Mami Mom Day 2009

In an attempt to show my appreciation for the many, many things my mother has done, does and tolerates, I put together a little Mother's Day surprise for her. Got my brother in on it and we took her to one of her favorite restaurants. It was a good time. Considering my brother is pretty financially stable, he got whatever his heart desired and encouraged my mother to do the same. It hurt a bit. I won't deny it. I had to drink my woes away. And that drink was like $6. Oh well. You only live once. And she's worth it! She's not only totally adorable, but she's one of my truly favorite people. I'm glad she's my mom. Relieved, actually. I've met a lot of mothers. I would not want any of those! Well, I guess I would probably be okay with it, but I think I'm definitely very blessed! Tomorrow I'll finally post the piece of art I created for her Mother's Day gift. It's super cute!

This is just the first step

I've been slacking off on "photo documentation" and completing any artwork so here I am posting someone else's. This is from the lavatory in the Auburn Road Winery where our band played. Steve is hoping my mother will recreate it for him. Maybe I should have told him I've wanted to her to do another portrait of John Lennon for years and she's yet to do that either! I don't know when this is ever going to actually happen!

I'm thinking Arby's

Today our band played the 89th Wilmington Flower Market Carnival. Rocked the Arby's stage. The rain God's tried to destroy the whole day and wash the whole thing out. A lot of acts and events were canceled because of the torrential rains and then the bonus thunder and lightening. We were nearly canceled, but suddenly the weather cleared and we were able to go on. The stage was great, but the conditions in the grass were sad. Like walking in water chocolate pudding. I think they call it mud. I definitely felt for my parents and friends. Following us, there was a 7th grade cover band from the high school across the street. I'm not sure what's saddest; opening up for 7th grader, the fact that their audience was about 10 times bigger than ours, or that I got an enormous bruise on my leg from my tambourine! I dunno though, that's pretty hardcore. I rocked the shit outta that tambourine!

Remember, we're a solar system

A little watercolor I did the other night. Obviously darkened with the magic of computers. Watercolor doesn't tend to be quite so vivid. I don't really have anything else to say... bee bop.

This song explains why I'm leaving home

A few nights ago I did this, but tonight I feel it's appropriate to post. Today I went to the Lollipop Tree to see about getting a job being a cake decorator. Well, mostly just an extra hand during their busy season. It went well and they may call me if they need me, but it was like a trip down memory lane when I wrote down my name and phone number. When I was in Kindergarten, my first "boyfriend" was a boy by the name of Gabriel. His family owns the Lollipop Tree. Amazingly enough, she recognized my name and then we spent a little time talking about Gabe and how funny it was that I was in there asking for job now. Oh how funny life is. Things are really going full circle now.

RIP Dom Deluise

May the 4th Be With You

It's really hard to capture this in a photo, but the Coke on the left is actually square. What happened to you, Mr. Coke Can?!

Cartoons by Lady Jaja

Definitely have been having a very lazy Sunday around here today. Haven't done barely anything except sit at this computer and play with my "mouse pen".

For a while, all it did was frustrate me. Which is what it normally does when I sit down to use it which leads to me giving up and doing something else.

Well, today I persevered and it paid off! I think I've gotten a much better idea of its functions and what to do and how to do it. Starting to get a little technique rather than just drawing scribble.

So, to fulfill my artistic obligations for the day, I bring you the fruits of my mouse pen labors! I also made a new background for the band myspace, so check that out if you're interested.

My arm is killing me now. It's definitely a much different pose I have to hold to use it than a normal pencil. Ah well. You tell me, was it worth it?

I have to kill to make it true

For the sake of having a good time and not being tempted to spend the whole show taking pictures, I didn't bring my camera to the Fameball. I wanted to dance! So, instead of posting a photo of Jamie's, the blurry crap I took with my phone, or stuff I could google, I opted to sketch Lady Gaga myself! It scanned terribly. It's very hard to scan pencil. The only way to get them to show up at all is to turn up the contrast and that doesn't always do it justice. The subtly is lost. Maybe I should have just taken a picture of it instead. Hmm. Maybe I'll try that later. If you'd like to see the original I used for comparison sake, clicky click. I obviously removed her hand. It was taking attention off of her face. Just always looked awkward. I wanted the attention to be on her eyes. And trust me, it looks a lot better without the hand. My attempts at making her hand not look awkward were completely in vain! haha

Anyway, I really had a good time at the Fameball (I just like saying that). Lady Gaga has got to be one of the oddest entertainers out there right now. I just saw Factory Girl a few weeks back so Andy Warhol things are fresh in my mind and I completely understood what she was doing, but it was very odd nonetheless. But it was great. I had a lot of laughs, sang songs I love, and got a plethora of hot new dance moves to bring to da club! And, look, she even got me out of my sketch slump!

The perfect sum up: Thanks Gaga! (yeah, that's an in-joke.)

Little houses made of ticky-tacky

This is just a little something I did early this morning when I should have been sleeping. I didn't do much with it (other than this).I kind of like it how it is. Simple. Uncluttered. But a little fucked up. Perhaps someone could derive some psychological analysis from that, but I'm definitely not simple or uncluttered by any stretch of the imagination. As for fucked up... Hm. that's possible. I know my head certainly feels that way tonight. I think I'm going to go rest it. See how fucked it feels tomorrow. Toodles!

ps. goodbye April 2009!

We filled our bellies with goat meat

If you've been wondering why I haven't updated in about a week, I'll tell you. I've been busy. Lots of time spent outdoors and at band practices. Even guest hosted on 93.7 WSTW yesterday evening. So, needless to say, doesn't leave much time to sketch. I've worked on a few things, but nothing that's ready to be shared. Moreover, with this heat wave that's overwhelmed the area, it's hard for me to spend time in my room and that's where I get a lot of my sketches started. I guess I should put on some Chopin and pretend I'm sketching in the 1800s. I wonder if that would alter my style. I think it would be a lot sloppier. Since I'd be rushing to finish and probably faint somewhere in the middle. Be that as it may, I'll be posting again soon! Promise!

I can't explain the feelings plain to me

I started this today with the mindset that the finished product could possibly be a birthday gift for someone (that doesn't read this blog). But I wasn't feeling too confident that it would be good enough to do so. I have gifting standards! I wouldn't want to give someone something that was sub par. At dinner I asked my family who they thought it was, that's how unsure of myself I was, but they all guessed correctly! So I forged ahead...And I've got to say I'm pretty stoked with the finished product! Of course, it's not a perfect likeness, but it's so much better than I thought it was going to be! I don't know if I'm excited that I did it well or that I did it well of a face that I adore so much. So, maybe my excitement is somewhat bias. haha Oh well! I don't care! I'm happy with it! Might be a little hard to part with this one, but I did part with a fantastic portrait I did of Shakira years ago so I think I can do it! I think!!! hahaha

ps. Is it weird that I want to kiss it? haha

I want to be a filthy punk too

I started this on Friday night and finally finished it tonight. It doesn't look very complicated, but the leaves took a lot of time to do. But yeah, this is the sort of things that come out of my own imagination rather than some Disney animator's. I can't seem to get myself away from drawing robots all the time. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I don't want pigeon hole myself! I have more inside of me than just a bunch of robots! ...Probably not much else, though.

And if you're wondering why I didn't post anything yesterday, I was actually working (Aero floorset last night). I have the cuts, bruises, and sore shoulders to prove it!

Killed my feet, but warmed my heart

Just in case you were wondering...




Lily Allen is still awesome.




And her fans drink their milk.

I insisted

Two shows. One night. Busy night. Not such a busy day, but a good one. I chilled on the back porch and finally finished up the last few pages of 1984. It was my second read through of the book so when I got towards the end, I sort of stopped reading it. I love the book, but the end is not a happy one. I don't know if the book would have made such an impact if it had a happy ending, but still, I am reluctant to read that part. It's a little bit of a bummer. But, I finished it! But did I do any art? Nope! I started something when I got home last night and in the middle of it, I got attacked by a migraine so that put it on hold. So, I'll have something soon!

If she had called I could have hung up on her

I had to laugh that while I was drawing this, I was watching Kalifornia with Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, and Juliette Lewis. Mind you, they're in the movie. I didn't physically sit and watch it with them. Anyway, I think if Pinocchio was watching that movie, he'd be covering more than his mouth. More like his eyes. Today was crazy. Not Brad Pitt in Kalifornia crazy, but pretty crazy. Be that as it may, the to-do list I wrote out last night is nearly completed. I rocked it. Man, what am I going to do tomorrow now?

He's also my baby's daddy

The other day my mom gave me this little blank card and asked me to draw something on it; birthday card for my Aunt. I was clueless what I should put on it so I just went with what I liked rather than trying to make it perfectly suited to her taste. And so I put an old fashion Donald on there. I like how it came out. So I did another one that I'm going to send to a friend of mine who loves Tinkerbell. The card stock is nice thick water color paper. I like it. They're pre-textured! I might have to pick up a tablet of water color paper to sketch on. But I may have to steal it. I are broke.

Keep movin, keep movin

Jamie and I played a gig at our old haunt, The Bus Stop Cafe. Apparently, it went well. Not to say that I think it didn't. I was a little sloppy. I felt the bass was a little too loud and my guitar was at times far too quiet. It wasn't really ringing out the way I like it to. But that's neither here nor there. We got through it without anything too terrible happening. I only nearly fell down rather than the alternative. We got some good feedback. Just trying to get my shit together and get excited about music again. There's some things on the horizon that are good, but at the same time there's things that are hindering my excitement. Alas, I'm just going to try to roll with it.

He is Arisen!

Today is Easter. The day of resurrection. The birthday of the Holy Ghost. I don't know if that's correct to say that or not, but you get the idea. Today, a long, long time ago, Jesus decided to come back and hang for a lil' bit. That's probably not true either. Considering how inaccurate records are and how f-ed up our calendar is. So, scratch all that. Let's just go back to square one. Today is Easter. As if I haven't spent enough time with my extended family, I spent a little bit more time with them today. But this time at my cousin's house rather than my own. My cupcakes were big talk since when one of my uncles was over yesterday, he ate one pre-frosted. I didn't care, but the story of how it came to be was big news. It was told a few times. I'm not going to relay it here since it's not really that funny, but my cupcakes were quite a conversation piece. Despite the icing snafu, I was proud of them! I had to laugh when my aunt said, "I didn't know you were domestic"; this is probably the extent of it. But all in all I had a nice holiday. And for whatever reason, I'm totally beat. I didn't really do much, but I'm just beat. But here's a little doodle I did after dinner in John Lennon style. I think this would make a nice design for a business card or something. Probably put something on the back like, "This certifies that you had a personal encounter with me and that you found me warm, polite, intelligent, and funny." with my personal signature. Yeah, that sounds about right. ;)

He's the worst

Didn't have time to do any sketching today. If you can believe it, we had even more family over again today. Before they came over, I had to bake cupcakes for Easter dinner tomorrow. Unfortunately, we ran out of cupcake foils so I had to run out to get them. It was annoyingly busy out. And rainy. After I got back and finished up, I skipped town once again to escape family inflicted insanity. Came home to frost said cupcakes, though. I'm super annoyed, though. I read that if you want to make dark red frosting to use chocolate frosting instead of vanilla. So, I did. I used a lot of red food coloring. Is it red? No, not really. It's far from the actual chocolate color it originally was, but it doesn't look red. I don't know how much you actually have to use, but it must be a lot. I think they should have mentioned that. Maybe said, "Buy a whole lot of red food coloring and be prepared to kill your arm with the amount of stirring you're going to be doing."

I never, never, never want a place to hide

Today could have been pretty crappy, but it turned out being pretty good. After enduring as much of my little cousin, Alex, as I could muster, I escaped to Adventureland! I'll admit that it wasn't quite what I expected it to be, but that's not always a bad thing. Not hilarious, but alright. I enjoyed myself. I don't know if the dude in the coma did, though. He must have died sometime during because at some point I couldn't hear his heart monitor anymore. That's the kind of day I had. One that could potentially kill a coma patient. In other news, this is yet again from Sword in the Stone. I apologize. I hate to be redundant, but it so pretty.

Your 'I need you to' is my command.

Got up. Got dressed. Got stood up. Called Jamie. Went to the zoo. Saw animals sleep. Went on safari, motherfuckers. Ran for my life. Witnessed assault on a bear. Got nostalgic thinking about getting kicked in the face. Saw a squirrel climb in a trash can. Saw squirrels in love. Had a face off with a squirrel. Lots of squirrels. squirrels squirrels squirrels. Went home. Saw my brother, Wilder. Changed my shoes. Put Gizmo in the brig. Wilder created fire. Aunt, Uncle, cousin, & cousin's pregnant wife came over. Got deemed official photographer. Took photos. Dropped my chicken on the stove. Dropped my chicken in my belly. Took more photos. Brought Gizmo downstairs. Sat. Sat more. Took more photos. Changed into a warmer hoodie. Changed it again. Went to Philly. Drove back from Philly. Watched the Office. No time to draw. Why did today kind of suck? Happy Passover.

That love business is a powerful thing.

I want to work on something that will take me more than a few hours to complete so I whipped this up real quick. You definitely have to look at this big since the detail is so small. Looks pretty pathetic all shrunk down. haha In case you're wondering, this is from Sword in the Stone as well. The squirrel scene again. The end of it. When the little girl squirrel is sadly watching them go and sniffling. Not that anyone has left me or broke my heart, but the somber tone of this shot definitely resonates with me this week. Yeah, I'm emo, so sue me. Actually, don't sue me, I'm broke.

Hey, you laugh like a donkey.

Today flew by for me. According to my grandmother, I got up early today. That's utter bull, but you know, whatever. So, considering all that, I don't know how I went from playing guitar to it being 6 in the evening. Other than that, I didn't do much else. Obviously, I also did the above. It seems like every night that I begin something, I hate it. The getting started part is always the worst. I don't really begin to enjoy it til things are taking shape and look how I want them to. I colored this in via photoshop in an attempt to make the water bowl a little more watery. I admit I got a little lazy with it. Ah well. It'll do. I'm tired. I've watched too many movies with people getting shot in it tonight. Oh great, and I just saw Kevin Costner get stabbed in the neck with some scissors! I COULD HAVE LIVED WITHOUT THAT!

Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?

Bout time, right? It was only due time til I did something from The Little Mermaid. I'll always hold a special place in my heart for this movie. In the 4th grade, our school did a Disney Spring Concert and there was a solo part up for grabs during the Little Mermaid sequence. I adored the movie (I think everyone born in 1984 did) and I toat wanted to "be" Ariel, but I was painfully shy. I was one of those kids that sang quieter in choir when the teacher walked by. One day during music class, there was some auditions held for the part; pre-picked girls that he thought would be good. After, there was extra time at the end of class and the teacher asked if anyone else wanted to try out. Shocking to even myself, I raised my hand. And even more shocking, I wound up getting the part. That little solo must have given me some kind of incredible rush because after that I was all about singing. And I have been ever since. So, thanks Ariel. Thanks for being awesome. I still want to sing in a Disney movie, though. That would be siiiiccckkkkkkkkkk!!!!

I'm not a squirrel, I'm a boy.

Too much photoshop yesterday so I went a bit more minimal today. Just a little texture, basically. Like yesterdays, this is from Sword in the Stone. This scene was always one of my favorites (hoping to do a sketch of my very favorite one day) despite my love/hate relationship with squirrels. I always thought it was so sad when Arthur becomes human again and the little girl squirrel cries. She makes the saddest, but cutest whimpers. It kind of gets me choked up! Well, more so now that I'm grown than when I was young. I try not to become my mother, who is notorious for crying at just about anything, but I suppose where hormones are concerned, I don't have much control. I'm not as bad as she is, but my ability to hold it in has been severely decreased! It's such crap! Speaking of my mother, I feel this piece was appropriate (kind of love themed) since it was my parent's wedding anniversary today. Thirty-four years, baby! She may cry easy, but she's tough as nails to be married to my father for that many years. I can't imagine it in general so I definitely can't imagine it with a guy like him! haha Congrats Mom&D! Way ta be!

Love will catch us everytime

Too much photoshop? Hm. Probably. Oh well. I have more to update about, but I'm tired so I'll do that later. Laundry takes all of my will to live out of me. Floor set at Aero, which I was originally told was tomorrow, isn't until the 19th. Bonus for my leisure time; bogus for my bank account! Sweet dreams, blogmites!

I threw up all by myself

Jamie and I had another gig at the Auburn Road Winery tonight. I feel like it was a do-over. And the do-over was much, much better for me than the first go around. I wasn't sick, my voice held out like I'm used to, we sold a few CDs, met some lovely people, and brought in a bit more dough. Not to mention when Jamie was up on the stage rocking an incredible, incredible bass solo, she broke a string. Yeah, she broke a bass string. I know, it seems impossible, but when you're THAT on fire metal just goes back to birth, my friends!

After the show, we dropped by another show going on tonight. Likely where the rest of our audience was; the show at the Bus Stop featuring that incomparable Brownies. We caught the tail end of their set and hung out to watch the last band and to see Steve Locastro cut a rug. or a board. Luckily, I caught some of it on film and I am able to share it here tonight! Too bad I couldn't directly twitter this shizz!



And I got home and started my next piece! I'm pretty stoked about it!

Mercy street, guys

I was happy with this til I scanned it. This just did not scan well. It looks so much better in person. I fiddled and fucked with it for hours on photoshop trying to increase or at least capture the picture on the page, but this is the best I could do. I'm not thrilled, but at least it fulfills my daily requirement!
When I was younger, I used to sign my name with these symbols. But instead of a robot, a happy face. Which was supposed to stand for Peace, Love, Happiness, and Stars. I know the star doesn't really fit the vernacular flow, but it was necessary because the symbolism went further. Those symbols stood for John, Paul, George & Ringo; each symbol representing each Beatle. Yeah, that's right, I was incredibly lame in school. I'm sure no one is surprised! But, in my defense, it was the 6th grade. Who wasn't lame in the 6th grade? Except Jesus. and John Lennon. and Dakota Fanning. Anyway, I'm glad my childish symbols now include a robot! I'm getting SO less lame in my maturing years!

You broke me, I thought I knew you well

I tried my hand at a little water color tonight; amped up with a little digital mastery. The original was nothing to write home about so I had to spruce it up a bit. About the piece itself, if you know me personally, you may know that I love Batman. I have a pretty sweet collection of vintage-esque Batman shirts that I'm pretty proud of. Honestly, it's not even the comics or the movies that I love. It's a symbol of something else for me; someone else. So, here I am putting the bat signal out there. Wishing for a response that I know will never come.

It seems so unlikely in this day and age

I finished this at 5am this morning. Subtracting some time for eating, bathroom breaks, and chatting, I think this took me about 5 hrs to do. I had started it earlier in the afternoon, but I trashed that one and began fresh when I got home from the Hamilton Mall (which now closes at 9; just like the Cumberland Mall, FYI). My hand, neck, and back were killing me by the time I finally was done. There was a lot of detail and then I had to go over it again with darker pencil so that it would show up on the scanner at all so that added to the length. But I think I'm happy with the way it turned out. Can't always do Disney stuff.