mez's monsta mayhem

Weirdness

2010-01-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

Still feeling the residuals of Cripple Con, I decided to try this experiment with gouache from a quick sketch in my sketchbook. I was going for speed and not anatomy and just having fun learning the properties of the paint.

Cripple Con 3- Threesome

2010-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Cripple Con happened again this year. This time it was in San Antonio Texas which has some crazy big overpasses for their highways and King Kong Nachos! I had a great time drawing and partying with everyone and getting crazy in the pool (so surprised we didn't get kicked out).

Here are some of my pieces that I put up on my wall. I got 2nd place in Funniest yet again!
These drawings are meant to be offensive and vulgar, so please understand it's with love.

Matt Z.

Lindsey V.

Enrique

Brian O.

And of course there was Que Padre!

Landscape painting

2010-01-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

Some of us have been getting together after life drawing to go out to different spots in San Diego and do landscape paintings. I want to try to keep this up (weather permitting). This painting was in gouache at the Birch Aquarium.

Sketch Dump

2009-12-22T02:22:00.000-08:00

Life Drawing sketch

Venessa as Rudolph

Lianne D.

Studio 2nd Street

2009-12-12T02:04:00.000-08:00

I've been taking classes at Studio 2nd Street with Ron and Vanessa Lemen for almost a year now. They are excellent instructors. I'm currently learning techniques with gouache. Here are some experiments:

On every second Friday they have a "Sketch Night" usually with a band playing. It's a good time.

Ron Lemen

More from Halloween '09

2009-10-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

My contributions to this Halloween's festive nature.

Halloween Prank at the Zoo

2009-10-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

This Halloween, my employees at the San Diego Zoo decided to play a little prank on me. They replaced all the demos that we have displayed at our booths; normally with kids and zoo animals with variations of myself. I was very surprised and honored even though there were quite a few confused guests, but luckily the merchandise staff was very amused.

Zoo Caricatures

2009-10-15T02:12:00.001-07:00

My bro Joe

Aida M.

Laura H.

Heather M.

Target practice witha Beretta 9mm

Life drawings dump

2009-08-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

San Diego Zoo Caricature Dump

2009-07-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a looong time. I'm still doing stuff. Here's some Zoo caricatures from earlier this year.

This is a collab with Aaron Philby of one of my employees. He did the lines, I did the colors.

Art show at Cream

2009-02-15T00:20:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple pieces I did for an art show here at a local coffee shop called Cream. These paintings are similar in color to my work in college, so it was good to paint like this again.

"love ballistic"

"eye trust you"

"passions gripped by fear"

"after all this waiting"

Cripple Con 2

2009-01-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy month, but I had a chance to go to Cripple Con 2 in Kansas City. It was a blast. I had a great time and was able to "let my hair down". My friends unfortunately got the brunt force of it, but its all in good gross fun. I placed 2nd for funniest drawing and 3rd for "creepiest person" at the convention. Not sure why. I wasn't trying to creep people out...

So here are the drawings from my wall. This convention is all about doing offensive, sick, disgusting cartoons, so its all in bad taste and if you are easily offended or my mother, don't look at these pictures. It's that bad.

Caricatures of me

2009-01-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

Every once an' awhile friends will draw me or by going to caricature conventions you tend to get drawn. Here are a couple from the vault.

Eric and I by Anne Bush

JERT

Court Jones

KEV

Brian Morante

Nolan Harris

Aaron Philby

Jeremy Stock

Andy Urza

I hope to collect some more at Cripple Con 2!

Illustration Friday: Voices

2008-12-24T00:58:00.000-08:00

Illustration Friday: Similar

2008-12-11T01:30:00.001-08:00

Caricature of Obama and Clinton, together at last.

More Life Drawing

2008-12-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

Goblin Boss

2008-12-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

Another week and another topic for Conceptart.org. This week's character had to relate back to last week's. So this is the "boss" of the gunslinger goblin.

I'm still trying to get the results I want with all of this digital painting. I like being able to feel free laying on the "washes" but I think I like having an actual finished drawing I can hold as well.

Life drawing in North Park

2008-11-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

Even though I haven't posted in quite some time, I have been drawing besides at the Zoo. On Wednesday mornings usually I go to a life drawing class here in North Park. The models are good and it helps to continue to practice drawing from life. Its interesting, if you stop drawing for awhile you really got to fight in the beginning to get back on that horse and to reach the next plateau.

Goblin Gunslinger

2008-11-24T00:39:00.001-08:00

Here's a character design I just did on the conceptart.org forum for fun. Each week they give a different subject to work on. The requirements were to do this character with a front, side and back view.

The Messenger

2008-11-24T00:33:00.000-08:00

Here's another short comic I did last month for fun.

I was experimenting with adding texture in the line art. Just trying something different.

What's in the Box?

2008-11-24T00:25:00.001-08:00

Holy crap I haven't posted in nearly a year, okay its time again to share.
Here's a comic Rachel Garrett and I worked on last year.

Sunday Sketch Night Post

2007-11-27T11:15:00.001-08:00

Here are some sketch book pages from our weekly sketch night a couple of weeks ago.

Can you guess what the theme of these images was?

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

2007-11-20T10:31:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to get out to do more life drawing and one of the happenings that we have here in SD is the Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School. There are different clubs in major cities across the country. What they do is every third Saturday in North Park (yeah!) at the Blue Foot Bar they have different burlesque and exotic dancers/models come to this bar and they pose in their costumes and you basically drink and draw for a couple hours and there are also "drawing contests".

Its pretty interesting and the turn out is good so you have to get there early to get a good seat.
This last session, they invited two belly dancers to model for us and last month they had a great model dress up as a Vampire for Halloween. In December there will be a naughty Santa's helper girl or something.

This last one, she was suppose to be doing something with a turkey. The contests are a little hokey sometimes but whatever...

I love couples!

2007-11-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so at the Zoo or any theme park when you draw caricatures, drawing couples has many advantages. One, you double up on the money you get. Woot! Second, you typically will just draw faces which lets you play with the differences between the people sitting there, and third, its usually some schmo and a hot girl, so you play up how much of a Neanderthal he looks and cute and charming the girl is.

Disclaimer: This is a huge generalization and couples come in all shapes and sizes, races and creeds, so the pics here just illustrate my last point. Also I'll admit that I don't push the exaggeration to the point of insult, some of my colleagues enjoy testing the public to see just how far they make people feel about their insecurities. In the end, I just want them to laugh and buy my cartoons. With a large frame.

This guy really didn't want me to take his picture after I drew it and yes his head was HUGE!

Illustration Friday: Wired

2007-03-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is a bit late (work) but I finished it and wanted to post it anyway.

I want a pickle!

2007-03-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here yah go ladies and gents, the great Aaron Philby!

Happy VD!

2007-02-14T02:46:00.000-08:00

Illustration Friday: Sprout

2007-02-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

Illustration Friday: Red

2007-01-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

We have these Red Pandas from China at the San Diego Zoo that helped inspire me for this topic.

San Diego 'mini' Caricature Convention

2006-09-26T00:16:00.001-07:00

We recently had a mini caricature convention in SD to get people hyped up about going to Orlando for the NCN convention and also provide an open forum for some of our new hires to show them how you can expand your expression (with other media/materials) in caricature. We had a pretty good turn out and drew all day. Here are some of my images.
Anne
Cheeks
Emily
Connie
Fishwick
The Gaber
Dave
Me by Dave from Knotts

Park Sketches

2006-09-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the sketches that I typically do in the park at Sea World. Some artists really enjoy exploring exaggeration and risk pushing the limits sometimes of what people comfortable paying for. Caricatures in the park ain't cheap. I try to skirt that edge but in the end I still want the guest to buy it, so I guess I have what's considered a "retail" sketch, but every once in awhile I like to jack people up.

Must...create...post...

2006-09-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that it’s been like 4 months since I've posted any images. ~__~ A lot has happened, primarily the SUMMER @ Sea World, I moved and created a portfolio for the San Diego Comic-Con, sprinkle in a couple weddings and end off with a heaping helping of life in general. These may not be the best reasons, but now that the season is over I believe I'll have more time to post images.

So here are some beautiful people that just so happen to be sitting across from me at the Comic-Con while I was waiting for my turn at the portfolio reviews. Shear desperation can sometimes produce lovely results.

Mark and Ramon from San Jose came down for a couple of days at the park and we all went out to a coffeehouse to sketch. Its always cool to have visiting artists to sketch with. I'll see these guys again @ NCN!

Ramon

Mark

Random people at the coffeehouse.

Holy Crap, a posting!

2006-05-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't updated my blog in a long time. I've just been working at the park so much with Spring Break, I haven't produced anything that I wanted to post, until today. I just spent the day drawing and even when I'm not at work I wanted to do some caricatures...ugh. I did all of these today and had fun ripping people up.

Dwayne C.
Below I did some drawings at a local coffeeshop, just random people.

Sunday Sketch NIght

2006-03-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Every Sunday a bunch of us get together to sketch at a local coffeeshop called the Otherside in North Park. Its always fun to hang out and work on other art besides what is required at the park. Here is some sketches of mine from the last couple sketch nights.

Heather N. will be leaving us soon to venture to the Great Green North with her family. I hope she keeps in contact with everybody...

James A. and Chris D.

Jen from Sesame Place came to visit us last night with Stacy.