The Human Canvas - A Hookah Smoking Caterpillar

A bit out of order now, 

And still SO many to get to. 

Hate to be behind like this, but glad 

to have a BUNCH now awaiting publication.

Had several cool experiences in Boulder...

But that'll have to wait. I'm just gonna 

have to crank these out every few 

days until I'm caught up.

So here we are with Lil' Dave. 

He's provided canvas for me several times by now, 

and I'm sure there'll be many 

more in the future.

This session involved 

me stacking a bunch of spheres, 

shading as I went. This is much like 

what I did with Songhammer. It's a recent post, 

relative to this one. You can scroll down, 

or I'll get a link to it soon.

Dave's a fan of anything 

Alice in Wonderland, so that was a 

part of the reason for this particular session.

Like I said... he's a fan. There was plenty of inspiration around the room.

Grab a bit more pink. Oops.

Grab a bit more pink...

...And work in that hookah.

Shade it with blue, 

in case I want to go darker here and there... 

Step back and look again...

...Then back to it.

At this point, just playing with treys, blending, and adding some black to define...

And then we were done. 

It was much later before I realized 

I had forgotten to give 

him little arms...

But here's the shot I was after.

Okay. Shots.

And then he finally got to check it out in the mirror. 

It was later before he saw the 

shots with the backdrop.

Thanks again Dave. 

You'll be seeing him again.

The Human Canvas - Splat - Drip - VENOM!

Bootz. 

AKA - Lil' Dave. 

We worked together at KVCR at one 

point, so I was David - or Dave - and he was 

Lil' Dave. Simple 

as that.

You've seen him on these pages before. 

A long time ago, before he went out to hang with 

some friends, he became my first shot (on skin) at 

a Lewis Carroll character... 

...or two.

Problem was - the 

fresh ink on ONE shoulder 

made the REAL tattoo on the OTHER 

shoulder look kinda washed out. 

 So, add a quick, quick 

border...

And there ya go. 

Fly, little bird. Be free.

But back to this night. Dave's REALLY into Spiderman. 

He also has an old tattoo that he REALLY wants to cover. 

So here's where I come into the picture.

While these explorations into The Human Canvas 

have been, and will continue to be, a personal art project, 

they also occasionally been a 

service of sorts... 

Allowing a person to "test the waters", as it were, 

when thinking about getting 

a tattoo.

In this case...Venom. 

In a nutshell, Venom was an alien life form 

which became a part of Peter Parker...and Spiderman. 

At first, it seemed to be simply a cool new set of 

powers acquired in The Secret Wars. 

Later Venom was shown to have 

certain "Blob-like" 

qualities...

Allowing it to sort of drip, splat, and reform as a being.

So tonight we were testing the waters on this idea...

...exploring as we went...

...and coming up with something kinda cool...

...which WILL receive some alterations/adaptations 

when we hit this again.

Meantime -

Drip...Splatter...

...Done with this piece...

...and onto the next.

Coming soon... 

Another Session with Lil' Dave... 

Struggling with the blues.

Please come back for another visit.

It was the highlight of 

the night!

The Human Canvas - The Importance of Being Sharpied

I recently decided to cancel my plans
of going to LA to see Val Kilmer in his one-man
Mark Twain show, and instead go a community theatre production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. I'm a big val Kilmer AND Mark Twain fan, but
REALLY wanted to see this effort of a friend.

And by the way, some of the best theatre
I've ever seen has been AT the community theatre
level, and one of most BORING shows I've ever seen - was
on Broadway. Now you don't HAVE to be some sort of English lit/theatre geek to enjoy this play (though it don't hurt), but this closing night turned out to be the BEST version of Earnest I've ever seen, or worked on. Yvonne and the cast were able to find humor in places normally glossed over, and make what was already funny - hilarious!

After the show, several of us had an impromptu
gathering. I ended up doing a few Canvases this evening,
for which I was thankful. The above photo is the third piece done this night. It started though, with someone else.
Yvonne - the director of the show. I WAS at their house
after all.

Not too many step-by -step pics on this one. 
It was fairly basic. Yvonne was wanting to experiment with a tattoo idea. Some wings on her ankles.

Only a couple layers of color before being done.

The above shot is better I suppose, but I rather like this one with Hendrix standing in the foreground.

On then to the next ankle...

And a stab at another style of wing.

I like where I was going with this one, but I don't feel like 

it quite got there. We'll be hitting this again.

So on one of the recent sessions prior to this, 

it was Willow - the cat - occupying the attention of the canvas. Remember this? Link to it HERE.

And this time?

Hendrix - the dog - again.

While I enjoyed playing around with the wing idea, 

and definitely want to revisit it, I think this next piece ended 

up being the best of the night.

Meet Sam.

Sam was a wonderful canvas, as anxious as I was 

for another sitting...

And while this session was just one week into April...

Sam's already moved from the area.

So I'm QUITE happy to have gotten this one in.

But I KNOW that San Jacinto area theatre is gonna miss her.

And while there were few step by step 

shots on the three previous pieces this evening... 

There were NO step by steps on the last piece I'd do. 

But it was late. I mean... it - was - LATE. I mean - 

There WERE still 8 or so people there. It's not like I was 

the guy on the floor drawing on people, keeping everyone from going to bed. more accurately, I was the guy on the floor 

drawing on people, keeping everyone from going to 

Denny's. It really all worked out well though, as 

this got Sean to makin' some mighty fine 

breakfast burritos.

MIGHTY fine!

This allowed me to wrap up the last piece, 

another first stab at one of Lewis Carroll's characters. 

Someday we ARE gonna see a BUNCH of 'em assembled at 

the same time. Someday. 

Meantime...

Thanks Sam, Yvonne, and - to make the list short - 

EVERYONE who was a part of Inland Stage Company's 

The Importance of Being Earnest. 

Once again - the best take I've seen on this yet!

And there's been some wonderful Human Canvas sessions since these, and I'm anxious to post. 

So please check back. And there are also the tabs near the top of the page which show the beginnings of all this.

See ya soon!