Watercolor Postcards & Postcrossing

I know some of these have appeared in previous blog entries, but I decided to wrangle all my watercolor postcards into one single blog entry. This way I can direct people to this specific blog entry to share my work with other postcrossers interested in a watercolor postcard.

Im surprised by how many of these I made so far! I've only been on postcrossing a month, but between official site swaps, direct swaps, and a few postcards to family, this is quite the list now that I look at it. I'm glad I got rid of that "all art is precious" mumbo-jumbo years ago, sending these is an amazing feeling. I'm not sad I don't have the piece anymore, but instead I'm glad my art is flying all over the world.














































































































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Expanding Horizons

I've finally decided to bite the bullet and get into screen printing. I've wanted to do this for almost ten years now, and now it's time to do it.
I've bought the majority of the supplies to start up doing one color designs, and I'm building a four color press.




The image above isn't mine, but it's essentially the same build as what I'm working on with my father. I haven't felt this excited in some time. Almost once a month I run into people who wants screen printed shirts, jerseys, and other attire. I've been able to help on a design end, but it really sucks having to farm out the actual printing to somewhere charging an arm and a leg.

Once I get going, I'm going to start taking on small jobs, like 5-20 one color design shirts. Once I feel comfortable, I'll expand from there.
I really need this to be the year I become a full time artist. The work I do for a living is soul crushing and thankless. I need to start doing what I love and seeing where that takes me!

Watercolor Lighthouse for sale

Finally, I'm trying to restock my etsy shop! To start off, I have this 9x12 watercolor illustration of a lighthouse! I'll be adding more work in the next couple days.




If you'd like to purchase it, here's the direct link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/129652785/watercolor-lighthouse-painting-9x12?ref=sr_gallery_7&ga_search_query=Watercolor+lighthouse&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=Watercolor+lighthouse

Figure Drawing Group

This weekend I was very excited to go to a figure drawing session at Allied Arts in Richland, WA. I've been really trying to find the pulse of the artist community in my new city. Glad I came across the info on their website.

I hadn't drawn in a figure drawing group in ten years. Surprisingly I never found any groups for it in Spokane. Well, luckily there is a once a month meeting here! Everybody was warm and welcoming, though mostly older than me. I was asked to join the allied artists and become a member, and potentially show my work there. Also this week someone else approached me. I feel very honored and welcomed here in the Tri Cities now that I found people closer to my wavelength.

From the session, these were my favorites. Pencil construction lines, pen and ink, with watercolor.

Location:W Sylvester St,Pasco,United States

Lucha Libre Lotería

Just saw this at all-pop.com when researching alternative lotería cards. These look really fun, too bad they are currently out of stock.




Right now I'm creating my own lotería an tarot cards. Id like to make a limited series screen printed set. Here are some samples:













I'll probably draw another tonight. It's been a lot of fun so far. These are done on 4x6 watercolor paper, using pen, ink and watercolor.

More watercolor and other things on my mind

I'm still living without a computer! All my blogging, instagram, tumblr, and Facebook updates have been via iPhone or iPad. It works, but nothing beats a clean high quality scan of artwork rather than an iPhone photo.
If all goes to plan, I should have a PC going in a week or two. I built a computer last week, Frankensteining some old parts from broken computers (keyboard, mouse, case, pc fans, ram), and buying new parts (new motherboard, i7 ivy bridge 3.4ghz CPU), new graphics card, and a new 520 watt power supply. After building it though, ran into a snag. The CPU was faulty! Mailed it back for a replacement, and that should be here within a week or two. Can't wait to be running lightning fast! Since moving to Tri Cities, I've been using an ancient borrowed laptop. It crapped out two weeks ago too. It's been a living hell not being able to work in Photoshop. But I honestly think that is why I've also been so into watercolor, linocut, and screen printing recently.
Speaking of screen printing, I'm finally buying the bullet and getting into it. For a decade I wanted to do it, but thought the kits were expensive. The awesome presses are also ridiculously priced. So I did some Googling for plans, and I watched some YouTube videos. Right now I'm going to build a one color screen printing press, with plans to build a four color setup down the road if this really takes off. I'm so stoked.

Here are some recent works I've been doing.








These are the first two pages of El Gran Búho which will appear in a lucha libre comic-zine early summer.
















These are all watercolor postcards I've made since I've uploaded pics of the last batch. The last two are Tarot/Lotería cards. I'm thinking of doing a couple things with these. First, I'd like to make a cool screen print or linocut of the chiromancy hand. Second, I've always wanted to make my own series of tarot cards. I might get several of these scanned and printed as a small run of real postcards through moo.com. Lastly, I think I might paint one or two on large canvas for an upcoming art show.

So that's what's been going on with me! I'm really excited to get into screen printing for making prints, posters, and shirts. I'm going to start slowly spreading the word and taking small jobs in town from local bands, etc. Once I feel like this is something I can do that will potentially supplement my income, I'll build a four color setup and see what happens. I've always wanted art to be my life. I love helping people in the hospital, especially when I have to interpret on the fly for patients who speak Spanish. But working in a hospital as a patient transporter, or even as an EDA or EKG tech doesn't light my fire. My mind is so geared for art, it's what's occupying the back of my mind while at work.

Location:Pasco, WA