Circus Freaks 1.1

Getting there. This will be silkscreened on wood. Just need to finish some small details like the hands. The colors are still up in the air, I'll be mixing by hand when I get to that point, and they'll likely be more opaque than they are here, no weird blends, like you see here under her hair.

You'll probably also notice she has a good unibrow. I want her to challenge that fine line between attractive/unattractive, but always come out on the attractive side.

Circus Freaks 1.0

Working on a few pieces for the next Space 242 show, having to do with circus freaks. Here's the start on my bearded lady. Always wanted to do one that looks like the Venus de Milo (esp the Illustrator 10 one). I'm thinking of a strong man and maybe a tom thumb or pinhead piece to be mounted on either side of her, each dude oggling her.



And because my scanner is always in either the studio or at the house, usually the place I am not, I've begun using the world's cheapest scanner. I hold the thumbnail sketch up to my MacBook's camera and snap a shot of it with PhotoBooth. There are 2 reasons I would recommend this.

#1 No excuses: If I don't have the scanner, and it takes an extra 15 minutes for me to get to the scanner, that's 15 minutes lost, period. And then there's the potential for distractions in between. Oh, while I'm on the way I'll grab a coffee at the shop, then while I was there I ran into Bubba, and he wanted to go do something, so I went with him, and that's why I never got started on my thing. F that. This goes for any tool, esp one that is expensive or difficult to use. Find something that works, make something that works, or do without. Just get on with it while you're feeling it. Half the tools I use I've made by hand, or modded inexpensively. Expensiver does not mean better.

#2 Quick and dirty: don't get bogged down in scanning a beautiful, high-res, suitable-for-framing pencil sketch. In the space of 30 seconds, I've gotten the raw essence of my idea onto my (digital) workspace. Worried about warping? Square it up using the Free Transform tool in Photoshop. That takes another 30 seconds. Because the PhotoBooth image is automatically low resolution, everything you need to do with it is fast.

Roller Derby Logo

Been working on a logo for the Petticoat Punishers, our new roller derby team. Here's the logo I sent them today...

Derby Mind

Got a new project for the roller derby team. Sketching derby girls a lot.

Leave us alone

Half of this video was taped here in Worcester. I have a few points to make.

First, thanks for proving that gay marriage is no better or worse that straight marriage. People marry for money and benefits all the time. Sorry to ruin the romance.

And thanks for perjuring yourselves on tape. The clerks really don't care what you're getting married for. They just say, ok, you're lying, will you go under oath with your lie? Yes? Ok. AND you filmed yourself lying under oath? How wonderful for you. No, the clerks are not the marriage police, unless the filmmakers would prefer that the government have an agency that investigates marriages? No, the Youtube preview screen says it all. The manager 'didn't say nothing', and 'he was kind of quiet about it'. You're right. The manager doesn't like it, but he knows it's not really within his power, and frankly it's none of his business. I suppose the manager could call a police officer, and then what? Or maybe he waits for the 'couple' to leave and then calls...what, the FBI?

Please leave us alone. This city has enough to worry about, and I know a few of the legitimate gay marriages. They're good, responsible people and they don't deserve this bullshit.

Silkscreens on wood ...Grrar.

I've been wanting to experiment silkscreening with different mediums. I like the texture of sanded maple and wanted to see how well it worked with screening. The verdict: it works gorgeously. This is a three color, acrylic on maple. Two of the colors (red and blue) are screened on, the third is a white splatter of thinned gesso, with the splattered brushstrokes making each an individual piece. As it was a test-run, I only planned to make a few, I decided eight would be good. I expected maybe half of the run to come out like shit. Except for a bit of mis-register, and a small (admittedly cool-looking) color bleed on #1, the series came out great. In fact, I might like #1 the best.

The acrylic is a basic house paint, with a little bit of Floetrol, and some out-of-the-tube Windsor & Netwon acrylic mixed in to adjust the hue. Floetrol extends the moisture of the paint. Ask for it at a paint store, Home Depot and Lowe's won't carry it.

This mix dries really quickly, cleans up quickly and has no chemical smell. Because it dries quickly, you have to make sure you keep your screen flooded in between pulls, that's easy to do, and the benefit is that you can put down two layers of one color without needing a flash-dryer. I was able to easily put 2 layers of red on these. It wasn't necessary on the blue. This method is not for t-shirts nor anything else that goes in a washing machine.



Sorry for the quality of the cameraphone. Better pics to come. If you're interested, you can pick up one of these at the Help for Haiti benefit next week at the Lucky Dog.

EDIT: As promised. I brought one home tonight for a sexy portrait on my couch. 12x18".