Water Cones

While I haven't been able to do much painting since I broke my arm in March (weird, right?), I have been slowly putting together a few watercolors that share a pine-cone theme. Some of these are more finished than others and all of the images below are details taken at various intervals... so some of the shots are not as high quality because they were taken with my phone, etc. But hopefully it gives an impression of what's happening... Anyway, I hope to have them done by the time January rolls around and maybe do a small showing where they will be available to collect.

Temptation and Hell

These are the fresh photos of the temptation/hell theme. Once Craig comes back in town I'll snap some healed ones, so until then...

Moar Skulls

Craig's back in the chair. We're adding onto his hell and temptation sleeve, extending from the upper arm onto the forearm. I don't want to ruin any surprises but here's a sneak!

I think a few posts back I might've shared an in-progress photo of his last project, but I don't recall posting a completed one. Here's a healed photo - it's a crypt-keeper prescribing the various hells upon his new arrivals.

Ganesh and mouse

Busy few weeks! A few new things got added to Valerie's collection - 

 - a Ganesh! With mouse!

Green, spotted octopus meets fun, sailor mermaid

Travis' coverup is nearly complete. There's a little more layering and refining needing to be done over the mermaid, but overall it's finished. We'll be adding some background around his elbow in the coming weeks, connecting some of his tattoos on his forearm. 

I had a ton of fun working on this octopus and mermaid scene!! Seems like I've been doing a lot of nautical themed pieces as of late.

octopus + mermaid

This coverup is pretty fun. His instructions were, "Big, and maybe an octopus". I'm covering a blobby caricature on the upper arm with the octopus' spots, but then I'm recycling the old bust of the sailor-girl, turning her into a mermaid. Part of that process involves layering some pale tones over the existing features that interfere (ex: mouth). After it heals I'll go back into it more thoroughly and finish her details. This is the second session so far. 

Thor vs Midgard Serpent

The past two weeks has been great in terms of completions. We started this Thor vs the Midgard Serpent maybe two months ago, so in terms of speed, Gaven got this finished pretty quick. It was a lot of work and a ton of fun, and this kid is a crazy trooper! The last session was 6 hours long, and his previous sessions were no short stories either. I'm impressed. That's dedication. I think it was worth it too.

Nick's Underwater Scuba Scientist

Nick and I started this sleeve 3 years ago - first to the length of a half-sleeve, then the inside of the arm, then down to the wrist, leaving the elbow for last... what a long wait! But it's finally over. It was weird. I was like, "I guess that's it, dude?" Haha.

It's an underwater/diver theme. Started off with a bunch of creatures, then took on more of a narrative with the treasure chest and diver/scientist.

The scientist is trying to capture the green-glowing-seahorse in a specimen jar, but the octopus, shark, and other sea-creatures are awfully protective of the little guy.

Objects of remembrance and the Quarter

Ok. Srrrry for the hiatus - we have a lot of catching up to do! Luckily, a lot of catching up was done the past few days.

Rather than go on with a bunch of writing, let's start with the photos!

Above are new pieces added to Ryan's collection. A tea cup with a sprig of mint for his grandmother, a hurricane lantern for his grandfather, and a medium format camera for his personal passion.

Katherine lives in New York now, and wanted a tattoo to commemorate her life in New Orleans. She requested a german expressionist/Tim Burton take on the French Quarter. On her most recent visit we extended the theme onto her forearm, but I'll get into that as it gets closer to completion.

shirts? + thor workings

Although I haven't been blogging, I've been working quite a bit. I have three art shows in August coming up, and some new drawings/paintings and of course, tattoos!

Oh, and maybe some shirts and merch? Just some of the things jostling around my head. Maybe a coffee mugs, maybe a hoodies... who knows! I would like your thoughts though, so if you think of anything you'd like to see just let me know! Here's two of the designs I've been playing around with. More than likely if it's a shirt or whatev it would have both, but like a coffee mug or pint glass would have one...

HHorW. Hell or High Water.

Don't know why, but I took this photo at an angle... but you can see the idea, yes?

Cats and Skulls, what's not to love? I am imagining it on a tan/brown hoodie or shirt.

Thor! Session 2.

Let me know what you guys think of the shirts/merch designs... and the tattoos too! Feedback is always appreciated. As far as the art shows go, I will have to debrief in another post. Very tired, but have a great weekend!

Pirates, hammers, snakes, burning people, clocks...

July has been chock full of new, larger work, but most of it is still in the beginnings (ie, outline/some rendering). I have a couple to post though. Some of the ones that made it a little further than the outline so you can kind of see what's going on a little better.

Derek's Pirate Theme in progress. We're covering up a very old tattoo in the upper middle. This is the second sitting. 4/5 hours total so far. Fun things going on all over this tattoo!! (and a couple surprises - I do like surprises)

Klackity-Klack! Thor Fighting the Midgard Serpent. No cover up here, just pale skin and a kid who can sit like a champ. Maybe 3 hours or so at this point. Again, sooo much fun.

Craig Boe, a man of myth. Sits for hours on end without a peep. How does he do it?? I think we did 4.5 hours of rendering here, with 3 hours of outline on a prior day. Something like that. One more sitting and then pumping some white in there for measure.

I do traditional stuff too, sometimes. If you ask nice. And Jill is really nice. This one is all done, I just trew it in here as a lil treat at the end.

There's more in the making so stay tuned! Maybe one of these days I'll remember to bring my real camera so you won't have to look at these phone pictures. 

Second Story Gallery - Inaugural Group Show

Everyone is welcome to my co/op's first exhibition. I have some drawings and floor installations and  share the space with 11 other artists.

Second Saturday / June 9th
6pm - 9pm
Healing Center / 2nd Floor Lower

As it would happen, 12 Artists came together guided by Andy Antippas of Barrister's Gallery, and formed this artist cooperative, The Second Story Gallery, located within the New Orleans Healing Center. We will be opening on June 9, 2012 (Second Saturday) with our inaugural exhibit. This is a group show that includes works by all the founding members and will run through the end of July. Exhibiting artists are: Adam Montegut, Cynthia Ramirez, Gina Laguna, Jason Christopher Childers, John Isiah Walton, J. Stirling Barrett, Justin Robinson Smith, Madeleine Faust, Ron Bennett, Summer Winston, Veronica Ali, and VonHoffacker.

The artists in this co/op are a unique mix of emerging artists, non-art professionals, and career artists. Presented artwork includes drawings, paintings, large steel free-standing sculptures and wall pieces, mixed-media installation works, photographic collages and documentary images.

Come see a thing!

Skull ~ Bandages

coffee, charcoal, left handed

19" x 22"

Oh, Problems

collage, coffee, tattoo ink, gouache, pen, left handed

11" x 14"

Spring Break

oil on wood, left handed

12" x12"

Bruises

Skull, Roses & Broken Bones

oil on wood, left handed

12" x 20"

Bax

Box

oil on canvas, left handed

18" x 24"

Lessons in ropes

Lessons in Ropes

oil on wood, left handed

24" x  24"

I wanted to post it this morning..

The next few days hopefully I will remember to post pictures of my left-handed paintings that are still kicking around. One a day sounds good? To refresh, I did these in March while my right arm was in a cast and I could not tattoo. Then at the end there was an art show the day before the cast came off. So nice to have time to paint. I explored a lot of new ideas in these paintings. Anyway -

The Desire to be a Morning Person

oil and graphite on wood

24" x 24"

Winding up

I have a couple of newer photos of an in-progress art nouveau inspired tattoo to share - The piece incorporates a bunch of local flower varieties, including: gladiolus, magnolias, swamp iris, camellia, and azalea.

It's a particularly labor intensive piece - and I'm trying to keep it simple! Execution wise that is. At this point we are somewhere in the middle stage, probably just past the middle. The middle stage is many hours long you see... but after the middle hump things really start to take shape. The overall look of this piece is going to change either the next sitting or the one after, once I go over the background again. You will see!

and since we we're going on about works in progress, I'll just throw in a few better pics of the scuba diver. Enjoy!

We just have his elbow left, and some bit here and there. Can't wait.

Joey the Dog, Marsh Grass, Poker FDL, Family Crest

A lot to post about this week! In addition to getting a good healed photo of Joey the Dog (it can sometimes be difficult with people's schedules, but definitely my favorite way of documenting my work), I also have a couple of one-sitting zappers to share - I'm always glad when there's time enough to get a piece to a finished state in one sitting. The only downside to the one-sitting tattoos is I don't usually get to get healed photos if the client is from out of town. I think most of my regular clients understand the advantages of a healed photo though, so that's not typically a problem.

Anyway - first up - let's do Joey the Dog. The client's request was a portrait of her dog in a suit, very old-fashioned-like. I had her bring the dog by so I could get an idea of its temperment and also if there were any specific markings I might be missing in the photos. I also shot my own photos to make sure I got all the angles and info I needed. It was sooooooo much fun. Animal portraits are far easier for me - I still won't tattoo human portraits! (Not yet anyway). I would like to get in one more session to tighten up the background and heighten the contrast in key places.

I'm trying out the watermark thing. I don't have photoshop at the moment so I must apologize - it's not how I would prefer to do it. I think I would prefer to use a symbol instead.

This poker-inspired fleur de lis is on a cool guy. We went with the heart suit, which is fun because it includes the queen of hearts and also the suicide king, ha! I used real Bicycle brand cards as reference, but of course had to alter the designs to make it tattooable. In the process I had the hands of the characters break the squareness of the cards, which I think helps visually. The black poker chip is valued at $100, though we mostly chose it since it is a predominantly black and grey tattoo.

The next few images are on a girl who has a very interesting string of jobs under her belt. She's a native New Orleanian, but has had the opportunity to travel to some awesome places. The particular plant that we tattooed on her is based on the dominant marsh grass that protects the Louisiana coast from hurricanes and which was also devastated by the now year-old oil spill. She got it as a protector/memorial symbol. 

We had started the following family crest soon after I got out of my cast, so we broke it up into two sittings to make it easier to manage. Most of it was completed the first sitting though, with only the helmet and banner/name remaining for the second. Simple, but fancy. Also his first tattoo and he sat awesome.

That's it for the moment. I've got a bunch of stuff on the burners including the Second Story Gallery Inaugural Group Exhibit!!! The Second Story Gallery (SSG) is a new co/op in the Healing Center Bldg. on St. Claude St. (in the Marigny), of which I am a founding member. I will post more in-depth info on that in a soon-to-be post. This turned out to be a pretty long one! 

Anyway, everyone have a great rest of the week. Cheers.