Xiu Xiu "House Sparrow"

I recently designed and animated the graphics for a new music video for the band Xiu Xiu, directed by Jason LaRay Keener. Please leave any comments below.

Thanks!

Art Opening Tonight

I need to invite both these guys to join the Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas. Check out Bo Hughins's flickr pages HERE, especially THIS ONE.

Crude Humor: Special Edition - Deepwater Shellicans

Check out this post on Don Stewart's blog to read about his latest oil-splattered art work.

Hey, guys

This isn't... very, ehh, well, "normal" for this page. I'm not around much, and I sure wish I could be. Wish I could make it to some of the Slams, too. Wish I could do a lot of things.
But, as the Chaos and Anarchy in this Uncontrollable World changes events at random to make things better or worse for a minute and then flow back into a semblance of a "pattern," a good thing or two happened.
My friend Chewy sent back the art I sent her in... October? We exchanged pencils for the other one to ink. After my divorce, I inked the hell out of her drawings, because I had to have something to do. I sent her a much bigger package (heh heh heh... "bigger package"), plus she moved across the g-damn country, so it took her a little while longer, but I included a picture... two of my characters called Victorianne and Punk Rock Girl.
When I drew the picture, back in September or whatever, I looked at it, and I said to myself, Self, I said, These are the best pencils you've ever done. You will never do any better than this. You probably shouldn't even try. Scan it, make a copy of it, make sure there's proof, because these are the best pencils you've ever done, your peak, and it's all back downhill from here.


So, I sent everything and told'er, These are my best pencils ever, and she neglected to ink'em, saying that if they were gonna be f'ed up by anybody, I had better f-'em up myself. So I inked'em myself.
With about six different pens and different line widths, after about an hour and a half of inking... fast for as much detail as I tried to put into it... I was done. I picked it up and looked at it and I said to myself, Self, I said, These are the best inks you've ever done. You will never do any better than this. You probably shouldn't even try. Scan it, make a copy of it, make sure there's proof, because these are the best inks you've ever done, your peak, and it's all back downhill from here.


So I did. And I thought about just pretty much giving up on comics an' everything, just drawing as a hobby, I mean, it is friggin' expensive man. I'm disabled, already on welfare, how the hell did I expect to self publish anything? Can't get a loan, no one will give a grant, I get great advice from some truly AWESOME people who I can't thank enough, but I land in the gutter every time.
Then I remembered a quote from Mao Tse Tung. "The need to shit after eating does not mean that eating is a waste of time."
*sigh* . . . Yeah. I gotta pick myself up by the bootstraps and go try and eat, even if I have to shit afterwards.

I hope everyone gets that metaphor.

I recently had a request for a tattoo design. A "tree of life" was the main guidance I had, plus trippy, cute monsters, etc.

Here's the initial sketch..






it's changed a bit since, I'll post more later.

Recent Roundup

What's up, y'all?

I've just gone and collected a bunch of beautiful, somewhat recently posted work from some of the blogs and deviantART pages of our fellow SHC's. (You guys should come and post stuff here more often yourselves, just to keep the blog alive.)

If anybody has posted something else that they wish I'd included, let me know.

I can't take the time to turn all these names into links. If you want to see more from any of these artists, find them on the alphabetical list HERE.

By the way, you can see Brian Ratigan's latest animation reel, HERE. And Garth Potts has added a lot more pieces to the caricature page of his portfolio site, HERE.

Now let's look at some art!

Howard Cruse

Heath McPherson


Heath McPherson


Heath McPherson


Melody


Mega Comics Group


Jason Shoemaker


Pat Snow


Pat Snow


Don Stewart


Corey Stockley


Andrew Willmore


Andrew Willmore


Andrew Willmore

Black Sheep show

Crestwood Coffee Co., The Birmingham Art Collective and the 35212 present Paul Cordes Wilm's newest work. Join them as they celebrate Paul's show at Crestwood Coffee.

They'll have non-live music (Paul's special Black Sheep playlist), light appetizers, drink specials & of course, lots of art!

also, check out Paul's new website: forkitude.com

Alex Jones: Kook ... or Weirdo?

Our fellow SHC Tim Rocks has just finished a beautifully rendered 7-page comic story -- Alex Jones: Kook ... or Weirdo? It's done in a style which pays homage to (or completely rips off?) the classic MAD Magazine celebrity caricature stories. Check it out HERE and leave Tim some comments!