The Once and Future King

A New Job and Wedding Crap

2010-04-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

So I got a new Job last month which is awesome. I'm SO glad I didn't renew my contract, teaching is awful.

I only applied to two jobs: a secretary one which paid good, but isn't using my degree at all and a management position at an embroidery, silkscreen, and sign shop. I totally got the print shop job, I'm so happy! Its everything I've wanted in a job, so much good experience on so many different things. We don't do much silkscreening which is a bummer, but I am learning alot of new skills. I'm especially interested in learning the graphics production and CAD cut as this is experience that can get me into a sign shop and making a comfortable living, not to mention all the perks of reproducing my art. I'm planning on making embroidered patches of some of my designs as well as posters and I can use the sweet silkscreen setup on my day off which is waaaay cool. The owners even said that they might sell it to me in a few years if everything goes well, but i do still want to move to Baltimore and its too soon to make that kind of decision, but at least they like me. I've been working there a month so far and its great.

Other then that it's wedding crap all day and night, god I wanted this to be simple and to a degree it is, but my ma is bugging me nonstop about this, and finding an Officiant who isn't Christian was alot harder then I thought, some of them going as far as to try to lecture us about our relationship. We found a cool lady though, who is experienced in hand binding even, and is cool with my pagan-ness, yeah I guess we could've gotten some Wiccan priest or whatever the hell you call them, but they're weird too and I'm not really Wiccan. Damned if ya do, damned if ya don't

Oh what I'll do to get on that sweet, sweet union healthcare. Ben's nice and will make a delightful hubby too.

oh here's the wedding invite I made:

of course since this all has gone on i haven't had time to draw at all, but I did get a gig doing illustrative work for a book on Dio de los Muertos and have been contacted by a couple place about carrying my work so things are moving.

T-shirt Designs(Finally!) and a Poster, yay!

2010-02-26T10:10:00.000-08:00

So I finally got around to mocking up some of my designs to compete in some of those online t-shirt contests. The only thing I worry about is every time I go to Tee Fury lately the design have all benn cartoony lame meme-style shit. I remember when they did all different kinds of design and I don't want to have to do a 'star wars' themed shirt to get it printed, I thought that was the point of these sites was to do something different with the t-shirt, but I guess not. Ah well I'll give it a go and if it doesn't work I'll just print them myself!

I've also made a new poster for The People's Republik of Komedy, my best yet in my opinion.

New things To Love For Febuary

2010-02-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

Got some great news last night, my work found someone else and I will be free of this teaching gig as early as next week perhaps. I'm going to take a class so I can get my NAC, but that doesn't start until the first week of March, until then I'm going to start my destash store on Etsy (ugh tons of listing needs to happen in the next couple weeks) and focus on making stuff. I have things in stores on consignment now, but I'm gonna try to expand that, right now I'm working on a neat mirror and am getting into making art pendants. I have a few up at my shop right now. The shop has been doing well I made 6 sales yesterday, my highest yet...I'm trying to make 100 sales by my opening date (even though I didn't start selling til October) 100 sales in 6 months feels pretty good to me so i hope I get close at least. Did the Mourning Market Sweet Sorrow show and though it was alot slower then the last one I made some good money and had a great time, unfortunately January and Febuary are such slow months for selling stuff, though I've been steady I feel it in my shop...big drop off from the xmas rush! Still making sales though and I feel I'm getting my brand out there, I had 87 shop visits yesterday w/o a feature or anything, my usual is about 50 so it was a big bump.

Enclosed some pics of my new necklaces...

New Year, New Projects

2010-01-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

So I haven't been very faithful to my blog in the last month, I've been very busy to say the least. The Mourning Market Craft show did VERY well and though I don't want to say how much I made, it was the most money I made in one day and paid for my January rent. I Heart Rummage was okay and though I didn't do as well as Mourning Market I still made a couple hundred bucks and thats pretty good for 4 hours. I think I'll do I heart rummage sporadically since it happens every month and try to hit every Mourning Market since they'll only have a few a year. The next one is in February for V-Day and I'm looking forward to it. I hope I get a space in the bar again:). Still waiting for my vendor packet for the All's Faire, though a friend said she'd be willing to do it with me so that would be fun, I also need top get a start on the renny faire situation this year and try to vend at some.

I'm also starting to consign things to stores. My friend Tannoth has some of my patches and bandannas at his record store Dissonance Plane in Ballard (thats in Seattle to those not in the NW). A store in Hotlanta, Georgia Young Blood contacted me on Etsy to get some items over at their shop/gallery which is cool because they feature art by Nikki McClure an amazing printmaker and one of my favorite artists. Also this boutique looks pretty legit and just the kind of place I want to put my work in. The fact they contacted me gives me the courage to approach similar places over here in Seattle and down in Portland. I met the owner of Gargoyle Statuary when I did the Mourning Market in Seattle and she offered to carry some items of mine, so arranging this with stores and trying to keep things in stock have kept me busy. I also did some paint marker painting of monster faces that was fun, you can see these for sale at my etsy store as well as more things I've added in the last month.

Still working on that tea towel project with Bruce and Yoshiko, the design's looking good and I can't wait to finish it.

As always I have several projects on the back burner and am still trying to get some posters silkscreened, I never seem to have time for everything I want to do. I have gotten better at using my Deviant art account, so I'm pretty stoked about that.

So that's everything thats been going on the last month, that and being pissed about the whole Conan/Leno debacle.

Craft Fair, New items, Freelance Work...

2009-11-29T13:33:00.000-08:00

So I haven't been posting lately because I've been so darn busy. I did the Indie Banditas fair and though i didn't make a ton of money, I made a fair amount and honestly a lot more then I thought I would given the demographic (bored housewives). Though of course everyone had to ask if my wolf items were inspired by Twilight (cringe, cringe) I grinned and bared it, though I hate vampire/werewolf crap with all my heart I can't miss a chance to capitalize on something. I handed out alot of business cards/stickers and hope some of those folks will come and see my online store. I also got info for a fine art reproduction shop that might be hiring so hopefully I can get some experience in that, even if it is only 1 day a week.

So here's my booth all set up:

I was pleased how everything looked all laid out and that it was just as good as everyone else's. After not doing craft fairs for 5 years I was a little nervous about how my set up would look. Luckily the lady next to me was real nice too and we chatted during the event. I was pretty pleased with the organization of the event and think I will do the next one.

Another plus of doing the fair now I have alot more stuff to post at my shop such as these unicorn scarfs:

And some magnets:

And of course because I'm crazy and like to punish myself I also had a couple of freelance projects i had to do this week.

Here's my poster for the People's Republic of Komedy:

And a shirt design I've been doing fot a Seattle metal band Forest of Grey:

It's been alot of work, but I'm pleased with all the projects I was able to finish in a short amount of time.

I know, I know

2009-11-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't been very good with my blog recently. I've been real busy with getting things together for the Indie Banditas craft fair next week. Have a commission to do some posters for a comedy club and a t-shirt for a black metal band. I also have some buttons and magnets made and am about to start the my making pendants of my artwork project. On top of that I'm doing double classes all week to make up for the Thanksgiving break, so yes, I'm busy, busy ,busy. I will have alot of stuff to post this weekend though, I promise.

For your viewing pleasure here is a wonderful song by Skeletal Family:

Happy Friday the 13th

2009-11-13T11:57:00.001-08:00

Here's a Satan picture for you:

God Jul

2009-11-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well I've been thinking about Xmas lately, about how I hate it in theory after working at so many retail jobs, but I enjoyed it growing up. At the same time I grew up with another type of Christmas. Both my grandparents on my mom side were off the boat immigrants from Scandinavia and eastern Germany. People from there celebrate the Yule, which is what many Christmas traditions are built on, but basically it's an old holiday that celebrates the darkest time of the year, a time when families could forget that they haven't seen the sun in a month and find warmth and life in each other's hearth.

Christmas trees, candles, holly, bells...yep old backwoods Germanic superstitions that now are associated with the baby Jesus. We also got Xmas goats which is pretty cool.
and they're made from straw too.

All these symbols have become tied in with Christianity, naturally and though my mom's side are baptized as Protestants, I've never heard one of them talk about god, and when we would go to church on St. Lucias day it was about cookies and coffee, some ladies with candles in their hair and holly...lots and lots of holly. Usually it would digress to poker games and drunken Swedes singing old standards..."yingle, bells, yingle bells, yingle all de VAY." I didn't hate Christmas then and it was only when I grew up and saw the Kmart version of it that it sickened me and I avoided celebrating beyond eggnog. This year I want to remedy that, I was fortunate to experience a holiday when I was younger in it's purest sense of family getting together and embracing the holiday of their ancestors so old that it adapts to any age, no one knows why it's continued except for the comfort that it brings year after year in the darkest days of the season.

As I've been looking more into Yule, I'm inspired to create some holiday items. I've lately been looking at the Nutcracker commercials for the various ballet companies, I've been thinking about how darn creepy it is. A transient uncle, an underage girl, a nutcracker prince robot thing, A freakin' 7 headed mouse king.

Welcome to my nightmares.

Oh and that picture up there that is the ONLY pic I could find apparently the mouse king is so terrifying with 7 heads all the other pictures had him with one, less terrifying head.
So yeah I think I could do some holiday items with more my style of art. After all if Christmas is about the coming of light, the Yule is about the coming of darkness.

and robots, don't forget robots...

So other then this nonsense, I got a couple new items in my store. A red Crow King bandanna:

And a woodcut print in a vintage frame:

Both available at my etsy store.

New computer, New studio, New prints....Very Nice!

2009-11-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about by my new computer, I don't even mind the extra debt it put us in. Our beloved Ben has been working alot since getting a new job so I'm not worried about it. It's nice to have some stability since teaching is pretty wishy washy year by year so I'm very happy he got this. It's a union job too so health benefits here we come!

It's weird, we actually have real "career" jobs and with a new truck (new to us at least!) and new computer we feel as if we're slowly but steadily moving towards better times. Being in college makes you poor and struggle, period, so just being done and being out here having time to do stuff and make more money helps alot. Also I've been steadily selling on my shop so while it's not anything I'll quit my job over, at the moment it's been paying for my supplies and breaking even is nice.

This weekend I printed some new stuff, but spent all Sunday organizing my new studio, I got the first step down: getting all my supplies in bin in a shelf:
Before

After, much Better!

It's nice having all my art stuff in one easy accessible place.

Besides cleaning I did get some stuff done. I finally printed the Fenrir design on some bags :

I used gold ink and I think it turned out just swell. I printed some Tentacle Monster bandannas with a teal ink I had picked up, I'm usually not one for bright colors, but I think it worked well for our aquatic friend and was especially nice on the black bandanna.

For some reason teal always makes me think of the early 90's

I also drew something new, which is something I haven't done in a couple weeks, what with all the printing and such. I really tried to make the unicorn not look like a horse, but some wierd unnamed animal, I think I succeeded. I'm going to trim some of the rose design on the left to make it flow better and work on the end of the chain, but for the most part she's ready to go into production!

I'll be real busy the next few weeks getting stuff together for the Indie Banditas craft fair, but it will be worth it!

The Wild Hunt

2009-11-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

So my tattoo artist the talented Brian Wilson put a post out that he was deleting pics from his profile to make room for new work so I thought I'd put my epic leg tattoo here to have for prosterity, Much thanks to him for photoshopping out the stray bikini line that was in the original (hey it was winter!). Yeah so this took 13.5 hours over 4 months at the beginning of this year.

Getting into gear

2009-11-04T09:25:00.000-08:00

So I've been slacking off the last few days on making stuff or doing any promoting, mainly because our beloved Ben has a friend over and we've been hanging out late, which I haven't done in like forever. Ben's friend is a real interesting guy who is into silkscreening as well and meeting him makes me eager to move to Baltimore and get involved in the art scene there, it seems that people are more motivated out there and it seems everytime I try to get stuff started people flake.

However I still have managed to stir some stuff up lately which I'm pretty proud of:

1.Working on posters for The Republic of Comedy comedy show (will be a monthly event)
2.Interview to be a jewelry instructor for a bead shop in Fremont.
3.Indie Banditas is coming up (my first craft show in WA!)
Also I've been trying to get ahold of Mourning Market to vend there since I missed their Oct.18th show, but haven't gotten ahold of them yet.
4. Possibly doing art for my good friend Charlie's band TSMF who recently landed a recording deal with a label to distribute their album from La to Belfast.

Eh, guess I just gotta keep on keepin' cause what else I'm going to do? Making almost $200 bucks in a week last week on my webstore was life affirming to say the least. There was a time when I lived off commissions and craft fair money, but that was before everyone got broke. Its good to see my newest venture bear fruit and encourage me that yeah this isn't a dead end and maybe I can do this again.

well in other news, this issue of Time got me pissed off, I haven't read it and I just see it when I go to the store but the fact they wrote an article like this makes me mad. Really, why are women so picked apart by studies like this? Who cares about this? I'm sorry ,no, feminism and being equal isn't making us sad. Theres also some article over here about Etsy selling a false feminist image. To think the whole time I thought it sold handmade crap.

Why is it whenever women do something or feel something someone has to relate it to feminism and analyze it. Seriously just stop it.

I'm not a feminazi, heck I got a "D" in women's studies (true story!) but this just annoys me.

Oh and here's a fuzzy picture of my Halloween costume, I was a 40's era space captain, the picture doesn't really do it justice, I'm mos def gonna wear it again next year. Theres also one of me and my Mom in her time traveler costume I put together for her:

Nightmare Catchers

2009-11-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

Here's something I've been working on lately. It kinda makes fun of all those new agey dreamcatchers. Being half Indian (or Native American for all you guilty white folk out there) I have been given every goofy symbol adopted from Native culture ever from Kokapelli to airbrushed SW "navajo" pottery to effing rainsticks from the white side of my family. I know they mean well and I love them to death, but I think it's hilarious because none of it is related to my particular "people" . I'm not even from a reservation or anything my dad just happens to be full blood Native. Last week I was looking at pagan stuff on the internet and I came across some pentacle dreamcatchers, I thought they looked like pentagrams and, voila! Nightmare Catchers. I think I'll make some pentacle ones too for the pagans out there. I don't know if they'll sell or what, but I am having fun making them and it's keeping my hands busy!

I bought a new computer today! Woo Hoo! I still get an education discount cause I'm a teacher too. Double plus good!

I wanted to put up my halloween pics but most of them are blurry which I hate so we'll see

Thurs Technalogic

2009-10-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

So I'm moving forward with my social networking skills and now have everything set up, gotta slideshow, one of dem facebook page thingies, and a Twitter feed. Lookit me I feel Hollywood!

I want to thank Grigio Designs first off for featuring me on her blog, thanks!

So I think I'm getting a new computer, Apple just rolled out some newer cheaper models(my fav kind of model) and this old tank of a laptop is starting to poop out though it served me well and got me through college. Alas, good knight sweet prince.
Sorry man, he's just like you,but younger

I watched the Venture Bros premier for like the third time and still can't get over how well written it is, the last episode was great too, but that premiere...wow. I still think 21 is going to become the Viceroy in response to 24's death.
R.I.P. to great man who sounded a bit like Ray Romano

Ok so my blog is supposed to be about my art right? Ok here's another scarf:

I gotta a ton of these I could post them all day long, YE HAW!

What's up this Wednesday

2009-10-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well I'm started to get this social networking thing down, I've got all kinds of things going on now as you'll see in my profile ovah there by my picture, so come follow me on twitter or fan me on facebook or whatever the heck it is you kids are doing know. I feel like I'm way under tech-savvy for my age, but I was pretty anti-computer til 2006 when I got my own even then it was our beloved Ben who had to show us the wonders of free movies the night after it comes out in theatres (Bless you China!). Now I'm on it more then he is though I'm glad I have the leverage when he complains of me being on here so much (remember when you were on Full-Tilt poker for 13 hours a day!) I'm also starting to open up more. At first I was wary of talking to people even about my own business, but the longer I'm on here I get more comfortable and , you know, I'm kinda abrasive in person so I like having the time to think about I want to say, if only my real life had such filters,

So in production news, got these red wolf scarfs done:
Grrr...we were supposed to be done last month
And some bandannas:
Getting ALOT of mileage from this design
I didt other things that I was too lazy to post, but I did post it on my flicker account. Yeah I've dragged that old account out and added a shiny new set for my stuff you can buy with links to my Etsy page.

I'm in a Gift guide right here over at Jewels of Saraswati. They got me in both a Goth and Hippie gift guide, thanks guys!

Front Page!

2009-10-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

I just got a convo this morning from Splurge over on Etsy that I was on the front page. Whoo Yoo! I even sold a pair of gloves because of it. I quickly tried to relist it, but no one's viewed it yet. Man I never thought I'd get on the front page, mainly because my photos are so crappy:
crappy, crappy, pictures...

The last year has been tough as far as selling my stuff which is why I started selling on Etsy and it's times like this I feel like my guru George Costanza:

I'm back, baby, I'm back!

Wolf Gloves

2009-10-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

So I got the wolf gloves finished finally, I'm making some scarves to go with them, but I prolly won't finish them til this weekend. Also I am going to be at a craft fair on thanksgiving weekend, as you can see from the ad on the right. It'll be my first in this area and I hope it goes well.

Making more, ahem, 'hair clips' as well. They're easy and fast to make, I think I'm gonna make some with glass beads (so far the ones I've made have had real stones) so I can bring the price down and have some more stuff in the $10 range. I will also be giving out free stickers to lure people to my booth and have buttons made to offer for 1-2$. I'm trying to have a variety of prices there to give people a wide selection to choose from, but most of my stuff is under $20 so hopefully it's accessible to people.
they're barrettes...for your, um, hair

Gotten my resin molds, just waiting for the resin to come in so I can make my pendants.

In other news, being a schoolteacher I feel right now I'm constantly fighting some kind of illness. I'm not scared about the pig flu, even though the schools are terrified. As a nail biter I generally get exposed to every little bacteria, which I'm for as I avoid anti bacterial crap and purell, I mean hows your immune system gonna fight something it's never been exposed to? Not that I'm against washing my hands or keeping clean in general, I just don't go overboard like some do. Since my job before this was in the medical field I know exactly how this season will play out for me; feel a little sick a week or two, then not be sick for the rest of the season since my immunities got built up. It's amazing what good nutrition, alot of sleep, and generally taking care of yourself will do for you, alot more then purell let me tell you. Oh and if you can get your hands on a supplement called Under the Weather it'll kick the crap out of it while allowing your immune system to fight the illness. Seriously I feel a little sniffly I pop 4 of these with dinner and when I wake up it all comes out in the morning in one big loogie and I'm free and clear. It's amazing and been my family's secret to good health since I was a kid so go get some I'll even link it for you.

Why? Because I love you.

A Wet and Rainy Wednesday.

2009-10-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

That's how it is here in the Great NW, I don't mind though, I like the rain, however I DON"T like having to commute in it having jerks insist on going 80.

from a great photoshop contest on Cracked:

Anyway on a more positive note, I am the featured Etsy Artist on The Bloombury Group's website. You should go check it out, also see her shop at Etsy, she makes delightful stuffed toys among other things.

I also got some Tentacle Monster scarfs printed in dark grey ink on grey and dark grey ink on green (green pictured).
I really like how these turned out and am going to try ro find more of these scarfs to print on.

Sorry for the horribly lit picture.

Bomb the Suburbs*

2009-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was driving to work I saw some graffiti writer had thrown up some beautiful tags on telephone poles. The tags were symmetrical and long and quite intricate, more like filigree then graffiti, it made the telephone poles look like elaborate gates to an otherwise boring suburban neighborhood. I got off work and noticed someone had already angrily scrubbed one partially off. I find it ironic someone would rather have a half scrubbed crappy looking stain on their telephone pole rather then some pretty graffiti.

damn gangmembers.

( I'm being sarcastic I know most writers aren't in gangs)

*awesome book on graffiti you should read.

My, What a Busy Weekend!

2009-10-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

So I woke up this morning and had a covo from my Etsy shop from Jenny from Alexander's Designs who was kind enough to feature my Monk's Brew print on her blog , what a wonderful thing to wake up to and a great finish to a productive weekend. This weekend I made some more gloves, you can see the ram's head design above. I like that they look like they are butting heads when you put your hands together. I would like to play with the hands as a canvas and try more designs to utilize the hand shape, I'm planning on looking at some hand tattoo designs to get ideas, I would eventually like to get good enough to print words on the knuckles. I also did some scarfs, but I'll save that for tomorrow (and I WILL post tomorrow, I promise!)

Tentacle Monster Gloves

2009-10-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

So here's the first in my series of glove designs. They were surprisingly easy to print and I am looking forward to printing more this weekend as well some wolf heads and possibly the ship designs. I'm also gonna print some scarfs and the rest of my totes, I'm trying to get all my stock printed since I'm gonna be in a big craft fair Thanksgiving weekend. I have ordered some resin and am going to make some pendants out of my designs, since I've been doing jewelry more I want to do jewelry that really is my art not just beads.

By the Light of the Moon

2009-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

So I got my ghetto fabulous exposure unit up and working and have been shooting designs all weekened. I silkscreened this 8" diameter morror with a larger version of the wolf profile I designed for the gloves. I like how the mirror looks like a moon. I know the angle is wierd but I had to shoot it as such so you wouldn't see the camera. I also got some gloves done, but more about that tomorrow.

Taking Retro to it's Logical Conclusion!

2009-10-11T11:46:00.001-07:00

I think this video explains my aesthetic.

I also get the same look of unamusment from people.

Fenrir Finished, Gloves

2009-10-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished my Fenrir design. I'm going to crop the moonbeams in a circular fashion for the final product. I'm gonna make tote bags, bandannas, and possibly t-shirts with this design, but first I'm going to focus on some cold wheather gear.
My gloves came in and their great. The large ones especially are cozy and I have a very petite hand and loved the fit. The small were good too, but I would only recomend getting them if you have very tiny hands. As a result I ordered two more dozen of the large size and will have only one dozen pairs of small gloves.I also went out and bought a bunch of scarf I have a solid grey and black one, but the rest are plaid in a variety of colors, I hope to get everything printed in the next week or so to be ready for the holidays.

Presentation Is Everything!

2009-10-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm very shallow when it comes to my buying decisions. It's not unusual for me to buy something based completely on the packaging. As a result I want my items to have as much appeal in the box as well as out. I went and ordered some sweet chest shaped boxes which I think will give my stuff some more zazz when someone buys something. I got them from Papermart which has a fabulous array of boxes at a reasonable price. I personally love boxes and when someone goes to the effort to make something really presentable and appealing I love what's in the box a little more. I'm also a big dork for creating a total brand image and feel for a business and since my last name is King and I love medieval stuff I want to create a feeling of luxury and royalty in my packaging. I want every one of my pieces to be little treasures given from the kings hand to yours.
Also they will arrive flat so I'm thinking of silkscreening some designs on them to make them more interesting and unique to my biz. I'm looking into doing some craft fairs in Seattle and PDX to cut my teeth this year but I feel it will be casual until this time next year when I will be more established and really ready to tackle the holiday season.

Art show

2009-09-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics I just got back from an art show I did in PDX this time last year, I particularly loved the lighting and the red walls really complimented my work as you can see for yourself:

Fenrir Design Continued, Ouroboros

2009-09-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

As well as doing some designs for gloves today I also worked on my Fenrir design. Here I inked up quite a bit and the only thing left is to add a little more branch with leaves above his head then put in the light beams radiating from the moon to round out the piece. I also worked on my Ouroboros design . While my Fenrir design deals with the end of the world this design show s the great serpent at the beginning of the world before it goes to sleep, it's gyrations forming the different realms of the nordic world, I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but I'll find something.

Glove Designs and Stuff

2009-09-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I've been working on some glove designs, I just ordered a couple dozen of fingerless gloves (women's and men's). I currently have 4 design in the works which means I'll make 6 pairs for each design 3 men's and 3 women's. I have a cthulu looking design, a wolf profile design and a ship design already done. I plan on doing a goat design with the two heads butting when you put your hands together. I posted the three I finished today though I'll prolly work on the goat on tonight and add it later this week.

Drawing Board part 3: Puppies!

2009-09-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

So here's a t-shirt design in progress that I'm doing for my shop. I think this will be a good tote design too or even a bandanna. I'm also thinking of submitting to tee-fury or something like that.

This design is a theme I revisit so often, taking an old myth ( in this case Fenrir eating the moon during Ragnarok) and adding a fun twist to it. Here rather then being a harbringer of the apocalypse Fenrir is just being a big dog playing with a ball getting slobber on it and chewing it happily. Kinda like Clifford the big Red Dog but more about the end of the world.

The Drawing Board part 2: Cold weather a comin'!

2009-09-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

So with fall coming up I want to silkscreen some scarves and gloves, So far I've drawn up this fire image, based (of course) on old woodcuts, I want to do ones with this design on each side then some with this design on one side and a burning witch on the other, well see, but I hope to have these out by october. The smokes goes up higher but my scanner is little and I didn't feel like pieceing it together.

From the Drawing Board part 1: Unicorns!

2009-09-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

Oh I haven't posted in a week or so, my bad. I've been busy with the whole starting school thing, it's wierd being a teacher, but I think today I really got in the swing of it and actually had some fun with my kids. Though I'm silly by nature I have a wierd love for structure and when it comes to school and work I am rather serious. I think maybe I was too rigid the first week having never done this before and have finally loosened up. Though I'm an artist and non-conventional in many ways I am very much an "A" type personality and today I think I was comfortable enough to let my silliness out and we had some fun.

Talking about my A type personality that is exactly how my drawing is, I will draw something 5-6 times on average starting from loose scribbles to tighter and tighter finished drawings. Take this unicorn design for instance, this started as a scribble 6 months ago on a scrap of tracing paper it has evolved into a 5" circular design encompassing death as symbolized by a skull and scythe with fall flowers and oak leaves accenting it, the image is just the outline I will get into doing details in a bit. I then decided to put a banner around it since I've been playing with them stylistically for awhile now and the banner will read"ON A PALE HORSE" which refers to the line in Revelations that death will be on a pale horse. My earlier post showed a wooden horse I'd redone on this theme and when I think about pale horses I think of unicorns and so couldn't help putting them together...on another note I am committed to making unicorns badass again I LOVE medieval depictions of them and the first thing you notice is how badass they look, I mean just check this bad boy out, he's got a cape and everything he's like super unicorn or something and that horn is made for one thing and one thing only: impaling stuff. And you know what unicorns like even more then impaling dudes? Virgins. Yup thats right, can't get enough of them. Check out this picture of some knight stabbing a brother for getting all up on his betrothed, damn can't a playa play? I'm done with ironic hipster unicorns, it's time for OG Thug (thug-icorns?) ones to come into play. Yes people this kinda drivel is what truly drives my art, believe me, I'm as surprised as anyone that people pay me.

Tote-tally Rad

2009-09-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so I finally got the new tote bags in and got the black ones printed, some with the barbarian chick design and the others with my "Loveletter" design, everyone seems to like this design so I'm hoping people will take to the bags and want to buy them. They're $15 and are available on my etsy site here. I got the pint glasses in too and I etched 4 for a wedding anniversery gift for my neighbor, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to get a picture, but they worked out well. I also have a few round mirrors I'm going to experiment with silkscreen and etching.

School is starting next week though this time I won't be attending, but teaching. I'm working more then I thought and though it will still be at tops 15 hours a week I will be able to live comfortably on what I make and earn valuable teaching experience as well.

Alsooo... I got accepted to be a tattoo apprentice...yay! Finally I'll be able to persue what inspired me to go to school and learn real skill, I'm supposed to go in sunday to check out the shop and sign paperwork and they want me to do shirts for the shop as well as design the logo. Even though I'm wary of my good luck as tattoo shops are known for being flaky especially about apprenticing I have a good feeling about this and hope it works out well.

found objects, old person art

2009-09-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

So I found this horse form at the Goodwill it was painted as a carousel horse probably for some grandkid's bedroom. Anything related to kids is especially depressing at the Goodwill. I remember The Onion doing an article about the depressing used toy aisle at a second hand store funny, but true. well I sanded her down and drew in ink a horse skeleton as you see, I've always liked that book by Piers Anthony (who is otherwise a horrible author) On a Pale Horse and especially liked that title and wanted to do something on that theme for ages so here it is. The thing I like about drawing skeletons is they look really really hard, but are relatively easy and make people think your a real important artist-type person.

The Great Experiment

2009-08-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

So here I am like most my age, selling myself via the internet. Just graduated college and am persuing selling my stuff here via the intertubes as well starting this here blog I started last term for class to document it all. I have at most been flighty with blogs , but then it was usually social networking sites and I don't like gossiping online( it's funner in real life) but since this is about something I can talk for ever about, my art, I hope I will be more faithful about it and this will become routine, a place where I can show what I've been up to and hopefully get feed back from you the various folk who find this site. Well first things first heres a link to my website for my fine art portfolio http://www.nikolking.jimdo.com/. This here site will be more for stuff I will be working on in the future. I just got my silkscreen studio up again after moving up here to Seattle area. The first thing I did was make these bitchin' bandannas with some designs I had made patches with. Check it out. They're available at my etsy store I just set up : http://www.kingshandpress.etsy.com/. I'm expecting some pint glasses soon as well as some more tote bags, in black and green this time, so I'll have news on that in the next week.

more artists Ive been looking at

2009-05-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

Jacob Escobedo is the art director of Adult Swim on cartoon network these drawings are from a series he did on depicting his friends and family by drawing their favorite animals. I like how they also look like topographical maps.

John Jude Palencar is a commercial illustrator. I love how soft his images are rendered and the serene yet disturbing atmoshphere in his work.

Skinner is an artist I just became aware of a week ago. He is showing at upper playground in portland this month and it is a varied and very interesting mix of prints,paintings,altered found objects ,and more. Im providing a link to the interview he did for a PDX blog here which has alot more of his work as well as some words from him about his art.

Jeff Soto is an artists Im looking at for his use of floating elements combined with a graphic aesthetic.

Since im starting to work on the line drawing part of my project in order to make silkscreens Im also looking at artists that specialize in line work. kris Kuksi does amazingly detailed pencil and ink drawings.

I also have been looking at this site that has alot of surrealist artists with links to their portfolios.

Artists Im looking at

2009-04-09T07:41:00.001-07:00

The first artist that caught my eye when looking at new artists was Hannah Stouffer. I like her chaotic crammed compositions and her use of animals in her work though it sometimes veers into what I like to call mtv art. George Grie is a surrealist artist and I like how he depicts buildings in his work as well as the overall sense of desolation. Jacek Yerka is a polish artist that was the real find . I love his detailed paintings and that theyre strange yet accessible even playful.

Concept for series

2009-04-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

For my new series Ive been thinking a lot of creation myths. Ive always found it fascinating that there are giant beings such as Ouroborous or the turtle or elephant that supports the world on its back. This scale shift always entertained me as how these giant animals existed before the planet itself. I also was intrigued by the little planet that was in the children's book The Little Prince . Lately people have been creating horizon photos in a circular fashion so that they resemble such little planets so I have been looking at those as well, not to mention those Yes album covers by Roger Dean that I used to copy as a kid.

Looking at these different influences I have cobbled together a concept centered on the swirling chaos that happens before the formation of planets as well as after their destruction. Animals figures and trees that are disporportionately large will occupy chucks of rock, tiny planets, and other spindrift set against empty nothingness, the remains of a catastrophe or conversely the moment before the players are brought together in the creation of a new world. Though I would depict the imagery realistically I want to incorporate filigree and other designs like Ive used in previous paintings to enhance the feeling of movement in the images

I would like the main images to be paintings, but being a print maker I plan on either making line drawings of the main images before painting them and making prints off of those or creating prints that support the subject matter.

I plan on working on wood panel that are irregular size with three large panels in the center with smaller pieces radiating out from the center to enhance the swirling feeling of the imagery. I will use acrylic with gouache and would like to have at least five paintings with the largest being three by three feet then decreasing in size from there.

My online gallery

2009-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to my website to view more of my work www.nikolking.jimdo.com

Welcome to my work in progress blog

2009-04-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

This is a record of my progress in my senior studio class for college here I will record my process in creating a series of work. I will publish not only the works in progress but also my thought process; my influences, the artists that Im looking at, as well as other things that catch my interest that are relevant to my work. To start off with here are some images from the past year or so that reflect what I want to do in my work. There are two painting series of three paintings as well as various prints.