Yesterday Paul and I went and spent some time at the Buffalo zoo with our friends Frank & Bec.
Once again I neglected to take any photos of the humans, but here are some animal pictures for your enjoyment.
Weekly report from the Home Office
•September 24, 2013 • 4 CommentsSeems like I am posting the same format the last few weeks – but at least with different content.
Here is my token tattoo photo:
Random visitor to my office at the Webster shop:
Monday morning brought the return of Painting Classes at the Steve Carpenter Studio:
And as usual back to Figure Drawing on Monday night:
Some of the other participant’s work from this session:
And finally a random shot of my palette while I was cleaning it off (so that none of the Nudes show up as the thumbnail and get me in trouble where I post).
Have a great day!
Mondays are Art Days!
•September 17, 2013 • 2 CommentsI still make tattoos the rest of the week. Here is one that I was pretty happy with just so you don’t forget:
As I have said I have been really ambivalent about the Flying Lessons painting that I started while I was in France. I have decided to scrap it and start over. Made this thumbnail sketch and am thinking I would like to go more this direction – plus this will make it the same size as most of the other paintings in this series.
I was planning on starting work on it this Monday – but realized that I want to clear up (finish) some of the other unsigned pieces that I have floating around. Monday morning I started out with the Delirium thinking that she had quite a ways to go yet. I tweaked a few things and thought that she looked finished. Posted her to Instagram figuring that I would stare at her for a few more days before committing to signing. Spent a few minutes, decided I have to move on and start some new stuff so she got signed….
I celebrated with a “Beer” and started looking around to see what else I wanted to work on.
This piece needed some minor work and got signed.
This piece was finished a while ago but I don’t think I ever posted it finished and signed. (If I did, I apologize for repeating my self, but he is cute enough to warrant another visit).
He is making the transition from painting to tattoo and will be permanently installed on Casey’s leg (to completion) very shortly. I will be sure to post him here when that happens (and I am able to get a decent photo).
Figure drawing open studio is on Monday nights and while my figure drawing is not progressing as well as I would like – it won’t get better at all if I don’t keep at it.
and here are some clouds that I photographed last night outside of Steve Carpenter’s Studio…
I hope that you are having a great day and get to be involved in something that stirs your passion.
I need some advice and/or assistance
•September 13, 2013 • 3 CommentsI’m in need of some assistance or possibly some advice.
Here is the situation.
Some years ago I began writing a book on the reconstructive nipple/areola tattooing that I do. The reason for this was that I was getting multiple inquiries from practitioners who had been assigned the task of making these tattoos with little or no training. Often a doctor or a “superior” had assigned this task to someone who was (in the interest of protecting their job) unable to refuse to do so. The results are dismal. Patients are being experimented on by untrained professionals without their knowledge.
My greatest hope was that in putting the information involved in making these tattoos in print – that these practitioners would be given a tool to bring to their “superior” to explain to them that this is a specialized (and important) skill and can’t just be done by anyone. Or on the other end that tattoo artists who already have the training and the skill-set necessary to make these tattoos would be given the information that they need to cross over to working with medical practitioners.
Secondary to that was the hope that if these practitioners were forced to make these tattoos anyhow – that the damage to patients would be minimized.
I have been working on the book for years. I have a whole lot of information and experience in my head and some of it has actually made it to the book. I want this information to get out there. To help these people.
Unfortunately I am failing at being able to finish this book. I get disorganized. I get frustrated. I think of new information that I would like to include. At this rate there is a very high likelihood that this book will never get finished.
I feel that this information even in it’s raw form could still be beneficial. I want to get it out to the people that need it. My attempts to find someone who could ghost write/edit or in some way assist me in making the last hurdle over the finish line have not gone well. Not that people haven’t tried. (Kyla you have been especially helpful).
So what to do? Leave the manuscript in it’s current form to moulder on my hard drive? I’ve been doing that for far too long already.
Right now what I think my best option is – is to put the whole mess online for people to learn from. What is there is not pretty, but it could still be massively beneficial for a lot of people. I would like to take it online – but I do not want it available to just anyone. I am thinking some sort of passworded site (perhaps a forum where I could answer questions?) would be a good solution.
So now I am asking for help in one of two forms. Either someone who can help me figure out how to set up a passworded site OR a better idea. Please. I can’t stand having this project go nowhere anymore. Can someone help me with this?
Figure Drawing September 9th, 2013 and some other stuff
•September 10, 2013 • Leave a CommentI made this key tattoo for Sarah based on a drawing that her daughter had made for her. 
We got another session in on Frank’s Pandora back. He sat great for this session. Hopefully we can get a few more sessions like this in and we will get through this one in no time. 
This is Casey’s leg healed. For some reason I spaced out and cut the angel off in the photo. Sorry Casey. 
We finished up the Reaper Bat Nugget on Casey this session as well and started on the Flying Rodent which I will show you when we get that one finished.
I was able to put some time in painting and was able to repair the damage to the paintings that I made while I was in France. (They were damaged slightly from being transported back in a suitcase while they were still wet). This one still needs some work. 
This one I am happy with and have signed (so it’s finished). 
This one I still have mixed feelings on and don’t know from day to day if I am going to finish it, scrap it or like it the way that it is. 
Mary had this tattoo made – also off of a drawing that her daughter made for her. 
Eric got a great start on this Luis Royo inspired piece. It’s his first tattoo and he sat great. Can’t wait to work on this one again. 
A different Eric had a tattoo made of his dog Hady. 
. 
And that morning I made a quick oil study from the photo reference for the tattoo (the reference was reversed for the tattoo so that it would work better where we were placing it on his side). 
Sunday I had a little bit of down time and was able to work a little bit more on this Delirium painting. 
And a little bit more on this one. Not sure where this one is going. My daughter wanted to know if I had felt like painting from the ceiling. 
Monday night came the return of figure drawing. Jessie came with me this week. Still a little rough, but I value the practice always. 
Tried adding the warm tones in this since it was a longer pose and I’m not really happy with it. Maybe if I keep playing with it I can get better results out of it. 
This little guy I think I posted before saying that I wasn’t sure if he was finished. He is now (and signed) this isn’t the most accurate color representation, but it is hard to get a good photo because of all the orange. 
I think that brings us up to current. I was doing medical tattooing today, so no photos to share. While I was at the doctor’s office doing that both my Tuesday and Friday appointments cancelled…. so I don’t know what all I will wind up doing this week.
Figure Drawing August 26th, 2013
•August 27, 2013 • Leave a CommentI’m back from France. Since I posted photos of the trip on Instagram and Facebook, I won’t bother with them here also.
I did spend a bit of time painting and will post the pieces once they are finished (again). There was some minor damage to a couple of them from coming home only mostly dry and some of them weren’t finished anyhow.
I was very excited to finally be able to make it back to figure drawing. As expected I was a little rusty and had a difficult time with some things – but I really don’t mind. Just feels good to be getting back in a groove. There is no class next week (because it’s Labor Day) but I hope to have more for you here in two weeks.
And of course I had a cat helper this morning while I was photographing.
Monday Adventures
•August 5, 2013 • Leave a CommentAmy reads the paper. I do not. I generally have no idea what is going on in the world. She keeps a pretty good eye on things.
This is a good balance (and a great friend to have around). Amy finds about all sorts of cool stuff, calls me up and we go exploring.
First on the Agenda today was to go see the “button” that they are digging out of the parking lot in Charlotte. It was some sort of base or piece that went underneath a foundry that used to be there a long time ago. I hear they are planning on putting some sort of marina in that area of Charlotte and needed to dig the “button” or “skull” of the foundry furnace up and get it out of there. Most of it is gone already, but what is left is still huge and you have to wonder if it was really a good idea to try and get it out of there or not.
Looks like a lot of work.
Also makes me wonder what other kind of goodies have just gotten paved or built over and no one has any idea that they are there.
From there we went out to Macedon to the Ganargua Creek Meadow Preserve. Definitely a beautiful place. If you are headed out that way, they will tell you to wear protective clothing from poison ivy. I would also add that bug spray might be a good idea as well. While the mosquitoes weren’t anywhere near as bad as they were at 1000 Acre Swamp, they were pretty damn excited that we were there.
This little guy was up in the reeds… like this —-> 
Whole lot of activity on these flowers. 
No filter or photoshop, the sky really looked like this today. 
Not sure what this is, but the new growth had a beautiful color to it. 
Back to the Real World tomorrow. No Figure Drawing tonight : (
Wall Therapy 2013
•August 4, 2013 • Leave a CommentSpent the afternoon wandering around Rochester with my family taking photos of the Wall Therapy projects that we could locate. There were one or two that we couldn’t find (one of which appears to have been painted over already).
Some of these are other things we saw along the way.
Enjoy.
Figure Drawing July 29th, 2013
•July 30, 2013 • Leave a CommentThey have changed the format a little bit in the Figure Drawing sessions. For the foreseeable future the sessions are from 6pm-9pm and the poses go from 1 minutes up to longer – but we will no longer be doing the 2 hour poses. I don’t see myself trying to paint during figure drawing anymore; so unless things change I will be postings drawings again instead of paintings.
Hoping to stay in the groove of posting more frequently again.
Thanks for your patience.
I grabbed this photo of us all drawing last night off of the Steve Carpenter Facebook page.
Sorry for the Lapse…
•July 29, 2013 • Leave a CommentI realized that it has been quite a while since I have been here. I’m not going to make excuses. I’m going to show you some of what I have been up to since then.
Tattoos
Had another session on Frank’s back. 
Made this for a friend on our day(s) off. 
Got some (mostly) healed shots of this kokopelli tattoo. 
Made this memorial tattoo for a great guy. 
Put the last piece in place on Eric’s Buddha/Mara tattoo/sleeve. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed working on this tattoo. I learned a lot and got to hang out with a really nice guy (thanks Eric!). He takes really good care of his tattoos both while they are healing and in protecting them from the sun so I know this tattoo will look good for always. We will get together soon to get healed photos of this as well.
Tattooed a little more on Mariah’s Alice in Wonderland sleeve (adding “Drink Me” to the already healed “Eat Me”). 
Worked on Dina’s Rainbow Goblins sleeve (or Lucky Little Life sleeve if you prefer). It has been an honor getting to know Dina while working on this – can’t wait to see her again. 
Tattooed this owl on the lovely Jill (who has been WAY too long in between visits). Hoping to add a bit more to it the next time she can swing by this way. 
Got some healed photos of the upper portion of Bob’s Cthulhu sleeve (the bottom is too tan right now to photograph well – Ill have to grab him in the winter!). 
Took some in stage photos of Mariah’s Alice in Wonderland sleeve. 
Went back in later and filled in all those little in between spaces.
Brought Frank’s arm project down on to his hand. 
Painting
Worked on the Bear and Bunny Paintings more. 
Started another painting. 
Went to Open Figure Drawing session at Steve Carpenter’s Studio and painted. 
Got in another brief session on the Bear and Bunny (mostly finished here) and worked on Jesse as Delirium again. 
Went back to figure drawing session and painted again. 
Went to figure drawing again and yep, you guessed it, painted again. 
Other Stuff
Spent some time defacing currency. 
Got a tattoo from Joe C at the Greece shop (White Tiger Tattoo) 
Went with the family to go and see the Heron Rookery in Sterling. These pictures don’t come close to doing this place justice. Absolutely amazing!!! 
Went camping and whitewater rafting. 
Got chased out of the 1000 acre swamp by some really mean mosquitoes, but not before I got some nice dragonfly photos. (I’m really sorry Michelle, I WILL remember bug spray next time). 
Tore the shop in Greece apart and redid the floor (including some mis-adventures in floor poly). 
Watched the sun set (a bunch of times, not just this once). 
Got some other people to draw on money also. (These are for the Jefferson Project) 
Had a weekend visit with some friends (and their kitties). 
Which included a shopping excursion to Pandora’s Box in Milford. 
Some more money got drawn on. 
Which I think brings us pretty close to current.
Hopefully I will be able to post more regularly again and I apologize to anyone who’s mobile couldn’t handle that many photos.
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