It's ALIVE!!

A selection of the awesomely sweet artwork from "Just Desserts"

I sincerely thought that leading up to the "Just Desserts" show opening I would have done a million blog posts, but alas, I did not.


First off let me give a big THANK YOU to Mayra over at Monkeyhouse Toys for letting me fill her walls and shop window full of delectable artwork from a bunch of exceptionally talented artists.  I was honestly amazed by the turn out opening night and I don't think I'd be exaggerating by saying I think we had close to 450 people come out to see all of the artists hard work.  I showed up half an hour early to set up the refreshment table and there was already 10 people there viewing the artwork, and the number of people only grew as the three hour opening progressed.  Granted there were lulls, but the "lull" was that there was maybe only 20 people in the shop before the next rush of 50 or so would show up.  Sincerely awesome.  Seeing the turn out, the happy faces on the guests and seeing old friends I hadn't seen in years made busting my ass for the last three months totally worth it.  (You can view more photos from the event by visiting Monkeyhouse Toys Facebook Page and the Just Desserts album.)


You know what else made busting my butt for the last week heading up to the show worth it?  These two!  Meet two new additions to my little monster universe.  Freddy (Frankenstein) and Igor.

"It's ALIVE!!" 8.5"x 10.5" Gouache 2012

After years of drawing my monster foods, I can finally say with pride, I now know where they come from.  Freddy and Igor got bored after making Hugo the Frankenstein Monster (see "Ice-Scream Social") and decided they'd rather put their skills for creating life to a more demonic use.

Freddy, as you can see in these early sketches took quite a while to get out of my head (there is actually 4 more pages of sketches, I just chose the better looking of them to show).  I really wanted to make him look a little like Peter Cushing, but cute.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to make Peter Cushing cuddly cute?  Lets just say it took over a month to figure out.  Igor was MUCH easier.  He was pretty much ready to go after the first sketch.  I tweeked some of his shapes a bit and gave him a more up to date outfit (and braces).  Tee hee, he has a cross between emo and Justin Bieber hair, but his cute piggy nose makes that okay.

Doesn't really look like a young Cushing, but I tried to bite his hair from the old Hammer Films.

What kind of sucked was that I had a working thumbnail sketch for my painting a month and a half or so before it was due. . . but because Freddy took so long to come out of my head, I only got the final sketch done one week before the painting was due.

Then. . . because it's me and I can't do anything the easy way, it took two hole days to find a color comp I was happy with.  Once it was done though, I got right to work.  Thought I'd share an in progress I posted on Facebook.

It took 4 days to get this far.

Oh, and in case you're curious.  The Monster Foods/experiments are as follows, starting on the top left hand shelf.  Orange Flavored Pop-cicle (behind coil; it is also Baron von Cicula from my shop), a couple of cantankerous chocolate bars, three Monster Cupcakes, Two slices of Monster Rainbow Cake and a Deviant Doughnut.  Second shelf, starting on the left, a batch of brownies, an Ice-Cream Sundae in a fish bowl, Experiment #01 went so horribly wrong they keep him in a shoe box, and of course, the Grape-tastic Monster Cone (which you can find in my shop as a cellphone charm).  On the work table, in front of Freddy and Igor, is their latest experiment, a fantastically ferocious fruit tart!

In it's fancy frame on the wall.  Happy accident that the mat matched the painting exactly!

 
So yeah.  To wrap up.  The gallery opening went off with out a hitch.  I managed to get my own piece done just in the nick of time, figured out the front window display, made three sets of felt cookies for the shop (two to sell and one for the window), helped Lori set up the window for her puppets, and managed to not hide in the bathroom because there was too many people around on opening night.  All in all, a success.

Now I'm off to send samples of my monster paintings to Halloween Town in Burbank to see if they'll FINALLY let me show some of my work there.  I'm not holding my breath.

Felt Play Food

 Well, it's not what I'm supposed to be doing (once again), but this is what I've been tinkering with for the last week or so.


The art show is only a little over two weeks away now and I'm frantically trying to make sure I've got all my angles covered.  Mayra, Lori, and I are working on a window display for the front of the shop to help draw people in to the shop.  We decided to make Lori's SUPER AWESOME puppets have a tea party in the front window, but what's a tea party with out treats?  Especially in a show devoted to sweets?!

So yeah.  Felt play food cookies.  They were relatively simple, the hardest one being the ones that look like little Keebler Fudge stripe cookies.

 I'm FINALLY going to finish coming up with the design of the new "monster" for my piece this weekend (hint, it involves Peter Cushing).  So if you follow me on Facebook, keep a look out for in progress photos.  If you don't, you'll see a whole blog post devoted to the new painting once it's complete.

Let me just add, my coffee table is pretty awesome.  For the first time since we bought it we switched out the art under the glass.  I must say adding the larger images has tidied up the overall look of it and getting to look at Charles Addams comics, a page from a vintage bird guide and Bettie Paige by Olivia is more reminiscent of what goes on in my brain on a daily basis.  You know. . . all over the place.