clutch / more fish stuff

posted Thursday, February 04 2010

i'm working on a drawing for a CLUTCH shirt right now....i've done one about a year or so ago, they sold it on tour and maybe on their web site, i'm not sure.

i've done several clutch posters over the years, here's the last one

we still have a few in stock click here to order if interested




i went to the CLEVELAND AQUARIUM SOCIETY tuesday (see last update). it was really cool, lots of fish people with major amounts of fish knowledge. i know next to nothing compared to those folks so i kept my mouth shut for the most part and listened to the lecture.

a few days ago i ordered three small bluegill for my tank. they come in the mail, how about that, mail delivered fish. the fishery is in lima ohio and the bluegill only cost about $1.50 each. i found the guy on ebay, him and another fishery in florida are selling fish on there. they also have their own web sites.

here's the lima ohio's web site, keep in mind it's under construction - WWW.SUGARCREEKFISHERY.COM

finally, i found this web site where you can type in a subject and have the image you like printed on almost anything. you can also customize it by enlarging, reducing, and changing the placement of the image on the shirt. the place is called "ZAZZLE"
their stuff is a little pricey though.

of coarse i ordered a blue gill hoodie and bluegill coffee mug. the mug is pretty funny, it's just a close up of the "blue gills". i had the option of having it printed on the hoodie as well, but i went with a more traditional profile image.

geek fish stuff

posted Friday, January 29 2010

yesterday in cleveland it had to be under 20 degrees, and with the wind chill under 0. so i thought it'd be a good day to go to the zoo and draw some fish since no little kids would be there. i was right, i think there was 3 people total in the zoo, pretty cool. i've been drawing fish that are native to this region lately, so yesterday i drew a BLUEGILL. the tank that the bluegills, darters, and perch are in is an exhibit of ZEBRA MUSSELS which are not native to lake erie. they've been wreaking havoc with the ecosystem here because being from europe, they have no natural predators. the tank actually has much more fish in it than zebra mussels so i filled out a survey card about giving the fish props (i didn't put it that way). while i was there i met the guy who runs the aquatics portion of the zoo. i filled him in on my fish tank problems and he gave me some good advice. he also mentioned the CLEVELAND AQUARIUM SOCIETY which meets on the first tuesday of the month, and next tuesdays will be at the zoo....i will too.



here's some zebra mussel that attached themselves to a shopping cart that was submerged.

blood test / darter at the zoo

posted Friday, January 22 2010

so this morning i go to the hospital for a no big deal blood test, i get it done and i'm on my way to the zoo. i found a fish tank there that has darters, perch, and bluegills in it, how cool is that? so i do my drawing of one of the darters, i come home, walk jose, sign "please god, save us" books, do a little more drawing, play with diecast tanks, feed my fish (the sole survivor) dog and cat, and listen to the luca turilli cd "demon heart", which is amazingly epic. so this brings me to 4:30. at 4:30 i get a call from my doctor about my blood test results, she tells me that my potassium levels are way high and i need to go to the emergency room right away, and call 911 for an ambulance....what? they weren't even testing for my potassium and i felt fine. so after some persuasion i go to the ER, i drive myself too, thank you. i get there and i have to have an EKG (email me mary) and a series of more blood tests. so after a few hours the emergency room doctor comes up to me and says i'm completely healthy and was wondering what the hell is wrong with my doc....got me wondering too, wondering if she's gonna pay for my ER stint and EKG. now if we had a government health care option i wouldn't have to sweet it....you know, germany and switzerland have socialized medicine and you don't see those countries falling apart......far from it.

new originals

posted Friday, January 15 2010

i've put up 5 new pieces in the ORIGINAL GALLERY.

this is one, i did a few new pieces during chritmas in an old christmas coloring book

a fish holocaust

posted Thursday, January 14 2010

i've got a new piece up in the ORIGINALS GALLERY call "all i need is a holocaust to make my day complete", check it out, it features the ever present "big gulp".

been working on my fish drawings, here's the one from the january 11th update. i drew in the goldfish crackers. i'm not sure if i'm done with it, i'm feeling i am. i like them as just pen and ink drawings. i plan on doing several more, maybe make a small fish series...give me some feedback when you all get a chance.






here's a new one, not sure what i'm going to do with it, maybe some more crackers.





if you haven't checked out the new print "i wish i had an angel" check it out HERE

40 TATTOOS

posted Wednesday, January 13 2010

we put up 40 tattoos that you folks got done in the TATTOO GALLERY on this site. we've been backed up as far as posting them goes, sorry about that. we also have some more that need to be posted, so if one of those are yours, don't worry we'll get them up...

here's two of the new ones...

draw that fish / new print available now

posted Monday, January 11 2010

since i've been on a fish kick, it's only natural to bring the fish to the drawing board for a little bit. today i went to the CLEVELAND METROPARKS ZOO to draw some of their fish in the aquarium section. when i got there i found it to be "polar bear day", which mean half off to get in. polar bear day happens at the zoo whenever the temperature outside is lower than 25 degrees, i believe it was 19.
i thought i'd show a rough sketch to give you an idea of how the thinking process works when approaching a drawing. i start very fast with a black pen. i tend to draw 90% of the time with a pen, i like it because there's no erasing, once a line is down you have to live with it. this helps to give whatever you're drawing a more fluid, alive feeling.
with this page, i drew the big one first on the right. i was working quickly while trying to figure out how the anatomy and the way the fish moves works. after solving some of the drawing problems i would move on to the next page. i take what i learned from the previous page and apply it to the next sketch, and so on.
on this particular page i also did a very fast study of the fish looking forward on the left. with sketch pages like this, i tend to draw over things since it's not the finished piece, it's a learning piece so drawing all over it doesn't matter, as long as it helps you get something out of it.





here's a more finished drawing, the lightly drawn circles around the fish's tail are where i'm going to draw some "PEPPERIDGE FARM GOLDFISH CRACKS" schooling up with the big fish. when i have this piece done i'll have it up on this site.

posted Monday, January 11 2010

here's a picture and a you tube of the pacu fish i've been drawing. what's really cool about drawing them at the zoo is #1, there's a bunch of them in the tank and #2 they've been there so long they are use to people looking at them so they don't dart away from the glass. they just sit there and look back at the people.

read about the PACU HERE

and check out this pretty good and short you tube video about the pacu




here's the first new print of 2010. "i wish i had an angel". it's a print of the pen, ink, and acrylic piece of the same name. image is inspired by a frozen great lake, in this case lake erie since it's a few blocks north of me, and the cracked ice openings that seem to be black when looking at it at night. the figure represents the feeling of slipping away.

check the print out HERE - they' available NOW..

big fun

posted Friday, January 08 2010

thought i'd give my pal steve a plug for his store BIG FUN.
if you're into "cool stuff" big fun is the place for you. playboy magazine named "big fun" as one of americas coolest stores.

hit their web site that's highlighted, good stuff.







here's a really bad youtube of harvey pekar at big fun, you do remember harvey right? he's the american splendor guy who got kicked off of david letterman