The Human Canvas - Unchain My Heart

Or actually...

Unchain Karen's heart.

This is similar, 

in a way, to a piece I did some time back. 

One of the earliest pieces actually. That one 

was called The Human Canvas - The Bra Strap, 

and you can link to that session with a click HERE. 

That was fairly basic. Lydia took down 

her bra strap, then I drew 

it back in.

Pretty much the same idea now with Karen, 

though now with a couple metallic 

Sharpies at my disposal.

So...

Unchain that heart...

Draw it back in...

And RE-chain that heart - 

With a BUNCH of TINY circles and arcs.

Step back for a quick shot...

Then back in 

to SUGGEST what's written on the heart...

And add a bit of shading - 

Heavier on one side to give it just a bit of shadow. 

A touch of 3-d.

More so when turned a bit to the side...

And quite realistic when zoomed out.

Even held up for inspection in the mirror...

BUT...

I REALLY need to clean 

that mirror before anymore shots like this. 

Anyway...

Thanks again Karaen. 

Looking forward to the next one(s).

Check back, folks. 

Some COOL stuff on the way!

The Human Canvas - A Stamp on the Tail End of Autism Awareness Month

 

Yes.

That's what you saw.

 

 

I had gone to my third

autism festival to draw puzzle pieces

on people. Presented once again by The Autism

Society Inland Empire. The folks pictured below

REALLY made me think of "a girls night out"

(besides the fact that it was

the middle of the day).

 

 

It was a kind of

"Hey! Let's get tattoos!" kinda thing.

This... inspired the Autism Tramp-Stamp.

Of COURSE I wouldn't dare do this in

the middle of the festival...

BUTT...

 

I'm reminded of a tail.

 

The end of which you already know.

 

Fanny, this is really a simple image.

 

Rearing a simple flow.

 

A crack need not be made...

 

 

We weren't behind.

 

 

She WASN'T a bum. 

 

Okay.

Enough of that.  

I'm not naming her,

but she's a friend of a friend that

I had met just that night,

about 10 minutes

earlier. 

 

 

 People sometimes ask

why I might have a camera

and 40 sharpies on me... And I had

just done a Nightmare Before Christmas

piece on a buddy...

 

So maybe I seemed kinda legit. 

 

We were talking about

the recent pieces I'd done, and realizing it

was nearing the, um, end of April, it would

be a great pun - sort of - to have this

realized on someone as

the last Autism piece.

 

 

She appreciated the joke,

and the timing, and was up for it.

This, I think, was pretty cool,

as we HAD just met.

 

 

It was really very

simple and very quick,

and done in the middle of a crowded bar.

Everything remained covered, and

everyone remained respectful.

  

 

Thank you Lil' Dave,

for serving as photographer,

and thank you, new, un-named friend,

for being comfortable enough to do this.

The Human Canvas - Walking With One's Faith

Walking with One's Faith

Or something to that effect.

A sister of a friend...

...And her 20th birthday.

She's into all things Japanese, and wanted that phrase.

And here's what we got.

  

These things have 
become rather quick by now. 
I mean - absurdly quick. So quick, that, well...

How about another?

And another...

                      (((hold on. which purple??? There's a lot from which to choose)))

So all in all, we got three "And another's".

Then it was a matter 

of giving a space for these fish to be in.

Done?

I believe so.

The best part... 

when she decided to do what 

another friend had done recently after I 

drew on him. She let her mom "accidentally" 

see it - like she'd gone out and gotten a tattoo for 

her birthday. There was screaming. There was crying. 

There was "How... could... you do this to me?"

And then her Dad got home 

and her Mom suddenly shifted gears 

and said, "Okay. We have to pull this on you father now."

There were SEVERAL successes that night!

The Human Canvas does PBS!

I should clarify.

Like - when I told a friend 

that I had an A&E show, he said he watches

that channel, and I should let him know when it is.

 

 

The show we were

talking about is KVC-Arts,

aired on KVCR-FM, in San Bernardino, CA.

So when I say "The Human Canvas does PBS,"

I should say that I spent a late morning - early afternoon drawing PBS characters. KVCR is an NPR affiliate

on the FM side, as well as a PBS TV station.

 

We also launched FN/X.

That's First Nations Experience,

a television station with solely indigenous

programming

 

So back to PBS.

Lillian Vasquez, Marketing Coordinator

for KVCR, was the first to serve as a canvas that day.

She asked for a Clifford (the Big Red Dog), and I

was QUITE grateful. It also became my favorite

of the Cliffords done that day.

 

I was a bit nervous

about having to draw exact

representations of things. This gave me a

practice session, and made me realize that Clifford is

close to the easiest thing (in the world of PBS) to

put on someone

 

Curious George, believe it or not,

was one of the more difficult characters to draw.

Just a little bit off, and it ends up being some sort of

cartoony bastardization of JoJo the Dog-Faced Boy.

Pictured below is probably may favorite of the

Georges I drew that day. And there were

quite a few OF them.

 

It's getting to where

I can't draw on people at a festival

without the EMT's getting involved. At least

they're not rescuing people from Sharpie

inhalation or something.

 

What was actually

the EASIEST to draw was Shiny,

one of several siblings from Dinosaur Train.

 

 

It's interesting that this was

the easiest because this has more blends,

and more depth than Clifford, George,

or some of the others.

 

The first version of

Shiny went to Grant Wisegarver, Lillian's son.

His turned out REALLY well, though with his being

the first of those, I was still toying with

the idea of just doing faces

or "busts" of sorts.

 

I kinda wish that I had done

a complete drawing on Grant, like this one below.

This one MAYyyyyyy..... be my favorite.

 

 

Not only in how it turned out,

but in that she had every intention of flying it

proudly at her Senior Homecoming dance that night.

 

That made ME

even MORE proud

to have done such a good one on her.

But again - I soon discovered that Shiny

was possibly the easiest...

 

...And if you do one that's a bit smaller,

it becomes one of the OTHER siblings - Tiny.

 

 

Though truth be told,

they became rather diminutive

because I was drawing on tiny, tiny, arms.

One more (slight) variation on this one.  Make it

a blue blend instead of green, and you have John,

yet another sibling. 

 

 

As mentioned earlier,

there were several more drawings

of Curious George that day.

 

 

Including on some of

the Crafton Hills College faculty and staff.

 

There were quite

a few Cliffords as well,

and only ONE of this guy below, Elmo.

 

 

I tell ya,

Elmo was SO quick and absurdly simple,

I couldn't believe I had done it with such simple lines,

but there he was!

 

 There are of course MANY

PBS characters that are wildly popular,

but might take a BIT longer to draw. All of

these were done because they were quick pieces.

 

 

The only one I took

a lot of time with was on Daniel Tiger here.

It was drawn on Lindsey Wisegarver. Lindsey is 

Grant's sister, Lillian's daughter, and all-around GREAT person to have on hand at a KVCR event.

 

She's also a very willing canvas,

and enjoys the fact that she keeps getting some of the

best work at the festivals we're both at.

 

Above and below,

Lindsey, Lillian, and Grant.

 

This is now the third festival for me to be at,

with three more in the relatively near future. Thanks to EVERYONE involved in such a great event, thanks to Lillian for having me there (and booking even MORE gigs for me), and thanks to Lindsey for letting us BOTH get our fix

for some REALLY cool blends.

 

And thank YOU for being the next canvas.

I'm NOT slowing down!