Birthday Wishes

My birthday is coming up, October 11th. I have a bit of a wish list, if anyone has any interest in getting me anything. I'm not ASKING for anything, but if anyone WANTS to get me something, here's the list :)

1. Buy any of my art. A print, an original, etc. It all helps me to continue my art: http://meartist.storenvy.com/

2. Come to one of my art shows :)

3. Donate to my art show: http://www.indiegogo.com/Debut-Art-Show

4. Donate to my team in training page for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/carlsbad11/meibenigzw

Not a huge list, but all very important to me :)

Art Shows Coming Up

I have two art shows coming up. The first is in Los Angeles on October 9th at 7pm. It is at Kesspro Studios, 435 S. Molino St. Los Angeles, CA. Entry is free and there will most likely be a live band playing at the end of the night.

The second one is in San Diego at @Spacebar, 7454 University Ave, Suite A
La Mesa, ca 91941, on November 13th at 7pm. There will also be a live band playing at the end of this one and there is no cover charge.

Please pass this on to everyone, I hope to get a lot of people to each show!!!

Latest Mixed Media Paintings

I've been doing a lot of mixed media paintings recently, and have actually started a series called "Art Love." Here are the first couple.

Experimentation

I've been doing a lot of experimenting lately, mainly with promotion and with various mediums.

Experiment #1: How to get fans on my facebook page more active. I tried doing a couple different "contests", the first being if anyone made any comment on my page at all, they'd be entered into a drawing to get a free 8x10 print of one of my art works. This wasn't very productive, only 6 people (out of my 184 fans) participated. I did the drawing anyway and my friend J.M. won a print.

Next I posted another "contest" where people had to post an idea of what they would like to see more of on my page and I would do another drawing for an 8x10 print. This was very ineffective, no one posted anything.

I did, however, also start just posting a whole bunch of pictures. Sketches I had done, pictures of the painting I'm working on, etc. and I've been asking for feedback and ideas on how to do certain things, and I started getting a lot more participation in my page from more people, so I guess that's really the key. They simply want to see my art and be a part of it.

Experiment #2: How to use prismacolor pencils. I still haven't figured this one out, but I went to the art store last Wednesday and picked some up. While I was there I also got some watercolor pencils, which looked cool, and a couple drawing pads. A friend of mine, D.S., had told me about the prismacolor. He mentioned they were a lot easier to blend than regular colored pencils and they can come out looking more like a painting, sort of.

So I tried them out and I didn't really see the appeal. They seemed like regular colored pencils to me. So I posted my first couple sketches and I got a whole bunch of feedback on them with about 100 different tips, including coloring 1 small area at a time, using the colorless blender, using various types of paper, blending the colors before even applying them to the paper, and someone mentioned something involving an iron. So I have a whole lot of experiments to do with that.

The watercolor pencils, on the other hand, I think are amazing! I've been wanting to get back into watercolor painting for a while (I haven't done it in over 10 years), so this is the perfect way to do it. With the pencils I can draw a pretty detailed picture, or a general scenic picture, and then just add a little water and it becomes a water color painting. I've done two sketches so far with these pencils and I love them! I do need to get the appropriate paper for it, since I've been just using regular drawing paper, which doesn't do so well when you add water.

I will update this posting by tonight with the pictures of the sketches I've been doing.

IndieGoGo Fundraiser for my art show

Hey, check this out and pass it on please! If you can help out with anything, that would be awesome!

Mixed media painting

ERRRGGG. I just got this back from the printer and as I'm picking it up I take a look at it. It's not done at all! What was I thinking? There's so much more I want to do with it before I even show it to other people (though I'll leave this picture up so there will be a before and after pic). Well, that was a waste of money! (having it scanned, I mean).

I will be working on it more tonight and tomorrow to possibly finish it and hopefully within the next week I will post a new, completed picture of it. Stay tuned!

Here are 2 of the pics I promised

Here are the scans of 2 of my more recent paintings, I will have one more within the next couple days after I pick it up from the printer.