Just TeeJay's Blog

Those who can’t….

•December 2, 2011 • 5 Comments

They say something else about those who can’t… Today I am going to say instead “Those who can’t, have friends who can”.

Anyone who has been around for any time knows for sure that I am NOT a photographer. Yes, I take pictures. I take a lot of pictures. Once in a while one of them actually shows what I was trying to. It’s more of a numbers game for me than anything else. Take enough pictures and you might get a usable one.

But. (There’s always a but) I have friends who are actually GOOD at it… and a couple who are amazing.

One of these is a great guy named Mike Zappia. He has a passion for photography (still. even though he does it for a living) and it shows in the work that he does. He had stopped by the shop a while back and taken this photo of me ~~hard~~ at work.

Recently Mike stopped by the shop in Webster while a friend of his was getting his first tattoo and took some more photos. He gave me a disk with some of the photos on it and told me that it was okay to “put them on facebook” or whatever.

They are so cool that I wanted to show them off better than that and decided to put them here. Hopefully Mike and Alex (the guy in the photos) are okay with that. If not this post will mysteriously disappear.

If you like what you see here you can check out Mike’s work here ZappiaPhoto – you could even hire him to take photos of your tattoo session and/or your healed tattoos on your person : ) He does weddings and school pictures and that sort of thing as well (All of which you can see on the website).

My apologies in advance to Mike for the watermark. I felt that he needed to get credit and added the watermark myself – so it might not meet with his aesthetic standards.

Thanks Mike and Alex. I had much fun. And Mike, just please don’t publish too many of those “back in the day” photos of me. I really don’t like when people ask me… “Wow! How long ago was that picture taken?!?”.

Posted in tattoo
Tags: Mike Zappia, photograph, photography, tattoo

Finally figuring out the Camera…

•November 29, 2011 • Leave a Comment

So I spent some time this morning messing with all of the settings on my camera – and I am hoping that may lead to some slightly better photographs in the near future….

Yesterday was figure drawing class and we had an amazing model. She did some great poses for us! Steve wasn’t there and the lighting was a little bit weird – but it was fun and (as always) great practice.

I went back and tried to get some better photos of the paintings that I posted yesterday. While these are better – it is still clear that I can tattoo and paint far better than I can photograph.

Today I was able to work on Frank’s Sugar Skull again. Frank sat really well and we made some good progress… but unfortuantely didn’t make it all the way to finished. One more sit to go.
As always this is being done with Silverback Inks.

Thats it for today. Have some fun tattoos to work on this week so I hope to have some more photos for you soon.

Posted in Art, painting, tattoo
Tags: figure drawing, painting, Rochester NY, silverback tattoo ink, Steve Carpenter Studio, tattoo

Productive Sunday (and Monday)

•November 28, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Sunday I had some time to paint so I went back into a few paintings to do those little finishing touches and sign them (which by my own rules means that I am not allowed to touch them again).

So these are done. After I took the photos off of the camera I realized these were all really bad photos. I guess it’s nice to know that it’s not just tattoos that I have difficulty taking pictures of!

Hopefully I will get some better shots before they go away.

Today was quite productive as well – but not visually. Today was all about dotting i’s and crossing t’s and filling out paperwork. Not fun, but nice to have off of my “to do” list.

Off to figure drawing class. Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.

Posted in Art, Oil painting, painting
Tags: dog, goat, oil painting, painting, seal

Painting class ends

•November 22, 2011 • 2 Comments

This painting session went by so fast that I didn’t even realize that it was the last class until yesterday morning. I am extremely bummed and will miss it a whole lot. I was hoping that there would be another one on Mondays, but alas, the next session starts in January and there is no class on Mondays. I will have to keep checking and see if and when another one comes along.

In the meantime, I learned so much!!! Holy paint fumes! I had a great time.
It’s so amazing looking back that I was apprehensive about changing teachers. I had so much more fun in this class and felt supported and empowered. I left every class inspired to make more stuff. The people there were wonderful and sweet and encouraging. Steve was so helpful in explaining things. He was respectful of everyone’s boundaries and encouraged all of us without ever once being condescending or nasty.

I am inspired, encouraged and excited to continue painting.

So if you catch me slacking, feel free to ask me what I have painted lately. I am hoping to spend some time every Monday painting until another class comes along on Mondays.

Here is the progress that I made on the painting of Jess Monday

I think that she is just about finished. I would like to bring back the texture in the background – probably about half way color wise between where it was and what it is now – but I definitely prefer it textured.

Since it was the last class, I also brought home all of the paintings that Steve had asked me to leave there so he could look at them. Since they were waiting there every week, I always brought something new in with me and I never got back to any of them. They all need small minor noodly details and then they will get signed and go up for sale. It really is time to start selling these off before they take over the house.
It looks like I will have an opportunity to hang some at the Owl House – so everything that goes in there will be for sale and I will put the rest of them online somewhere.

The self portrait will get sent to my mom as promised because she “helped make the original” as she so eloquently put it.

Here are the figure drawings from last night. I did also go the week prior, but I wasnt’ feeling well so I left after about an hour (I won’t bother posting those).

Posted in Art, drawing, Oil painting, painting, rochester, ny, TeeJay
Tags: class, drawing, figure, figure drawing, oil painting, painting, Rochester NY, Steve Carpenter Studio

Need a Tattoo? Or how I spent my Thanksgiving vacation

•November 21, 2011 • Leave a Comment

So here is the deal.

I was supposed to be in the car right now heading towards my family in South Carolina. I’m not. It’s a long story and it’s not interesting. So why am I telling you this? Because I now have most of a week with no appointments booked.

Since I don’t do well with doing nothing, I am looking to fill some of those days with tattoo appointments. In the interest of keeping this at least a little bit like a vacation and limiting my stress… I would like to fill those appointments with tattoos that don’t require a lot of homework.

Portraits would be my first choice.

Second would be things that we have in progress already that need another session yet (or filled in or whatever).

Third would be cool images that you want put on you without any modifications. Need a Frazetta on your arm? Here’s your chance. I still won’t duplicate another tattoo artist’s work, so please don’t ask me to replicate someone else’s tattoo that you found on the internet.

If I can’t find tattoos to do that fit the bill, I will play adult for the week and do bookwork and office stuff (and maintenance, etc.,).

If you are interested, please email me directly at teejay1@frontiernet.net

Thanks!!!

Posted in Uncategorized

A Great Idea

•November 16, 2011 • 4 Comments

I received this today in a forwarded email. It puts this concept a little more eloquently than I think that I can…. So I am just sharing it here unedited.

Thank you Steven for passing this along
TeeJay

Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!
It’s time to think outside the box. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone — yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It’s appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.
Who wouldn’t appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down the Benjamines on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.
There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants — all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn’t about big National chains — this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn’t use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.
Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.
Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn’t imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition.

If you like this idea consider passing it along!!!

Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: American, local, Patriotic, shop

Working on Me and Jess

•November 14, 2011 • Leave a Comment

No really. Paintings of us. You didn’t think that I was going to get all syrupy and talk about how awesome I think she is did you?

It was funny this morning because I got to class and couldn’t find me. I wasn’t where I had left me and it took me some looking before I found where someone had moved me to.

I don’t think I will do anymore self portraits, this is really weird.

So this is where we left off last week: Steve came by and showed me where he wanted some more darks put in and mixed a suggested tone up for me of what he wanted me to work with. He dropped it in a couple of places: We talked about some various strategies and he left me to my own devices: Not wanting to overwork it or anything I set it (me) aside to work on Jess. I had started this piece when Off the Map was doing their Goddess show. I had intended to make Jessie a Goddess – Using the close up of her face in kind of cloud type thing and then making a landscape below her. I decided that there really wasn’t enough room below her to pull of the transition and there was too much ~~self imposed~~ pressure to make it look like her. So I set it aside for when I felt more comfortable working on a portrait. It seemed like today would be a good day and so this is what is (she) looked like before I started today: You can see where I was trying to put the mountains and valley in below her (and why that probably wasn’t going to work). First thing to do was to wipe out the landscape and then when I am especially intimidated the next step is to just go ahead and do something drastic. Even if it is wrong, it is still a big step: and then to start to fix it…. Steve came by and had afew suggestions on my self portrait the biggest one being that the hair has gotten too brush-strokey. I’m going to leave that on there for him to look at over the week and went back into working on Jess. I didn’t have a lot of time left but was trying to make more of a transformation on the skin tones. I took her home to hopefully get a chance to work some more on while the paint is still wet. Hopefully I will be able to steal some time in between other projects. Tonight is figure drawing class and I am hoping to be able to go since I missed it last week.

Time to go finish my Big People work so that I can get some more play time.

Posted in Art, painting
Tags: class, oil painting, portrait, self portrait, Steve Carpenter Studio, teejay

AYU Art Group for November

•November 13, 2011 • Leave a Comment

We had our get together today. I decided to haul out another old project that hadn’t been touched in a while. I started this at Mad Hatters sometime earlier this year. I could go look up the dates… but I’m not going to.

Anyhow, I knew that this piece needed work, but there were things that I really liked about it. Which sometimes can cause a little bit of paralysis on my part and cause the painting to just wind up abandoned.

This is what I started with today:

What happened while I was there:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And where I stopped for the day:

I had forgotten (somehow?) to bring my disposable palette pad with me. So I wandered around the shop looking for a make shift palette.

I hadn’t put any thought into how I was going to get this back home after I had worked on it with both Jessie and I in the car. So I decided to just leave it at the shop until Tuesday to dry some and make it easier to transport. I asked Jess to make a “Wet Paint” sign for me while I was cleaning up.

She went above and beyond and made me a sign that NO ONE could possibly miss: