two fabulous new music videos to enjoy, both from my one man show “confirmation bias makes me happy!’
Isaac and the Awkward Situations
Comics, Vaudeville, Art Education, and Music
Author Archives: isaacparis
New music from Alaskan artists!
I played off and on again with Kristian Swearingen, here’s his new album. The third track is a cover of an HB telling song. I’m completely uninvolved on this project but it’s made by friends and I wanted to share 🙂
His Seattle band was called Electric Tape. In Alaska the project was a little different and called “Kelsa.” (I played drums for it.)
You can here new tracks from Paper Scissors here. I provided the album artwork for this. See any pareidolia? It’s uncommon for me to release digital art. I also played keyboards on these tracks. Do they sound different than previous paper scissors? We hired a string playerto make it epic and cinematic, there are synthesizers in the mix, and Bruna is added on vocals.
Singer songwriter nights at spectrum
Osprey flies the nest is on spotify too!
March fourth marching band
I made this drawing months ago at their wow hall show in Eugene and I’ve been working on inking and coloring it.
This band always puts on a fun show and I highly recommend you catch them live sometime. I drew on a BIG piece of Bristol board and I was able to fit every musician in, but I wish I had taken more reference photos at the time.
Xoticon, Los Angeles!
I had such a fun time and I learned a lot from the symposiums/ seminars. I’d love to go again if they have the event again, I actually made several more drawings but I haven’t finished them yet. So there may be a “part 2” to this post!
Band drawings summer 2023
I was able to make two drawings during their 2 hour set. They play traditional Balkan music.
I took photos of the show and made drawings at home based on them. I was fun to add the lace effect in the background. Their music is on Spotify!
New Video: Queer Coded Villains!
Do you recognize Christopher Lee? I finished this book so I could read it at Oregon Country Fair in 2022. I was really scrambling to get this done, literally working on it in between classes, rushing over to draw and color as soon as my students would leave for lunch. It was fun to share the stage with poets at Chez Rays stage at OCF and so touching to hear their words. Grace, Sage, Marcus, and Jorah are inspiring. Here I am doing comedy at Spectrum in between drag queens for Drag Brunch! It’s always fun performing there. One sweet mother and daughter team wanted to give me a tip!
This piece was LONG in the works, and if you’ve followed me you’ll recognize it was a song on my album Pareidolia! https://isaacparis.bandcamp.com/track/childrens-literature-queer-coded-villains
Eventually I may get around to making music videos (books) for other songs from that album too! what should I do next?
My Poem Published in an online zine
My coworker Briezer Huling made an online zine all about death and mourning and my poem was selected to be a part of it. https://isaacparis.bandcamp.com/track/a-rumination-on-death
the link is here
the poem is “a rumination on death” and the audio version of it can be heard here. I played guitar and did production, but my good friend Craig Brookes played bass and added drums and helped with production. It also has good friends contributing to the background noises and shouting parts.
Lots of other poems and comics and art by students and adults. I feel so grateful blessed thank you Bree!
Bob Ross painting #2 this time… with oils!!!
My first Bob Ross style painting
As an artist we go through phases where we might condemn some art as being tacky, commercial, vapid, and then we may come around eventually to enjoying it. That’s how I was for Bob Ross’ work and so today, at the age of 39 I painted my first Bob Ross style painting. I have seen children paint beautiful pieces following along with bob ross. He’s so gentle and funny in a subtle way. I can really see how he became so popular, it isn’t just the art: it’s the cute things bob says as he paints that make the show watchable.
I was gifted a set of leather Acrylic paint and a set of bob ross brushes for Christmas so I’m trying them both out for the first time here. Bob Ross paints with oils, but that requires you to use paint thinner, and I already have MANY tubes of Acrylic paint.
The major difference is oil paint dries much slower, so when bob said paint on the pink in the sky, then the blue, and then put a touch of paint thinner on your brush and blend them, my paint had already dried so I couldn’t blend them anymore.
Also he said to scratch the paint away with a knife sometimes and I couldn’t do that either. My bob ross brush set even said on the packaging “for use with oils only: do NOT use acrylic paint with this brush.”
So there you have it. A bob Ross style improvised landscape. No matter what your art style is, if you’re going to draw figures or dragons , it would be nice for them occasionally be in landscapes. Even if your art is usually abstract, it can be rewarding and fun to follow along a guide as they do things step by step. After following along 4 or 5 of these, many people could “improvise” their own. It could be fun to Follow the directions but use all “wrong” colors. Or to have students film their own “how to paint” guides.
