A new home

(ADULT CONTENT BELOW)       It's official!  I've found a new home for my art-stuffs and a permanent residence for my Fuzzy Skeletonians.  In short, I've got my own ding-dang domain, bitches!  I have paid for and registered FuzzySkeletonian.com and it feels good : D  All I've done so far is set up a Wordpress.org blog so I can get back to bidness with my arts.  That's what's most important to me right now but, hey, it's a whole freakin' website so who knows what the future holds!

     As for this blog, I plan to leave it up as a static archive for as long as Blogger will have me.  Anyway, head on over to the new site and leave me a house-warming comment or two!

new banner

     I've been meaning to do this for a while but I've been busy with getting distracted lately (you know how that goes).  Anyhow, Jesse over at ZOMBIE BITES modified one of my OPG banners from this past October by adding a pretty cool glowing effect to it and I thought I'd share in case you were in the market for a new banner:


     Thanks Jesse!

Fuzzy Giveaway 2011!

     The Fuzzy Skeletonian Insane Mega-Giveaway is officially closed and the good news is all three of you who signed up and participated in this year's Octoberween-Palooza-Ganza are GUARANTEED to receive your very own Fuzzy Skeletonian orginal artwork!

     The EVEN BETTER news is that you will have a little say in which of my fuzzy fellas you receive!  I know I originally stated that it would be a random giveaway but since there are a whole ten skellies up for adoption and only three of you signed up, I've decided give you all a chance to state your preference.

     So, what I need from each of you is to take one more look at all ten and then email me with the names of three (3) you wouldn't mind receiving.  Please don't tell me your favorite or list them in order of preference (I don't need that kind of pressure, man!), just the three names in no particular order.  Also, don't forget to include your current mailing address.  If you don't happen to have a preference or would rather be surprised, please state that in your email.

     In the end, everyone will still receive only ONE original artwork but at least this way you will have some say in the matter.  So, let me know as soon as you have a moment.  I will, of course, wait for all three emails before I mail anything off.

     Thanks again for all your comments and taking the time to actually participate in my OPG!

march nightmare

     Well, I tried to save the best for last.  This post at least has the highest number of artworks I've ever included in one post before.  Anyway, here goes:

     Back in March the wife and I had a very good Saturday.  We slept late, went out to eat, futzed around town, running a couple of errands, generally having a good time.  It all culminated that evening with us having a blast at dinner (appetizer dinner, one of our favorites!), consuming more than the usual amount of wine and watching one of our favorite movies, Evil Dead II.  We enjoyed it almost as much as the first time we saw it.  However, I often found myself (as I realized later) taking it a little too seriously at times, saying things like, "You know, someone actually going through something this extremely supernatural and horrific might APPEAR to be acting in an absurd or comical way.  From my experience, the OUTWARD appearance of your actions is often out of step with what you're actually feeling INSIDE."  In my mind I thought I was just having fun with my conjecture and my 'What if this was REALLY HAPPENING!?' thought exercise.  What I didn't know at the time is that I was planting the seeds of fear in my own impressionable, wine-marinated brain.  Not surprisingly, that night I had a nightmare.

     It opens in some strange house I've never been in before (as a lot of my unpleasant dreams do).  There's a zombie somewhere and it's all the fault of this douchebag son of some rich guy (apparently this is their house).  Not sure why I know all of this, it's just the given facts of the dream.

      Anyway, next thing I know I've opened a closet door somewhere in the house and find myself standing face to face with the aforementioned zombie.  He's not all, "Bleearrgh! Graaaarr! Brains!" or extremely gross looking or anything.  He's a middle-aged, balding man in a suit.  He has a blank stare and is filthy (as zombies are wont to be) but the expressionless face looking back at me from the shadows of the freshly opened closet is particularly unsettling.

       Jump cut to a side view of the the closet.  From the top shelf of the closet, the zombie suddenly shoots out head first, arms at his sides, entire body parallel to the floor and stops at the waist.  The room is lit with a sickly, bright (yet also dark) orange and the top half of the zombie is sticking out of the closet, stiff as a board like the top drawer of a dresser.  Suddenly, his arms shoot out, doubling his visible length.



     Next thing I see (not that I actually recall seeing it, it's more like my mind TOLD ME I was seeing it) is the zombie and the douchebag son wrestling on the floor in front of the closet.  The room is still lit in that sickly orange as they struggle, the zombie now in full, aggressive "Romero" mode.

     The scene changes again and I'm pretty sure I have the son safely behind me and the zombie is prone on the floor in front of me.  I'm jabbing at him with a transfer shovel trying to decapitate him.  We now seem to be in the living room.  Beyond the zombie I can see furniture, potted plants, windows and glass doors that lead outside to a back yard or patio.  It's night time and the room is now a dark, moonlit environment and I can see streaks of blood running down the zombie's face.  I jab again with the shovel, a little off target, and hit him in the face.  I don't see it but I clearly feel a splash of warm liquid hit my left cheek and eye.

     Everything becomes a little unclear at this point, although in the next moment I somehow know that I've killed the zombie.  Then I look up at the ceiling and I see the shadow of a thin, unclothed, headless figure.  It's arms are flailing wildly and shooting from it's neck are what seems to be both short lengths of hair and what looks like small moths but they have no bodies, just a pair of fluttering wings, much like heart-shaped pieces of paper folded down the middle...

 ...I'm terrified and I realize the ghost of the zombie is casting this shadow!  I panic and swing the shovel wildly at where I think the ghost is.  The force of the swing in my arm and shoulder as I hit nothing is the last thing I feel.

***



     I woke up, hungover and so dry my eyelids were almost making scratching noises every time I blinked.  I was still pretty creeped out and, even though I keep a pretty much nocturnal schedule and there was plenty of daylight in the house, I was still seriously keeping a wary eye on the hallway for any shambling zombies that might be coming my way.  After some liquids, pain killers and a light snack I was finally able to get back to sleep.

Lastly, here's another incarnation of the nightmare zombie:

     Well, I hope you enjoyed this.  I have to say this was the most vivid nightmare I've had in years.  My only regret is that I wish I could've done more artistic justice to it.  That's not to say I didn't produce a few decent images but I never really felt I completely captured the true vividness of the experience.  Oh well, I guess room for improvement is a good thing.

     Whew!  Has this been a crazy month or what?  I'm glad I took all the time off from work.  Three-day weekends all month has been SA-WEEET!  It's gotten me rested up and ye olde creative juices flowing as well!  I look forward to the holidays and you should too, as I have a stockpile of new artworks just itching to be posted : D  Thanks for stopping by, you crazy kids are the best!

lamp skellie

     Here's a familiar face you may recall from last year.  He's my continual companion/specter/muse at my art table.  For a good part of the year he decided to perch himself atop my trusty banker's lamp to supervise my work.  He looked so good I decided to take a picture.  After futzing around with the image a bit this is what I ended up with.

Fuzzy Skeletonian Giveaway Sign-up Sheet

     Okay, first things first.  Slight change in the giveaway rules.  I decided I was being a tad presumptuous by having all OPG participants being AUTOMATICALLY entering into the Fuzzy Skeletonian giveaway.  After all, there are some who may not appreciate the content and style of my furry little fellas.

     Therefore, this post will serve as the official OPG Fuzzy Skeletonian Insane Mega-Giveaway sign-up sheet.  If you'd like to be entered into the giveaway please leave a comment here.  And once you've blogged about Halloween and/or Horror and submitted the link to your post to me before the end of October your entry into the giveaway will be official.  To sum up, the two things you need to do are:

     1.  Leave a comment here.
     2.  Blog about Halloween and/or Horror and submit the link to your post to me before the end of the month.

     Alrighty, let's get this show on the road!

what the hell is this?

     What the hell have I been doing this year?  Oh, you'll find out less than a week!  Details here, if you don't already know.  OPG!  OPG!  OPG!!

just a friendly reminder

     Can a baboon drive a tank?  You're never going to know unless you tune into the Netflix Instant Bad Movie Marathon happening TONIGHT, BITCHES!!!!  It's gonna be a blast!

fuzzy skeletonians and the greater whole

     Just wanted to share what I've been doing lately with my fuzzy skellies.  Here's a quick work in progress .gif I threw together of the fuzzy fella I completed last night.  One of the many I plan to have ready for my OPG in the fall.

     This whole idea was born out of a combination of seeing what ROUBLE RUST often does on her art blog and the desire to share with you what I see when I'm creating these guys (or any of my creations for that matter).  It's just lines on paper and some watercolor paint, of course.  All these steps are what I see when I look at the finished product.  When my works are freshly completed what you're seeing above is what often keeps me from seeing the greater whole.  I get the individual parts stuck in my head and it takes time for them to finally combine in my mind, allowing me to finally see what I've ultimately created.

     Anyway, just thought this little glimpse into my process and methodology might be interesting.

BEARS... IN... SPAAAAAACE!!!

     Can Uwe Boll direct his way out of a wet paper sack?  Do the mentally impaired make good zombies?  Can Lou Ferrigno throw a bear into orbit?  The answers to these questions and more will all be revealed during the Netflix Instant Bad Movie Twitterthon!  I've officially got the weekend free and I will be geeking it up this Saturday night with my bestest net buddies as we all try to endure a marathon of some hand-picked, rust-proof, quality-free movies!  And the best part is:  YOU'RE INVITED!!

     So cancel that hot date, skip out on that sex and drugs party, sell those tickets to the theater.  Instead grab yourself some booze, energy drinks, lots o' pizza and log on to The Internet and embrace the goodness of bad movies.  You know you want to!

hollow head

     Okay, now that I've gotten planking out of my system, we can get back to bidness.  Here's some pencil from my late teens.  The original is noticeably lighter than what you see here.  When I was fiddling around with this post-scan I hit ye olde auto-adjust on the colors and everything just popped.  It really brought out all the original detail from this old drawing so I ran with it.

     As for content, methinks this has something to do with an artwork I often stared at as a kid in California.  It was in this book called The Mind my parents had in the living room.  The artwork in question was a painting done by a schizophrenic depicting their skull split open lying in a grassy field and you could see different compartments inside.  Each compartment showed scenes, memories, abuse, insecurities and the like from their life experiences.  I remember being obsessed with that book and that painting in particular.  As for my drawing, the head seems hollow with all the interesting stuff on the outside.  Perhaps the inside was gutted by fire, as there are some small flames still burning.

searching for direction

     Here's a quickie with more of my brush markers.  Seems I've drawn similar figures like this before.  One hand raised, one hand pointing.  Maybe they're trying to tell me something.

takin' what they givin' cuz i'm workin' for a livin'

     Well, ye olde workplace has finally made good on their threat of Sundays.  I'm working 7 days this week.  Huzzah.

     To convey my general feeling of discontent I decided to scan myself.  Instead of laying down on the scanner I decided it would be a better idea to prop the scanner on its side and lean in close.  At first this was a mostly black, shapeless mass but a quick auto-adjust of the colors revealed what you see now.  Pretty neat effect.  Sorta like seeing through the eyes of a primitive 1980's robot.  Hopefully the kind with vibrating parts.  Mmm... parts.

distraction procrastination and banneritis

     Bear with me, folks, as I get my momentum back.  Here's a sketchy, facey... thing that I drew a little while ago.  I hope it passes for content.  Anyway, I've been very lazy and easily distracted of late.  No sooner did I get over the flu, when I've been stricken with Procrastination Syndrome and a recurring case of Banneritis, where I get obsessed with making banners.  I'm not even very good at making banners but when the mood hits me I just can't help myself.

     I was first infected last summer when I helped Stacia, over at She Blogged By Night, make her banners for the Shatnerthon.  That was about 20 million pounds of fun in a 5 pound bag, lemme tell ya!  We only made a total of four or five banners to promote the event but I had a ball doing it!  Not only that, but it was what got me interested in blogging in the first place.

     Anyhoo, Mr. Gable has been my latest banner victim.  I ran this one by him before I decided to post it so it's all good.  Head on over and get your dose of Reality right damn now!


     This is the first step in preparations for sprucing up my Links page.  If you have a banner for your site (or would like to be my next victim), please let me know.

may you have a banner year!

     By request, I have made some banners to ring in the new year!  Feel free to yoink these and display them proudly in your sidebar as a symbol of your questionable taste in art.  If you have a banner you'd like to throw my way just let me know and I'll include it on my links page, which could definitely use some sprucing up.

     Oh my dear, 2011.  May you not suck big, hairy donkey dicks.

Mutant Santa...

(ADULT CONTENT BELOW)

     ...in a sick twisted christmas complete with xmas trees, elf porn, and the everseeing eye...spying on all those children of the 3rd dimension.


- Credits -
Original artwork:  Me
Title and description text:  Mr. Gable (used without permission and hopefully forgiven!)
Color scheme/ideas inspired by:  Katn and Mr. Gable


     I don't normally do anything special for xmas but I just couldn't resist!  When I read the comments on hungry head they totally stuck in my head and I just ran with it.  The colorizing is a bit primitive and goofy but I just decided to have fun with it.  I did my best to achieve what was in the comments of the original post, turning the "xmas trees" green and going with the Grinch colors for Mutant Santa.

     I hope you all get a laugh from this one, that's what it's for!  This also turned out to be my 100th post!  Yay for me and Mutant Santa!

first page

     This is the first page of the sketchbook I started over 7 years ago in the midst of the Sharpie craze in full swing.  This is the very same sketchbook that I'm just a few short pages away from finishing here in the near future.  I guess it's not much of a milestone but it is yet another one of the fascinating bits of trivia I try to give to you, my gentle and attractive readers.

chalkboard nude

(ADULT CONTENT BELOW)


     When I first completed this drawing I recall it making me pretty uncomfortable at the time.  I think it was because it was a little too honest of a self-portrait in some ways.  Obviously, I'm much more comfortable with it now, although I'm still not sure what the whole tornado-like thing is supposed to be.

     As far as the digital effects go, this was another one of my happy accidents.  After a quick auto-adjust of the colors I flipped the negative tweak and, whamo, chalkboard!  Who knew?

fire woman

(ADULT CONTENT BELOW)


     Someone once said that Lynyrd Skynyrd had only two songs:  Freebird and Not Freebird.  Similarly, I think The Cult also had only two songs:  Fire Woman and Sounds Like Fire Woman, am I right?  Anyway, here's my fiery woman.  I guess she's more of a monster than a woman but, hey, I'd hit it.

     This started out as another one of my super hairy creature drawings but then I started fiddling around with the colors post scan.  Honestly, I kind of stumbled upon this color scheme but it really caught my eye so I ran with it.  I'm glad I did because it completely transformed the drawing.  The fuzzy suddenly turned into flames.  I couldn't have planned this better in a million years.  I love happy accidents!

fuzzy skeletonians redux #6

Everybody do The Michigan Raaaaaag!

     I went ahead and ran with the advice Gable gave me on FSR #5.  I also gave this guy a top hat but I have no clue what he did with it.  Maybe the head-snakes ate it.