Like a badpenny, I have returned to Blogger.

For the record, I had tried for a little bit to use another blogging site called Tumblr. There are a few posts on there ya may haven't seen yet. so if ya have any interest, here's a link to them. From now on tho, I will be posting here again. Tumblr just seemed to have all sorts of bells and whistles, that i never used.

Friday the 13th at the shop

For Friday 13 this year we held a benefit for some dear friends of ours. The nature of the Benefit was for all three of us to tattoo all day, hold a raffle, Holly and Pati baked some goodies to sell, and we made t-shirts. Each artist kept a small % to pay for supplies and the rest went to our friends. We each drew up designs themed to the day, and did them for either $50 or $100 depending on the size and involvement of the tattoo. Man, it went over great! We each did 10-15 tattoos, sold a bunch of shirts, and overall had a blast.

There was a ton of prep work to be done and I definitely overextended myself, but it worked out in the end. I painted a design for the postcards, redrew the same design in pen and ink for the t-shirts, and put all the designs together. That didn’t leave me a ton of time to get my flash together, and like a moron I decided to do a poster sized sheet with around 50 designs. As it turned out, I didn't get it entirely done by the start of Friday, but all the designs were outlined so they at least were done enough for folks to pick from the sheet. I plan to still finish the sheet and make prints to send to out to some friends.

Anyway, here are photos from the day. There are some of the tattoo photos. A few didn't come out very well so I'll have to wait to get healed pics.

line sheet 1

line sheet 2

line sheet 3

sheet of flash, needs to be finished, but im happy with it so far.

raffle items

Holly and Pati's baked goodness

Me tattooing Jen's neck

T-shirt

gone fishin'

I have had my hands full with work and illustration assignments for the past month. I have every intent of posting what has been getting done... just not the energy to really get into anything heavy or overly thought driven in this post. The result of being busy as hell, is the lack of motivation in talking about it.
So here are the photos of some of the more relaxed moments this month. More specifically some shots from a few nights out by the river and the lake.
There has been so much on my mind lately, that it makes it hard to focus. I've been so damn busy with drawing and tattooing, there hasn't been the chance to really decompress and sort through day to day stresses. late at night, sitting alone by the water is about as perfect an opportunity to clear my head as any. Here's the proof...

broken dolls

The past few weeks have been a tad on the hectic side. Between Hospital visits, tattoo conventions, and just flat out working my tail off… there is no shortage of things to talk about. I’ll eventually get to the other activities, but this post will cover a trip with some friends to an antique flea market. So here’s the story:

I was lucky enough to get out to Rennenger’s antique flea market a few Thursdays ago. I went with a couple of good friends, Turk and Elvis Lewis. All three of us found a thing or two we couldn’t live without. In Turk’s case a bit more than Elvis and I. That fella has a mission when he hits these things, and he finds some pretty damn creepy/cool stuff. He tends toward the macabre with his taste, and this trip didn’t disappoint. I’ll leave it to him to post about his finds, he keeps his blog at his site Left Hand Black.

One of the things I really enjoy while antique shopping is taking photos of the stuff that catches my eye. I think it helps keep me from buying every damn thing I come across. I tend to do it on the sly with my little digital camera. The fun part trying to be stealthy, is not really knowing how the photos are going to turn out. Sometimes I even forget the stuff I shot, till I get home and go over them all. I usually tend to lean towards the particularly creepy and weird things people sell. I’m sure there is value in some of this stuff, but I can’t for the life of me figure out to whom. The folks that are selling this stuff travel from event to event across the country, so I’m sure they know better than I.

Anyhow below are the photos from our trip. Don’t forget you can click on the image to see it full size.

Take care,

Scott

3 swordsmiths and a soldier

This is a pair of tattoos started in the past week. Both will end up full color, and both have a long way to go. I have been really excited with the tattoos I have had the opportunity to work on lately.

For each of the two tattoos I ended up taking few perspectives. They both wrap around an arm, so single photos don't really do them justice.

I hope y'all are doing well.
-Scott

First is a revolutionary soldier. This is the first section of what will be a 3/4 sleeve. This fellow is representing the idea that he would rather cut off his own arm, than live under tyranny. There was a flag from the texas revolution against mexico that showed a bloody arm holding a saber. We applied that same theme to an American Revolutionary War soldier. The rest will be a composition patriotic and cultural iconography. I'm so excited to do this it's silly.







And...
This one is the start of another sleeve where there is a samurai master swordsmith and his two aids hammering out a sword. It was fun trying to find the type of hammers and garb to be accurate for the characters. There will be an image of a spirit behind them granting the gift of their ability. I love my job.

Chicamauga

So I finally got this painting done, and shipped of to Safwan in Montreal. I had a bit of a hold up so I could get prints made and wanted to be sure they came out well before shipping off the original artwork. I had posted some of these shots and mentioned this painting in previous posts, but I will post them again for the context of this posting.

The painting itself is called “Chicamauga”. It is based on the short story of the same name by Ambrose Bierce. (Here is a link to the complete story) He had written a couple dozen short stories based loosely and directly on events of the civil war. I plan to do at least two more paintings from his stories as soon as I can get a better grip on my time. All of his stories are graphic and usually full of very dark irony. Perfectly suited to base some illustrations on.

There are a few things I will be working on for shows in the near future, so this series may have to be shelved until I can get the time to focus on it. It’s a little disappointing, as I don’t usually have the fire under my ass as hot as it has been working on this. That said, it is hard to complain about having a few shows and an entry into a book to work some paintings up for. I’ll of course write more on those projects, as they get finished.

The last few images are some vinyl stickers that I’m printing for the Lehigh valley convention this weekend. Let me know what ya think of them… or any of the silliness I post up here for that matter. It’s always nice to get some feedback. Let’s me know if things are interesting to anyone but me. hahaha

If I get the time I plan to post some other recent tattoo photos. I have a ton of drawing to do for this week though, so it may get put off another day or two.

I hope this finds you all well, and maybe ill see you up at the convention!
Scott

This is the machine Safwan made for me. I use it damn near every tattoo I do!

This was the start of the inkwash. Stained paper with tea and peat ink. Black is Talens.

Here is the finished product! I went in to establish a little more depth with acrylic outlines.