Resonant Fish

12:11pm: I made you a LiveJournal, but then I ated it.
I've noticed that I suddenly started getting somewhere in the vicinity of 15,000 file requests each week (which is huge for a guy who still has a day job that prevents him from doing the art things here), and that many of these come from this here ol' LJ which I abandoned a while ago. So, let me address this here, in the toppestmost posting :

Instead of LJ, I've been using a Facebook group to post / interact with new art things. I've also been using Flickr, Twitter, and whatever-er - all of which are linked on my website itself, along the bottom bar.

I made the stupid mistake of creating a website that was cumbersome to update, albeit sexy as hell, so it's not as updated as it should be. I would love it if you joined me on Facebook, though!

I'm not sure how often I'll really post here, but I do try to regularly post HERE, on the Blogalopod, about art stuff. Please join me there too.

That is all. Thanks for checking in.

10:39pm: ...
My internet presence is spread around like the victims of an exploded schoolbus, and probably just as attractive. I have new viewers. Heart emoticon.

Here are things I've made for things during recent timespaces.

I busted some King Kens madcore.

( THREE OLD KENZ )

I also have this guy somewhere in Europe in a show.

( LUCHAGRIS )

Also, I love that I made this for the next boxed Spaceman release.



There is more. Everywhere.

3:54am: Hello, new friends.
I don't post here nearly as often as I actually produce art. I'm disorganized, and half of it disappears, and half of it goes into my Facebook group, and half of it I just send to friends. Yes, three halves. I am very busy.

I see that I have a buncha new peeps. If you're really interested in the things I make, please do join my Facebook group. There is no spam, and it's all pretty much just hangin' out there for whenever you'd like to scan it.

The Facebook Group

I'm still in recovery from 2009 stabbing me in the face every few days.



I will have some toys for sale on Gruffhouse in the coming week or so. My Spaceman : Burn-Up edition has been a long labor of love, but I actually finished it. Check it out on Flickr. A natural edition will be available in my shop at the same time - just finishing off the packaging at this point, which is custom wooden cigar boxes.

Always busy, never progressing in any measurable way.

10:23pm: Painting!
So, I spent the last two days painting live on webcam, after punching some technical glitches in the face. When I'm live, it'll be here :

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/resonantfish

I'll add the link to my website. Maybe it'll motivate me to paint more. It's been a few good months since I've painted, recently opting for custom toys instead. I spent a week in total nothingness, and an image popped into my head.

Here's what I painted. 'The Queen of the Bees'. 12" x 24" on canvas.

( big pictures )

It's about my recent ex-girlfriend. Despite severe allergies to beestings, she saved a fat bumblebee from a puddle once. She also ended up being incredibly detached, cold, unfaithful and untuthful, deciding at the last possible moment that the apartment we'd both signed on for couldn't really fit me anymore. She's not the productive, useful, purposeful queen bee - she's the queen of the bees.

It's not as if she had a gigantic ass, because frankly, her ass was superb. It's a metaphor.

You should also buy stuff from my shop.

I'm taking commissions.

1:33pm: PLEASE VOTE!
I'd very much appreciate it if you would register & vote for my design. These guys have awesome shirts!

3:23pm: ---
Updates :



Will likely go live on Friday, noonish.

Took the first few steps towards making my first original toy, also, which I'm confident will kick so much ass.

I also drew this for a contest.

( KISS! )

Also, painted Popeye. Final photos pending.

Have three more toy shows to complete by August. Then I'm taking a break for a little while.

9:56am: ART CATCH-UP!
I've been negligent. Or just way too musy makin' stuff to post it here. Huge-crazy update. I'm in three shows right now, and a bunch of shows coming up. Much of it is updated on Facebook, more often.

First, 'The Golden Faces' for LIFT Gallery's Multiple Personality 2 Show.

“He collects all of the faces that we think we see in things for a fleeting moment - patterns in tree bark, electrical outlets, swirling in mugs of coffee. We’d see a lot more if The Golden Faces weren’t so astute at finding and removing, and thus de-anthropomorphosing, our day-to-day lives.”



I also finished 'The Crepuscular Gentleman' for the 'Into the Darkness' Show in LA.



( 2 more shots, one with glowing llights )

And a diptych for The 80s Show, Skeletor and Mumm-ra!





I also have a whole bunch of Woodunny photos here.

Playing with ideas for verdegris Droplets and old-man-gutsed King Kens. Gotta get a Munny done by August....

12:48am: '100 Ways to the Dark Side' Project
( VADER, cut for big )

Book's coming out in the next few months. Here's my take on Vader.

Wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I kinda slapped him into an old landscape painting I never finished, and I mostly like the results. Something feels a little amiss, but I don't have answers for it.

10:58pm: ---
WIP Mellows for various shows & stuff :

10:29pm: APW Arts on Record Show
I have many, many shows coming up.

I also lost one of my writing jobs. The one that paid better. Everyone on staff was laid off.

But I finished these today for a show on May 1st in Queens.



( 3 more under cut )

Painting with acrylic on vinyl was tough, even with primer. I found out the hard way that it was unwise to aim for consistency or solid colors. It took ink pretty well, though. Very much a learning experience that returned me to my long forgotten 'visible brushstrokes' mode. Rough & dirty.

Huzzah.

9:12am: UPDATES!
I haven't updated the Blog is quite a whiles, as I've been uploading most of my stuff to the ol' Facebook Group, which you should totally join, as it's a cohesive place to keep track of upcoming shows and publications. So, here's the newest stuff :

First, my submission to Ciah-Ciah's Pyraminds 2.0 (papercraft) Project :



Next, my sub to Jack Hankins' 'Calling All Cars' (another papercraft) Project :





Both of these are neatly complex forms, and a little more involved than what I've worked with before... and I love it. Next up : designs for the Karuzu and some other blank toys.

Finally, I've been working on a series of custom wooden Dunnies. I don't have a name for them yet - any ideas? This one is done, and I have three more ready for the final varnishing today, since the weather is good.



A band t-shirt, some records, other awesome things comin' on up.

9:57pm: A comparison
An idea of Threadless : The Ghosts of Wall Street, composed when I was stuck in bed with foot-stab. Two versions - a preference? I kinda prefer the first one. AND : is anything missin'?

( BIG PICTURES AHEAD! )

11:56pm: Joker Show Progress


Done mostly while I was on the phone, after I finished my few hours' worth of nightly writing jobs. Midnight now & work in morning, ergo I must sleep. Like it or not.

Should probably get done tomorrow night. Hope hope!

And if you haven't joied my Facebook group, PLEASE DO IT!

8:36am: WATCHMEN & The Joker Show


Done in the style of the famous JLU painting. $100, for sale! Did it because I had to.

Would like to maybe do a HUGE 'cast of Adult Swim' one, or The Office, or Thundercats, or any ensemble cast of awesomeness. Except for Heroes. Heroes betrayed me.

Also? I don't know if there's still time to submit, but I'm going to finish the piece before I make any empty promises. Philly's Autumn Society has The Joker Show coming up, which I JUST only found out about, so I'm making a Joker in the style of the previous Bizarro portrait, which I really like a lot.



Small steps.

12:48am: BIZARRRRROOOOOOO!


$75! If y'all wants it!

Someone reminded me that I used to make more Bizarros. So, I made a Bizarro.

2:42pm: SO....
The guy who was gonna buy my big JLA painting bailed on me, so after months of silence (and promising to put a down payment on it, and never following through), I need to get rid of it. It's been specifically painted with certain characters in certain costumes, but I figure it's good for everyone. I understand that people's circumstances change, but I need to get things in order, and this is a HUGE one that's been bugging me.

12" x 24". Includes 17 classic JLA characters. Canvas. I'm letting it go for a whole lot less what I was originally charging - $100 (which includes insured Priority shipping). It looks really awesome in person. Post here to claim it & we'll chat.

Also, please go over to PatchTogether and vote for my designs! All 10 of 'em! I hope to paint 5 more shortly & post those too. I didn't realize that these paintings might look good as toys.

6:59am: Vote for me on PatchTogether!
Important stuff, peoples! I'd REEEEaaaEEEaeelly appreciate it if you voted positively for me on PatchTogether. I'm not sure if you have to register first, but it'll totally be worth it.

Ghost-9

Let Me Do The Talking

Quadrowl

Roboxobor

Leecherous

Wouldn't you totally love to see one of these (or all of them!) as a toy? INDEED YOU WOULD!

[Cross-posted everywhere - sorry for the duplication!]

11:27am: Blurb!
Am I crazy for even wanting to attempt to enter this without a pre-existing body of work?

$25,000?!?!?

10:26pm: I listed old crap on eBay today.

Also, submitted some neat old character paintings to Patch Together, at long last. Trying to get my act together, especially because I haven't done any art in like, a month because of work, travel for work, and work. No shortage of awesome ideas, though, and a recent communication with Playmobil means that some potentially awesome toy-art-personal-photography might be coming up soon.

But also, I've been trying to come up with a winning idea to produce. These are the early experiments. I want them to evolve into slightly larger cubes with sculpted faces and unique bodies / tripods / something. Maybe resin casting? For now, these wooden heads might get slapped onto Dunnys.











It's good to make SOMETHING. And I love working in wood. It feels so damned REAL, and I have a bloody saw mark across my index finger, and that, my friends, is how I'm supposed to feel.

9:59pm: The 'I Haven't Posted Here In Weeks' Megapost
I've been too busy to post, when I haven't been wallowing in self-pity - but these last few days have rocked, creatively. Here's what I've been doing.

First of all, I realized that I've shown precious few previews of my next comic, so here are some in-progress-panels. The've gone through the first round of inking and may or may not be subjected to further ink passes. No washes here - just stark B&W, which is a whole different language than Coptopus.

This is one of the hundreds of self portraits.



And here are some pseudo-portraits that I as subjected to every day during class, as drawn by my students.



I have a few pages left to go, but I'm taking a very brief hiatus to remind myself what I'm doing and to flex my other art muscles. Hour after hour of staring and black and white ends up feeling a little like purgatory, even if I'm really enjoying Deep Space Nine DVDs in the background. I'd slowly bought the whole collection for this exact purpose - to half-watch them while I drew and painted stuff, someday. I decided to make that day NOW.

So, following divergent impulses, I started working on this customized Magic 8 Ball for my niece. She has a lot of faith in them and those symmetries of the universe that come with hope. I wanted to make her a special one.



Still need to work on details and spray fix it, but acrylic sticks to this thing fairly well without any priming. The plastic covering that it came in serves as an excellent stand for painting it.

I've been paying more attention to my resting schedule (and to a lesser degree, what I eat, because something about my guts is being very rebellious lately), my brain kinda exploded after looking at some James Jean work the other day and I grabbed the nearest thing (which just happened to be this goofy Domo sketchbook that my sister gave me, which contains paper of a surprisingly excellent quality) and DREW. Four pages later, I took a breath, and it truly revitalized my interest in art. Sometimes, I need a reminder when I become an art machine. It's okay to draw things and make things that don't have some grandiose, epic purpose attached to them.

First, I drew a medusa thing, and kinda lightly colored her later.

( MEDUSA )

Then I drew Squidward. You know, if he was a person. Obviously.

( SQUIDWARD )

And then I wanted to draw a hand, so I make it into a skelehand.

( SKELEHAND )

And then I drew a larger-scale picture of The Skeletron, a villainess I sketched out really tiny a long time ago.

( SKELETRON )

Overall, good things, moving forward.

New computer on the way, and when that's paid off, I'm gettin' mahself a little Wacom tablet so I can work on my next comic. Aside from Coptopus 2, which is totally next.

8:33am: MOCCA 09
I've been so out of art for weeks upon weeks now, 'cause the holidays and my work schedule both suck out loud - but some friends and I have signed up for a table at MOCCA. It'll be going down on June 6th & 7th @ the 25th & Lex Regiment Armory (if memory serves). This is all awesome, especially after last year's sudden bailout & me missing out on a table.

Now, though, I think it's a 6 month bustin'-my-ass marathon to get work ready. We have the first issue of Coptopus ready to go, the the second issue thumbnailed - but it's such a complex and elaborate process that I don't know if I'll ever get it to the printers on time. On the other hand, I have three years worth of 24 Hour Comics that I can compile into one volume, as well as a half-done comic about teaching that I need to explore the legality of, and a handful of old comics that I drew from blogs.

If you were at MOCCA, what would you like to see? What should I sell?

I'm thinking 1" and 3" buttons from my old buttonmaker, as well as a 'free-with-purchase' con-exclusive Nemesquid papercraft (which I sketched out the schematics for a while ago anyhow) that I can get professionally printed. Maybe some giveaway vinyl stickers couldn't hurt either. And should I have a Coptopus WEBSITE? So much work, man. So much work. I almost feel like focusing on the art and product to have a presence THERE instead of an online presence LATER would be wisest.

I'd still like to be selling more than one comic there - even if our small table will be divided among 5 or 6 people, and the space will be limited. There's always those handy under-table boxes, too....

A plan of action is needed. Advice is requested.

11:46pm: The Mahoganybot
Been depressed. Trying to make a new Squidulon from old sketches.



Wooden squid robot #4. Getting more modern.

6:20pm: These United Squid : Preview


An exciting preview of an exciting project that I hope to get off of the ground soon.

3:30pm: I am making a new website.
The old website was lookin' old and dull. I decided to kick it up a little.

So, here's the new website. I'm debuting art that's never been on there before (but might have been glimpsed in the blog). Not all of the links are live, but the form is there, and I think I'm pretty happy with it.

I discovered that I hadn't updated the old one since like, April. That's bad news. Hopefully, this one will have new life.

CHECK it the hell out, and give me feedbacks.

11:10pm: Me Three


Some more clones for various website redesignin' things. I'm using a string-and-knot joint method that I learned in elementary school while building a human skeleton outta paper, but as a paper purist, avoided until now.

Unexpectedly, they're pretty solid and easy to make. I kinda want to make a zombie army.