Well, I've been neglecting my Facebook fan page, this website, my fitness - hell, even my own art and music - and pretty much everything else in between for the last couple of weeks.

After having to say goodbye to a dear friend at the end of June and reflecting about who I am and where I stand in the world, I feel that my creative stream has been dammed up with detritus and have, therefore, been compelled to reconsider my current life circumstances by locating and removing the buildup that has caused this bottleneck. Only then can I begin to break the shit down and clear the way for future ambitions; they sure as hell don't involve working in retail.

It is even more apparent to me that it is time to grind. HARD. I'm over this Limbo phase of my life and am ready to progress into a more meaningful purpose. I need to start selling my art; not merely as a means to make money, but in order to clear the air of the old, stale ideas that have been cluttering my creative stream. By letting go of my old achievements can I make way for new and innovative goals.

I do enjoy seeing my own paintings on the walls of my apartment every day, but what exactly does this achieve for me as an artist? A constant reminder that I am, indeed, an artist? Perhaps it is a subconscious fondling of my own ego? Nope. Not anymore. None can appreciate art when it can be seen by no one.

I am, therefore, slapping some prices on a portion of my work in hopes that some good people might enjoy and want to own a piece or two. They will be appropriately priced on this website and shared over my Facebook art page.

If anyone is interested in whether a particular piece is for sale or to negotiate a price, message me here on the website or email me at: [email protected].

Help me adorn the walls of your home!
:D

This is, more or less, a short documentation of the developmental process for my skateboard deck piece "Panacea."  I made sure to take pictures as best I could along the way to show the progression of it to completion. I might start doing this for more of my pieces..maybe even some video. 

I really didn't know how to approach this project which, to be honest, was spurred solely by a call-to-artists post I found on craigslist for an all skateboard deck art show at a local coffee shop. I was juggling the potential mediums with which to start working and really had no idea what the hell I was going to do until I started doodling with my Prismacolor pencils.

Without any further delay, here is a glimpse from start to finish:

I obviously had to have a flat surface to work on, so I disassembled the hardware from the deck and started sanding off the graphics and grinding the nicks down with an orbital sander.  Meanwhile, the trucks, wheels, nuts, and bolts all aspired to a greater calling in life...

This is my usual method for referencing things like finger placement and muscle structure. There is no body that is better to study than your own..

This is how the preliminary sketch looked; I used a color that wasn't too bold for the outline and mapped out the overall composition. And, as in the photos above, I used my own wincing face for reference.

Adding brown tones for definition, shading and volume...

I started to add Rose to the cheeks and pads in the hands and fingers. I believe there are also touches of yellow, but it's hard to see in this picture.

Here is where I started working on the octopus and filling in the flesh, both blue and beige. The best thing about using Prismacolor pencils is the ability to blend the colors and push the pigments around when layered.

The development of the octopus' texture was achieved using small, painstakingly applied circles..

I wasn't sure how to treat the perimeter of the drawing, so I went ahead and started laying down some graffiti-style arrows and worked my way around, not too heavily, until I got to the top. To ensure that the weight of the border remained on the bottom, I merely shaded in some of the wood grain pattern above the shoulders that seemed to lift up toward the halo.

The tentacles hanging beneath the shoulders was an interesting way to close in the chest and give the figure a sort of rib cage.

The finished product!

"Panacea" 2012 Prismacolor on wood.