Painting Progress, Lessons Learned & Tattoo Sleeves

Me and Sara Jr.  Click this to enlarge. You know you wanna.

I finished the background on my portrait of Sara last night and for the first time ever in my history of background painting, I love it! I usually end up picking something too stark or bright, which ends up taking away from the subject. Like on my portrait of Jordan, I wanted a warm brown fading to black, but it ended up a burnt orange that was WAY too bright. So this time I did some research on how to pick the perfect background. I found that you should choose a color or tone that you've used in the subject, but a toned down, muted version of it. So I chose a few teal hues that were in her eyes and skintone, then muted them down by adding yellow, red and black. Here's what I ended up with! I wanted the painting to have an overall all "cool" feel - like she's an ice princess. Tonight I'll either finish up her halo or get started on her sleeve of tattoos.

The sleeve of tats is going to be hard because of the angle of her body. She is looking up at the viewer and her her back shoulder is on a higher plane than her front. I'm not sure if that really translated in this painting, but I'm hoping the tattoos will clear that up. I also have to finalize my tattoo design that I'm going to put on her arm. I'm wavering between two ideas: 1. An art nouveau, Mucca style tattoo of a woman, much like his painting series of the seasons. 2. An intricate tattoo incorporating classic nautical iconography like a ship and crashing waves and maybe even an octopus reaching up to gobble said ship up. Floating banners and a compass would also be incorporated somewhere. Suggestions or votes on which idea are welcome!

Back to work. Hoodzpah just got a job designing some soft goods for the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and we couldn't be more thrilled. We want to make Robert DeNiro proud so we're wasting no time in getting started!

- Amy

Listening to: JD McPherson's "North Side Gal"

Newport Beach, Linocuts & High Fidelity

[ No Kooks Allowed in Newport Beach. ]

Life has been all kinds of crazy of recent. But the good kind of crazy. Like Jack Black crazy. [Side Note: I recently watched High Fidelity again and that movie is so hilarious. What surprises me most is how it is still so relevant. I know so many Rob Gordons, Barrys and Dicks (literally and metaphorically on that last one).][Side Side Note: My friend Eric told me I use the word "hilarious" more than anyone he knows. I'm starting to think he was right. I gotta start using a thesaurus.] Back to my main point: life being crazy. The first reason things are gettin' busy is that I'm moving at the end of the month!

Moving is going to be great. Right now we live smack dab in the middle of suburban hell. Every day is seriously a nightmare. I know I sound dramatic, but our neighbors are retired prudes with nothing better to do than creepily spy on us from their windows and yards or call "the association" on us for not adhering to one of its plethora of ridiculous rules. Besides that we are 30 minutes from the beach however you swing it. This is just not acceptable to me. All you landlocked readers are rolling your eyes right now, but once you've lived walking distance to the beach, nothing else will do! Aside from those two reasons, the house we live in right now leaks like a sieve. And we just ain't gonna take it no more. (Cue Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It".) So we're heading to greener pastures - or rather sandy pastures. The sandy pastures of Newport Beach if I can help it. We looked at a few houses today on The Peninsula and one in Laguna. I'm rooting for the one on Bay Dr where we are one block from the bay and two blocks from the beach and walking distance from all the Balboa Bars I can take. Now THAT is living the dream.  I am going to be one fat, happy, blondie - although I'm hoping the increased usage of my bike will counteract the "fat" part a bit. The only thing I will miss are the two conveniently located In-N-Outs by my house now. I guess this is what they meant when they said "it ain't easy bein' sleezy."
 
The second reason for all the chaos and mayhem going on right now is that Hoodzpah has had a recent flooding of new jobs and projects. I love starting a slew of new jobs at once. It forces me to get organized and really hunker down: Plans are made, lists are checked off, and great design inevitably ensues. Speaking of design... check out the linocut I recently made. This project was a part of the artist collective I'm a part of with my friends Luke, Brandon, Julie, Leon, Kat and Jen called The Populous. The site is coming soon and you'll get to see our final prints then!

- Amy
Listening to: "It's Hard To Get Around The Wind" by Alex Turner

Painting Progress, Masquerades, & Big Bear

[My painting setup. Picture for reference: check. Disposable pallette: check. Paints: check. Paint Brushes: check. Pirate Ship: Check. Mini Cutout of Joe Turpel: Check.]

I'm really cookin' on this painting of Sara. I've had a lot more free time recently, but I hope all my paintings go this fast from now on. Here are some photos of my progress. I haven't used any black in the painting until I did the eye today - and then I used it on the eye lashes and a little in the eyebrow. But I kind of like the look of painting without black. Forces you to see the color in the shadows.

Hopefully I'll get some more work on it in tomorrow before the Halloween festivities begin. Jen, Caroline and I are going to a masquerade and we're gonna dance our little feet off without shame since no one will know who we are to make fun of us. I hope they play "Ballroom Blitz." Then we're off to Big Bear! I had previously thought that I had never been to Big Bear. Turns out I went when I was 3. But this will be the first time that I remember, so I'm gonna make the most of it! Which mainly means I will be in search of snow wherever I can find it so I can sled, make a snow angel, and throw a snowball at Jen. It's gonna be great.

Happy Halloween all!

- Amy
Listening to: "Swept Away (Sentimental Version)" by The Avett Brothers

The Lovely Sara Wilkins, New Paintings, & Reasons To Be Thankful

Click to enlarge.

I started sketching out my next few paintings that have been in the queue. The thumbnail sketch above is of the lovely Sara Wilkins. Sara, a former Orange Countian (born and bred too), is now a Portland transplant, but distance has not diminished our friendship. Sara is as good as they come - and somewhat of an anomoly. In the best sense of course. She can be a quiet observer or the life of the party; She can be the thoughtful listener or the fountain of hilarity; She's listening to Etta James one minute and the Kings of Leon the next; She's responsible but watch out when she lets loose; She's the voice of reason but she's also the first to take the plunge; She's the girl you'd take home to mom but she's also got a delightfully irreverent wild side; She'll chase you around a public parking lot when you're feeling "blah" but she can also play it cool as your escort to the local show; She's got clear opinions but she's incredibly open minded. It's all of these interesting and unique qualities that made me realize she was the perfect candidate for my Beatniks, Bastards, Saints series. Oh yeah, and the fact that she's a FOX. 


Below is the drawing on the wood - which is my least favorite part of a painting. Sketching it out. Especially doing it twice (once on paper and once on wood). This painting is even bigger than the one I did of Jordan (subject-wise, the board is the same size) and I'm finding it's hard to draw large scale. You're looking at a photo that is 5-6 times smaller as a reference. It's tough. But I want this one to be big because I'm going to give her an amazingly intricate halo. Plus I want to see how big I can go with the subjects before it just get's ridiculous. Next step, mix up a skintone for her (I'm using acrylics and I only like having to mix up the color once so I mix a big batch and save it in an air-tight container) and get painting! Now that I'm self-employed I can work on my paintings during the day in natural sunlight (as opposed to my prior night-owl habits when I had a 9-5 for "the man"). Not only that, I'm wrapping up a ton of projects so I can just paint my little heart out for the next day or so till the deadlines start looming again. Couldn't be happier that Hoodzpah is sustaining us and letting us flourish artistically. And really that success is owing mostly to our - for lack of a better, more original word - amazing friends. Pretty much everyone we work with is a friend or was referred by one of our lovely friends. On that thankful/reflective note, goodnight all. 


- Amy 
Listening to: Nada Surf's "Inside of Love"

Click to enlarge.

The Beatniks, The Bastards, & The Saints: Jordan Sabolick

 [ "The Beatniks, The Bastards, & The Saints: Jordan Sabolick." 32"x24". Acrylic on wood. ]

It is finished. 

You can all heave a sigh of relief. You will no longer be wearied with posts about the crawling progress of my painting of Jordan and the many woes and setbacks therein involved, because it is finished. And I love it. Well, as much as a person can be in love with a piece of plywood covered in paint and gold leaf. I was really stoked on it after I finished all of Jordan's face, but it was touch-and-go there as to whether I ruined it after I finished the shirt... and then again after the background... and then again with the halo. But all was recovered in the end and all the mistakes blended together into something grand.

This was my first painting on wood and it's the biggest I've done yet. The wood was much smoother than canvas making it easier to get fine detail. Working larger scale also made it easier to really get all the nooks and crannies in there (I got every freckle, Jordan... Every. One.). Now I'm pumped up to start my next one! I'm either going to start on one of my Frenchie friends who visited last summer - a dapper group of chaps who all lead lives of adventure and intrigue (one is a med school dropout turned professional poker player, one is a professional Street Fighter player, and the other is my old friend from highschool who studies abroad in foreign countries and is starting his own shoe company). They really embodied the spirit of my series and it would be fun to do a painting featuring multiple subjects. It's either that, or I've found my first female subjects for my series! 

Meet Jordan Sabolick - the man, the myth.

Many of you know my severity upon my own sex (refer here for my schpeel), so it was hard for me to think of women who had the look and personality I wanted to portray. Then I realized I had the answer right under my nose - I just couldn't see the forest for the trees. (Enough analogies? Did I even use that last one correctly?) I'm proud to announce that one of my first female muses will be my dear, dear friend, the lovely and talented Sara Wilkins. She's been talking about getting a full sleeve for as long as I've known her, so we're going to paint her with one and let her live vicariously through the painting while she continues to mull it over.

Enough yammering. Below are some shots of the final piece. A big shout out to my friend Jordo (see left) for letting me paint his mug! And also, as cheesy as it is, thanks to everyone who's supported/critiqued/encouraged me along the way. It was so helpful (and encouraging) getting everyone's feedback as I posted progress shots on facebook and instagram. We artists are fickle folk, in constant need of feedback, and I know I never would have finished this monster if I hadn't had all that positive feedback. 

- Amy
Listening to: "Broken Throat" by Adam Arcuragi

 [ Left: My workstation shelfs. Right: Jordan Pre-halo. ]

 

 [ Left: My halo stencil: a saucepan lid. Legit. Right: Jordan Post-halo. At first I was really frustrated because the halo was too small, but after walking away and some positive feedback from friends I realized "go big or go home" and I just went all out on the halo. Seen next photo. ]

 [ Giant, sunray halo bursts. ]

 [ Left: Detail shot of the shirt. It always amazes me when you look really closely at a painting and it's really just a bunch of blobs and shapes. Right: Detail shot of my signature. I never do the same signature twice. This probably isn't a good thing. ]

 [ Detail shot of Jordo's face. ]

Painting Progress, Self-Comparisons to Tolouse-Lautrec, and Phosphorescent

[ My portrait of Jordan as it stands. ]

Today's blog will be a photo essay of the progress of my current painting in progress: my portrait of the great Jordan Sabolick (friend and musician). I started it in January as a part of my "The Beatniks, The Bastards, & The Saints" series, neglected it for months, and have been back on it with a fury for a while now. Painting is very therapeutic. It calms whatever restlessness and gloom you have looming over you. Probably because you're zoning out and using your brain in a completely different way. Probably cause good tunes are also involved. My painting playlist right now is pretty awesome. It's a like a bluegrass/country/alternative/gospel/acoustic mega playlist mainly consisting of Phosphorescent, Dead Man's Bones, A.A. Bondy, Avett Brothers, Tallest Man On Earth, Whiskeytown, and Neko Case. So it's all whiskey, drinkin', trains, cheatin', broken hearts, southern winds, and Jesus. It's as mellow and soulful as a gospel revival choir and as amplifying as a country bluegrass hoedown.


I intend to finish Jordan's face up tomorrow and hopefully even get started on his hair. Then it's smooth sailing from there. Just background and tattoos. Wish me luck.


- Amy
Listening to: Phosphorescent's "It's Not Supposed To Be That Way"

An actual portrayal of my level of excitement upon starting this painting once the sketch was done (check out that pale, January skin). Starting a new painting makes my stomach hurt because I'm always afraid I've forgotten how to paint. I wonder if that's a recognized fear in the psychology world? I'm guessing not. ]

Closeup of the sketch.

This stage was about where my fears seemed to be completely founded. Yes I must have forgotten how to paint. His arm turned out swimmingly, but his face... oh, his face. It kind of looked twisted-ly grand however, so I went to bed and knew things would shape up the next sitting.

I decided that I had to get a piece completely done so as to boost my waning artistic ego. So I finished an eye and some of his nose. Confidence was growing.

Second eye done in the third sitting. I'm really digging the Tolouse-Lautrec -esqu garish coloring that's happening. After doing all of these graphic portraits recently (John Wayne, Caleb Followill, Geoff Rowley) I've been wanting to paint more the way I do those. In bright colorful shapes as opposed to perfectly accurate shading.

Recent Work, The Great Lemmy Killmister, and Instagram

[Our new Hoodzpah logo and it's accompanying motto: "Shine On" inspired by Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."]

I have been rather slack on my personal blogging of recent due to the fact that I've been funelling all of my efforts into my twin sis Jen and I's new design company, Hoodzpah Art + Graphics! We have a business lisence, a website, bank accounts - and we really made it official because now we're on twitter and facebook too! I designed the website with the help of the savvy Chris Steblay who has done quite a bit of this in his day. Shameless shout out! He's been filming a lot or rad stuff for Nike's "Chosen" campaign recently. Check out his blog for some clips of that and a slew of other great videos and photos from his various adventures. Anyways, Hoodzpah is up and running and open for business! If you need art or graphics, we're your gals. 


Check us out on twitter here
And on facebook here
(Hit "like"... you know you wanna...)


In other news, I'm back on my "The Beatniks, The Bastards, & The Saints" series. I'm working on a painting of my friend Jordan Sabolick right now. That's right kids... the one and only Jordan Sabolick a.k.a guitarist for The Union Line. Jordo's one of the funniest, nicest chaps around, and has that look that perfectly suits my series. So far the painting is going along swimmingly!

I recently got the Instagram app on my iPhone and I have become a monster. You could spend hours choosing a filter from their wide assortment of awesome photo filters. If Words With Friends weren't taking up enough of my life, now I've got this. I'm becoming the iPhone user I hoped I'd never become - the one glued to it at all times, tweeting, facebooking, and texting people that are in the same room as them. *Shudder* I digress. Above are a few photos of the painting as it stands from my Instagram account. 

What's inspiring me these days? Well I just watched the documentary "Lemmy" today. It covers the life and times of Motorhead's Lemmy Killmister, and what a life he's had. I need to start dropping by the Rainbow Room when I'm in LA more so I can run into the old legend. It's ridiculous I haven't done that yet when I live so close to such a legendary place that plays second home to one of rock's greatest. Anyways, it was a really interesting watch, on a very interesting bloke. It's on netflix. Rent it. (It's not on Instant Play... sorry kids.)


- Amy
Listening to: "Blind Tom" by Grant-Lee Philips

Work In Progress, What Could Have Been, & Newport Beach Tattoo: Costa Mesa

Here are some shots of an old half finished painting I found the other day. I started it at a live painting show for a World AIDS Summit event at Saddleback Church. My friend Juli Hueni (who is now your current reigning Miss Newport Beach by the way!) was in charge and graciously invited me to set up and easel and paint. I got the clouds done at the show, and then finished the face in another sitting, but now both times I was painting in a really dim lit environment. So now I look at it and there are tons of holes in the coverage of the paint all over the canvas. Which is a bummer since I'd have to remix all those colors to finish it. I also lost the photo I was going off of to get her anatomy right, which is a bummer. In a wierd way, though, I kind of like that it may never be finished. There's something mysterious and intriguing about it being only half completed that I like. Like it's potential is greater now than the finished product will probably ever be. I think I'm yammering now. So at this point I will bid you ado, go brush my teeth while I do a few toe raises and squats (multi-tasking, people) and then try and finish up a comissioned project I'm working on for my friend Neil Oyler. My sister, Jen, and I are designing his CD cover for his band Four Years Later. Exciting!

P.S. If you're in the Newport Beach area, head over to the new Newport Beach Tattoo shop in Costa Mesa! It's right next to Second Spin on Newport Blvd. I've got a few pieces on display at the shop along with a ton of other great art from the grand opening including work from talented tattoo artists Jake Underwood, Ryan Hopper, Kareem Masarani, Ariel Kotsiris, Justin Hobson and more!

Newport Beach Tattoo Costa Mesa: 

1765 Newport Bl. 

Costa Mesa, Ca 92627 

(949)515-1600

- Amy

Listening to: The Walkmen's "The Rat"

[Even back then I already had a love of halos. I tried to give her a Birth-of-Venus-esque pose. I really like the composition and the renaissance feel of it.]

[ I love the green, eerie clouds the most about this painting. The most amazing thing is that when you look really closely at them they're really just blobs of paint. Clouds are one of my favorite things to paint. You can also see how the canvas is showing through from this shot. ]

[ I think my anatomy has improved since these early days of painting. Her frame looks a little wonky. ]

Painting Again, Jordan Sabolick, And The Oxymoron That Is Holiday Breaks

[Work In Progress: Portrait of Jordan Sabolick.]

Why is it that vacations always end up tiring you out more than a normal work week does? My "holiday break" would have been more aptly titled a "holiday exhaust-a-thon" I crammed so much into it. Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Dressember photoshoots, ugly Christmas sweater parties, forced family holiday fun time, the Lakers breaking my heart, my 21 and 23 year-old cousins from Texas visiting (and macking on 40 year-old ex 49ers cheerleaders), and New Year's Eve I haven't had time to stop. Which is just crazy seeing as I made time to eat 4 hearty meals a day under the excuse, "It's the holidays!" 

Today was the first day where I had a few hours strung together to actually relax and get started on my "Things To Work On Over Break" list. I can now check off item number 2: Start my next painting. (Thus the photo above tracking my progress so far.) I have so many photos of friends that I've accumulated that I want to paint, but I wanted to do another more simple one before I got started on the more complex ones I've got locked up in my secret files (more complex meaning: multiple subjects and intricate props and backgrounds). So I chose to start work on a portrait of my friend Jordan Sabolick. You might know Jordan as the guitarist for OC band The Union Line, the boyfriend of my lovely co-worker Blythe Hill, or from his former days as barista-extraordinaire at the Starbucks in Aliso Viejo. Those of you who do know Jordy know he's one of the nicest, funniest guys around. But that's not why I chose him for this project. No, my motives were much shallower than that my friends. I chose him because he exudes that "I'm in a band" look that one only gets when they're European or - well - in a band. I think he'll make a great addition to my "The Beatniks, The Bastards, And The Saints" series.

I'm really excited with how it's turning out so far. Blythe helped me take the photo of him that I'm painting from and we took it in really high contrast lighting to get some really amazing shadows. God willing and the creek don't rise, it's going to be a painting worthy of the Master of Shadows, Caravaggio himself.

Happy New Year to you all! Don't miss a FREE SHOW by Jordan's band The Union Line tomorrow night at 9pm with fellow local bands My Pet Saddle and Pacific Hurt. It's at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, so it's 21+. Sorry kiddies.

- Amy

Listening to: The Union Line's "Time Is A Seed"

Painting Progress, Dr. Doolittle, and Memento Mori

So I finally got painting again! The fear of screwing up all the work I'd done on my portrait of Matt by royally f-ing up his tattoos made me afraid to start, but it turns out my fears were only half warranted. I did end up painting the tats a little too dark, but I'll just keep trudging on and then go over them with a flesh colored wash at the end to lighten them up.

First I drew the tattoos out with a charcoal pencil. I used a 2B pencil, thinking it would rub off pretty easy once I got started. Well it did rub off easy, just in my paint. So I probably won't do that again on the next painting. I'm thinking a white charcoal pencil might be better. Or maybe I'll just wing it and not draw any guides. The photos are a little yellow. The lighting in my room is horrible.

[ Tattoos outlined in 2B Charcoal Pencil. ]

[ The upper half of Matt's sleeve completed. ]

My fern Gorgeous George has become home to some little critters. Mainly, a cricket and this little green bug that was hanging out with me while I painted. He flew over from George and landed on my painting, then he decided to hang out on my hoodie, and then he moved to my desk right beside my easel. When I needed him to move I just put my finger out, he crawled onto it, and I dropped him off at a more convenient location where he could continue to oversee my painting progress. I felt like Dr. Doolittle. I am sad to say that my green friend passed at 11:04 on Sunday night however. I thought he was being awfully quiet and still, so I blew a gentle gust of wind his way only to find that his spirit had left his body. It felt like a real time example of "Memento Mori." He was a friend, he was a mentor, he was a great bug. He will forever be remembered.

[ My late, great, little, green friend. ]

- Amy
Listening to Waylon Jenning's "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?"

Tammy Wynette Surviving Hurricane George, Tweaking Out on Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and Sketches

I had to go into work tonight to put in a few hours so that we can make our press deadline for the magazine. After one caffeine infused pumpkin spice latte, four hours straight at my computer screen designing like crazy, and one jammin' Justin Bieber pandora station (I know, I know... it was a low point. I needed something peppy to keep my eyelids open and the Bieber did the trick, OK?), I arrived home more jittery and tweaked out than a meth head. So I thought it would be a good time to break out the old sketchbook and get to work on a new sketch. I haven't sketched anything since I illustrated Jon Lovitz for an interview I did with him for the magazine. I was long overdue to get these stubby fingers of mine back in action.

I've been really into Tammy Wynette recently. She's the epitome of what a woman should be. Strong but vulnerable, beautiful, talented, and a survivor. She survived Hurricane George. (George Jones that is.) A survivor. I was trolling the Goodwill vinyl section and found her album "Womanhood" for $1.50. Best $1.50 I've ever spent. It's been spinning non-stop on my record player. The title track is so classic country. It starts out with distorted guitars straight out of a Johnny Cash song and goes into a ballad about a girl dealing with the struggles of being a foxy young thing with men throwing themselves at her. The main verse goes, "I am a Christian Lord, but I'm a woman too..." So badass country. So I grabbed the record, the cover of which is an arresting picture of the bombshell blond in a sleeveless sequined number (not too different from the one I have) and got sketching. The above photos are as far as I got.

It's now 2:43 and I'll be waking up in about 4 hours. Guhhhhh. I'll leave you with this video of Miss Tammy Wynette. It's her classic, "Stand By Your Man."

Cheers,

Amy

Listening to: Tammy Wynette's "50 Words or Less"

[I want one of those glittery Christmas trees.]

Hatch Show Print Shop

[The visual stylings of the legendary Hatch Show Print shop.]

I've always wanted to own my own screenprinting studio and just make tour posters all day. It just seems like that would be "livin' the dream." This dream was founded when I walked into the legendary Hatch Show Print Shop for the first time back in my days as a Nashvillain (not the correct term for someone from Nashville, but isn't it way cooler?); Everyone there was cooler than any other combined workforce I'd ever seen and they were all just hanging out, exercising their creative muscles, working with their hands on letterpresses from the 1800s, with Johnny Cash playing on the old radio sitting on the front desk. Living. The. Dream.

[The walls of the shop are covered from floor to ceiling in posters.]

[The back of the shop where all the magic happens. Hatch Show still uses the same presses they used when they first opened.]

Hatch Show Print was established in 1879 in Nashville, TN by brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch. They learned the trade from their pops who owned his own print shop in Wisconson. The brothers kept the tradition and passed the business along down to their kids who took over in the mid 1920's. Nashville was, and still is, country music central and Hatch Show Print capitalized on this, making posters for almost every act that came through there from Johnny Cash to Hank Williams to modern day acts like DMB. It didn't hurt that they were based right behind the mecca of country music, the Ryman Auditorium where the Grand Ole Opry was held. Hatch Show struggled through the years to survive in a digital age, but through the help of many people it is still around today and is one of the oldest working print and letterpress shops in the U.S. Today they still print their traditional music posters (they've printed posters for bands like John Mayer, Merle Haggard, Eric Clapton, Louis Armstrong, Death Cab For Cutie, The Raconteurs, Lou Reed, Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol, Ted Nugent and everyone in between) but their client list has also grown to include names like Nike, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jack Daniels and more. Not too shabby, eh? I think there's something to be said about holding onto the craftsmanship of letterpress and printing while everyone else switched to offset. It's kind of sad that there trades and crafts are a rarity.

[More posters. Click to enlarge.]

Hatch Show's website sucks. If you go there looking for proof of the above amazingness, you will be very disappointed. The Country Music Hall of Fame is in charge of Hatch these days, and I just imagine the CMHF as being run by a bunch of old geezers with boleros and ten gallon Stetsons on Hover Rounds. (You're probably going to have to google every other word in that last sentence if you've never lived in the South.) Anyone over 60 with a bolero collection and a license to drive a Hover Round is almost definitely the last person you want running your website, although they're the first person you'd want for a jolly old grandpappy. But go your nearest public library and pick up the book Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop (hopefully they'll have it in stock) for proof. I own it and it was worth every penny. If that fails, just google "Hatch Show Print" and "legendary" and you're sure to find more proof than Horatio Caine and Columbo have in their whole fictitious careers combined. That's a lot of proof.

And did I mention they also have their own vino? Look for it the next time your at Target. I almost lost my mind when I saw it there for the first time. It was a little piece of Nashville that had somehow managed to find me all the way across the country in Orange County, California and it reminded me of home. If there were a soundtrack to my life, Ryan Adam's "Oh My Sweet Carolina" would have been playing at that moment. "Oh the sweetest winds they blow across the south."

Here's the latest update on the painting. Have a great Monday friends.

- Amy

On my iTunes: Honorary Title's "Petals"

What's In A Name

[The current state of my painting.]

While crunching on my bowl of sprinkles with a side of ice cream and listening to my favorite band of fightin' Scottish rockers, Glasvegas, I was struck by a brilliant idea: for my series "The Beatniks, The Bastards, and The Saints," instead of wearying my brain and fully exhausting my limited vault of wit (which I need to save for these ramblingly endless witterings I call blogs) trying to come up with interesting and smart titles for each of my pieces - I've decided to take a cue from one of my favorite filmmakers, Guy Ritchie. I love his films because they always involve a colorful cast of characters with the greatest nicknames you wish your schoolyard friends had been clever enough to give you. Bullet Tooth Tony, Barry The Baptist, Gorgeous George (which I named my pet plant after) - who wouldn't want a nickname like that? Seeing as my subjects for this series very much resemble the ruffians, variants, and miscreants that Guy Ritchie seems to share my affinity for, I am going to take a page out of his book and give each painting it's own colorful nickname. Whether or not these names will be based on the real life subjects in the paintings - well, that's for me to know and you to wonder about.

All ideas and submissions for bad ass, underworld-worthy, hooligan nicknames are readily and heartily accepted! Here's a little something to get your creative juices flowing my friends. Ole' Statham at his best. "This is an unlicensed boxing match, not a tickling competition." I also included a few pictures of my progress on Matt's portrait. Still haven't decided his moniker yet.

-Amy

Listening to: Glasvegas' "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry"

[My trusty coke can in the bottom left corner. I can't seem to kick the "juice."]

[A closeup of the unfinished hand. It looks crazy now, but I'll keep layering the colors now that I have a general base laid down and it will eventually end up looking like a hand.]

[My paint palette for the skin tones. I do cheat and premix an empty 35mm film containers worth of a skin tone color so I don't have to keep mixing more up mid-paint. Then I use that and add and mix the other colors (burnt sienna, yellow ochre, titanium white, quinacridone crimson, and ultramarine blue). Check out my amazing skeleton head clock on the table too.]

[My painting teacher that I had for all of the two days it took me to drop the second rate IVC class said that brush cleaner was a sham. I bought this the other day mostly because I liked the graphics on the label, but it is the BEST. Saves so much time cleaning brushes.]