The Human Canvas - Artists in Action - The Vault, part one

Rob Mardis 

had been organizing these

events all over the region. ALL over.

Anaheim to San Diego... And then inland to Redlands.

And it gave me a chance to ink up a few people.

Here's Roxi. You'll be seeing her a bunch.

And a buncha butterflies as well.

 

 

Rob's been part

of making art happen in

The Inland Empire for quite some time.

This bit at The Vault - only his latest. It encompasses

so much though, and you can find out more with a

click HERE. This'll explain NerdPop, some new

comics coming up REALLY soon, games,

and so much more.

 

 

When I read of the event on Facebook,

seeing there was, well, some sort of gathering

where people were drinking, drawing on tables,

drinking, and listening to music, all while drinking

and drawing on tables... well, of course

I left a comment like,

 

"Hm. Seems like an

environment RIPE for Human Canvas sessions."

 

Rob replied rather quickly with,

 

"I could make a flyer."

 

In about 5 minutes I saw this:

 

 

Wow !

WAY cool!

Done and done then.

I knew what I'd be doing in a couple nights.

 

 

Of course we saw

some familiar images coming up.

But the folks who had read of the event

were there to have fun...

 

 

...and get inky with a friend.

 

 

All to be part of this Artists in Action at The Vault.

 

 

And maybe it doesn't show in the picture...

 

 

...But they were having a good time.
 

I did only 5 pieces this night,
including this Sugar Skull. I wasn't as happy
as I could be with the result. Not horrified, mind you,
but it was only the second time I'd drawn one of these
on someone, and I hadn't thought
about proper structure.

On this angled photo,
it seems fine, but I've done a few
since that I was QUITE proud of.
And I feel I owe her another.

The only other piece that night
was on my own hand. Still being April,
it was easy to just draw another puzzle piece.

I'd only done 50 or so that month already.
And the next day it got some polka dots
to sort of break it up just a bit.

 

 

I was there again next Thursday,

saw Roxi again, and she got

another butterfly or two.

 

Or maybe it was 5.

Tune in next time. These are a good thing,

& I hope they continue. But thanks for

stopping by for this one.

The Human Canvas - A No Frills Dragon!

Okay. 

SOME Frills.

This one's fairly straight forward.

A nice step-by-step representation

on this one.

...And it MAY be amongst 

the best coupla dragons to date 

(on a Human Canvas, that is).

A link to one of

my other recent favorites is HERE,

and a rant about me not being able to draw

them a certain way, HERE.

I just finally stopped 

referring to them all as Smaug. 

Especially with the movie about to

come out and all. 

If you've been living in a cave,

that's The Hobbit, I'm referencing.

If you've been living in ancient Dwarven caverns...

then you already knew.

I actually started
with a couple of yellow lines
for a reference point. I wanted to maintain
this figure-8 shape.

Though in this case, 

I was really thinking of the symbol 

for infinity.

I also have come to

love the fact that little errors,

or imperfections - don't really matter.

They'll be covered up, or worked into the design,

at a later point.

And I've noted - 

This seems to be on its way 

to becoming my own amalgamation of the dragon. 

A bit of the European and the Asian variety...

and whatever else is there.

And I'm wondering - 

wouldn't it be okay in this case to say "Oriental"?

I mean... we're talking about something exoticised 

from some mysterious other place,

or place of the other,

right?

Anyway - 

Done. Except that I had 

forgotten to draw in a garter as well. 

This was the original intention.

Another intention was to show off the boots.

And now both pieces together.

And now a few shots 

of the fading process. I'll have to double check 

my info on this, but I believe these next three shots 

were consecutively on the next days after the session, 

which was on a Sunday.

The shot above - 

wear from clothing and from a short sleep.

Thanks to this canvas, we MAY know now that tighter

clothing will actually protect the piece. Looser

clothing will rub accross it more often.

Even something gently layed,

like a shawl.

We saw this about a month later.

Showers, sleep, AND a change of

clothing  wore these off over the next two days.

And earlier... 

Did I say BOTH pieces together? 

The two shown here were actually only 2 of 3 that

day. The next... A wonderful experiment.

A successful one, I think.

Check back. 

It's on the way.

The Human Canvas - St. George and the Dragon... and Liz!

Liz.

Remember her?

I did a kind of randomesque

piece  on her in the middle of a disco at

a Dr. Who convention a couple

of years ago in LA.

Well, two pieces I guess - if you count both arms.

That's her hubby, Vasilios, standing in the background.

He was the one providing music for the disco.

This was a fun, fun night!

But back to THIS night. Again - a fun one.

I hadn't seen Vasilios OR Liz... or most of the other

folks there that evening in

quite some time.

So... St. George and the Dragon! 

And Liz!

(((I'm having trouble flipping this picture. I have NO idea why!)))

Legend has it that St. George happened

upon a road which went through an area where

people appeased a local dragon with a couple of sheep

per day, serving as a sort of "protection fee".

Much like what hoodlums may demand

of a small store owner.

Except for that part about the sheep.

Anyway, St. George had been asked to

stay OFF this road, but he vowed to remain.

While in conversation with a local princess, the dragon

reared out of the lake, St. George showed the sign of the

cross, wounded the dragon, then fitted it with

the girdle of the princess,  afterwhich the

dragon followed her around

as gently as a pet.

But then later, he killed it anyway because the local
peasants were frightened.

Or something like that.

St George and the Dragon

is ALSO a really cool number on Toto's

second album, Hydra.

They've kept with the sword motiff for many

of their last 30ish years...

...And this may be the REAL reason for me

naming this session as I did. 

Although with swords of this type generally having a

cross-shape, it seemed to fit.

St. George and the Dragon...

...and Liz!

Another shot for contrast...

...And another with a bigger smile.

Thank you Liz.

And thank YOU for stopping by...

and MAYBE... for being the next canvas.

I'm ALWAYS looking.

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