"Art when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible. "
- Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Yesterday I broke my first paint brush. It snapped in half while I was painting and it gave me quite a shock. I had never seen anything like it before. Then my other detail brush bit it too, so after work today I dropped by Hobby Lobby. I wound up selecting three brushes that appeared promising. A round #3 nylon brush that is identical, but slightly smaller than my first brush that was used up. A round #1 sable brush for your smallest details, like the eyes. Also, a #4 flat sable brush to cover long thin shapes of color, like in the ears.

I can't wait to wake up and try them out.

Can you guess his name?? You may recognize the face.

The Original Mermacrabicorn

thank you chris johnson and ryan parker for giving me the best tattoo i'll never get... the mermacrabacorn.

This is the first concept sketch for a motorcycle decal that I was hired to illustrate.

Meet Shawn. He's in a kickass band called "The Alice Rose" and he works at South Austin Music.

How fun to see them come to life in color.

This picture is from yesterday and it shows how i finished up that corner of the mural in blacks.

I tried uploading this pictures like 20 times last night, and every time it came back saying it had an "unknown source." Whatever that means. This is the picture I took last night after work and you can't tell from this angle, but I am getting very close to finishing the blacks. Hence, I'm almost half way done with the project! Yay!
Today I'm planning on going down there to paint again to finish what I had hoped to yesterday. Unfortunately, I had many distractions including: having to pick up my show from JP's Java and then a mexican fellow named Paul, fixed the door on my car. I found out later I got completely taken on that deal financially, which really has put a bad taste in my mouth, since he seemed to genuine and honest. At least I have that experience to learn from and it wasn't a larger sum of money.
On a happy note, Heather, who works at JP's, said that she was really sad to see my show removed, because she loved seeing it every day. So that was really sweet of her of her to say.

Jason - Good idea about that ladder. I actually have one that I'll have to put in the car that would be perfect for early morning activity. Thanks for that mention.

Michelle - Thanks for your sweet comment. I'm very proud to have a such cool neighbors too! ;-)

Most of this morning was freezing! I had about 6 layers on and no jacket, so the wind pretty much cut through me. Then by around 11am the temperature got into the 50's and it became a beautiful sunny day. I couldn't move the scaffolding by myself early on, so I spent the first half the morning going into parts that I hadn't completely flushed out and developed them further. When I had the scaffolding, I immediately began painting the two girl in the top middle. I like what I finished and it was a great feeling to do it, because each of them had given me a minor headache during the drawing stage and I was a little concerned that I wouldn't get it on the first try. This becomes a little daunting when you consider how hard it is to cover over black.
So I feel really good about what I managed to get done today. Tomorrow I get to draw and paint Patrice Pike, who was one of my favorites when I first composed the reference illustration.