Busy Busy!

So I have been watching my Daughter Liberty a bit more these past couple weeks, and as such I have been woefully behind on so many projects (and I was doing so well too..) So I wont be posting a collector spotlight until I get back from my vacation for the 4th. but also, when I get back, I will be adding another segment to the blog. a weekly post of pages from my indy comic "Maze" I'm working on #3 whenever I get a spare minute (yes, it's going pretty slow, I started this book more than three years ago, and still am only halfway finished) BUT I will be posting pages from chapters 1 and 2, a page a week (that should be easy. right?) as I work on chapter 3, and then will release pages of chapter 3 as I move into Chapter 4. might as well show it off here, otherwise I'm not sure anyone will get to see it. ha!

There are other projects with the Chop Shop and Jade Monkey crews that hopefully take off, but we'll see...

So come july 9th, I will have returned from vacation, and plan to put out some new material (and some old).

for now, just a few pics of some recent work - Have to at least post a couple pics right? why else do all 6 of my fans come here for? ha!

Hope's "Day of the Dead Pooh" 1/2 sleeve. Not 100% done, but super awesome still!

Matrix Sentinel Study

This is a compilation of a study I am doing for a tattoo project. I dont like showing the raw art for a tattoo until the tattoo is done, and none of these images will actually be used in the tattoo. But these things are just hard to draw and I like how they are turning out, so I wanted to show them off.


I'm posting this shit everywhere; facebook, deviant art, tumblr, twitter, here! ha!
why not. I think these have turned out pretty good so far.

Collector Spotlight: Jason Payne's Sin City

Yes, it's actually another Collector Spotlight! Unfortunately, I had a really hard time finding any staged out photos for the Sin City piece. I know I have them, but for the life of me... I cannot find them. ah well. I'll do my best with what we have here...

We started this piece at the original Jade Monkey, though we put most of the time in at the New Jade Monkey. And seriously, this piece was the most challenging thing I had done at the time, and still is one of my most ambitious and difficult pieces I've done. Thank god Jason sat so well for it (considering it's on the ribs)

So. this first pic is the design layout. I took images from the movie and combined them with some pics from the comic series as well. I wanted the piece to have the same overall feel as the comic and the movie (after all, that was part of what made the movie so bad ass, how Rodriguez recreated Frank Miller's style so beautifully, it was the purest translation from page to screen that comics had gotten to see up to that point, and proved that there are real stories in comics, not just batman and the x-men... sorry...geeked out a little bit, my bad)

So this is what we came up with for the overall design...

And this is the finished tattoo... damn I wish I had those process photos...

Now there are obvious differences. This piece will show you what happens when putting a flat image on a curved body, and the natural "distortion" that occurs. But really, it had a cool dimensional effect, where Jessica Alba's character remains paramount, and everything else is moved more into the background by the curvature of the body. A neat, unintended effect of the design's interaction with it's canvas.

but to fill in a bit of what happened in between these stages, was about 20+ sessions of working each character element separately and then working the between spaces, before doing multiple sessions of fine tuning and adding white and red accents. Alba's character was the most difficult, and the most important. though I don't think I got her look 100%, I feel she still captures the character of Nancy.

The back of the tattoo (your left, as you look at these images) I added Kevin the serial killer (Elijah Wood) and Gail, the prostitute gang leader (referenced from the comics). Kevin was by far the easiest, and Gail turned out to be the least interesting character in the piece actually.

From there however, on the right, front side of the tattoo, is where I think I did my best, and had the most fun...

Miho (Devon Aoki) and Marv (Mickey Rourke) are two of the most dynamic characters in the Sin City world, and they they turned out the best overall in my opinion in the tattoo, and I also liked that they ended up in the front/forward facing area of the composition, being positioned where they would get more visibility. That Marv tho... a fucking joy to tattoo! I would love to do a half sleeve of just him from that classic shot.

Too bad I couldn't show more of the in between process (kinda the point of this little blog segment after all...), the grey lines, the base shading, building this piece up bit by bit, layer by layer, session by session, slowly painting this image into skin. I wanted to show it all...

I can say now, that in a way, I wasn't ready to do this piece when I did it. But in doing it, I became more able, and by the end of the piece, I had acquired the skill and understanding needed to pull off a tattoo like this. It's easily one of my favorites, and I think I'm more critical of this piece than of most others, but it was a such a great and challenging learning process, I wish I was still working on it! ha!

oh yeah, I am.... I get one more fine tuning/touch up session, unless I can talk him into more.... hahaHAhahAha! see you in July Jason!

Just a bit something for right now...

As promised the photo of the Jason Voorhees mask I tattooed on Amber... if not a bit late.
No Spotlight really on it; had a lot of fun, used experimental techniques on this piece that worked really well and led to this piece:

The Bruce Campbell/Ash color portrait. first attempt at something like this. though I have had a lot of pieces of similar complexity working up to this piece. almost ready to take on a real portrait!

ok. so this isn't much of a post, I know. and I've been getting some flak from a few friends in regard to the fact that I haven't posted anything here for a while. my bad. I hope to make this location the center of all of my work in general. you will seeing more stuff this Thursday, as well as smaller posts through the week.

Upcoming: I have been working on my comic, Maze #3, finished with the pencils now and just starting the inking... I'll show some samples of that as well as have other news regarding the the Chop Shop Comics crew gearing up to retake the local Phoenix indy scene!  

Damn

Busy busy! This Friday the 13th I am doing a Jason Voorhees mask, I may post it up here today as well as on my facebook. Still working on the next collector spotlight, I've decided to show the Sin City piece on Jason Paynes ribs. But I am still getting it all put together.

On a side note: I find it interesting that Al Quaida would "avenge" Bin Ladens death by blowing up Pakistani people... seems ill concived and counterproductive to me. Maybe that's just cause the idiots that join Al Quaida, are cowards that attack easy targets, and have no real ability to mount another major attack... 

Busy Busy

Still doing the collector spotlight this week, just hella late... been so busy, I just needed a good break from drawing and tattooing.

see you all back here later tonight!

tripped out...

Osama Bin Laden is Dead. at last we have reached an endpoint to the American Led conflicts in the Middle East. I know that terrorism will not end with Bin Ladens death, and I know that al Qaida still exists and is a real threat. BUT. As far as the point and purpose of going into Afghanistan, the response to the 9-11 attacks, is complete. just like in Chess, when you take the King, the game is over. Now I understand that's an oversimplification, but it doesnt need to be any more complicated than that. As I heard a commenter on the  news monday, "As Americans, our day is July 4th, not Sept 11th" When do we return to being a nation of freedom instead of a nation of security? how much longer do we have to go in this direction of fear response to the rest of the world and start to lead? (and I don"t say lead "again" because I think the world needs a different kind of example from the US that it has gotten in the past) We should be showing the world how great it could be, we should be an example of conduct and honor in all those things we do, and encourage regions like the Middle east to reform and establish democratic systems of government in their own image, if we do this, and yet still the people of the Middle East elect anti American Leaders, we can handle it... Killing Osama Bin Laden is not the end of the conflicts we face in the region, but it can be the beginning of the end. Let us show the world that our fervor for revenge will not consume us, and that we will stop when we are vindicated, Justice has been done. The consequenses of the 9-11 attacks have been brought to those responsible, and now, after nearly ten years, we can move on. and move into the 21st century with progress and hope in mind, not fear and more years under this abstract war.


Clearly, no Collector spotlight this past weekend. I was glued to the tv watching the news of OBL's Death.