HEY COOL KIDS CHECK THIS OUT.
current project: dr. steve brule shirt.

dear tumblr,
i’m making you a steve buscemi shirt.
i hope you like it.
tell your friends.
love,
mo

it’s a sunday morning and it’s time to paint.

just look at all those wips…
place your bets now to guess which one gets finished first (?) 

i’m extremely overdue for an update, i know. but i haven’t been not-busy.
hopefully i’ll get a full update post on here later into the week. my weekend is still filled with studying, trying to get started on my piece for this month’s butts collective, and avoiding tumblr. so far, none of these activities have taken place successfully, but - look! - at least i’m getting some practicing in :D

p.s: yes, that is a frame from the killing joke. swoon. 

NEW DESK, GUYS.

NEW. DESK.

guys, do you know what this means? it means i can start doing art again! AHHH.
AHHHH, guys. SERIOUSLY. this is like christmas. ho’shit. AHHH.
my old desk was absolute hell on my back. plenty of work space, but pretty much 90 degrees of pure neck-snapping hell, as the most efficient way to work was with my face completely parallel to desk top. also, the chair was of average height, which is too low for me to sit at comfortably due to my shit back, so doing anything at all at my desk was pretty much out of the question if i had to do other things like, y’know, drive. or work at my part-time. or sit on the toilet (which is both a pain and incredibly stupid). my activity-reserve is extremely limited.  

BUT WITH THIS SUPER TALL, SUPER SEXY DESK, i don’t have to dread the horrific process of lowering my body into a desk chair, wiggle around for about 10 minutes trying to get comfortable, and then give up before even starting a sketch due to the horribly uncomfortable position i’m in. dudes, seriously. it’s basically the equivilant of holding candy in front of a toddler and then snatching it away from their reach - only i’m the toddler, the candy is my whole illustration thing, and the bastard snatching it away is my spine, preventing me from bending my head down to look at what i’m doing.

also, i’m rambling entirely out of excitement here.

accompanying my sexy tall desk is an adorable little shelf that holds all of my illustration necessities and just makes for classy presentation. i’m not gonna lie, the anatomy books are less for reference and more for distraction. there, i said it.

new desk also means i can finally finish my ren & stimpy piece, which is a whole other ball of excitement as i haven’t touched it in about a month now and that’s extremely depressing. for a while there, i had it taped to a slab of wood and i would attempt to work on it on the couch or on the ground. however, if you’ve ever tried to work for more than half an hour in prone-position, you’d know that that is one of the least effective ways to get shit done. (unless you’re shooting or doing yoga or being held hostage. they’re all connected either way, i’m sure.) anyway, super stoked to finally work on this again. it’s about 70% done, too. eeeeeeee-…

meanwhile, i’ve been trying to sketch in my new, tiny-ish sketchbook that i drew an unfinished chubby little monster thing on. it has a butt on the backside that isn’t finished. also, that’s a sign that i put on top of my art to keep the cats off of my desk while paint/ink is drying. not that they can read (at least to my knowledge, they’re illiterate), but when it’s up, it gets rid of any flat space for them to sprawl on - thus, keepin’ dem bitches off of my work space. y’know… in case you were wondering.

also, PRACTICE SKINS! AHHHH- more excitement, as now i can advance a tad further in my apprenticeship! [insert noises of joy and hyperventilation here.]

also also, here’s the super rad [read: “admittedly cute”] portrait i did for my illustration pal, Venton Kisser, private eye:

now featured in our latest edition of Pictures of Butts (which i highly recommend following, as we’re actually a rather good collection of aspiring illustrators.)

new goodies aside, i’ve been receiving regular therapy for my back, which is also splendid news. aaaand i have purple hair dye coming in the mail soon, so that’s also exciting - along with the upcoming school semester (which will be ultimately less exciting as it’s just a math and biology class (y’know, things they don’t teach you in art college) but something new nonetheless).

TL;DR things are looking up and i have a new desk yay.

cheers. it’s late. i’ve done all sorts of shit today that i shouldn’t have done (for my back, i mean) so i’m off to bed. i have comics to scan in the morning, comics to continue inking in the morning, and hopefully time to work/finish this painting.

AHHH. 

a quick little update as proof that i’m not entirely dead yet.

as i type this, i’m on my stomach with an ice pack on my ass. this is because i have a herniated spinal disc that pokes into my spinal column and causes extreme pain and makes my entire right hip/butt check/leg/ankle hurt. a lot. a stupid lot. here’s a comic about it. because of this, i can’t sit comfortably and i avoid it as much as possible. my disc problem has gotten so bad lately, that i have to wear a back brace now. so, that’s sexy. it also means i can’t work at my desk, which is pretty much where all the illustrative “magic” happens.

so i haven’t been able to work on my ren & stimpy piece :c
however, i’ve managed to work on this little sampler for the upcoming butts collective, albeit awkwardly. 

drawing on my stomach is kind of difficult and doesn’t usually last long, so i haven’t been doing much art or making a whole lot of comics, which is poo.

instead, much of my free time is spent lying around with an ice pack on my ass. like now.
that, and spending some time working on a tattoo apprenticeship(!) 
here’s the first thing to greet you at the studio i’m studying in :) it’s called skin deep ink, and i’m extremely fortunate that they’re taking me in and teaching me. most tattoo shops in town had absolutely no interest in doing apprenticeships at all when i first went to seek one out about two or three years ago. granted, who could blame them? i was younger and obviously didn’t know shit about tattooing other than that i wanted to do it. why should they waste their time on some art school kid? completely unaware of how apprenticeships work, i became discouraged and kind of just forgot about tattooing all together while i focused on my illustration degree (only - fun fact - the whole reason why i decided to study illustration in the first place was to aid me in becoming a tattoo artist, so…) gradually, my heart kind of drifted away from the thought of tattooing while i finished school. my logic at the time was something along the lines of, “well, i don’t draw in tattoo flash style anyway, so maybe it’s not for me.”

bullshit!
(i need to stop negating myself.)

every night i leave skin deep, i’m BEAMING with happiness and excitement. and i’m not even tattooing yet. i just help clean and observe. sometimes, i fill ink cups. or i’ll get to look for needles. or hold a machine. and it’s those little things that get me so excited - especially after nearly abandoning my dreams, to be cliche. the whole reason i got this apprenticeship was through me pretty much kidding myself and responding to an artist-wanted ad on craigslist. it’s amazing. really. i can’t believe i get this opportunity. i started hardly a week ago, and i’m still extremely baffled.

…the only problem is that i want to draw flash now and work on old tattoo designs people asked for that i never did (because i’m a horrible person of sorts) but now i can’t because of my back.

i’ve also got a whole new semester of not-art related classes to look forward to, so there goes more of my precious time. my hope is that once any of these three big things start to settle, i can give myself more time for illustration and flash. hopefully, it’ll be my back that gets fixed. i miss being active. it’s… stupid.

so, yeah. that’s about it for now. i’m tired because i don’t sleep comfortably throughout the night and can’t think straight. a lot of my thoughts and energy go into pain management, so that’s some tough titty right there. but, with luck, this disc-issue will clear up and i can start living a mostly normal life again.

fingers crossed, guys. 

working on a personal painting.
i haven’t done a personal piece since before SCAD. every illustration i’ve made since 2009 was for a class up until now.

i tried to do this exact piece this past winter, but in acrylics. unfortunately, acrylics aren’t my thing. after much longing, i decided to pick it back up again but in watercolors and one tube of white gauche. and, quite frankly, i’m extremely excited for its finish.

working on my next picture of a butt, based off of a fake movie poster and title, which was bestowed upon me via an online generator. yup. should be done by tomorrow.

working on my last assignment of my college career!
i have lots of sketches and such to post that i haven’t because i’m lazy. but i’ll update real soon once finals are over.

(i’m not dead, i promise.)