THE BEAUTIFICATION OF THESE HERE TOLEDO, OHIO

In this little burgh, 1% of taxpayers’ money goes to the beautification of the city. This includes artwork and plants. I would like to invite you on a short trip around the block from Studio 566 to see what I have seen.

DANCING ON A POLE
Parking Meter cozies are, apparently, the new rage. These things are popping up all over town. I do not, for the life of me, quite understand their symbolism – but I imagine there could be a market for pole cozies in the adult entertainment industry.

Toledo... seriously, W T F?

 

Here is a light pole that is cleverly painted with a pattern of a smoking drunk kitty. 

Really, a cat with a beer and a blunt. ME-OW.

We have new plants also! This is for when out of towners come to visit. They will behold the great beauty of the Glass City and tell their friends. Consequently, those friends will come visit to behold our giant topiary phalluses.

FREUD IS LIVID!

THE SHOES

ATTENTION: THE RAPTURE OCCURRED
AND ONE HOMELESS MAN MADE IT FROM TOLEDO, OH.

They sit as a pair, in the empty parking lot as a testament of humanity's fragility. Whose shoes were these? Will the homeless man by the river take them for his journey? They sit as a pair, at the end of the line. The river rolls before them. Could it have been a suicide? No one knows. Only the river, the line, and the shoes. (It's a pair of shoes I saw in the parking lot fer cryin out loud).

In these here Toledo, Ohio we have shoes -- East of Columbus in Lancaster, Ohio, there are 3000 PANTIES HANGING FROM THE TREES!

I wonder how much Columbus pays in taxes for such beautification....

FORESTRY
To counter balance the results of our 1% funding, I jaunted out to one of my favorite places in this area: Cullen Park on the banks of Lake Erie. It is still very popular for fishing (Don’t eat the fish!!)

REALLY... DON'T.

And hanging out. There are still the firepits that I remember sitting around when I was a teenager.  There are also spiders—lots and lots of spiders: long spiders, tiny spiders, fat spiders, big ass spiders. With spiders come spider webs so skillfully woven across the walkway’s path. I didn’t sleep for 2 nights as I was wrestling imaginary strands of silk.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

LILY PADS LEAD US TO THE SERENITY OF EAST SIDE TOXINS

PHOTO OF ACTUAL EAST SIDEIAN

SCARIEST HOLE, EVER.

PRETTY

JUNGLE ON THE NORTH END

BEAST IN THE JUNGLE

ONLY IN THESE HERE TOLEDO

WAIT... WUT??

SINGING SKY LIONS

LAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

ANIMATION CLASS
Is killing me. I had never so much as OPENED Flash let alone animate anything with it. It is an amazing program but I would prefer other populations work with it. I did manage my very own animation. Please make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the movie.

I smell an ANNIE!!! (That's an international award for animation for all of you civilians)

STUDIO 566
LOOK AT THESE PENCILS! LOOK AT THEM DAMMIT! Stay tuned as I will soon be receiving DERWENT'S GRAPHITINT PENCILS. I am very excited about this. I saw some work utilizing these pencils and it was EXACTLY what I had imagined for my fly woman. 

BUY THEM HERE

ARMIN MERSMANN
Check out this art. LOOK AT IT DAMMIT! This man's gallery is where I discovered the tinted graphite work. He is amazing. I am planning on studying his graphite work intensely. 

http://nimra.deviantart.com/

 Mersmann's Graphite




Tinted Graphite



This work is truly inspiring...




MY WORK

THE FRAILEST LEAVES OF ME

HERE the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lasting:
Here I shade and hide my thoughts—I myself do not expose them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other poems.
Walt Whitman -- Leaves of Grass.  1900.

THE END

THINGS THAT KEEP ME AWAKE AT NIGHT

The last couple of weeks have been weeks filled with waking. Apparently, I have lost the ability to sleep when I am up against an illustration. I was hired for four commission pieces, plus I had class work. Two of the commissions were familial discounts: I received love and respect. The other two actually paid some bills. I’m not sure how other artisans are, but I dream about the pieces I am actively working on. Sometimes I dream that I manage a beautiful masterpiece only to wake up to find abject disappointment. Sometimes I dream that the pieces are miserable failures only to wake up to find, at least, mediocre meanderings. Sometimes, I just dream and wake up with an assortment of crackers pressed up against my face from whenever it was I fell asleep. Either way, I am awake at my witching hour, 3 am. The illustration goddess pours me a cup (or two, or three) of coffee because THERE WILL BE NO SLEEPING.

as seen on: http://escapefromillustrationisland.com

THE COLLINS’ HAVE BALLS

Logo design for CBI: COLLINS BASEBALL INSTRUCTION. This is for an independent artisan who mentors people on batting and fielding, located in Tyler, Texas. The idea was to capture a vintage major league look. The entire design came from the client, I simply put it together for him. Life can be so easy when the client knows what they want. Everything is bigger in Texas, including Collins’ balls. Personally, I think that tag line would work. Of course, no one would take their little leaguers within 8 feet of the premises.

FOR THE ONE HE  ♥’s
“She loves bunnies…. a LOT.” That is all he had to say. The original is now in the hands of “She.” I can't, for the life of me, resist his big brown cow-eyes. He reported that "She" squealed upon receiving her gift. "She" better be good to Honorable Number One Son.

Prints and custom items available at:  http://www.zazzle.com/the_bunny_stop

MUDFOOT’S BIRTHDAY
I received a request for some recycled Blues goods. I am ecstatic that they love the look. Happy BDay, Mud! From your forever Puss-Puddy!

HELGA HELIOS - FROM THE SKETCHBOOK
Everyone knows a Helga in some way shape or form. This character was once described as having a whip in one hand and a Bible in the other. She is the ever-vigilant vigilante of Gawd.

Helga Helios knows the devil is in you…                     Judgement
Ink and Pshop                                                      Uppity Evangelicals are the best at it.

MOTORCYCLE MAN
This commissioned piece you have all been waiting to see… was a bear, of sorts. I do not know much about motorcycles, let alone vintage racers on wooden tracks. I love the research that goes along with all of my jobs, but I was often in a quandary as to what exact bike part I was rendering. Here is the final show:

Graphite Pencil

 

JACK RABBIT
My latest assignment was to render a wild animal in illustrator. I thought it would be swell to render one of my favorite specimens, a Jack Rabbit. The Jack Rabbit was actually called the “Jackass Rabbit” because their ears are reminiscent of an ass (as in mule… sheesh). Mark Twain was the first to coin the phrase “Jack Rabbit.” This rabbit isn’t a rabbit at all, but is a HARE.

My instructions were to create a rendering as realistic as possible with some stylization – from a photograph. I figured ILLUSTRATION + RABBIT (I know – it’s a HARE) = PIECE OF CAKE.
I refer to this project as: THE JACK RABBIT EXPERIENCE. I will never be the same.

To make the fur, I rendered “Blades” of hair and grouped them. Some of the blades were different in color and/or tone. I copied and created a PATTERN BRUSH to fill the stroke. I also chose COLOR AND TINTS so that I could change the look on a whim. After figuring out the best lengths, thicknesses, etc, I used the action palate to record switching the stroke to 30% opacity and MULTIPLY transparency. I thought I was going to shoot myself… but this actually worked out. Everything else was hit and miss with cross hatch filters, Gaussian blurs and swear words.

black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus)
Photo Credit: Dreamstime Photo Imaging

(photo image – my rendering)

HAPPY EASTER!
And remember kids, Easter isn’t about Jesus, it IS about the bunny! It’s even Biblical!

http://web.archive.org/web/20060331174718/http://altreligion.about.com/library/bl_easterbunny.htm

Brought to you from the pages of my sketchbook -
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth.

 

Good Morning Star Shine, the Earth says, Hello!

I would like to introduce my beautiful new niece².  As of yet, she has no name but her appearance has touched so many lives. Barbara is choosing carefully.

Lindsay Collins Shonio took a photo that was just exquisite. I ended up doing an illustration inspired by the Collins Shonio photo for my private sketch book. This is a quick graphite pencil taken into Photoshop.

1*11*11
Harlow Quinn

My favorite - standard .5mm mechanical pencil
Zebra 301
I'm a cheap date.