Spook Show 3 Wrap-Up and Vending Event Announcement

My husband took this picture of a crazy guy running around in a full Barlow  (Salem's Lot) costume in 90+ degree weather.  That guy had to literally be undead to survive the day in that outfit.

Hey All!  It appears that 2015 will be the year of bi-monthly blog posts as I'm obviously off to a bumpy start posting stuff this year.  So, let's get this show on the road!!

Spook Show 3 happened back on the 7th of this month (March 2015, if you read this in the future) and just like all things, it had it's ups and downs.  Overall it was a fabulous experience, again, and I look forward to next year!

Here's the play by play of events:

As good as the booth could get.  The new pop up canopy has removable walls, so it looks fancier than normal.

My normal booth 'babe' Natasha couldn't make it to this year's event so my husband had to help.  He did a really great job, and I say that because at all my past events he usually just runs around the whole day having fun and buying cool stuff from the other vendors.  But this time he had to actually work.  He was super nervous but realized it was no big deal after a couple of hours.  I decided to invest in my own pop-up vendor canopy and decided to be rebel and get a purple one.  It was pretty sweet and made me feel so much more professional having not to borrow from friends.

I unfortunately woke up late so I couldn't get breakfast or a caffeinated beverage, so the first couple hours were the most stressful of the day because 1) I'm sooo not a morning person, 2) as I get older the angrier I get if I don't eat regular meals, and 3) if I don't get a Pepsi first thing in the morning to help me wake up, all hell breaks loose.  BUT, even though I didn't eat until noon, I was still able to get us to La Mirada in time for set up by 8:30am and we were rearing to go at 12 when the first attendee's arrived!

My husband took photos of one of the Hearses at the Hearse Show all lit up after dark with Purple lights.

I sold out of nearly all the cosmetic bags and coin purses and would have sold out of the three pillows I made, but I didn't find out until the end of the day that the one pillow I had placed on reserve for a client could be released to the public and they would buy one at a later date.  (GREAT NEWS:  There is one Candy Corn Pillow for sale in the Crypt of DOOM!! if anyone would like to snag it for themselves before I do a restock.)  I'll be receiving a restock of the cosmetic and coin purses very soon as I'm starting to prep for the events I'll be mentioning at the end of this blog post.

Candy Corn throw pillows!!  6 more on their way soon.

Also in the great news category, the pillows had a very positive response from people online and at the event, so I've decided I'll be making a couple more pillows for future events!  Check out my Instagram and Facebook for working progress images or announcements as to when new product will be dropping.

Janice, the crazy happy owner of the Sushi Gremlins painting.

As for the Sushi Gremlins, we orchestrated a 'Extreme Makeover' type surprise for the recipient of the Sushi Gremlin original painting.  As I may have said in previous posts, I don't do commissions.  I'm just too busy and stretched too thin to add all the worry that is involved with custom work to my plate, but the Sushi Gremlins piece was an exception to the rule.  A very dear family friend asked me to 'do my thing' and paint his wife and two daughters as monsters eating sushi, the result was the Sushi Gremlins.  He told me their favorite colors, told me a little bit about their personality types, and most importantly he related to me stories of when they go out to eat together and what happens at the table.  Oh, and since they love Hawaii he asked if I could somehow make it look like they were eating sushi in Hawaii.

Anyway, our dear friend decided that he was going to bring his wife over that day, knowing that the painting was finished and that I had chosen to put it on display at the event.  She literally gravitated strait to it like it had a tractor beam engaged.  She just kept staring at it and smiling and commenting on all the little details.  My husband was as excited as I was to have it delivered and being admired by the person who it was secretly painted for, that he was like "Oh, so you like that painting huh?  How much do you like that painting?"  When she said she loved it we told her it was her's and that her husband had secretly commissioned it for her nearly two years ago.  She was overcome with surprise and joy.  It was the perfect ending and I couldn't have asked for things to go any better.  I just hope that their daughters like it as much as they do.

Got to see my old Neopets pal Irene!  Thanks for coming by Irene!  Oh yeah, that's me and my husband.

That pretty much wraps up Spook Show 3.  I got a chance to visit with followers, which always brings me great joy, visit with good friends like Irene, Alan, Tom and Nicole, and meet other vendors whom I only see at these kinds of events but are equally sweet and fun to be around.

Now, onto announcements!!!

Bats Day in the Fun Park WEEKEND!!!  May 29th thru the 31st, 2015

Yes, I'll be back at the Bats Day Black Market this year!  2015's Black Market will take place on May 30th at the really fancy Sheraton in Anaheim.  It's always fun and I'm planning on making two new pillows for this event!  I'll be turning the Haunted Mansion/Star Wars mash up painting that I call "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" into a throw pillow as well as the "Kissing Bats" that you can see in my shop on cosmetic bags and a button.  I'm also planning on expanding the Disneyland Tourist Monster Sticker line up by adding two new stickers.  2015 will be bringing Sheldon (Frankenstein's Monster) and ONE of the following: either Prudence, Gillian (Creature), or Booger (as in Boogervampire).  I still haven't decided, but stay tuned in and you'll find out!

My 3rd year doing this event!  Past paintings were "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" and "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners"

Speaking of Bats Day, I'll also be participating in this year's Gallery999 Haunted Mansion Tribute Art Show again this year.  This will probably be my last year doing it, and I'm in a bit of a funk with the piece (if you've been following a while, you know I signed a contract that prevents me from showing any of it until it has debuted at the show on May 30th) but I'm hoping to get over that this coming weekend.

One of my two favorite Conventions!  This and Monsterpalooza are the only two I actually BRAVE crowds to go to on purpose.  It's that good!!  If an introvert with a fear of crowds won't miss it, you shouldn't either!

Lastly, I'll also be vending again this year at ScareLA!!  We sincerely had SUCH A GOOD TIME last year, that we couldn't WAIT to go back this year.  What's more exciting is that they've moved it from Downtown LA to the Pasadena Convention Center!!  It's a much larger place, and the lazy little turd that I am can't deny having it closer to home is AWESOME!!  You can get tickets now to the Event by visiting the official ScareLA website.

That's it for this month!  Hopefully I'll have stuff I can post soon that's new or in progress, but until then, head over to the Crypt of DOOM!! before I get to busy at work and have to close it again.  Going to try leaving it open for another week.  Fingers crossed things at work stay calm enough that I can handle both with out pulling all my hair out!  LATER ALL!

Sushi Gremlins and Spook Show 3

Sushi Gremlins; Gouache 8"x10"; 2015

I'm relieved, and overjoyed to say that this last weekend I was finally able to finish my Sushi Gremlins painting.  I started it back in November of 2013 and is the most time I've ever spent on a single painting.  I honestly lost track of how much time I invested in it, but I'd say it was close to 600 hours (if not more).  It's the most detailed piece I've managed to pull off and probably the most fun.

I also want to announce my participation in the Halloween Club's 3rd Annual Spook Show in La Mirada this March 7th (2015).  For more details, see Halloween Club's Facebook Event and get your free tickets are available here.

In addition to prints of the Sushi Gremlins, I'll have a new sticker featuring one of the gremlins available which you can see here:

Picked up my #sushigremlins #stickers this morning! @stickermule did a fantastic job, yet again! These will be available at the 3rd Annual Spook Show @halloweenclubs in La Mirada on March 6th! #sushimonsters #stickermule #spookshow #spookshow3 #sticker #vinylsticker #spookycute

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Feb 6, 2015 at 1:58pm PST

And testing new product of the following items.  I'll only have one of each on hand, so be sure to get there early if you'd like to take one of these bad boys home:

Alright everybody!! I'll be testing new product at @halloweenclubs #spookshow3 next month. I'll have only one of each of these available on March 7th in La Mirada. Check their Facebook event page for more details and links to getting your free tickets! (The Mothra bag turned out freaking adorable!!!) Pictured: 2 canvas tote bags featuring my Godzilla and Mothra paintings, one cosmetics bag featuring my Museum of the Weird painting and one coin purse featuring a Sushi Gremlin. #cryptofdoom #boogervampire #spookshow #newproduct #kaiju #cutekaiju #sushigremlins #museumoftheweird #cthulhu #godzilla #mothra #spookycute

A photo posted by Mary J. Hoffman (@boogervampire) on Feb 17, 2015 at 7:26pm PST

Hope to see you there!

ScareLA Weekend Recap

Greetings Boils and Ghouls!

The last few weeks leading up to the ScareLA (or Scare Los Angeles) convention have been full of wild craziness.  Most anticipated (making new product and restocking stuff) and some was unexpected (my car breaking down while out purchasing last minute supplies for the convention).  But after all was said and done, ScareLA was just as wonderful, fun, stressful and tiring as I had been told it would be.

My always wacky and supportive husband posing at the table  on the morning of Day 2.

Let's get strait to business in this post first (that way if you get bored and decided to stop reading you'll at least get the important news first)!

If you had been patiently waiting for the "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope" (a.k.a. R2D2) coin purse and cosmetic bag restock, I do have bad news.  I sold out of the coin purses over the weekend and need to order new ones, again (it'll be about a month).  I do have ONE cosmetics bag left after the weekend and it's live, in the shop, right now.  I've reordered some of those as well and should expect them at the same time the new coin purses come in.  I also sold out of the "Kissing Bats" coin purses, the BRAND NEW "Wee Emily Dover" coin purses (still ONE cosmetics bag of that left, btw), the "Truly Outrageous" cosmetics bags, and quite a few necklaces.  I'll be gradually listing the new product that was made for ScareLA thru out the week, so check the Crypt of DOOM! frequently to see what's popped up!

One of the many new necklaces I made for ScareLA.

My newest cosmetic bag and coin purse design went over so well I have to reorder!  At the time of writing this, there is one Cosmetics bag left available over in the Crypt of DOOM!

This little guy found a new home this weekend!  Goodbye my little Batty friend!

Decided to offer a new, larger size option for the "Master Gracey" prints.  They were popular.

One of 3 sketch cards made for the event.  The left overs will be listed in the Crypt of DOOM by the end of the week.

Business done, now is time to wax poetic about the weekend!  I had a wonderful time.  It was my first two day event and it was overwhelming, at times, how many people would be at the booth at once.  I ran out of one of my more popular business card designs and almost ran out of a second (I now have 6 design options for people to choose from at events).  If I can judge by the amount of Prudence post cards I have left over, since I was giving them out to people who bought something, I made a lot of sales because there is barely any left of the 100 I had made.  I discovered that I'm not the only one that loves Prudence, the Boogervampire's sassy older sister because she had a LOT of new merchandise with her on it sell this weekend.  I tried making sketch cards for the first time on this outing, and although none sold, people's reaction to them was positive.  I got to meet a BUNCH of my Instagram and Facebook followers, and fellow artist Lupe Flores came out to say hello and brought me a beautiful print of her work!  (Thank you, Lupe!!)  I got super socially awkward when artist Gris Grimly stopped and looked at my "Little Leota's Fortune Telling Kit for Beginners" painting, and at one point Director John Landis was walking the floor and leaned in to look at my table and smiled.  It was so exciting.  As usual though, I only ever left the table to use the Ladies Room so I didn't see too much.  Thankfully that's where my husband comes in.  He runs all over these events taking photos and showing them to me later.  I hope that one day, after I've gotten used to going to these kinds of things, I'll feel confident enough to leave the booth and go take a look at my surroundings more.

The print that the talented Lupe Flores brought to me on the 2nd day of ScareLA.  Thank you again Lupe!

This show will be up and on display until August 23rd, 2014

Saturday night, in addition to the all day convention, I headed over to Creature Features in Burbank, CA to check out the Creature from the Black Lagoon 60th Anniversary Tribute Show.  I had submitted my painting "He's So Dreamy!" into the show when I realized I didn't have time to create anything new.  I was overjoyed (and a bit sad at first) to discover that my "baby" had sold.  I only hope that whomever purchased her finds joy every time they look at it and love it as much as I do/did.

Green dots are bittersweet things!  Goodbye my friend, you'll be missed.

A pic from just after He's So Dreamy was completed from November of 2012.

There were many amazing, fun and nostalgic pieces in the Creature show, in addition to mine.   My inner geek loved the Uncle Gilbert costume from the Munsters TV show!  If you're in the Southern California region you might want to head over to the shop and check the show out before it ends on August 23rd (2014)!

Come on out and see my latest creation September 6th, 2014!

Up next?  Well, against my better judgment I couldn't pass up an opportunity to take part in the Museum of the Weird Tribute show for Imagineer and Animator Rolly Crump that will be taking place at Creature Features next month.  I hopped on board a little late so I only have until September 6th to conceptualize and create the piece.  Wish me luck!

That's it for now.  I'm going to go crawl into bed for about a week.  Until the next update, LATER GATORS!

A 'Lil Parisian Mishap

And the first painting of 2014 is here!  Technically this piece started back in December.  We had a charity art auction for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles at work for the Holidays and I wanted to contribute a piece of non-work related art to the event but a whole bunch of random things happened all at the same time and the painting got shelved.  It was a good thing it did too!

Originally this piece was supposed to be a companion piece to "'Lil 'Zilla's Wish".  It was going to have a similar color scheme as well as a similar theme.  The natural, woodsy color scheme didn't look  as nice though and during my winter vacation I approached the piece from a different angle and I think I'm happier with it.  Below you'll see the original daytime color scheme and the sketch.

Things have gotten a little crazier than usual over at the day job.  Next Season's American Dad episodes are in production and have a little more involved than usual so I've got a heavier work load.  Taking this into account I decided it would be best to close my Etsy Shop, the Crypt of DOOM, for 6 months (until my break between seasons starts).  As with my other shop closure times, if you need any of my more popular prints (Ice-Scream Social, He's So Dreamy and Truly Outrageous to be specific) you can pick them up at Halloween Town in Burbank, CA.

Getting in the Spirit

Greetings Boils and Ghouls!

Not much to report this week, but at least I've done two posts this month (so far)!  I've got two gouache paintings I need to finish pretty quickly and since the last painting was acrylic I did this little Boogerbat to ease into the medium again.  It's kinda tough finding a background color that looks good with my dear friend the Boogerbat.  I kinda got married to the idea of him being a darker shade of periwinkle about 10 years ago and as much as I try, it just doesn't seem like him if he's not that color.

This is available in limited quantities for the Holidays over in the Crypt of DOOM!

Enjoy!

Godzilla's Paper Cranes: Part 3 and Wrap-up

"Little 'Zilla's Wish"; 6x6 inch Gouache on watercolor paper; 2013

 So, as a way of practicing for future show's where I may be contractually obligated to wait to post images of my paintings until the opening, I thought I'd practice on "Little 'Zilla's Wish".  He was soooo fun to work on, as I'm sure you gathered from the other two posts.  What started as a smart ass, sarcastic  conversation to a friend turned into something truly endearing and fun.

Details!!  if you look super close at the shoreline you'll see some white squiggles.
Yeah, they're actually seagulls.  I got a little lost in the pretty.

I actually saw someone comment on tumblr (yes, I have one of those too) that if they thought my piece had anything to do with the non-fiction kid's book "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" they were going to start balling.  I can honestly say, I wish my imagination was capable of something so moving.  The idea of everyone in the world, including Godzilla, trying to help that little girl finish her quest to make 1000 paper cranes after her death is indeed touching and would make me cry too.  Sadly, as I stated in the last post, it's just because he doesn't like humans and wants them to go away so he doesn't have to resort to violence.  Considering how many Godzilla movies there have been, I think we all know he didn't finish his 1000 cranes.

The other pile of cranes.  He's a long way from hitting that 1000 mark.

So, yeah.  The last few pictures of this and then we'll move on to other, boring, projects.  Namely finally getting the thank you card made for my wedding which was nearly a year ago.  According to the etiquette guides I still have time. :P  Unfortunately, according to my conscience I'm about 4 months over due.  Don't worry, I won't post that one up til it's finished.  No one really wants to see more Halloween themed wedding crap, do they?  Exactly.

Not the best pic, but here's all the pieces on the wall.  Wonderful show!!

My dear friend Natasha Kline's piece "Bean's Beach Bungalow" turned out beautifully!

Oscar Rosales' Bleenkies pieces always bring a smile to my face.  The little book below is now part of our collection.  Carlos couldn't resist a little piece of kid's art called "Mr. Poo Poo's trip to Vegas. 

Even more of the artwork.  The random hand is pointing to Jason Leung's Moby Dick inspired piece.

Look!  There's the painting!  Monkeyhouse Shows are always so diverse.

So lastly,  I'm taking an extended break from my Etsy Shop the Crypt of DOOM!  I've basically taken too much on for one person to manage and something's gotta go.  Right now it's the Etsy Shop.  I'm hoping, if things go well, to have the shop open again in time for the holidays (probably around November 1st, 2013).  The plus side of closing is that #1) my husband won't feel so neglected anymore, #2) I can focus 100% of my daytime attention to my day job, which I'm very lucky to have and #3) I'll be able to focus more on my painting when I'm not focusing on numbers 1 and 2.  I have a million ideas in my head right now and I need to get some of them out cause they're eating at me.

Til the next update. . . later ghoulies!!

Little Things

Key L-eye-me Cupcake!!

Well, I had grand things in store for this post, but alas, they fell thru.  I had wanted to do a large scale comic about my adventures at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con (in the same vein as my journal sketches), but the con was so exhausting that I found myself needing nearly two weeks to recover.  Good news, I got what I went for and the short story is that it took 3 whole days for me to get into the line at the Hasbro booth to buy it because soooo many people wanted the My Little Pony Exclusive this year.  Silly Bronies.

Anyway.  What have I been up too the last three weeks. . . not drawing in my Journal, that's for sure.  I now have too many days to make up.  But I have been tinkering around with new stuff for the Etsy Shop.  Shall we take a look-see?

First up (and if you're a Facebook Follower, you've already seen some of these):

Soul Sista Medusa.  She's having delusions of Pam Grier.

The original has been framed in an orange frame exactly like Marie Medusa's Lime green one!

So I've been wanting to add some Medusa's to the "Hair Style" series.  I've been seriously wanting to do an afro inspired style for a while now.  At first she was going to be more of an innocent hippie with a daisy in her hair, but the more I thought about possible names, the more I thought of Pam Grier and how AWESOME she is.  Since Medusa's kind of a mean, bad ass type woman that wouldn't take any crap from anyone (cause she'd turn them to stone), I thought big 70's shades, hoop earrings and a "Coffee" inspired necklace would be much better "Afro" accessories.  Unlike the other Medusa's in the series thus far, I changed up the color scheme a little.  I knew I had an orange frame that was exactly like the lime green one I framed the "Marie Antoinette" Medusa in, so I wanted to make sure the background, scroll and accessory colors complimented the frame.  *Fun fact. . . found out by accident last Halloween that this frame actually fluoresces under a black light.*

Next:

Test coaster.  Not quite finished, but far enough along to share.  Coaster number two in the works next to it.

Coasters.  When I posted the sugar skull print set in the Crypt of DOOM, a couple of fans started asking when I was going to make coasters out of them.  I thought they were nuts.  How the heck does one make coasters?  Who do you go to to have them made?  And could I sell something with my art work on it that I didn't personally make myself on Etsy and feel morally okay with it?

Well guess what?  It's EASY!!  I checked out a few tutorials online and found that I didn't really need a whole lot to make a decent set of coasters.  Since the test coaster went well, I'm going to move forward with creating the full set of 4.  Hopefully I'll have that up in the shop before next weekend.

And then:

The multi-bat sketchbook was a test.  That one will stay with me, the others below will be in the shop soon.

On the left, two unlined/sketch Moleskin journals, on the right 3 lined journals.

Another Crypt of DOOM follower contacted me once about putting my artwork on Journals.  I'm pretty sure she was referring to the sugar skulls, but I was tossing the idea around in my head the other day and though it might be fun to give it a go!  And it gave me an excuse to get out my block cutting tools and make a custom stamp (which I haven't done in forever).  I looked up custom Moleskins on Etsy, and there's a ton of them.  But what I didn't see a whole lot of was black ones.  I thought a simple image of bats in a fun, bold color might be interesting to try.  Of course every one is different due to it being a hand made stamp and sometimes the block printing ink went on thicker than others, but hey, they're handmade!  And, it was a fun escape from the pen and pencil (stylus and computer?).

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

They're Coming . . .

The Second Batch.

Last year I got three out of the 7 intended Franken-Bread Men created in time for the Holiday Rush, and this weekend, I took the time to create #4.  I've already printed him out and shrunk him down into the beginnings of ADORABLE earrings.  They will be posted in the shop before the end of the week.  Seriously TINY and cute.

With any luck the next three Franken-Bread Men will be done in the next couple of weeks and (as was my intention last year) will be turned into a charm bracelet.  :)

**UPDATE**

Earrings are in the shop now!

What a Randomly Productive Week!

Well, I guess I made up for not having anything last week!

This last week was blissfully productive.

Up at the top is a more detailed, colored version of a doodle you may have seen last week.  My friend, and former coworker, Natasha has one of the more unique personal style's I've seen in a while.  I think it's a  strange concoction of retro chic, latin flair, and a side of the 80's just to confuse you.  Either way, she's got some RAD outfits.  Black and white sketches just don't do them any justice.  Someday I may have to make a paper doll out of her just so I can document all her cool clothes.

Then the day after I finished the giant Natasha drawing (It's 22" long!), I sat down and finally finished a second mini-painting I started around the same time as the Skull-tart one.  Like I said before, I got these awesome neon watercolors when I went the Mother-land last summer.  I have no idea what I'll use them for in the future, but Rosie the Sugar Skull turned out pretty decent!

As usual, if you're interested in taking her home, you can purchase her in the Crypt of DOOM!!!

And finally, half of my Valentine's are complete!!

I've been working on these little punks for over a month.  I hit a snag when I accidentally mixed an RGB color pallet with a CMYK one, but after getting it all sorted out I was able to finish these three!  Sadly I didn't meet my personal cut off date for posting them in the Crypt of DOOM, but there is always next year!

Hopefully next week I'll post a "work in progress" of two big projects I will be starting this week if I'm going to stay on schedule, til then, have a good week!

Skullhead Sweet-Tart Mini Painting

Finally had an opportunity to do some painting this week.  After a small set back earlier in the week, I finally remembered how to use my gouache and did this little skullhead.  She measures approximately 1.5"x 1.75" (yes, those are inches, not feet).

The scan of the image doesn't really do the color's any justice though.  I purchased some neon watercolors and gouache over the summer at the Daniel Smith art MECCA back home and neon and scanners just don't mix.

Small story about her.  Just when I finished her and got her placed in her tiny little frame, I decided to clean off a water stain from the glass.  I sprayed a shot of Windex on it, and before I could even get back to the frame with a paper towel, it had almost completely obliterated her left (my right) eye.  Fortunately I got the painting out of the frame fast enough to let it dry and fix the eye, but I nearly had a heart attack!  Thank God it wasn't a gallery show piece or I would have really had one.

I'd like to do a couple more of these.  This one will be posted for sale in the Crypt of DOOM, in case you wanted to check out more photos of it.