Scum Choir

Let's vote on the next art prompt!

Let's vote for the new prompt!

I'll announce the new prompt sometime after the 1st so you have plenty of time to vote.

Reminder: Inner Landscapes are due Sunday the 31st!

Big Painting Back to the Future Shower Thoughts

Painting Process first.

I put started putting paint on this one last night. 

I'm going to keep working the background area with the single color.

Then I'm going to do an automatic drawing type of thing on it and add some form to that.

Then I'll build up the underpainting.

Then I'll start adding color.

At least that's the plan. We'll see. 

I haven't worked on a painting this big in 5 years. I'm not really set up for it. 

My whole s...

Golden Sunshine and the Monomyth

Almost done with my inner landscape piece. I think I'm going to call it "Golden Sunshine." I like that name because it reminds me of when David Lynch used to do the weather report here in LA. He would always say "blue skies and golden sunshine, all along the way."

This piece is hard to take pictures of because there's so many dark areas.

I put out an Art Life and Lives about the Hero wit...

The Hero with a Thousand Faces-Art Life and Lives

This is a little bit of a weird one. Today I’ll be talking about the Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

Published in 1949, the book explores the common patterns and themes found in myths and stories from various cultures throughout history. One of the most enduring ideas in it since its release is Campbell’s idea of the "monomyth" which later evolved into being called the Hero's Journey.

The monomyth is a universal narrative structure shared by diverse cultures thr...

Post Christmas Hangover Perspective Studies

Here's some perspective studies that I did for the cave painting. I think I'm going to start on the actual actual painting tonight. Actually I might wait until tomorrow. I need to finish the Inner Landscape art prompt first. 

Happy December 26th Everybody

There's going to be a new Art Life and Live's coming out tomorrow probably.

I also wrote down what I'm going to talk about in the last video of the year today.

Kind of a year in review type of thing. 

Decalco-santa-mania 2

Decided to make another one of these decalcomania Santas for the choir only.

I'm using colored pencil on top of the acrylic which has a very satisfying feeling.

Happy December 25th Everybody

Merry Christmas.

I'm spending time with my family and I want to take a nap.

Grateful to all of you for being in the choir. 

Did you get anything good for Chr...

Decalco-Santa-Mania

Feeling very festive this year for some reason.

Here's the Secret Choir link to the song in this video!

Woke up and decided to make this decalcomania Santa clause. The design is actually a Santa that I paint with the kids I teach.

We ...

Tonal Doodlings

These are two tonal studies for the big painting. I'm not really trying to plan out the exact thing the painting is going to be. I'm just looking for for of a gesture. A shape. Then I will do more of an automatic process within that on the actual canvas and develop it as I go.

Happy December 23rd everybody

Or as my mom calls it "Christmas Adam."

I wrapped gifts today.

I'm a horrible gift wrapper. But what I lack in gift wrapping skills I make up for with charm and ar...

Exploring the cave symbols

These are some little thumbnail sketches of a Thing that will inhabit the cave.

This is for that larger cave painting that I'm doing for a show in February. 

The cave symbolizes imagination and the womb of creation. At least I've come to see it that way as I've been doing these studies for this painting.

I've left some space under all the thumbnails so that I can write down little things that come to mind. I wrote down part of that Max Ernst quote about seeing the world...

A rest in hills where monsters live

Another Decalcomania piece I did for the Intro to Drawing Bad Art Lesson. I think this piece was subconsciously influenced by the Led Zeppelin biography I've been listening to. They go off to the country side to write and record some of their albums. And the William James biography I read last month.

This piece would also work as an inner landscape.

One of the things I love about the decalcomania technique is that many times you don’t know where it’s going to end up. You just ...

Decalcomania-Intro to Drawing Bad Art Course

Today we’re doing another Forgetting the fundamentals session where we focus on a technique or method of making art that is less about technical skills and more about play.

We’re going to do explore a surrealist art technique called Decalcomania.

Outside of this surrealist technique, Decalcomania is a decorative technique that involves transferring an image or design from one surface to another.  It’s basically a sticker. It became popular during the Victoria era as an ...

Speaking of Bad Art

You all win! Here's the special prize for participating in my Bad Art Contest. An original song "Champions of Imperfection."

No one voted for anyone on the bad art contest post. Katrin commented and said that everyone who participated should win. I think everyone in the choir should win. Because we're all trying our best. We're exploring this magical world of art even though a lot of what we do doesn't work out the way we want. We keep going. 

And the prize is pretty terrible...

Braindead Volcano Potluck

Another Decalcomania piece from my sketchbook. Made for an upcoming Intro to Drawing Bad Art Lesson.

Acrylic, micron pens, gel pen and colored pencil

Now that I think about it this could work as my prompt submission.

I can't think of anything else to say about this piece right now. I like to draw.

Happy Dec. 19th Everybody!

December 19th was my anniversary with one of my girlfriends in high school.  We'd give each other gifts whenever it came around. Even ...

Don't Stop Starting

I really made some progress on this one. Should be completely finished in one more session.

I noticed last night that Most of the time when I sit down to paint I’m not excited about it. Starting is the hardest part.

I look for reasons not to do it. I have a lot of reasons not to do it. I think of all the other stuff I should do instead.

There are more reasons not to paint than there are reasons to paint. Art is just one of those things in life. At first it's exciting and f...

Approaching the Inmost Cave/ What's your dream job?

These are little 2x3 inch studies that I did to help figure out the shape and size of the cave and look at different color schemes. 

Each of these took between 10 and 20 minutes and then I wrote down which colors I used on the back.

I haven't decided which color palette I'm going to go with. But I'm pretty sure I know which composition idea I'm going to use. 

Next I'm goi...

I put gesso on my hand thinking it was soap

Here's a drawing for the upcoming Intro to Drawing Bad Art Course lesson I'm doing about decalcomania. 

I did this with acrylic paint, using plastic wrap for the organic texture looking stuff. I used colored pencils to shape the form a little bit.

 I don't usually name sketches but I'm thinking something like "strangers waiting in a line" for this one. 

Happy December 16th Everybody

It's Beethoven's birthday today. It's also my cousin's wedding anniver...

Cave Dwelling

This is my WIP for the Inner Landscape prompt this month. 

I am participating in a group show in February. The theme has to do with the symbolism of the cave. So I've been drawing a lot of caves lately. And looking at a lot of artwork about caves.

My favorite painting that I keep looking at is Francisco Goya's Vagabonds Resting in a Cave.

I am also trying this new method of using molding paste as a ground. 

The canvas for this painting was the failed Cardinal...

Dreaming of the Language of the Muses

I had a great conversation about my recent sculpture adventures with Chet Zar. He was a sculptor in the make up FX industry for 20 years. He attributes that experience to his painting skills. It totally makes sense. 20 years of being surrounded by skulls and anatomy references and skin textures with a demand to make everything look realistic. He's the guy to talk sculpture with. He gave me all sorts of great advice.

Chet's the one who told me "use reference" over and over.

Even th...

Priming the Behemoth, Ghosts and Scary Dreams

This will be the biggest painting I've started in about five years.

I'm excited and also a little intimidated. but the intimidation factor is going down more and more as I prep the canvas and do tiny little thumbnail sketches of what I want to paint.

I've also been looking at some beautiful frames for it. Both to help me think about the colors I should use and to get me excited about the finished painting.

Looking at the frames reminds me of ROBERT RODRIGUEZ' book REBEL WITH...

Developing references for the Cardinal

After I did the first drawing for of the crude maquette, I took some photos of it in different lighting conditions and made a Frankenstein version in photoshop.

I cut a hole in the top of this box to create a focused beam of light. I got this idea from reading about how Caravaggio would stage his models for his paintings. He painted in a room with a hole in the ceiling to create the same effec...

Scattering Brain Seeds

Earliest stages of a new painting.

These are some thumbnail sketches for a new painting. Scattering little seeds and looking for one that will grow.

The painting is for a show I've been invited to show in at the Dark Art Emporium. The show sounds super cool and the theme is right up my alley. It's about caves and their relationship to imagination and creativity and that type of thing.

I'm leaning very much towards doing a larger painting for this show which is one reason I...

Drawing What Doesn't Exist: the Maquette Video

This video is about my early experience of making maquettes and drawing them, the thought process behind why I started doing this, Facing uncomfortable truths about your art, and making it fun for yourself so that you can get into the process. 

I should say that I know nothing about sculpting and this isn't a how to video about sculpting or making a maquette. It's about creative process. 

I talk about James Gurney's account of the painter Federico Barroci's process. ...

New video tomorrow

I'll be posting a video tomorrow about these new clay experiments I've been doing. A little bit about the physical process of making these things, a little about the thought process and why I started doing them. A little guitar. It's a nice video. I hope you'll enjoy it. 

Happe December 9th Everybody

Today was one of those days where I spent most of my time in a dark room looking ...

Maquette Study + Dimebag Darrell

A weird little clay drawing session and reflecting on the death of Dimebag Darrell 19 years later.

I'm getting in to this process. I like mushing the clay around, creating distorted, messed up faces, coming up with little costumes and props for them, playing around with lighting them, And then drawing them.

It's kind of like sketching in 3 dimensions to me. Usually when artists work on maquettes they have an idea of what they are building. I'm letting the clay guide me.

Here...

Harnessing the Cardinal and the Butthole Snowman

Bringing the Cardinal into Being

This idea has been with me for almost 2 years. Starting with a watercolor sketch I did in February 2022 I think. I did a pretty decent acrylic study of it a few months ago (I'll post a picture at the bottom of this post so you can see what I'm referring to when I talk about it.)

When I went to paint it on a bigger canvas, it brought on a mini meltdown (see my video Self Portrait: the Beast and the Void to see that.)

Now I'm beginning again....

Could I interest you in my leathery shampoo?

New Scum Choir Luxury Leather Shampoo. Lather yourself in Luxury with my new premium shampoo that comes in a leather bottle. 

In my quest for methods of creating reference material to paint from I'm looking into digital alternatives. 

This is from Adobe Dimension, the 3D design program that is included in my Adobe Suite package. To orient you with how the program works they walk you through how to design a shampoo bottle. They give you texture's that you can apply to the...

Christmas Music Sucks, Here's Some Christmas Music

I'm on record saying that "If Christmas music were good, they'd play it year round." 

I think the reason why so many of us hate Christmas music is because it's extremely formulaic to make, a solid repertoire already exists, and it's guaranteed to make money. 

So the music industry just cranks out a bunch of cheap Christmas music every year and they play it to death everywhere you go.

However. I've changed my tune a little (get it?) 

I have strong associa...

Skull Study 3- Timelapse and music, New Skull Studies Available

Happy December 4th everybody.

This skull and the other two are now available only for Choir members in the secret Choir only shop! 

This is my third skull study time lapse. 

I recorded the guitar on this video a few weeks ago. I use a metronome and just record different ideas I have. I'm loosely working on writing some songs. I don't know what I plan to do with them yet. But I just really feel ...

This feels insane

And I love it.

One thing I've noticed about drawing from life references like this is how I tend to over look the cast shadows on things. And then that makes me notice how important a cast shadow is to communicating the thing. 

You know what would be interesting? if I could figure out the technology of how to do it, live stream a drawing session of one of these.

Not a drawing session where you watch me draw it, but I just live stream video of the maquette thing and ever...

Creating what doesn’t exist

I know I mentioned this a little in a previous post so sorry if I repeat myself. But I’ve been coming to the realization-with the help of a mentor-that the key to taking my art to the next level is to use more reference.

Honestly I find this realization kind of distressing because so much of what I enjoy most about making art is the spontaneity of it. And going through the process of creating a maquette or a photo shop reference just seems to add so much extra work.

But it’s j...