Notes from Hawaii Part 2 - The Beauty of Paradise in America

Today I did something very few people will ever get to do: Visit the USS Arizona Memorial, also known to most people as the ship that was hit during the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7th, 1941.

It was very moving.

Standing is a white building built over where the ship once stood, a memorial for those who died while protecting their country. The feeling was almost over-whelming at times, this massive building with open walls, beckoning you to reach out to it and understand its importance, its meaning, and the many, many, many soldiers who died to keep America free.

Getting to the memorial was a bit of a mess. Me and my friend wound up, thanks to Goggle Maps, walking on a bridge that was part of a naval base. We wound up having to turn back and walk an extra half-mile.

We went to a swap meet at Aloha Stadium here on Oahu in Ewa. If you ever get to come to this wonderful island, I HIGHLY recommend do all your gift shopping here. Personally, I wished I bought more, and I think I'll head back there tomorrow to do just that.

My favorite highlight was seeing something that I wanted to witness my entire time here: Someone carving an actual Tiki statue. It was incredible! There he was, wood carving tools in hand, creating a new statue of one of the Tiki Gods. His name is Soane Vehikite and he is AMAZING! They're working on a new site, and when it goes up, I will spread the word to the mainland!

We went to a sushi place called Kuru Kuru Sushi located right past Pearl Harbor. It was one of those places with an automated food trays so that the food passes around the entire restaurant. I wound up having a few shrimp things, and something the combined rice and salmon.

The ocean is still amazing and wonderful down here, inspiring beauty and aw at nothing more than a glance. You can literally walk the length of a football field into the ocean without having to swim! The only problem? Rocks. Lots of them. There are some great places without them, and other places where you don't know when they will just go away.

A few odd tidbits: There is a Ferrari Store. It does exist. A Ferrari Bike costs $4000. There's an "Animation Gallery" as well that sells limited-edition Disney Cels, paintings, and statues.

I also had the privilege of finally trying out a long-board skateboard today! Nice thick rubber wheels, a really smooth deck... I think I need to get one one of these days! Don't know how I would get the deck home from here, honestly...

The Arts and Culture in this state is astounding! I feel inspire to create at every turn!

That's about it. Photos exist, they are coming, but for now they reside entirely on my computer.

I've Got Your 8-Bit RIGHT HERE!

Conker 8-Bit by ~luvataciousskull on deviantART

This one was pretty fun! I did this for the upcoming 8-Bit & Beyond art show. In case you don't know who he is, it's Conker from Conker's Bad Fur Day, a video game for the Nintendo 64 that has a very large cult following for being a very fun and especially raunchy game for the system.

This piece was a lot of fun to do and I did it pretty damn fast! I tried a few different things and I like the effects I used on it.

EDIT: Sadly, this piece will NOT be in the show. Sorry about that. But hey, check it out, anyway!

How I Spent My Week...

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last week. As I write this, its 9:30PM. I wanted to go to sleep 3 hours ago because I haven't slept enough in the last week. Why? My art. Its a long story, and writing it now won't do it justice. What I did, quite simply, was spend a week getting ready to audition in New York City for a new show on Bravo called the "Untitled Art Project". Little is known about the show outside the fact that the winner gets a national art tour and a cash price. For me, that was more than enough motivation for a low-brow/pop/underground artist such as myself to give it a try.

So what happened? Well, I didn't make the show, but my story doesn't end there.

I can't say much, but look for a story about it all soon, VERY soon.

So far, the people who have criticized this have been "fine artists", or as those in the commercial art field like to call them, "cry babies and spoiled brats." HI-OH! No, seriously, its been just fine artists from what I see who state "art takes time, is subjective, etc, etc..." It does, it is, and its not. Ask a professional commercial artist if they've been forced to work on a piece they didn't like from start to finish within 48 hours, and you're bound to hear a yes. Some artists can do it... some can not. But, more than anything, if you decide to do a reality show, you're already saying that you know what this is: A TV SHOW FIRST, everything else second.

Also, I started a new inspiration blog called "This Stuff Kicks Ass!" I did it because I started to get pissed off with the inspiration site and sites I went to. Too many pastels and too much focus on things that are more about the concept than the execution. My 2 cents. This blog is focused on good concepts, good execution, but most importantly... stuff that kicks ass! Actually, that was the original name of the blog, but some loser got the name before me and there's nothing there. Man he sucks.

At any rate, enjoy!

New Artwork: "The Fly (Self-Portrait)"

The Fly (Self-Portrait) by LuvataciousSkull

Death has been on my mind a lot lately, and the end of mankind. Good stuff. I've been drawing skulls for the last 10 years and I finally said, "I think it would be cool to do something else". Fly's are, in essence, the result of death.

Its a "self-portrait" for a lot of reasons. It isn't really a self-deprecation thing. Decide for yourselves.

Military-Style Pin-Up: "Warrior in the Sign of Power"

Warrior Of The Sign of Power by ~luvataciousskull on deviantART

New piece up! Check it out!

DESTROY WHAT DESTROYS YOU!

Destroy What Destorys You! by LuvataciousSkull

I came up with this piece about 2 weeks ago. I didn't know where to take it, and right now I still don't know. I like the quiet silhouette nature of it against the white background. There may be another version of this down the line or something, but I doubt it. Feel free to support me and buy a poster.

OH NO! THE ROBOTS ARE ATTACKING!!!!!!

So this little guy is not the reason for "The End Is Near", but it is the Larry West Robot. I just wanted to give everyone a place to go to check out and kinda direct traffic here. I'll explain everything later.

If you took a photo of my "The End Is Near" robot, PLEASE upload it to the Flickr "The End Is Near!" Photo Pool. Also, please check out my website, Larry West Productions.

Thanks!

SERPENT OF DEATH!!!!!

Serpent Of Death by LuvataciousSkull

This is my new piece. Buy a copy and help out someone who loves drawing weird stuff!

I Try To Keep My Faith Alive!

New piece I got done last night. I wanted to try another style again.

ARTISTIC PROGRESS!

Kinda happy about this:

I've been having a hard time just sitting down at my art desk and drawing for... well, years now. I've sketched like a mad man during that time, but I haven't had many, if any, finished pieces. Last night I tightened up 2 pieces and finished the pencils on another. I plan on starting at least 3 today and may finishing off 2 as well.

On top of that, I'm going to try and finish my web site relaunch.

:)

While You Were Sleeping, The Senate Passed a Bill to Kill Art

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS' PARTNERSHIP

Orphan Works Opposition: Plan B

SEPT 27 Yesterday, in a cynical move, the sponsors of the Senate Orphan Works Act passed their controversial bill by a controversial practice known as hotlining.

With lawmakers scrambling to raise 700 billion dollars to bail out businesses that are "too big to fail," the Senate passed a bill that would force small copyright holders to subsidize big internet interests such as Google, which has already said it plans to use millions of the images this bill will orphan.

With the meltdown on Wall Street, this is no time for Congress to concentrate our nation's copyright wealth in the hands of a few privately owned corporate databases. The contents of these databases would be more valuable than secure banking information. Yet this bill would compel creators to risk their own intellectual property to supply content to these corporate business models. That means it would be our assets at risk in the event of their failure or mismanagement.

As David Rhodes, President of the School of Visual Arts has said, the Orphan Works bill would socialize the expense of copyright protection while privatizing the profit of creative endeavors. Copyright owners neither want nor need this legislation. It will do great harm to small businesses. We already have a banking crisis. Congress should not lay the groundwork for a copyright crisis.

--Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Illustrators' Partnership

NOW FOR PLAN B

We MUST try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill (HR5889) and adopting the Senate version.

PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TODAY.
If you've done it before, do it again!

It takes only a minute to use our new special letter.
Click on the link below, enter your zip code, and take the next steps.
Thanks to all of you who heeded the call to action yesterday.

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321

Apperantly, Being Anti-Obama Pays

I can't make this stuff up:

Back in April, I realized I hated the people left standing. This included Obama, McCain, and Hillary Clinton and, in that order, I made and released a new piece a day based on them pointing out the main problem with them.

Now, in 2004, I'm sure that my anti-Bush shirts would have done incredibly well had I done one that was original (and, lets be honest, the market was flooded by then after 2 years of the hate).

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I've made all of these items within the same span of time (about a week) with a t-shirt and poster on Zazzle, and let me give you some numbers:

• Shirt OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH 7
• Print OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH Dist... 2
• Print John McCain: War Without End D... 1
• Print Hillary Clinton: LIES! 1
• Print OBAMA: OBEY FALSE MESSIAH 1
• Print John McCain: War Without End 1
• Shirt John McCain: War Without End 1
• Mug Your Candidate Sucks! The Mug! 1

So, let's boil this down. This means I've sold 10 Anti-Obama items, 3 Anti-McCain Items, and only 1 Anti-Clinton poster.

...I'm sorry, buy am I the only one who actually sees a problem here? I hate all these people and, granted, yes, I despise Obama the most (his ego is going to be our undoing, I know it)... but aren't people sick and tired of the Republican Party? Polls show that Americans want the Democrats to win, but are still leaning towards McCain.

So what is causing his effect? Is it that Obama is so famous that ANYTHING with his face or name on it, good or bad, means people will buy it willingly? Is McCain really THAT more likable to Obama? And are people over their Anti-Clinton feelings? Is it because of the design? It's also worth noting that sales have picked up of this anti-Obama gear since the Democratic National Convention started.

The odd thing is that I actually prefer the design of the McCain one, but I enjoy the message and the pop-culture feel of the Obama one. Maybe people are going on the same feeling.

Or maybe they just hate Obama. Who knows.

For Anyone in a Band That Wants Art, or Any Artist Who Wants to Work With Bands...

GoMediaZine just finished up an awesome article on the 15 Mistakes Made by Designers in the Music & Apparel Industry. It was a really good and interesting series and because I know there's a lot of great artists on this forum, and even more people with bands, I wanted to post this to help just about everyone.

I'll run down the rules and post links to the articles at the bottom:

The 15 Mistakes Made by Designers in the Music & Apparel Industry

• 1. Not Charging Enough
• 2. Ignoring Typography
• 3. Unprofessional Behavior
• 4. Over Promising
• 5. Not Understanding Apparel Production
• 6. Lack of Originality
• 7. Not Following Directions
• 8. Not Utilizing the Medium to it's Fullest
• 9. Lack of Respect for Other Designers
• 10. Delivering Files Before Getting Paid
• 11. Working for "Exposure"
• 12. Failure to Research a Client
• 13. Unclear Communication Up Front
• 14. Letting One Client be 40% of Your Income
• 15. Thin Skin - Unable to Take Criticism

The First 5 Rules: http://www.gomediazine.com/industry-...y-part-1-of-3/

Rules 6 - 10: http://www.gomediazine.com/industry-...stry-part-2-3/

Rules 11 - 15: http://www.gomediazine.com/industry-...stry-part-3-3/

Every illustrator and designer, both starting out and industry pro, has and will make these mistakes. Myself? I've made each mistake happen at least once, especially when I was first starting out. It's amazing that commercial art school, for all the time and money, doesn't teach you a lot of otherwise common-sense things.

One example? I had a job early in my career where I was excited for a lot of reasons, one being that it was a chance to work for someone who could lead to a lot of work. After doing a ton of work and revisions, and sending the original files and everything, I wound up never seeing a penny and getting promised "exposure". In this one job, I had virtually broken all 15 mistakes (save maybe one or two) and looking back, the outcome taught me a lot.

I recently had a client where I actually learn all of my lessons and me and my client came out on top. It was a win-win situation and we're both reaping the benefits of it.

If your just starting out as a designer or an illustrator and dream of working with bands like I did and, in fact, still do, these rules are really good to follow. I know that if I had followed these rules early on I would have saved a ton of aggravation and would have done a lot better.

Bands and musicians, I honestly hope you learn a bit from this before you start hiring an artist. I know a lot of people on here would never do anything to purposely hurt someone who wants to help them, but even when you don't think something you do is wrong, it still can be. I think not understanding the process that's involved can lead to a lot of problems and I personally like to try and help my clients understand it. Don't be afraid to ask any artist you hire how they work or what they're up to; communication tends to be key.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the post. It was a really cool series of articles and I hope I helped both the bands on here and my fellow artists who post here as well.

Art in The 4th Dimension: How Artists Can Do More Through Merchandising

Art in the 4th Dimension is, to me, something that boils down to one simple word: Merchandising.

I can already hear the cries of "Sell Out" and "Commercialism".

When I was 4 years old, I was basically addicted to TV. We had cable in our small 1-bedroom apartment and I was just starting Kindergarten. On weekends I would watch non-stop Nickelodeon. By the time I was 7, I was already doodling, like kids do, but they were ads. Yes, that's right; By the time I was 7, I was drawing ads about how great the Nickelodeon and Pizza Hut partnership was. To some, a perversion of innocence, to others a realization of the world of overt commercialism we have created. To me, it was none of this and, looking back, I knew then that it was because I had just watched a lot of TV and, being young and impressionable, it wasn't much different than a kid drawing Mickey Mouse or Spider-Man and coming up with their own ideas.

Think back, and don't lie to yourself; When you were only a kid, you loved cartoons. You loved them so much that if you could get your hands on any toy, poster, t-shirt, action figure, kids meal toy, sneaker, shock, bed sheet... ANYTHING you could get your parents to buy for you with that character on it, you wanted it. It was, in a sense, a world you could create for yourself based on what you enjoyed.

Now, imagine an artist with that same power.

H.R. Giger is the best example I can give of this. His artwork, as deeply personal and incredible as it is, never was one to shy away from commercialization nor did he shy away from the ability to expand his creation into this, the 4th Dimension. In fact, the climax of this is none other than bars that were built around his art. Yet you would be hard pressed to find someone cry "sell-out".

There are so many artists today who have taken to customizing anything and everything and selling them. Pushead, for example, took his style to new levels and had his work (albeit without permission) made into things such as lamps and mugs.

Merchandising can be less a commercialization of art and more a development and an even more interactive extension of art itself. Creating toys, designing shirts, skateboards, sneakers... going outside what is considered a simple 2-dimensional piece of art on a poster or, in this ditigal age, on a computer screen and allowing people to take it with them, enjoy and apply it to their own lives as they see fit... honestly, it is nothing short of amazing.

My dream has always been to create a personal world where people could be enveloped by my art and creations. Artists will, and always have, dreamt of this. The backlash from people towards this is always in the perception that the artist is most likely doing it only to see an expansion to their bottom line and not what, in their "humble" opinion, is not a true expression of the creators own art and creativity. While this can be the case, for people such as myself, it is the complete opposite.

Desiging t-shirts, skateboards, and sneakers have been dreams of mine and countless other artists for years, and in this modern age of digital and easy reporduction, when seeing an idea go to print no longer requires the same amount of work as it did in the past and anyone with a printer can now become a designer (for better or worst), we are seeing a burst of creativity and people realizing their own personal dreams as well.