friend had asked me to do for her about 1.5 years ago (or more). I started roughs but never really felt inspired, and as a result, hated the ones I came up with. That is, until recently, when I stumbled upon some very cool cherry tree designs. I never thought to put the heart of the design into the trunks until I saw these examples. Using these examples I learned to draw the trunk a certain way. I would have actually copied the tree trunk from said examples, but its too damn hard. Much easier to learn the pattern and do it yourself.

2010-01-24T01:52:00.004-05:00

Next time you watch a film or television show, and the characters are at a fast food place, pay attention to what they order. No matter what they get, the "drink" is always a milkshake of some sort. Am I wrong? Why is this important? Aside from the fact that mixing a desert like a milkshake with greasy burgers and fries is just plain wrong; people on tv will always ALWAYS order a milkshake with their meal, but do you ever see anyone in real life do it? Most people get a coke or other forms of pop, but never milkshakes.

So why is it that TV wants us to think that's what we should be ordering? Are the people who invented milkshakes paying television off, so their product can make a comeback? I was just at a mcdonalds the other day and this discussion came up, thought i would post it here. If you don't see an update on this blog, it was the milkshake people that got me.

What I've been reading...

2009-11-24T23:53:00.003-05:00

First time I read this was about 2 years ago, when I bought the first issue of this short series (about 24 issues altogether). The first issue was pretty good, but I lost track and forgot about it for a while. Buying comics every month is a lot of work, so I usually just wait till the entire series is complete and download the whole thing. It sure beats waiting a whole month to find out what happens. And that will be very important, because this series is really hook-worthy.

If you are a person that is turned off by comics because it has to do with superheroes, don't worry, I am the same. I read a lot of comics, and almost none of them have to do with superheroes (except Watchmen, but that is about so much more...).

Girls is interlaced with a lot of witty and subtle humour mixed with some sci fi (sorta). Its a great story; I have just began reading, and already I am going to try to ration the series as it is short and I will be sad when I have nothing left to read. If you want, you can download the whole thing at: http://comicscollection.blogspot.com/2006/04/girls-comic-collection.html
If you have the dough, I suggest you buy the whole thing off ebay or something. This will tie me over till the release of Craig Thompson's upcoming Habibi.

2009-11-20T00:00:00.003-05:00

I was downloading the Danger mouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch collab album (awesome btw) recently, and the album art reminded me of the Bats for Lashes video, which reminded me of Donnie Darko, which caused me to come up with some concept art, which is prompting me to do my next painting.

Amy if you are reading this, I haven't forgotten about that painting I promised to do for your birthday so very long ago (happy extremely belated birthday btw).

Much belated Halloween post

2009-11-17T00:32:00.003-05:00

So this is what I ended up looking like for Halloween. I didn't make a torso for it because I had to carry a lot of alcohol on my back that night and the forecast predicted rain (WRONG!). Oh well, it was pretty cold that night, so I am happy I had a jacket. Next year, I might make a torso, or even go as the Gender Bender, if I decide to stick with this costume again.

However, this potential costume might give people the wrong idea...not that there's anything wrong with that.

Halloween

2009-10-28T01:14:00.006-04:00

So I decided to be everyone's favourite alcoholic robot for Halloween. It was an idea I had about a month ago, but did not put into motion till last week. I only have a few days left to finish this costume off... but this is what I have so far...

This is what I had last week.

This is what I had as of yesterday. Still need some finishing touches on the helmet, and a torso (although I might not wear the torso for Halloween because it would be a nightmare at a crowded party). Maybe I will keep this one for the comic conventions, if I ever go to one again. Next year, maybe I will do Zoidberg.

Do make say think

2009-10-05T02:16:00.008-04:00

At the frontier for Canada's indie/post-rock scene, Do Make Say Think has just finished a new album called Other Truths. This album has the usual moody, spacerock atmosphere, with sparse horns blowing in the background at approcpriate times, to create a dramatic anthem mood. This album features only four songs (Do, Make, Say, and Think); all ranging from pretty long, to extremely long in length.
When I heard their EP Besides, I was somewhat disappointed. But this album has really Blown me away. You can download it if you are broke or new to this band, or go buy it. But make sure to go see them live if you can (and like their stuff), and support them financially.

Here's a sample if you have never heard them before.

Recommanded for Post-rockers that like a touch of originality and a spice of amazingness in their music.

2009-09-28T15:13:00.004-04:00

Bee inconspicuous (alternate version)

The pg-13 version of a design I am about to submit to threadless. I like this version more (where his hand is hidden), but it maight be too crass for Threadless' taste. I will have a link from the voting page to this version, so the voters can decide for themseleves I guess.

2009-08-31T01:10:00.001-04:00

Day Dream (pen and ink)

Probably going to Rasterize this in photoshop and add some colours.

2009-08-22T01:50:00.002-04:00

So I forgot to mention something in the last post. If you decide to watch Mad Men, which I highly recommend, you can do so online (http://watch.ctv.ca/mad-men#clip57865).

Warning: Watching this show will make you want to wear vintage three piece suits and listen to ska. Along with this, you will also want to drink brandy and smoke cigarettes.

Idea for a new superman movie (That I have come up with)

2009-08-21T04:34:00.005-04:00

How about redoing the superman franchise and resettling it in the time that superman was most popular. If you watch Mad Men, you will know exactly what I mean. Mad Men takes place in the 1960's and has a very noir feel to it. I think that would be a fresh new start for something that is so overdone. If you think so too, voice your opinion.

Blog's not dead.

2009-08-14T18:41:00.002-04:00

I apologize for not updating in so long. I have been pretty busy, and haven't had much time to work on anything. But I have just completed something new, well at least the sketch of it. Next time I put this up, it will probably look very different.

2009-07-01T01:13:00.008-04:00

To vote, click on the banner:

2009-06-30T18:41:00.008-04:00

Vote and leave comments : )

Hey, I realized I haven't updated in a very very long time, but all is not dead at RRM. I was feeling pretty bored and uninspired, and decided to make my other paintings into threadless designs. I don't think they will win at the site, but its not going to hurt to try. Also, there is something extremely addictive about posting your art on that site, even if you don't win. Seeing the masses vote and comment, good or bad, is a feeling I cannot describe. I just click on the refresh button every 2 minutes for the entire 7 day period in which my design is up for voting. If you have attempted the same thing at that site, I am sure you can agree. Anyways, I am working on something new for threadless, hopefully I can put something up on here soon.

Peace out nigz.

Its finally up for sale!!!

2009-05-27T01:30:00.003-04:00

You can purchase this now. I tried to make it at a low price, just for you ; )

2009-05-26T05:11:00.004-04:00

So a friend of mine (Helena) told me about this song. I wasn't expecting much, but it was pretty damn good and funny, and did I mention awesome? Its a girly version of a less-gory BoysNightOut song. Its called I'll Kill her, by Soko . According to Soko's myspace, she is dead. But I think this is just referring to her role with respect to her music career. I think she is now an actor. And no, that is not Natalie Portman in the picture. But I was thinking the same when I saw it...

2009-05-18T22:24:00.007-04:00

Fickle (Gouache and some watercolour)

The angle I took the picture with using my digital cam is kinda messed. Finally done, after all this time.

Print:

2009-05-18T03:11:00.000-04:00

Your result for The House, MD Personality Test...

Dr. Gregory House

55% Eccentricity, 55% Confidence, 30% Kindness

Congratulations, you're the man himself, Dr. Gregory House! You're quite strange, and usually do your own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks. This is partially because a person with an ego as large as yours could not care less what anyone else thinks or feels about anything. Unless, of course, they're your patient and they're dying--but only if they're dying of something interesting! You're a definite asshole to most other people, but at least you know how to be one in style, with an awesome wit, comfortable sneakers, and a never ending variety of facial expressions.

Take The House, MD Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

2009-05-11T00:24:00.004-04:00

So here it is so far, I have thought of a title for it. So I guess that's good. So little time to work on this, I will need another weekend. Unfortunately, next weekend will probably not provide much time to work on this either : (

2009-05-04T00:53:00.001-04:00

Got to work on this for a bit this weekend. It is still untitled. I was thinking of making the dress a dark blue or purple, but I have not settled on anything yet. Feel free to suggest a colour.

2009-04-28T01:00:00.009-04:00

A new painting that I am working on. I have a full-time job right now, so I do not have much time to work. The little time I do have, are scattered throughout the weekend days in between debauched benders. I am really excited about this one though, since it will be my first really big project using Gouache. I really want to use her hair as a design for the entire space, but I still want it to be subtle; I will have to decide when I put some paint down.

The Process:

Here you can see the google images I have found as references. Obviously I have to change many things, even the poses. That image directly above was the original idea I had, but I chose to use her hair to replace that left arm in composition, hair will look more awesomer. Oh and you might read "women's shoes" on one of the windows in the above image, that was for my painting, not personal shopping/fetish. I woudlnt subscribe to a fetish THAT predictable.

Another large muse...actually, just what I drink on breaks. Lakeport, pay for the beer, not the name. Is that what they say in the commercials? They should change it to "Lakeport, because you are a cheapass who should try harder in life to make more money".

Thats where I work, I guess.

I think I figured it out...

2009-04-19T22:59:00.006-04:00

About a month ago, I entered this into the threadless contest. It did well in the voting and comments, but I don't think it is getting printed. I think there was one thing I didn't take into account: the image did not wrap around the entire shirt (it just ends on the edge). And for this type of shirt, I think that was a mistake. Therefore, today I attempted to do something I have never done before, try to remake paint colours to match exactly the ones I used for this painting, and make a backside to this shirt.
Yeah Jenna, I am gonna use this one for the Modern contest, thanks for the info.

2009-04-18T04:58:00.007-04:00

The most wonderful-and-simultaneously-tasteless-pun EVER.

Old Man Clint

2009-04-12T22:49:00.009-04:00

So, I decided to get off my ass and test out the new (sorta) gauche paint that I got my hands on a while back. What better specimen for painting than the greatest actor-turned-director of all time? I didn't have as many colours in this set as I did with my watercolours, so I was a bit skeptical as to what I could achieve with them. I was very impatient to see how it would turn out, so this was just a quick painting, excuse the lack of finess. The verdict: Gouache fucking rocks! I hope I can one day develop somewhere near the awesomeness that Alex Ross has done with the paint. Sorry watercolour, but we both knew this day would come; lets not lie to ourselves anymore. It's not you, it's...no it is you. I found something better. I think there may be some room to mix both watercolour and gauche into the same pallete though, that will be something to look forward to.
And Clint, here's to hoping you have many more years ahead to be everyone's favourite anti-hero/asshole.

New shirts you should check out at Threadless

2009-04-10T14:38:00.005-04:00

The Hall of Cliche Super Heroes by Joshua Kemble

Grandpa Cassette by Zack Finfrock

Tin Can Surveillance by Leroy Hornblower

These are some of my favourite designs from various artists on Threadless, you should check out. Just use this link and type the name of the designs above on their search engine or browse through their catalog for other designs:
Click here to get some of these awesome shirts, the good sizes always go fast

The Wolverine movie...

2009-04-02T00:09:00.002-04:00

...has been leaked!!! A dvd screener of the the FOX movie is now available for download and streaming purposes at your favourite pirate sites. The catch? Its partially unfinished. I have read: some effects have not been added (claws, wires still showing for the action sequences, gambit's eyes are not lit up properly). I have read all this from a consensus of reaction comments on various streaming sites. I also have in my possession, at this very moment, the screener loading on QuickSilverscreen, and I don't know how I will stop myself from watching it. It will ruin the experience for me if I don't watch the finished version. But the theatre is a pain in the ass for opening weekends (which is a long time away, another minus to watching in theatres). So if you have seen it, please let me know if the screener is worth watching. Any further comments will help.

2009-03-30T00:12:00.004-04:00

So I feel I should update with some new artwork. This was something I did for the OCAD portfolio. A stray from my usual stuff, mostly because I needed some life drawing and in a medium other than paint. Plus,who doesn't like a picture of a bum? I have an acceptance to OCAD, but the portfolio interview was very VERY disappointing.
I was expecting hip professors who may like to see stuff like Alice in Wonderland having a syringe party with the Mad Hatter and the like, but they barely asked me anything. On top of that, they barely even glanced at some of my work, literally 10 seconds to look at some of the stuff I spent HOURS on!
Maybe this art was a bit too low brow for them, or they are just full of shit. There was only one prof that would make comments, she was a Dr.House fan, which automatically makes her cool, and my House painting won her over. But aside from her, it was not anything like the portfolio interview I had at Max the Mutt animation school. Which was so much more in depth, and less disappointing. Hopefully Max will give me a scholarship(I am handing in the scholarship forms to their school today and will have to wait for them to get back to me, * fingers crossed *). I guess I will decide which school to go to based on funds available...

ITS UP ON THREADLESS

2009-03-19T23:08:00.002-04:00

Be a part of history, help make this into a shirt, all you have to do is click that link and vote (and leave a comment)!!!

2009-03-16T14:19:00.005-04:00

So I recently bought some gauche paint. A form of watercolour that is very opaque. What does this mean? It can blend real pretty like watercolour, but can also be made to look ultra realistic (with skills of course).
Speaking of skills, the one man that showed painting in gauche (or watercolour) was not reserved for little old retired grandmas at the park. Yes, I am speaking of Mr.Alex Fucking Ross. The only person to make superheroes in their crazy pedophile-inspired tights look photo-realistic. When I was a kid and saw his work, it inspired me to start using watercolour. it wasn't until years later that I realized most of the paintings Ross did was actaully made with gauche, not watercolour.

So recently, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on some really high end Winsor and Newton Gouache (Thanks Amy). I'll tell you, gauche paint is a lot like an expensive handjob, costs a lot more, but worth every stroke.

Unicorns come from Whorses

2009-03-15T02:03:00.003-04:00

Edit: This is now the final version of the print.

I know I have not updated in a while. Have been busy learning how to use my bamboo tablet, which was used to draw this piece right here. This is an idea I had while having trouble sleeping one night. I think it was about 4:30 am, while I was tossing in my bed. I was trying to think of amusing ideas for a T-shirt for Threadless. So I thought, wouldn't it be funny if a mythical creature was accidentally created due to the slut-i-ness of a horse and rhino? yep, really cranked up the perverseness of my mind for this one. This is not 100% done yet, so I will update this again when I am 100% sure it is the best it can be to my limited abilities.

2009-03-06T15:33:00.007-05:00

Alternate version (print)

Syringe Party

"10/6" on the hat, as originally shown in the Alice illustrations and Movies, refers to the price of the hat (10 Shillings and 6 pence). This price is taken under British dollars before decimalization (British people were so bad at math, they didn't allow their currency to add up in a way that required decimals). This is the equivalent of about $105 American dollars today. In conclusion, the mad hatter was as they say "Ballin".
Another note of interest is that the mad hatter, although a reference to people who made hats and experienced mercury poisoning, becoming mentally unstable, was not that crazy. most of them would experience the opposite symptoms of that which the hatter displayed: Fatigue, low confidence, extreme shyness.
All this information would not have been gathered without the influence of marijuana.

Time to try and sell out

2009-03-04T17:03:00.004-05:00

So this is the painting converted to a shirt design. Its up for voting at Threadless. Just click here to vote, don't forget to comment ;P.

If you have never heard of Threadless, you are in luck. They have millions of shirts, with really great designs, all created by random people from across the globe. They put designs up and its voted, and may become a shirt. You have a chance to be a part of history here! Vote for the shirt, and while you're at it, browse around the site, I am sure you will find a couple of shirts you will love.

For extra flavour, stir with a syringe.

2009-03-02T20:35:00.005-05:00

You know what I hate. When it's so hard to draw something correctly; and the moment that you manage to get it right, you realize that thing you drew correctly was suppose to be closer to that other thing you already drew, but its not, in fact its too far away. Then you resort to changing the pose, or composition of the entire thing, just because you are too lazy to start over and get that "thing" that was hard to draw, redrawn somewhere else. If this makes any sense to you the reader, kudos to you.

Anyways, as you can see compared to the stock photo, I had to change a few things. Some of the things were changed on purpose, others were due to lazy/poor gesture drawing (Those stupid gesture exercises may be stoopid, but fuck they are so essential to putting together a picture!).

2009-02-25T00:33:00.001-05:00

Badass Vespa Babe (White Conté)

I almost gave up on this picture twice, 10 minutes into it, and again 40 minutes into it. I was just fucking around with Conté on black, maybe I will redo this with something not so harsh to draw on.

So I finally finished it, for now...

2009-02-22T22:29:00.007-05:00

Coloured Blind (watercolour)

There once was an alien that came from a planet where the only colours were in the range of blue-green. He crashed landed in Ontario, Canada. Met a girl and fell in love. This is what he sees when he looks at her.

P-shopped:

What came first, the Jack or the Banobo?

2009-02-21T23:09:00.002-05:00

So I haven't updated in a while, here are some crappy sketchbook stuff, aka. Fillers.

Potential for greatness, but what went wrong?

2009-02-18T12:16:00.002-05:00

Did you ever go through an awkward-shy phase in high school? Are you still going through it now? Well, speaking from experience, nothing builds character more than that phase of your life. Why? Cause you spend so much time inside your own head. It almost becomes a habit, even when that phase passes (or supposedly passes). This time spent in your head helps with creativity, I mean, imaginary friends take creativity to hang out with right? But I digress. A book that deals with this in complete originality is Black hole by Charles burns.

Watching the trailer of Fears of the dark (definitely going to post about that once I get to watch it), a combo of short horror cartoons, in which Burns is an artist/writer, reminded me of this graphic novel. A perfect example of good ideas, great art, promising characters, that just lacked something, making it fall short of just amazing.

The premise of the book takes places in a suburban town, where there is an epidemic of a sexually transmitted disease. We mainly see this disease affect teenagers, and it has some very supernatural symptoms, with sexy consequences...actually, it makes the person pretty gross. A classic tale of "the other". Accompany this with your coming of age story and you got a winner.

Unfortunately, the ending was extremely anti-climatic. It may as well have ended like the Sopranos. Or this post.

Combustion is a form of creation (equaling H20 and C02 )

2009-02-17T12:05:00.001-05:00

So I started this painting yesterday when I had a hundred other things I was suppose to be doing. I am stuck, due to the fact that I am contemplating making the entire thing in a monochromatic blue/turquoise. Since this is from an already artful picture, I feel I should do something drastic to change it so it will not be a lame attempt of replication. The source picture is called I fell in love with an alien by the lovely and talented Vampire-zombie of Deviant art. If the monochrome fails and this picture turns out bad, the next post on it will feature me burning the piece >: )

Drunken Nines

2009-02-15T03:26:00.000-05:00

So I was with my friends tonight, and we made up a drinking game involving dice. yep, totally original game, and this is copyrighted. If you steal this game and make it your own, I will hunt down your IP address, and rape your dog/cat/parrot with a splintered broom, make a DVD of it, and send it to your grand parents. To add insult to injury, the DVD will feature Kenny G music.

The drinking game is called "drunken nines" or "Lick my nine", the latter title I did not vote for. Rules are, you have three die, and you shake it up in a cup. The shaker must call out "above(nine)", "below(nine)", or"nine", and add up the value of the die. If the die are above or below what the caller says, everyone else but the caller must drink. If the caller calls "nine" and is correct, everyone else must take two drinks. If the die comes out to be a triple(of any value), the wrong person(people) must take three drinks.

2009-02-13T12:04:00.000-05:00

Suicide girl (pencil)

Telemite

2009-02-10T23:45:00.001-05:00

So this was done for a buddy of mine who just recorded some songs. Here is where the magical lyrics be spittin, ya heard!
I hope you remember this when you are famous Shawn. When your hip hop career takes off, you owe me some hoes and Benjamins.

Mitosis version 2

2009-02-10T01:58:00.000-05:00

Mitosis (II)

Outlander

2009-02-08T23:46:00.000-05:00

Reasons why you should watch the new movie Outlander: vikings, alien(s), and sword fighting. This is not your typical B movie, it's rather a B plus movie, and a fresh breath of originality in todays movie-going experience. The budget was not amazingly large, but you would never be able to guess. It features one of the most badass alien monsters since Giger's Xenomorphs, yeah, I said it! This one emits phosphorescence to attract its pray, much like real life benthic sea creatures do. An added bonus: if you watch this movie very carefully, they provide a theory on why dinosaurs went extinct that is pretty freaking original.

End of communication.

Ps. damn, you Jenna. Now that I know you might be reading this, I am more self-conscious about my grammar!

2009-02-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

For anyone reading this blog, this will be my second attempt to get this design made into a shirt. Threadlesss said it was too "music/band shirt like". but perhaps this site will take it. Here

ps. You don't need to make an account, well no confirmation email anyways.

2009-02-02T20:18:00.000-05:00

Bedroom (pencil)

So keeping up with not leaving this blog with stagnant old drawings, I must resort to sketchbook stuff. This is sorta old. On a lighter note, I have thought of a way to get more hits on this blog. I am just going to tag my posts with porn related names. If this means every time I make a post, I have to put a popular pornstar name, so be it! That should change things up for google, I will not include anything unsafe for work : )

2009-02-01T17:22:00.001-05:00

Embryo (Watercolour and Indian ink)

2009-01-31T22:51:00.000-05:00

Atomic Cow (Watercolour)

This is where we get our daily consumption of beef. Yummy.

2009-01-31T02:16:00.000-05:00

Deserves ain't got nothing to do with it. (Pen and Ink)

Continuing with the western theme. This one was actually made a while ago, but I have been too lazy to update...

Edit: I am a big fan of the movie Unforgiven by Clint Eastwood. I also like the Wire. It just hit me that there is one scene where someone is about to get capped, and before she dies, she says this very line (the title of the piece) to the person about to kill her. Was this a reference to Unforgiven? Or is David Simon unoriginal? You decide.

Clint

2009-01-26T23:41:00.000-05:00

Clint (Pen and Ink + very little patience)

Wish I had taken my time with this one, but I wanted, no, I needed to finish it in one sitting.

2009-01-25T22:44:00.000-05:00

random sketch

Something I did for someone else

2009-01-24T13:08:00.001-05:00

Grenadier pond (watercolour)

If this seems too romantic for my taste, it is. This was done at the request of someone for his one year anniversary in the institution and shackle that is marriage.

2009-01-22T19:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know I have not been updating much at all. But all that will change, for I will upload even the crappy drawings I have. This was a drawing I did while baked. Dao, I know you might recognize who this is of...I know its not that good haha.

"Lore"

2009-01-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

This is a submission for threadless. Vote for it here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/192361/Lore/

You've Got Mail From Half-Digested Children

2009-01-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

is the title of Alex Pardee`s art exhibit. It's a collection of art depicting kids inside the tummies of some crazy looking monsters. If this sounds sick, it is, but in a good way. Check it out: http://io9.com/5123970/youve-got-mail-from-half+digested-children

"I'm Greg House, bitch"

2009-01-05T01:45:00.001-05:00

The first piece was my favourite, kinda wished i didn't paint it, but oh well : (
He looked kinda like Uncle Same here

He kinda looks like one of those lost puppies in this finished one, I don't know what happened! Maybe I should have down played the eyes a bit. On a more important note, how cool would it have been if Chappelle had appeared in House, or that House was on a skit on Chappelle's show? House isn't in enough skits, only one I remember was from Mad TV, which couldn't compare to the skits that use to be on Chappelle.

People who love their kids are selfish (The catch 22)

2009-01-02T02:10:00.000-05:00

You may disagree with the above statement, but before you harshly write this off as crap, think about this for a little bit.

The meaning of life as been discovered. Yes, there is a book about it, and it is called The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

People, animals, every living thing on earth exists for the sole purpose of spreading its genes. It is that simple. To oversimplify things: the only difference between a tree and a person is that millions of years ago, "tree genes" chose the "tree" as a vehicle, and the "animal gene" chose an "animal".

Makes perfect sense right? Our genes tell us how to react to certain things, to learn, to be a prick, our personalities are shaped by our environment, but its the genes that is the groundwork of it all.

So I guess there is such thing as a soul, and it comes in the form of DNA. The DNA is like a soul because it can exist forever, from one generation to the next. Each of us are temporary vehicles for genes to use at any one time, when we die, our genes live on through our kids, and their kids.

Now to get to the part about parents being over-protective of their kids, loving them too much, wanting them to get a good career, its all an act of selfishness.We want them to bag the prom queen so they can have healthy good looking babies, so that those babies can be successful at spreading our genes.

This is a screwed up way of looking at life. I was not able to look at life the same way after reading this book, so I am broadcasting this here, so everyone who hasn't read that book can be just as screwed up as I am. So when it comes to parents and their kids, the act of selflessness is really due to selfishness? Talk about a catch 22.

thumbs

2009-01-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

2009-01-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmodvpD-Cvs

One of the best songs I have ever heard. They say the song is not actually about a girl, but his addiction to heroin.

Generations of declining souls

2008-12-30T15:12:00.000-05:00

As of November of 2008, the world population was estimated to be at 6.7 billion homo sapians. Malthus was wrong about our exponential increase in population resulting in starvation by the mid 19th century. Because even though we were increasing at a faster rate than food could be produced, he did not take into account for the technological advancements. So we are safe in terms of food, and it looks like space wouldn't be a problem, at least for a little while longer.

What about souls? Maybe this is complete nonsense to most people nowadays, but think about it. What if the human soul does exist, and there are a limited number which can be placed into mortal bodies?

Thousands of generations ago, there were less people on earth, so giving each newborn a soul was not a problem. But as populations exponentially increased, there would be an exponential demand for souls to be placed into bodies. What if there aren't enough souls for every individual? The only solution would be to fraction off the souls for each mortal body.
The result is that every successive generation, newborns receive less and less percentages of a complete soul.

Can this be the explanation for the increasing number of sociopaths out there? Or the fact that there is a demand for more sex and violence on television with every passing year(not that I am complaining, I love you HBO).

Think about it.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

2008-12-26T03:10:00.000-05:00

Something I made awhile back. It was a project that was to be a "Proposal for something in an existing space". It was for this really pretentious art class at Western called "Explorations in drawing". Explorations in suckage was more like it.
My prof was a douche, and expected people to do illustrations of a statue or some shit. How boring is that? I used his proposal for the project as literal as I could so I could get away with not doing a statue illustration. He didn't quite agree with my choice, the only good thing he mentioned about this was he liked my use of indian ink for the black, but I only used watercolour, shows what he knew >: )
I guess I cant blame the guy, he did teach at Western, where big egos only grow bigger with time. What do I know about fine arts anyways, I was in science.

2008-12-25T07:43:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning. I use to wake up early to open presents. Now, as I am writing this, it is 7:44am, and I have not even gone to bed yet. But that's normal when you have no schedule.
Looking over my page right now and all it contains, I just realized I have an unhealthy obsession with drawing skulls. Even pictures I make in which there are no skulls present, there exist subliminal skull(s). Don't believe me? Check out the Joker picture I posted in the first entry. If you squint your eyes like an asian, and concentrate real hard to make your vision blurry, you will see a skull, sorta. Post more later...sleep now. PS. Adderall, where are you?!

"A Culture in bloom"

2008-12-24T17:01:00.000-05:00

Here is that art thing I claimed to have invented. As you can see this is just a clear plastic sheet with a cardboard boarder. This is called the "smudge guard undo-er"(help me come up with a better name, if it sounds dirty, that would be an added bonus). It is called this for two reasons.
1) you put it over the area you are not working on to rest your palm and not smudge your work. I usually just use a piece of blank paper, but found I couldn't see the rest of the drawing, and drawing symmetrical things would prove extra annoying. It is transparent for the purpose of allowing you to draw in relation to the entire picture.
2) If you are a pen and ink whore like me, its good to have something you can "test" on before permanently inking a drawing. Putting ink to paper is like catching herpes, before you allow it to soak, it better be worth it...cause there is no going back.
This is an example of me not liking how the nose looked when done in pencil. The shading lines didn't really give the inner nose much depth.
So I inked it on the transparent sheet many different times in many different ways, until I got one that I liked. Erasing with a tissue each time it didn't look right. I just use a normal inking pen (Micron).
I like the black and white version more, but the T-shirt voters tend to like colorful things cause they are all ADD internet junkies.

Yes, it is that time for shameless self promotion-ing. This here is the new design I have on Desighbyhumans, please vote for it so it can become a t-shirt, and I can take the money to save my very sick dog, IE. buy whiskey (http://www.designbyhumans.com/vote/detail/39895).

So I just found out that I spelled "tail" as "tale" on the description for this design on the site. I think I am seriously dyslexic...or mentally stunted. You decide.

Seacrest out.