Nametags

calligraphy, one of my earliest loves

Acrylic on wood...in process

The continuing work on the painting in my last post. Eventually, the story will be a large tattoo on her back. I'm still getting the hang of Acrylics, as gouache is my medium of choice...




Above photo for perspective on the size 12x12. The headdress has been a bitch with details

A little some some...

My buddy Brian has a tattoo idea based off the story of Phalaris, with the noted quote "the due reward of your wondrous art: let the music-master be the first to play." Basically it's a lovely bedtime story about a torture device for burning people alive in a giant bull, and their wails are transformed through piping to sound like music to the non crispified spectators.

So this story, albeit morbid, is by my standards, pretty dope. I'm attempting to paint a lady with a bull headdress, and a large back piece tattoo depicting the scene of the story. Fingers crossed I can do it justice, and find the motivation to work on it

(messy desk, with hodgepodge projects and a cup of Belladonna for good measure)

Wedding portraits, the Bridial edition

Mixed media, pen, color pencil, graphite. My drawings always border on sloppy, I've never been one for ultra smooth lines or perfect blending, but I do what I can. I could never be a tattoo artist, not having the ability to erase my lines would kill me

I'm pretty happy with the one of Trish, but drawing women are more my speed...


I spent the same amount of time on Kyle's as I did on hers, but I am just no good at drawing dudes, and as such, he looks less than complete.


and here they are framed.

The bride is a good friend of mine, having known her from the So Cal days, and then living with her while in Seattle. She's a good example of taping into your friends for resources, and as such, she's got a great organizer(Anna), a custom pastor(Brian), and custom hair pieces, and bouquet.

The one on the left is the original design for her. The one on the right is a spare I quickly whipped up last minute as a back up...just in case.

I initially found a link to a DIY brooch bouquet, and found it very helpful, but for the sake of anyone interested in doing one themselves, here's some extra tips:
1. Start buying brooches far in advance to get enough to do a sizable bouquet
2. This shits get heavy. That's not a tip, but still a valuable fact
3. 22 gauge wire, and the paper floral tape worked best
4. Silk or fake flowers are great for filler underneath and between the brooches. However, since the bride was on a budget, and I couldn't find a fake flower I liked, I made all the rosettes from ribbon. Cost was less than$10 for 3 spools of satin ribbon
5. Patience, you'll need a load of it
6. Crystal beads add a nice added touch of sparkle
7. I recommend sewing the ribbon on the handle in place to ensure no slippage or unraveling

So, in all, I put a good amount of hours in that fucker, but in all honesty, it was fun and I'm extremely happy with it. I would do it again if someone wanted one, but I would charge a shit ton of money-not lying; like $300-400 at least.

Wedding portrait-Bride

working on this little number for a good friend. The pencil portion is almost done, and I will go over it with some hints of water color shading and India Ink the back ground black. Should be done tonight-fingers crossed.

Hoping to jam on the Groom's portrait tonight as well.

Leather work progress

Started working on the leather that will become the top tube protector on my bicycle rebuild. I am way out of practice, but I'm remember how fun it is to do art on dead skin

School projects can be fun

Had to style a photoshoot for school. Private art schools, gesh, not sure they're worth the pricetag anymore. But I will say this, I think I very much like the idea of working for a magazine and dressing people for shoots. This was a fun final project. I made the silver dress, which was literally draped and pinned onto her. Made some of the jewelry, and hair do-dads, also did the hair and make up. I attempted to do the photography, and to a point, I did, but had some help enlisted through my lovely duder.

(this is probably my favorite shot)

(by this point, her lovely hair was shot. stupid wind)

There's tons more photos, but I still need to do stuff to them. In the meantime, enjoy Jill's beauty.

Cheers

-M-

Next project

I've been asked by my loverly friends Kyle & Trish, who are getting married, to create some unique portraits of the couple. Research for their individual pics-hers, Elizabethan; his, Steam punk-is well underway, as well as some prelim study sketches

this is just a sneak peak of a study, not even the final idea yet...

Pasties-DONE!!

and thank goodness for that! Those little rhinestones are a bitch

Update to HLP's pasties

Still in process, but let me just say...applying individual rhinestones can suck my ass

What happens when your HLP does burlesque...

What do you get any self respecting vivacious woman in her prime for her birthday? No, not those ultra sexy Louboutin heels of her dreams, because if you can afford a pair of $1200 fucking dollar heels, you're sure as hell going to buy those bitches for yourself. Am I right?! No, since she is on the up and coming track of burlesque dancing, I am making her a pair of rhinestone Misfits pasties Here's a mock up I did at work with a Post-it and here they are cut out of fabric. I will post more as I progress p.s. HLP=hetero life partner

Zombie Geisha-RIP

Awhile ago I made a little zombie geisha sticker for the top tube of my current commuter bike. Well, it was a fun ride, but the other night I had a very wet bike ride home, and needles to say, she's not so pretty anymore...
Before:

After:

More than I can chew?

I've got a project bike I'm building, jade green, ivory lugs, leather accents...and me being me(please read: can't do anything easy), has decided to make a leather tooled top bar pad/protector thingy ma-bob.

It's probably been over 10 years since I've done any real leather tooling...that being said, I think I may be a bit over zealous in the tooling design I've come up with:


I am hoping to trace it to leather this weekend, will update the progress

my work place

really is quite the sty

and why is it that when I don't need my naked Andrea subject pic, she pops up...but when I'm ready to work on her, I can't find her anywhere