Circus Freaks 3.2

Here's where we're at with that circus freaks thing. I think I have it feeling the way I wanted it.



And I'm having some issues with the bright orange showing up vastly different in different apps. God knows how it shows up on other people's monitors. Thankfully, I won't be dicking around with software on the silkscreen colors. Mix it in a bucket and what you see is what you get.

The theme for this show is circus freaks. The big temptation for 'mr zombie guy' would be to go gross. I really didn't like the idea of that, so I opted for the cartooney route. I like three basic things, sexy, silly, and scary, and I asked scary to stay home for this one.

Derby Shirts

This is fun, no? Here's hoping the t-shirt place has enough sense to not print the boobs up near the neckline...let's keep our boobs crossed.






























I mean fingers.

Circus Freaks 3.1

The banner text? Still up in the air.


And yeah...that's a boner joke. You can't shame me.

I don't shame.

Circus Freaks 3.0

Only a tease today, though part 3 is near done. Just need to get Jojo right.



Been watching the original Freaks on repeat today. I'd never seen it before and I'm pretty disappointed that people have always given me the impression that the film is just a throwaway novelty. It's a genuinely enjoyable and creepy film, on par with any horror film before or since.

It's not a novelty, it's a must-see.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

PWBA is, and may always be, my favorite movie. There's only one other flick that ties first place for me. I was looking Big Adventure up on Netflix to get a few screengrabs researching some of the characters (yeah, the Satan's Helpers), and I noticed this WTF:



Strangely, I couldn't agree more. Also, Strangelove is my other all-time favorite. How did they know?

I've always been fascinated by Netflix's suggestion-formula.

Circus Freaks 2.1

Not sure about the YOWZA, but I'm not crazy about it just saying Strong Man, or something. A name would be ok, like Ginger has...there's still time to think about it.



The last piece I think will be a Tom Thumb and the Tall Man. And I don't know that the tall man's face will be visible, but his interest will still be apparent...we'll see, still sketching.

Circus Freaks 2.0

This is where this is headed...

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...