ArtSLAM DUNK!

Man do you guys love your video games & comic books!

I had a blast this past weekend at the ArtSlam!: Pixels vs. Panels show in San Antonio doing some live painting.  It was indeed a delightful time filled with spray paint fumes, rad music & 3LB CINNAMON ROLLS?!? Yep, THREE POUNDS!...but more on that later.

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I stumbled into the White Rabbit around 7pm to set up my station & was greeted by Rob aka Deadbeat Hero (the curator of this awesome event. He's also selling some limited edition Atari/Punisher shirts he designed/printed during the show which you can order here.

I got one & my torso is not only happy with my decision, but is definitely the coolest looking piece of my body when I wear it!  Go snag one now & hurry...there's only a few!)
After the "hellos" & handshakes with other artists painting that evening, I got to work.

It being a video game/comic book mash up theme, I went with PacMan viciously hungry for [the deliciously-terrible career choices of Nic Cage as] Ghostrider...

I painted until the sun sneaked far behind the earth & through out the night met a LOT of GREAT people!  You guys were so cool there & I want to thank each & every one of you who came to my table to chat &/or purchase some of the goodies I had...& I really would if I had a list of your names!

I'd like to especially computer-screen-high-five those that bid on my painting through out the night for the silent auction.  Though I wish I could've used some crazy X-Men mutant power to make exact replicas for you ALL to go home with, there could be & WAS only one winner:

My newest buddy Roland took Charlie Sheen's magical phrase seriously & came out on top.  This dude rocks!
I also did a commissioned illustration for A.J. who wanted Luigi & Princess Peach "relaxing".  Hey...I give them what they want!:

Again...the artists were amazing/inspiring at the show.  I wish I got to meet everyone, but being holed up behind my table prevented that.  I did bounce around like Super Mario for a bit & had the privilege to say "hi" to a few.  Here are some quick photos from the evening.....

Cristobal Licea's paintings were AWESOME.  This guy couldn't be nicer either:

Nik Soupé was a master with the spray paint cans.  Check out his 'Transmetropolitan' painting done that night:

The extremely lovely EEK! CREATIONS was there representing Austin also:

So I give a BIG THUMBS UP to you San Antonio for your warm embrace & look forward to the next time you'll have me!

above photos courtesy of Holly Brown, Rob Perez, Lesley Fielding Roland Gutierrez & St. Philip's Anime Club

I do have a few of the Link vs. Superman & Wolverine / Mario Mash up prints left over from the show that wish to be adopted.  Head over to my shop to grab one or 10000 of them.  I've also got some other pieces that might look really awesome on your wall, so step into the store....

Cool.  Until next time...

....oh yeah!  The "3LB. CINNAMON ROLL" I mentioned earlier!  Welp, our hotel room was only a few steps from a pretty yummy, 24-hour diner called LuLu's Bakery & Cafe.  Needless to say we abused this place during our short stay with a 4pm lunch when we arrived in San Antonio, a 4am "dinner" after the art show & a 9am breakfast before heading down to South Padre Island for a few days.  Along with an outstanding Chicken Fried Steak, THIS is what LuLu's is known for:

In San Antonio?  Go try to conquer this mouth-watering, cinnamon/sugar-high beast!

Okay, off to get more fun stuff done for Comic Con & remember to follow me on Twitter so I can tell you what I'm eating, which movies I'm watching & how my coffee tastes...FUN!!

Alright...NOW until next time.

Heading south where Mario's fighting Wolverine?

Well hello there amigos.

You peeps ever lay awake at night & wonder who the winner of an epic battle between LINK(that cute, little Hylian boy from the Nintendo world) & the Man of Steel himself SUPERMAN would be?  What about the outcome of Mario's nemesis BOWSER shooting fireballs at the rock-hard abs of The THING?! Don't act like you don't constantly think about these exact scenarios!  I guess being a child of the '80s & spending looong, restless nights with my brothers reading Batman, munching on helpless scrubs' heads as The Amazon in 'Pro Wrestling', wondering how the hell Colossus stayed so shiny in Uncanny X-Men battles, jumping through crazy obstacles as Samus in 'Metroid', collecting every single trading card from the Marvel Comics series(yes...especially the harder to find holograms) & even surrendering to the great, Greek mythology realm as Kratos in 'God of War' has made me sit & daydream about these "hypothetical pairings".  But now I KNOW I'm NOT the only one!

On July 23rd, myself along with 25 other artists will be getting together to bring life to these crazy ideas.  We're taking the pixelated characters from our favorite video games & pairing them up with/against some of the greatest, muscle-ripped heroes straight from the panels of our most beloved comic books.  Yep...ArtSlam! presents: 

PIXELS VS. PANELS!

What better place to have this epic battle than in the city where a raccoon-tail wearing mofo shed blood in Texas' most epic battle?  That's right...down the street from The Alamo (I know what you're thinking) at The White Rabbit in San Antonio will be this special, one-night event.  Local artists will be banding together for an evening of LIVE painting AND music.  Starting at 8pm we'll be setting up our stations (while the MANY bands set up their gear for their sets) & flinging paint around to turn our geeky thoughts into actual pieces of art you can hang on your wall!  ALL art will be up for silent auction during the show, so I hope you guys can come by to see some talented artist folk in action while hopefully taking home some art as well.  This will be my first LIVE painting session, so I welcome...no...I NEED your support & high fives.

For more info & to RSVP head to the ArtSlam! Facebook event or the ArtSlam! homepage.

Along with the giant painting I'll be creating before your eyeballs at this show, I'm offering PRE-ORDERED, commissioned pieces for those of you who'll come by.  Simply shoot me an email with the comic/video game characters you want punching each other in the face, enjoying tea together, or whatever you can think of & I'll spill some ink on an 8.5"x 11" piece of bristol board.  All pieces will be an original, black & white, ink illustration.  All pieces will be $10 which you can pay in advance via PayPal or when you pick the illustration up at the show.  They can ONLY be picked up at the show, so pre-order only if you or a friend can pick them up.  I'll be creating these drawings in advance since my time at the show will be solely devoted to my painting, so I'll be accepting just a few.  So become a writer for a day & have someone (ME) draw what you think up!...FUN!

I've also created a couple prints exclusively for this event shown below which I'll have available at my table (obviously without the watermarks on them).  There will be other goodies there to choose from, so come to the show & see what I have in store!

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"Let's take Wolverine & Mario, decapitate them, then sew their heads on the other one's body!" That's what my brain told me to do so that's exactly what I did in this print & now you can own this sick idea for yourself!:

I don't know why I automatically illustrate characters cutting each other's heads off when thinking of comic book & video game characters fighting, but I'm guilty of it again with this print which will also be available at the show.  Don't be fooled by the cuteness & innocence of LINK...he means business:

Cool.  I REALLY hope to see some of you there!

Welp, Meth & Hot Dogs 2, the super cool show I was a part of at LIFT Gallery in Detroit just closed at the end of May, but with the death of something comes the birth of something else:

Saturday night a portal of epic brutality was unleashed in the state of Illinois.  OhNo!Doom Gallery in Chicago held it's opening of "Friends of the Beast: A Tribute to Metal".  If you're in the area you must check out this amazing exhibit filled with super talented artists which will almost guarantee your eyes to bleed from all the awesome. You can view/purchase the entire show online HERE. The exhibit will run through June, so tell your friends, enemies & lovers to go...

Here are my two pieces:

A Girl In A Head (14" x 11" - watercolor/ink on gesso panel):

A Boy With A Head (16" x 20" - watercolor/ink on canvas):

Illustration Friday

My second submission for Illustration Friday.  The topic this week is "shadows."

"I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene." ~ Grandma Moses

The Sketchbook Project 2012

Here we go again!

I opened up my mailbox a little over a week ago to find a 6"x 9" envelope sent from Brooklyn.  I immediately knew what it was & the creative juices started soaking my brain.

Last year I participated in my first Sketchbook Project created by Art House Coop.  It was such a pleasant experience of spending way too much money on Pigma Micron pens & nights when I should've been working on other projects but didn't that I decided I had to do it again this year...& more than likely every year now.

Upon opening the envelope I noticed a difference in the sketchbook from last year's.  It was considerably smaller in size & the amount of pages had decreased as well.  The paper was a tad bit heavier too which will prevent bleeding.  I was definitely relieved & happy to see these changes.

Last year my theme was "Help!" which you can view here.  

This year my theme is "Encyclopedia of..." which you'll now be able to view right here.

I'll be updating this blog post periodically as I complete my sketchbook.  Once my book is complete I plan on making copies of it to make it available at Austin Comic Con coming up & to anyone else wanting to own it through my online store.  Needless to say it will be filled with some twisted goodness.

So enjoy my process below!  I'll be posting them via Twitter as well along with whatever else I'm working on (& don't forget my random art GIVEAWYS!), so give me a follow.

By the way...Art House is still taking orders/submissions for The Sketchbook Projects 2012.  Sign up!

It's A Friday Giveaway!!!

Hello friends!

For those of you that follow me on Twitter you know I like to give away some art now & then to random followers.  TODAY brings another chance to win some cool goodies!

My buddy Spanky Stokes has an amazing blog which showcases some super talented artists from around the globe usually specializing in custom vinyls & toys.  He tends to have a "Friday Giveaway" every week, so definitely bookmark his blog & revisit daily! I got with him a few weeks back & we set up some neato FREE stuff for today's giveaway!

About six months ago I designed a custom OMI figure from Munky King.  It showed at their gallery in LA to help launch the OMI figure (their newest DIY vinyl at the time).  Now's your chance to give my "Z'OMI" a permanent home!:

Not only will you get this little guy if you win, but you'll ALSO win this original illustration of the same zombie fool screaming for brains! 8"x 10" on bristol board:

"How do I enter to win?!"...GLAD YOU ASKED!  Now that the decaying, maggot-filled, brain-eating prizes have been established, all you have to do is follow me on Twitter AND tweet THIS: 

#FF @CodySchibi to win a custom OMI and an original ink drawing on SpankyStokes.com http://bit.ly/eNeUsy #SSCOD PLS RT to enter!

You  can also head over to SpankyStokes.com where the information is available as well.  SIMPLE!  Entries will be accepted ALL DAY TODAY until midnight west coast time with the winner being selected using the magical, number-picking randomizer shortly after.

I love giving things away to art lovers, so this is exciting for me too!  I'll be continuing to do it, so continue to follow me on Twitter!  Another reminder for those attending Austin Comic Con, I'll be having daily giveaways to my followers who come up to my table with the "secret words".  Not only will I scream frantically like PeeWee Herman, but you'll walk away with free art!

Good luck friends!

Meth & Hot Dogs ...yummy.

Hello again friends.

Just popping in to let you know what's been on my plate. Fortunately for me, it's recently been the delicious combination of meth and hot dogs!  

Last night in Detroit at LIFT Gallery was the opening of the group show 'Meth & Hot Dogs 2: A Collection of Even MORE Unscrupulous Characters.' I felt right at home with this one as the curator (Kill Taupe) asked us artists to simply come up with any demented, cute, strange, whatever characters we can scrape out of our twisted skulls.  He's been doing spotlights at his blog on each of the artists involved (you can view mine here), so take the time to check out ALL the amazing creators in this show (Full lineup here as well).  'Meth & Hot Dogs 2' will run throughout May.

You can check out every piece from the exhibit here with information on how to purchase them as well. My two paintings look a lot like this:

"the majenster"- 20"x 16" watercolor & ink on canvas:

 "the mouth breather"- 14"x 11" watercolor & ink on gesso panel:

The folks over at Ain't It Cool News had a neat, little call for artists a few weeks back in honor of the recent release of Zach Snyder's 'Sucker Punch'.  I'm a huge fan of Snyder's (Dawn of the Dead remake, 300, Watchmen..) & this movie is quite a visual-overload of crazy effects.  It has robots, samurais, monsters, gun & sword wielding girlios, zombies, etc...& Nordling from AICN wanted artists to create an original piece with as many genre-mash ups as you can muster up.  I went with a "Brady Bunch" theme, but didn't take the top selection.  You can view my piece as well as the others here....

I'm staying busy so I'll have plenty of cool things available at my table at Austin Comic Con.  Just finished a few button designs & working on new prints that will be exclusive at the Convention.

I also have another group show at OhNo!Doom Gallery in Chicago the month of June that I'll have some pieces in, so keep checking back for updates or follow me on Twitter for daily updates!

Illustration Friday

...put a little illustration together for my first attempt at Illustration Friday.  The topic this week is "bicycle"...
Immediately after reading the topic, this strange, little man came riding out of my left ear & onto my blank piece of paper.

"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."  ~Albert Einstein

Austin Comic Con

A little news to let you know that I enlisted myself in the army which is Austin Comic Con.  I felt the time was right & am willing to defend the dripping paint & wasted ink of all my attempts at artistic stimuli.  So as you see below, I've strapped on my imaginary, demon head helmet & will be going through extensive boot camp training to ready myself for November.  I will then enter the trenches of the Austin Convention Center for three, bloody days & hope to come out alive to tell you of the experience.

Here's my info on the Austin Comic Con page & keep checking back to see who else is added.  The current lineup of celebrities & especially artists is already impressive, so anything else will be a nice bonus.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter for more information & giveaways! Hope to see your smiling faces there!

Off to lift some finger weights....

heARTless bastards...

So's 'The heART Show' in Boston which opened on the 3rd(& is still running for the remainder of February) has been well received & a few of my paintings from the exhibition have found new homes! (Remember new owners: don't get them wet, keep them away from bright lights...especially sunlight & don't ever feed them after midnight!)  Great job to Brent at The Hallway Gallery for curating...

The 'Out o' the Woodwork' group show in Chicago which opened the 5th(yes...still running too) was also a hit, but there was a problem there for me: my paintings for the show never arrived due to the crazy amount of icy goodness falling from the sky.  Shed no tears just yet (as I almost did) as my pieces were simply a little arrogant & decided to show up fashionably late in a failed attempt that all eyes would be on them.  I got the word my two paintings arrived late last week, almost three weeks after I sent them!  The good people at OhNo!Doom Gallery gave me a few options for what we could do & I happily accepted their offer of them hanging on to the canvases & using them in an upcoming show opening in June.  I'll of course let you know of all the details the closer it gets....but it's going to be "heavy"!

I've spent this month so far doing some more sketching of creepy characters for the group show in Detroit coming up, but also tried my hand at something I haven't done before.  I was forwarded some info about a show opening on Feb. 26th in Arizona that Spraygraphic was throwin'. 'Fill in the Groove' is their Third Annual Vinyl Art Show where they display art on albums from all kinds of great artists.  Whelp I grabbed a couple from my collection that I never listened to(sorry Spandau Ballet) & started spraying & flinging paint all over them.  The end result turned out to be something pretty nifty which I enjoyed doing.  I'm definitely going to do some more of these in the future & put a few up in my shop hopefully soon & if you wanna special order one, by all means let me know.  Check out my first, two vinyl paintings eva:

"the creature" - spray paint/acrylic on 12" vinyl:

"the monster" - spray paint/acrylic on 12" vinyl:

So yeah...the 'Fill in the Groove' show will open February 26th at Hoodlums Music in Tempe, AZ & will run until April 15th.  Definitely check this out if you're in the area as I've seen a few of the other artists' yummy creations & it's gonna be awesome!  Of course all vinyl art will be on sale there as well so go get first dibs!

I also took the time to paint a piece for a benefit in Italy.  2 year old Mattia Fagnoni suffers from a very rare, degenerative disease called "Sandhoff Syndrome" & his parents have created the 'Mattia Fagnoni Association' to help raise awareness & funds in finding a cure.  You can read  about this amazing family on ESP Visuals' blog or become more aware of this genetic disease at NTSAD.org. Here's the painting I sent for their art show which will run April 26th-May 8th at Palazzo Filangeri in Naples, Italy.  There is an amazing amount of artist from all over the world showing support, so it's a real honor to be a part of such a great thing.  100% of the proceeds benefit the MFA:

"earl grey & chamomile"- 10"x 8" watercolor & india ink on gesso panel:

Back to the drawing board....

Showing my junk...

...as I mentioned in my previous post, there are two group shows in February in which I'll have some original goodness to view & purchase & they both open this week.  Yippee! (well...that is if the weather doesn't continue to dump milllions of tons of snow in these cities this week)...

Opening @ 6pm this Thursday, Feb. 3rd in Boston at The Hallway Gallery will be 'The heArt Show'.   There will be around 20 artists splattering their feelings/views/experiences of love with their mediums of choice all over The Hallway walls.  I conjured up 3(well...4 really) paintings for the exhibit which I'm sure will be a little out of place amongst the portraits of people kissing, holding hands & the pieces trying to be serious portraying their love stories.  More the better I say.  Check em out...:

"evol love"... 12"x 6"- watercolor & india ink on gesso panel:

"...sometimes it's ugly."... 9"x 12"- watercolor & india ink on gesso panel:

"connor's in love"... TWO 5"x 5"- watercolor & india ink on gesso panels:

...if you fancy any of these please email Brent at The Hallway & claim em!  The exhibition will run through the entire month of February, so if you're in the Boston area, go check out some cool art!  I also made a few prints of the first two that are available at my shop....you can request the other as well.  Nothing beats the originals however....kind of like potato chips.

Then @ 6pm this Saturday, Feb. 5th, the cats at OhNo!Doom Gallery in Chicago will also be throwing an opening shindig of their own.  "Out O' the Woodwork" is an open theme group show with some talented mofos creating some amazing stuff.  Here's more info with a list of the masterminds:

Since it was an open theme show, I wanted to have my two pieces show my style of line detail & watercolor(even though I'm definitely still learning this "painting" thing as I go & finding my groove...I only truly started painting late last year) but also wanted my pieces to be connected in some way.  I always sketch out these kids surrounded by demons & since I had a ton of reference drawings in my sketchbooks, I just went with that...

"a boy with his head"... 14"x 20" - watercolor & india ink on stretched. watercolor canvas:

"a girl in a head" 14"x 11"- watercolor & india ink on gesso panel

Again...if you have interest in purchasing these paintings, email the folks at OhNo!Doom Gallery & let them know.  If you're in the Chicago area, please go to this exhibit & show support to artist like me & the bad ass galleries that put together these events.

It was a busy January & I'm trying to keep the momentum going.  I'm already signed up to have two pieces in the April show in Detroit 'Meth & Hot Dogs II'.  Check out this bonkers list of participating artist...it's gonna be quite an awesome show for sure! I'm also still working on my personal art to have more prints & what not available sooner rather than later.  The Staple! Expo is in March here in Austin which I'm excited about.  I didn't sign up for a table since I wanted to get my poo more in order, so I'll definitely be networking & gathering ideas for next year. 

And on a completely unrelated, final note...today is the release of Adam Green's horror film Hatchet II on DVD/Bluray.  I'm a monstrous fan of the first Hatchet film & horror in general & when the sequel came out in selected theaters (VERY selected) back in October, I was pumped.  There was a giant hoopla & great controversy surrounding the film since it had an unrated rating.  AMC stepped up to release it, but after the first weekend it was pulled with many questions being asked from the fans.  This was quite a story that reached CNN & other major headline news which you can read all about on director/writer Adam Green's Blog.  Anyhoo...I was one of the few, extremely lucky people to witness this film on the big screen & what a damn fun flick this is.  Starting off directly from the final shot of the first Hatchet this gory goodness gives you exactly what you expect: buckets of blood, unbelievable death scenes & slapstick laughs.  After seeing the film almost 4 months ago, I had to sketch out our hero, Victor Crowley, after committing one of the most twisted killings in the film.  Take a look & yeah...I should've added more blood, i know:

So even though it now carries a rated 'R' rating on it's DVD/Bluray release today, go out & buy 'Hatchet 2' to support independent, unrated horror.  Hell...go buy both of these films.  I did!

Alright...we'll talk soon.

Not a full sigh of relief...

Hello computer screen readers....

I've been pretty darn busy with some deadlines this month.  Fortunately one has been dominated by yours truly as I finally finished my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project 2011.  40+ pages of random, retarded globs of wasted ink now & forever will grace the pages of this moleskine.  It's hopefully being fondled by the moisturized hands of the operators over at The Brooklyn Art Library right now & getting prepped & ready to go on its 6-month, 8-city tour.  If it comes to a city near you, please take a glance through my book & send me some feedback via Twitter or here...I'd love to hear from you.  If you're a hermit & never go outside, then you can view my sketchbook at your own pace from the safety of your cave here.  OR if you're a hermit, never go outside and you're super lazy & don't want to keep pressing your mouse to view my pages, I've included a magical, video journey through every page of my book below.  Enjoy...

As I mentioned earlier before you watched that blockbuster of a YouTube video above, I've been pleasantly swamped with deadlines.  I have two shows that I'll have at least two original pieces in coming up in February.  They'll be in Chicago & Boston, but I'll share with you images, links & more information very shortly.

I also took a moment to illustrate something which was inspired by Mr. Alex Pardee's recent solo show which opened on Jan. 8th.  He spent a few weeks leading up to this exhibit creating a story/world about Caleb "Verti" Parker; a big game hunter turned nightmare hunter.  You can read all about it here & hopefully get lost in his awesomeness as I did.  Since Alex purposely didn't paint "Verti", I went ahead & created my own version of him based on the descriptions from the story with a fresh, fallen nightmare:

Definitely check out Alex's show "Vertigo: A Decade of Hunting Nightmares" at the Corey Helford Gallery in LA if you're in that area...it'll run until the end of the month, but will blow minds for a lifetime!

Now back to the grind.  I'm high five-ing myself since I seem to be truly following through on my New Years resolution of really focusing more on my art & getting my stuff out there.  I'm getting more & more things lined up, so hopefully you'll be seeing more of my crafty creations in the 11 months left in 2011....

xo,

c.

out with the old...in with the new.

Whelp...there went 2010.  That was a quick one.  The older I get the more the realization of how fast time sneaks away hits me.  Needless to say I welcome those pounding reminders, especially when I find myself being an unproductive slump.

It was a good year however.  My resolution last year was to really focus on my art which I'd been neglecting for far too long.  Even though I could always do more, I still accomplished some things:  I searched & destroyed a few storyboard jobs for different production companies, designed some posters/prints for bands & other projects, showed my art in a few shows & most importantly networked to meet a lot of amazing, talented peeps.  This year will only be better as the momentum is gaining & I have a lot more people kicking me in my ass for motivation which is what I was lacking for so long.  Spank you friends!

Some exciting news is by the time you read this I just updated my online shop with some new goodies!  I'm finally introducing my new trading cards "Those Weird Ones".  I went out & did some extensive interviews with the strangest people/creatures I could find....& they're more abundant & available than you think!  I have over a thousand pages of information on hundreds & hundreds of these bizarre folk, so I'm sitting on a plethora of material that soon will spill out to the public.  As of now however, there are only four available to get to know & wonder about.  These portraits are 4x6 cards created with the most loving watercolors & ink I could find to capture their stories.    They're all available at my shop individually or as a set...all hand signed.  Get to know Gill below & the other ones.  They always need new friends (Gill especially) so grab em now!:

During my travels through this twisted land finding & learning about "Those Weird Ones", I stumbled upon an unnamed creature sitting alone.  There was something oddly zen/peaceful about this guy, even though he just removed his own eyes!  I quickly did some study sketches & took some notes to refer to later as this fellow sat there for hours & hours...never moving...only thinking.  The final outcome was "The Thinkin' Demon" & I'm assuming he's still sitting in that exact spot I found him earlier this year.  These 11"x17" prints will all have their very own unique touches, as I luckily collected some of the demon's blood fresh from it's eye sockets & individually splattered it on every print!  OH YES I DID!!

With these new yummies (ALL available now at my online store), I'm still knocking out more stuff for the year ahead.  I have a few pages to fill in my book for The Sketchbook Project before it embarks on it's US tour.  I have prints/cards/customs/pins/other merchandise on the drawing table to have a nice display of visual stimuli for conventions/exhibitions I plan on being a part of this year.  In between all of this I'll of course keep revisiting the strange places that continue to feed me with the material & inspiration I seek.  You can easily stay up to date with all of this & random drawings/ideas/comments on a daily basis by following me on Twitter.  I've already given away some of my art to a few lucky (or unlucky...depending on how you like my stuff) followers & plan on doing more giveaways soon & often.  

Like I said before, my momentum is in full swing going into the new year & I'm going to attempt a lot more things than my lazy ass did (or only thought of) in 2010.  I hope you continue to show interest... .. .  .