In my travels I made a few drawings of locals and gave them away.
This was a waitress at a restaurant in Natal.
These were guests at a wedding.
Portraits of Brazilians
Isaac and the Awkward Situations
Comics, Vaudeville, Art Education, and Music
Tag Archives: illustration
Luisa & os Alquimistas
I got to catch a live reggae band in a club in natal. Their music is on Spotify if you search for them. They didn’t have a live drummer, but a dj and they made the crowd dance with lyrics in Portuguese and English. Check them out!
Caravelas
A sleepy little beach town. Few tourists come here so there aren’t the quantity of bars and curio shops we have seen in the other towns. It’s mostly Fishermen, biologists and locals who have many generations here.
We came upon a festival, with lantern decorations and people playing music in the streets.
View from the beach in Rio de Janeiro.
Can you see the little lifts? This is sugar loaf mountain in Rio. It was cloudy today.
What a beauftiful place. I’m here in winter (June) so the beach is almost empty. But as soon as I approached it, I heard surf music in my head. Everything is like a surf music album cover photo. It’s so gorgeous here!
Ocean and aquarium paintings
I teach art at Mecca some Saturdays. Here are some photos of my lesson’s results. 
This is a nudibranch I guided an 8 year old boy to draw. I broke it down to basic shapes and encouraged him as he went.
This young girl is drawing a whale. 
This child appeared to put on too much water. Cool skull though.
A sunken ship! I didn’t prompt them to draw that. Notice the crystalline trees to the right. Or are they houses?
You can see the bright oil pastels show through the blue water based paint. Sometimes the students use colored pencil or crayons. 
Coral and layered paint.
This was an example I made to show them how.
After drawing fish, eels, sea anemones, sea turtles, jellys, coral and sea weed, the children paint blue over with sponges.
Some students abandon their drawings, so I recycle their pages to guide other students. I like to not finish my projects so that students don’t imitate me fully. I like this lesson because it doesn’t have to be changed for older kids, just expect more detail out of them. In most projects, for some reason, I get push back from kids when I ask them to put in more when I think they aren’t done. This project usually has less of that, perhaps because there is always more to put in the ocean. I’m going to mail these to my niece in Amsterdam to put up on the wall around her cradle. I hope they aren’t nightmare inducing.
I even got my mom to try this lesson.
Didn’t she make a nice scene with layers of paint? Her fish have some personality. You can try it at home or share with children.
Portraits at Trapper Creek
In addition to drawing bands, I also drew some portraits of audience members. I chose people who were dressed interestingly or served me coffee. One person suggested I draw a self portrait, so I did.
World Music and Dance Concert at Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.
I thought I’d show my pencils, in case that’s interesting for any of you.
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS at Roseland, Portland, OR.
It’s not every day you get to see your favorite band play live in front of you. For many, they will never get the chance at all. This band started the year I was born (1982) and I have tried to learn to play their songs since I was 13. I have sang their songs in my head for at least 18 years. TMBG played with Marty, Dan and Dan at Roseland Ballroom May 8. They played many old songs from Lincoln, Flood, and Factory Showroom. They even played the bizarre, “32 footsteps” and the Cub cover “New York City”
They also played some of my newer favorites “Answer,” “When you’ll die” “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” and of as a finale/encore the entirety of “Fingertips!” which is insane and a total delight. I was blissfully singing along “I walk along, darkened corridors!” What a great band! I heard that at a recent show John commented “this song is from the middle of our career, 2001.” and John responded, “uh, I think THIS is the middle of our career.” If so they would play another 33 years when they are 89 years old! Well, I hope I can see them again and that it will be as great a show as this was. My cup truly runneth over. I am so blessed to get to see artists of this caliber and talent. We live in a glorious age for live music and graphic novels and media arts of all kinds. i don’t know what to say except: “I’m not a real doctor but I am a real worm, I am an actual worm. I live like a worm and i like to play the drums.” “32 footsteps leading to the room where the paint doesn’t want to dry… 32 footsteps running down the road where the door reaches the sky”
I found this great article over at Spin. Its an interview where they recall what they can about the process of recording every one of their albums. There are also interviews at the Onion AV club where they discuss the writing process, how they work together, and The process of writing songs.
I think seeing them has really inspired me to make some music videos. I made some last year for my raps about screen actors, but they were only “half assed” attempts. I should challenge myself to really make animation and maybe make a video for some other artist than myself first.
Isaac and the Awkward Situations 