Something Old, Something New

Here is a big one from 08...lotta lowbrow fun.

Finished up a Christmas commission piece... hope I don't spoil the surprise... who am I kidding, nobody reads this shit. Tah Tah Fer now.

Pancakes and Booze show 12.10.2010

here are a few peices...trien to make studio room...

older one painted for the 15 artists 5 themes show earlier this year...

 

...2009 guy first in an unfortunate circumstance series.

.....more soon

MODERNHELL 7" cover

So here is a quick update. Just rocked out these single color designs for the upcoming 7" ep from Nashville's MODERNHELL.  Check it out...and fuck, while your at it CHECK THEM OUT.

Oh, and um...HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

"Revisiting Old Ideas"

So, about 5 years ago I did a painting on a skateboard deck with a illuminated bust of a human head. The brain was represented as if glowing to show the inner workings of the head attached to a glowing cluster of veins rising up through the neck.  Coming from the brain was a speech balloonesque silhouette continuing to another idea.

A few months ago, while visiting me at the shop, a friend (Nathan) expressed interest in starting a 3/4 sleeve based off the human element of the painting.  Color me happy.  Color me interested.  Color me brinstorming!
  Yesterday we began work on the job.  Nathan has a few existing tattoos on the arm, so we first needed to understand how to cover or work with them.  The tattoo at the top forward center of his shoulder is a cross made from spike nails with symbolic blood and tear drips. We decided  to incorporate this as the thought idea of the illuminated human form.  To continue this idea on to the rest of the arm I first needed to sketch the bust. I started with the head.

From here i needed the beginning of the shoulders, chest, and arms. Not as much sketching involved as the search for reference. Exhausting my page flipping efforts I simply had Katie, our shop assistant at Kustom Thrills, pose for a rudimentary photo.  This worked greatly to clear my minds eye of anatomy wool! Collar bones vs. shoulders and all that shit become a headache real fuckin' fast. I continued from this sketch to a marker drawing of the basic body elements.

  From here I could easily add in the brain, skull, and illuminated vein details.  Drawing finished, we were on to the stenciling process...

  After stencilin' on the bust, I drew in the bottom of the idea sillouette, and the beginings of some Durer style light rays. Now were ready to begin.

  and here is how that went....

We finished all the preliminary black and grey and wrapped it up to let it heal leaving the final black details and ALLL THE GLORIOUS COLOR for another session.

SO FUCKING STOKED. We'll get back on it next week with more ideas and elements comeing together if its healed. fingers crossed. More to come!

               -jonny

"This Is My Day" ...and some old shit.

     So here is a finished photo of the Day Of The Dead entry...


          ...as promised.



     And heres some older pilferage.

     Still have prints of this lady head sheet.
2.5feet by about 9"

     Also have plenty more copies of this Las Vegas "Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth 2010" First Place, Best Color Flash snatchin' split 5 piece flash set with Adam "The Kid" Wakitsch. (Think we got an award for run on sentence)

     Did These two monsters for a group show with a diorama show curated by Brooke E. a while back at Billups Art in East Nashville.  Check her out shes awesome and so was the show. I think the only difference between these photos and the hung final were some weird dotted yellow lines down the vertical outsides.

     P.S. if you looking to paint something easy... don't paint a diorama...or whatever the fuck you would call this shit.

That'll be it fer now.

a day of death III

Last minute crunch here we go...bang in the final to do list...went a little like this:

• green highlights
• purp highlights
• brightest marigold tones
• eyelid detail tones
• pupil tones
• mouth tones
• black shadow fin.
• highest lights (highlight every fucking color...FUUUUCK!)
• yellow line highlights
• black line
• whites
• mount that motherfucker

 

 

...this guy is just before the black lines and harsh whites...oh and all the bullshit or is that the whole thing?  I can never tell.

ok...this bitch is ready to mount to the frame.....  I'll post a good finished final with a detailed description on how big of a pain in the ass it was to attach a shitty $3 dollar plastic frame to a painted board. Anyway, done just under deadline and ready to hang for the November 2nd Dia De Los Muerto art show at Octane Gallery in Kustom Thrills Tattoo of East Nashville.  Thanks to everyone who came out...it was a lot of fun!  

p.s.   Here is a shitty staged picture of the show that does none of the awesome work justice.  Thanks and talk to your ass later.

Happy Halloween Buttholes

RIPPER!

A day of death II

 Finally got a chance to sit down with this lady again.

got most of the dark color tones put down and the yellow reflection from the candles for her skin's undertone. I wanted her dress to have a lot going on so I started putting in colors for the pattern.

All dark color tones and pattern done...

After putting in the candles color I moved on to the preliminary highlight colors and flames.  Now on to black. 

....then we watched The Holy Mountain...together.

Another day at the office.

little lady action action today at the shop...fun.

...never a dull moment. tah tah for now.

"Seperation of God and Country"

  So, two dental assistants and a tattoo artist walk into a bar.....   Just sent this little guy packin' with Sir Brandon Kemp off to Little Rock, Arkansas today... been lookin' at this thing for 3 plus years...good to see him leave the nest. Well ah poo poo poo. Hope you love it forever.

A day of death.

   So, November 2nd, Octane Gallery inside Kustom Thrills Tattoo shop in infamous historic East Nashville will be a large group show titled "Dia De Los Muerto". A theme show calling on many local artists to bring their embelishments to the topic of the Festival of the dead, or day of the dead.... followed and including some heavy drinking... I'm sure.
   I, like many of these artists chose a "back door" approach. Flashes of brightly colored sugar skulls and Mexican Skeletor seem to haunt me with a fever of over exposure, so i did a little more research.  I chose marigolds for a static repeating element due to their relation to the subject...and continued on to the more frightening theme of the visage of death and decay.

   Goin' with a 15in by 19in size in loo of a fuckin' sweeeet ass frame i found at Goodwill, I started a small scaled prelim sketch including a decaying lolita, wind brushed candles, and a shitbox of marigolds and greenery from a sort of aerial perspective. I also included a tattered scrap of paper in her right hand. Now on to the final line copy that I will do on velum with microns and sharpie.

    With this out of the way i can take a crisp clean drawing to Kinko's and have them enlarge it to the final size.

  Dude, I was amazed how well the marker on velum drawing worked in the enlargements. On previous peices i had taken dirty three and four color pencil and ink thumbnails in for enlargement and gotten fuzzy yuckfest enlargements out of it.  Not the case here...fuckin' a.
   After cutting a large scrap piece of Masonite to size and priming it, I'm on to gluing the paper enlargement down.

   Here is our affixed and dried line copy. Now i can start laying in the main tones of color......stay tuned for more. cheers.

                                                     -jonny