Recently back from touring Europe, the Shivas stomped and swayed in the Star bar in Portland. They played an old gem about Jack the Ripper for Halloween
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The opening act was Go! Zilla from Italy.
I drew the Shivas many years ago, here is the drawing.
A few years ago I was in Toronto for nxne and someone told me they were looking forward to seeing Shannon and the clams. The name stuck in my head and I looked them up and dug their sound. They were playing a post haloween show in Portland. The show was very fun, and they bring their sound of their records very accurately to their live show.
Here is my warm up drawing.
Whoops, forgot one of the ns. Better draw them over again. Form where I was standing, the drummer was hard to see.
Beautiful music! Very surf garage! I love the 60s style organ sounds and the gritty rock vocals.
Here are some photos.
At Mecca here in Eugene, we have kid’s art workshop on Saturdays. Today we made these puppets. The trick to them is to have a character on two distinct poses. The puppets are double sided. Traditionally, the performers dress in black and have black gloves covering their skin. The character can flip and change its pose. This is the simplest form of animation: two frames! Dynamic!
The dowel or Popsicle stick is painted black and glued between two pieces of black matte board.
This young artist made a pumpkin character with glasses.
This young man made a colorful bird with teeth!
Here I am with a little troll and a skeleton.
It’s Jacqueline Black the witch! (She’s friends with Janice the Jester and Nate the Knight)
I eecially like the gag of a cute ghost who becomes fat by eating too much candy and the pop tart who is concerned that he is missing his corner.
El Ten Eleven play complicated, shimmering, beautiful guitar based music. Using electronic drums the drummer can act as a bass player and add electronic noises. Using looping pedals and several guitars, some of whom have two necks, the guitarist can add layer upon layer of baroque melodies and embellishments. To say this band is deep would be an understatement. It’s best to say they are musician’s musicians.
If you know anything about double neck guitars, you’ll see that my illustration is inaccurate. Actually his bass is the bottom neck, and bass necks are longer. Also, he doesn’t have a fretless guitar neck on his double necked guitar- but I don’t care! I drew it! Notice I drew several hands to try and capture something about they way he composes and performs.
Maybe I’ll finish inking and coloring it someday. Here is a cool interview with Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty.
And here is their website.
People have lumped them into the same post rock genre as Battles and Tortoise. But they say they don’t listen to post rock! I think they sound sometimes like Ratatat. Great live show. It’s amazing that the guitarist has such control over timing and his pedals.
I picked up this book at an Oregon art store and immediately began copying drawings from it. Nearly every page could be a “daily art challenge” or inspire a lesson plan.
Here is my drawing inspired by page 19 Maria Molares.
I think anyone could follow the basic rules of these patterns and make their own. Like it is meditative to color, it is also to draw the same image again and again. Once an artist figures out the rules of a pattern, or makes up their own, they can be followed continuously until the page is full. It’s quite satisfying, and the brain can stay occupied you might find the solutions to puzzles that have perplexed you when you were stamped.
Some people say they do their best thinking in the shower or while driving, by sketching, one could imitate the draining showering phenomenon while sitting at a desk. Lynda Barry suggests drawing spirals.
Or writing the alphabet. If you have the “tip of the tongue phenomenon” you might stumble across the answer if you just stop focusing on it. Imagine a scenario where you can’t come up with the Latin word for werewolf. Try writing out the alphabet… A, b, c, d,
After all, your brain is a collection of connected neurons, and considering we make sense of our world through language, the neuron cluster that make up our letters we make our language out if must have millions of connections!
Eventually you’ll think of something that will remind you of the answer. “L makes me think of Lyme, which makes me think of… Oh I just started craving a lime Rickey… Hmmm, m n o p… I remember now, it’s lycanthrope!” ( results may vary)
Here is my drawing inspired by page 21 by Julia Pott.
It features made up animals. Intentional distortions. I also included words that have nothing to do with the composition, forcing the viewers mind to make a connection that doesn’t seem to be there. By having one animal resting on the back of the other, I think it makes the animals that clearly don’t really exist, look a little more real, forcing the viewer to imagine perhaps the artist had a model he was looking at while drawing. It reminded me that as a child I would draw my own animals and dinosaurs, combining traits of many real animals into my own biologically feasible creations.
Here is my drawing inspired by page 31 by Stephanie kubo and page 39 by Kristen Donegan.
It utilizes patterns like a Zentangle, some elements of collage, some random chance (I threw a cup down on the page to trace and there was charcoal in the cup that marked the page.) I have been researching about Dadaism lately… This peice also uses the technique of blending/ drawing with an eraser. I used color sparingly. One ” rule ” of composition, is if you have a color appear somewhere on a piece, have the same color appear somewhere else. I intentionally broke that rule.
I went to Emerald Valley Comic con and met many cool artists! Keith Tucker worked on so many animated shows in the 90s, it almost blows your mind. He penciled many of the coolest Disney comics covers. I asked him what was the most fun to work on, he said without a doubt Pinky and the Brain. he also really enjoyed Jem and the Holograms because there was so much freedom. I also asked him, ” did you still have time to draw for fun?” He said, I had a blast very day, I drew all day for over twenty years and I was always having fun!”
His speciality was action scenes. He had a real say in the movement of characters and how they danced, walked, fought, and lived in their worlds within the screen. He was such a friendly and nice guy! You can see more of his art here.
I used to have these comics! Wow, he could really compose a dynamic comic book cover!
Don’t they just make you want to buy that comic and read what’s inside??
Melanie Golden was totally sweet when I awkwardly asked her, “may I draw you?”
Follow her on Instagram here. I got these from her Facebook page, sorry I do not know who the photographers are.
She has been a model, cosplayered as Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), and look here is a picture of her with Chris Evans! 
Ed Lloyd Gragg
Ed makes incredible paintings inspired by film posters like those by Drew Struzan. He has also made illustrations for sports magazines and rock album covers. Look at his work here. Pictures of vampirella here.
He had a fantastic painting of Spock,
many of Marilyn Monroe and other pinups!
Isn’t this a cool painting? Ed told me it’s basically his bookshelf, with a small addition.
Even Beaker, Wonder Woman, and Jango Fett were there!
Political cartoonist, hero, despised liberal, journalist and funny guy Ted Rall visited the Eugene Public Library to tell us about his new book, “Snowden.” Here I drew him like he’s a superhero on the cover of a marvel comic book.
Snowden is one of the most fascinating figures of modern times and I’m excited to read Ted’s new book. He was accused of racism for depicting Obama as “ape like” ( more here). He was fired from the LA times for disparaging (though true) comments about the Los Angeles police.( you can read more about that here)
Here are some of my favorites of his cartoons.
On the back of his book are some quotes by such luminaries as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.
“Ted Rall just does things to upset people so his name will get in the paper.” – Ann Coulter
Whoops, Ann sounds like you are talking about yourself.
“What is sad is that such an imbecile and such an ignoramus ends up as a prominent cartoonist in major newspapers.” – Rush Limbaugh
Rush, it takes a lot of hard work to be published in many newspapers! No one listens to imbeciles, well, except for you. Some of ralls critics say, in addition to being hurtful, mean spirited and rude, he CANT draw. I disagree? His art is economical, utilizes stereotypes and sometimes, like here, shows detail and understanding of perspective. Sure, his heads are generic and Picasso-esque, but the communicate effectively a message, and that’s what s important in cartoons.
Ruth plays a harp and writes beautiful, inspirational songs, about Love, loss, and the rugged endurance of ubiquitous weed Queen Anne’s Lace.
I especially liked “Dark Blue, Dark Green.” It, and every song on her EP “To The Moon,” seem to be about the passing of a close friend. In her song, “Right Now,” she sings hopefully, ” Like a callus on a finger, over time it just makes you stronger, than if you had it, if you took it right now. Put the time in, and the effort, you will find you get what you deserve. You will find all truly right now. ” She told us the song is about her process of learning to play the harp, but you can apply it to anything you are trying to achieve.
photographers everywhere are waiting for the development of invisible microphones.
Merry Ellen Kirk and Caroline Bauer also played. She released a new album and it has a very positive review here. It was a lovely evening of live, passionate music. Thank you Merry Ellen for sharing Ruth with us in Eugene!
These three mcs delivered a positive show with much crowd participation shouting along and waving hands in the air, bouncing and enthusiastic cheers.
Guests Lateef the truthspeaker and Vursatyl filled in with Gift of Gab and DJ Jumbo on the decks.
I didn’t color this picture, because I don’t think it’s as good.
Caitlin told us charming stories. I enjoyed her show. She admitted to us that she was in fact, a Virgo.
Cienna is called, ” the wildcard” of Eugene comedy.
Isaac and the Awkward Situations 