Holy Crap, that's a lot of Art.

While I'm still typing up the page explaining the requests and stories behind some of the paintings, I figured you guys could still enjoy seeing 300+ paintings all in one place.
http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrash.htm

Also know that I'm keeping a list of all the requests that I DIDN"T paint....to use the next time I do something like this. That won't be incredibly soon, but it will happen. This project was pretty much a success....less because I actually pulled it off and more because I'm in a better place with my work ethic now. We'll have to see if it sticks around, but for now I'm still living the afterglow.

Also, I haven't been able to take a day off painting yet, even though the Crash has ended. When I joked about being addicted, that might not have been far from the truth.

-jared

Edit:

I'm officially DONE with everything in regards to the Art Crash. I just finished typing up the information about which requests I used.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrash300b.htm

Edit, Edit: To everyone who emailed me or is emailing me about buying paintings: I'm officially starting to respond to your messages now that everything is up and I've gotten a bit more organized.

The End.

Man. It's over. I'm not sure the exact hour it ended, but I've been finished for a while and I've already started scanning.
I've still got a bunch of stuff to do to get this set up in time, so the reality of not having to paint all day hasn't set in. That's not that meanful except when you sit down and realize that I've been painting for almost 2 weeks straight.
2 weeks. What the hell.
No teaser painting today because tomorrow night you should be getting about a hundred and sixty more to look at. Some good, some bad, some just bizarre. You decide which is which...I'm just happy that I can say that at least a third of them are worth being proud of. Catch you guys later, I've got to clean up my apartment and spend the next 4 hours scanning.

(Oddly enough, I'm kind of sad that this is over....like Summer Camp just ended.)
-jared

Edit: For those of you playing at home, the grand total of paintings done during the Art Crash is 308.

Day 12: The Final Day (more or less)

Well, I'm almost done. I've still got some stuff to do as well as a mountain of stuff to scan, but I think in the end all will work out just fine. I don't have much to say except I feel like I could keep this up. I almost want to...like this "endless painting" thing has sort of become my routine. Thank GOD my day job only happens twice a week. But yeah...I almost WANT to keep painting. It's weird.

In the meantime, all I can say is that some of you guys suggested some very weird things for me to paint:

I don't know either.

Also, because you'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out all the details, I figured since today's the last day it wouldn't be too attention-whorish or fanboyish to give you guys a list of random celebrities (well, to me anyway) that responded to my "Hey, can I paint something for you?" email. I'm surprised who responded and who didn't. I'm also surprised how everyone seems to have their own definition of who and what a celebrity is.

The list: Olly, from Sifl & Olly (Liam, to be precise), Joe Bob Briggs (of Monstervision fame and the best movie critic out there), Josh Weinstein (the original Tom Servo from MST3k), Christopher Moore (author of Practical Demonkeeping and Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff), Kathe Koja (amazing author of Skin, an out of print book I have 5 copies of so I can share her with my friends), The Brothers Chaps (or at least one of the Brothers behind Homestar Runner), Colin Smythe (Terry Pratchett's publicity agent....No message from Terry but Colin was cool enough to suggest some stuff), Jason Yungbluth (Deep Fried cartoonist), Ryan Estrada (duh), Scott McCloud (the hippy webcomic guru who apparently started the whole 24-hour comic thing), "Mr. Skullhead" (one half of the mysterious team that introduced Kingdom of Loathing to the worldwide web), John DeChancie (author of the guilty pleasure known as the Castle Perilous series), and Kaja Foglio (Girl Genius, and one half of the whole Foglio "team".)

All those people totally rock for responding to a bizarre email from some random guy asking if they wanted to suggest something random to paint. Don't sweat it if you don't know who those people are. When I start typing up the Art Crash in detail I'll explain why each and every one of them rocks not unlike the Casbah. You've already seen some of the stuff they requested...I just haven't had enough time to write about all the paintings yet.

:runs off to do the final batch of paintings:

-jared

Day 10 & 11: Yes, I'm still painting.

Well, hour 214 has come and gone...and 300 hours is getting closer. I'm about 2 paintings behind at this very second but that's nothing, all things considered. I'm slowly scanning in everything but it'll take a WHILE to get everything up because I still need to go back and tell a few stories. Tonight was also "paint while drunk" night thanks to the help of a few friends that came over. Well, there might be more than one of them but that's just a theory at this point in time. Instead of my typing something I'll regret later, I'll just give you your daily taste of a random completed

painting.

Enjoy your weekend guys (and girls).

-jared

Edit: To answer your question, yes I painted that tonight. Gah.

Day 11 Edit:

Just wanted to let you guys know that I wasn't running on silent just yet. Since the Crash was SUPPOSED to be over, I've had to clean up my flat for the party that's happening tonight...and shelf all the finished and unfinished work. (Yes, my studio is my living room. Shut it.) I'm caught up and I'll definitely have this finished in time....but tonight I'm enjoying myself with some friends. Of course my friends seem surprised I'm not completely burnt out yet...which is a pretty good compliment if you think about it. Well, maybe not...but it pointed out that, for whatever reason, I've still got a lot of energy. The spooky thing is that is we cut the Art Crash to one painting every two hours I could do this FOREVER. I won't...but it's a weird thing to realize.

Talk to you later, or "catch you on the flipside" if you're a Boondock Saints fan.

-jared

Day 9: Sweet Mother of Christ, I may be addicted.

So I finally made that decision today.

I figured if I was already almost at 214 hours, it'd be fun and worth it to just make it an even 300. The only stipulation/warning is that most of those extra paintings are going to be me toying with ink because I need to get better at it. There will still be lots of colored watercolored jobs, but the final chunk is going to be a myriad variations on what the heck I can do with too much free time and bottles and bottles of ink.
This really just means that, since 300 hours is up early next week, I'll have everything scanned in with stories to share just in time for the next site update.

That said:
Since I'm going to be doing black & white (with a few colors thrown in), I'd love to get more requests....because honestly I need them. With the new style/method, I figure a few of you might have some new ideas to throw at me. I mean, if you want that is.

In the meantime, I'll be over here, painting.

-jared

DAY 8 (Previously Day 7) Update

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrash.htm

That's over a hundred and forty paintings for you guys to look at.
I have nothing more to say besides I'm pretty happy. That is all. Enjoy the Art.
-jared

Edit: Instead of me making another post to tell you that nothing really that important happened on dreaded day 8, I'm just editing this post to, well, tell you exactly that. I've gotten momentum and sorted out the routine to doing this so all is well in the world. I'm pretty sure I'll have everything done soon enough. On a related note, originally my plan was to try to keep doing this and shoot for 300 hours if I thought I could pull it off and still be sane. I'm debating that now.

In the meantime, the ink fairy came to my flat with gifts of colored ink. Enjoy this Flea I painted:

Fun, right?

Oh and my manager wants me to make sure everyone knows that the whole "$10 for anything painted in the Art Crash" is a special case and that amount is not representative of what I usually accept to be parted from these things. I hate talking about money but I figured I'd say something since a few of you have taken the ten dollar thing to mean that's what my paintings usually go for. I'm uncomfortable talking about this already, but what needed to be said's been said.

Back to the topic of doing this until 300 hours rolls around: I like the idea, but I'm wondering what more there is to gain from it. I've figured a lot of stuff out, gotten new techniques, and pretty much found a zen-like state of mind that you could sharpen razors on (whatever that means). So the real issue is do I stop, take a few deep breaths, and see what's next on my agenda....or do I keep going knowing that if I stop now I'll regret not going further? There's no question whether I could do it or not...hell, it's only three more days. It's more of an issue of whether it's worth it or not. Decisions, decisions.

-jared

Day 7: Paint Everything, Scan, Scan, Scan....

I'm so glad I took the day off yesterday and sorted out this whole "state of calm" thing. Because my Frontpage isn't working again. I'm on hold with my server's tech support (since the error I keep getting tells me to call them) but I figured I'd let you folks know the state of things:

All is well, minus the stupid problem my server is giving me. I just spent lots of time (but I'm still caught up if you can believe it) scanning in about 100 paintings. I'll post about 96 of them since I think that's what you're due to see as soon as I can (one way or the other). It will be tonight, but I'm hoping I don't have to put them all in the Photobucket Gallery. Half the fun of these is realizing how drunk I was when I painted it or how far my pen/brush strayed from what the person originally requested.

That said, I'll post a teaser picture that's somehow meant to symbolize the current state of my relationship with my web host:

A CrystalMan. Poor CrystalMan. Your head is made out of glass. Oh well.

I'll update this post as soon as the website's updated or there's a gallery with almost a hundred new things for you to look at. Oh and did anyone else notice I'm more than halfway through?

-jared

Day 6b: Cheating?

Well, I've tested it and, yes indeed, the website's all types of fixed. Tomorrow I'll scan in all this madness and update the site...because I've finally caught up. I feel like I've cheated somehow and I 've sworn off any more paintings like the ones I used to make up for lost time, but well, yeah.
While on my errands today, I got my hands on a bamboo brush and some India Ink. Since this Art Crash is effectively me painting almost 9 months of the site's Art updates, I figured I was due a little experimentation. So I did a bunch of black and white ink jobs. The good news: They're quick, almost viscerally so. The bad news: They're quick, almost cheatingly so. I'm still happy with how they turned out. Here are two of the early ones. After these I got a little more experimental but I think these aren't half bad for never really playing with pure black ink before. God damn it was fun.

And someone requested I paint the Skull Panda from the comic Sam & Fuzzy:

You have no idea how much fun I had tonight screwing around with ink. Hell, new techniques are my candy these days. I hope you at least partially dig the black and white stuff...God knows I'll be doing more of it when this Crash is over.
But like I said, tomorrow will be the day to check back and see a MASSIVE update of all this art that you should have seen days ago. Be warned though: The Big Dose of Robots seemed like a good idea when I was really tired. Now I'm having second thoughts. I swear the next time I do this (and there will be a next time) I'm going to get a little more organized with what I paint and when.
-jared

Day 1's Secret....REVEALED

I have a problem. I don't read many webcomics. Sure, I'm interested to find out what's out there...but I check out maybe 3-5 webcomics a week. Compared to a lot of other ethernet denizens, that's pretty sad. So when a fan of the webcomic HOUSD asked me to paint a super secret "Happy 1000th Comic" bit of Art it was a little weird. But I threw the request on the pile because I'm sucker for people who ask me to do art as well as the fact that rumor has it that Ali (the guy who makes said comic) liked my stuff. So I sat down to read a few so I'd know at least a couple of the characters before drawing something. Looking at a "few" webcomics turn into reading about 600 of them in a single sitting. So I guess I'm saying that I've added HOUSED to my small but growing list of stuff I look at regularly. Besides usually being honestly funny (as opposed to deceptively humorous) it also taught me that I like totally type and talk like Shaggy from Scooby Doo (check a few strips back to see what I'm talking about). Anyway that super-secret Art that's mentioned on the site was this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/OhGodtheRats/Blog%20Magic/artcrashHousDinkedsmall.jpg

Did I mention his strip also has a goth character who rants about webcomics and how much they suck in his LiveJournal? No. I really should mention that sometime. It's kind of Clever.
Check it out:
http://housd.net/

-jared

Day 6: A State of Calm

For those of you just joining us, due to technical issues check out what you can here:

http://photobucket.com/albums/f259/ArtCrash/

First off: I'll get to scanning some more stuff sometime tomorrow...so if you're obsessively checking the website (and the webcam I totally forgot about until just now) you were warned.

Personal FunTime Happy Story (in small print so you can skip it if you want): Today is a good day. I really have achieved a state of calm. It's weird but when I got up today and saw the amount of stuff to scan, the pile of unfinished stuff, the list of things still to paint, the clock reminding me how I'm still behind, and the broken computer that won't let me update my site.....it all broke. What started out as my own personal Artistic Christmas just wasn't fun. So you know what I've been doing today? I took a break. I don't have time to afford that...but it really felt good to skip work. I think that's part of why I'm doing this. All that stupid hippy stuff people say they learn from within during these things sounds really emotional and phony when you read about it so I'll spare you that. Suffice to say that despite catching up the other day I'm way behind...but I'm cool with that.

So instead of painting faster I'm just going to continue painting stuff that I think is good. I'll catch up I'm sure (though it'll be close unless I cheat) but I figured I'd just let you people know that at somepoint on Sunday I snapped and today I've broken past the despair, got myself some expensive American food (KFC), spent the time I needed to to fix the damn website problem, and got back to painting relatively stress-free. Life is good. Again.

What's to come: Celebrity requests (people who I enjoy that were kind enough to respond to an email), about 30 paintings revolving around the worst/most retarded Megaman bosses ever, watercolor photography (don't ask if you dont' already know), and lots and lots of weird paintings. I may also do a simple ink series to help me catch up. The fact that I'm trying to do most of these in full color means that there's a lot of steps in completing them.

-jared

Edit: Also I'll update the Blog with the Super Secret Art request that's mentioned on the site since, I believe, it's not a secret anymore. When I'm sure...all shall become clear.

Day 5: Murphy's Law (with PAINTINGS)

When this thing started I knew it would be a learning experience. So what did I learn today? I learned that doom is going to find me no matter what happens. My "scanner monkey" never showed up....so I went ahead and scanned everything myself. Then the next problem hit: For whatever reason, my Frontpage doesn't recognize that HeadInjuryTheater.com is a real website...so I can't update my own damn site until I reinstall the program/talk to technical support. Blah blah blah.....worst timing ever. So here I am, 8 paintings behind again and in severe need of sleep.
On the upside, I was almost caught up at one point today.

Also, to continue with the postive, I realize that it'd be unfair to keep these painting from you guys, so here's the remains that you haven't seen from the first 48 hours of the Art Crash.

http://photobucket.com/albums/f259/ArtCrash/

Crappy solution, but I didn't really have another option right now. Hope you guys dig the new stuff, I'll get the next 48 hours scanned in as soon as I can (and by then another 48 will have passed so I'll get on with that....so on and so on).
-jared

Edit: The main problem with the Photobucket Gallery is that you don't know what the original request was or the theme involved. Like...there's one image in there that I only had 5 minutes to paint...and it's right next to the picture inspired by the OTHER kinder Egg toy. There's also a few of the celebrity things in there...but don't worry. As soon as I find the disk with my Frontpage on it, I'll put everything on the site with everything that you need to know. Thanks for humoring me in the meantime.

Day 4: Illustration Friday (on Saturday)

Day 4: I'm writing this a little earlier than I have on other days because I'm working really hard. I almost caught up yesterday but my "little nap" turned into a coma and I lost more time than I thought. So yeah, I'm still behind. On the plus side, I'm scanning in everything myself whenever I sit in front of the computer or just whenever I get up. I've still got a LOT to go, but I promise that whatever's scanned in by Sunday night will get posted.

It might also be interesting to know is that I've already killed 2 brushes and 2 sets of watercolor....not to mention the severe damage I've done to my pens. It looks like on Monday I'm going to have to make a short roadrip and restock if I expect to make it until Friday.

Today's Teaser is Hippo Song (which was actually painted yesterday, but I have a reason to put it up now:

Someone requested I paint "a guy with a big mouth and a bird sitting on his tongue." This worked out really well since Illustration Friday's Theme this week is, well, Song. If you'd like to know more about Illustration Friday (I had no idea it was something beyond a routine in Collin's Blog) check it out:

http://www.illustrationfriday.com/

Fun Fact: Someone asked me what the strangest thing I've painted so far has been. There's no contest in this regard. I accepted someone's request that I paint "an octopus eating a shark eating a mermaid eating a deep-sea barracudi scary fish eating a crab." I'll stop luring you with art you can't see and get back to painting/scanning.

Finally, just let me say that I'm really glad that such a fair number of you are as excited about this as I am...to the point of sending me threatening emails if I don't scan/update the webcam more often. It's funny, but I don't like to admit how motivating it is to get feedback/know how many people are digging this. I think it has a lot to do with the webcomic whore thing about pulling stunts for traffic (which I guess that's part of any Art challenge) but hopefully enough of you can see past that pitfall and just ride the joy that is lots and lots of paintings. Everyone says they do these challenges for themselves...but that's never completely true. Part of the reason I'm doing this is to rekindle my drive to paint, something that I've been struggling with ever since Christmas break. But yeah, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that entertaining you random people wasn't part of the pleasure I'm finding in it. So yeah.

You guys rock.

-jared

Day 3: The Burn and The Despair

Well, today was the first day of the Art Crash that I wasn't bombarded with distractions or technical problems. The good news is that I've been REALLY productive. I've painted about 32 requests in the past 12 hours....and I'm still about ten behind. But like I said before, it's obvious I'm going to catch up. The hard part is not skimping on the quality....though I did accept one person's challenge that I paint something in "under five minutes." It's not great, but it's not bad for what it is. Sadly, no one else suggest I do something so retardedly helpful to my painting schedule. Of course, that's a good thing. Right?

Today's teaser until I have time to scan in them all: The Harley Quinn painting. Now, I got a number of request that I paint Harley. For those of you who aren't geeks or fans of the old Batman cartoon, Harley was the Joker's sidekick/lover/slave. Maybe that last title isn't fair, but the Joker/Harley relationship is possibly one of the most celebrated abusive relationships in geek culture. Sure, she was cute and had a nice rack...but she was in a relationship with someone who physically abused her and didn't love her. Yeah, it's just a cartoon....but while I was searching for images of her so I got the costume right, I noticed she's got a lot of fans (boys and girls alike) that are, well, fanatical. Bah. I guess my point is that if you look for a description of her online the phrases "though her personality was subjugated by the joker" and "unable to break free from his control, Harley would become the Joker's criminal accomplice and lover" just seem to show up a little too frequently. It's really twisted and/or sexist if you think about it too much. Anyway, enjoy the hopeless despair that happens to people brainwashed by 60 year Old Batman villians. I'm kind of proud of how it turned out:

On that note I've got to get back to work, since I'm STILL behind. Stupid time and it's general moving forward.

-jared

Day 2: A Strategy is Born...

So, what's the state of things today? Well, first off I'm still behind...but not really. In an effort to streamline the process, I sat down this morning with the list of requests and drew a total of 64 of them. Then, I inked them. All of them. My hand STILL hurts from doing all that erasing. So while I'm technically about 13 paintings behind, I've got a huge surplus waiting that'll be done in less time than usual. I'm not giving up on the deadline idea....I just really think it's going to take a few days for me to really settle to a life of painting without distraction.

In the meantime, please enjoy this painting inspired from the suggestion that I paint "The Most Delicious Sub in the World":

With that I need to get some food and catch up on a little sleep. Oh and remember: I am still taking requests. You know, because any you suggest is always awesome. Without exception. Sometimes.

-jared

Edit: I should have a friend visiting me on Sunday that will scan in EVERYTHING for me if I don't have the extra time before that. I'll post a few more in the Blog that bring me particular joy, but you'll have to wait a bit to see another batch of bizarro paintings.

Day 1: The Day I learned a lot

It has Begun!

You really don't want to know how much time I wasted just so you guys could see the efforts of my first 13 or so hours of labor. Truth be told, I think I lost about 6 hours already to trying to deal with stupid computer/WebCam problems. So the new rule is: Painting comes first. I'll find the time to post a few here in the blog but unless I really get ahead of schedule, I don't think I can afford to keep you guys completely current. (Of course is someone knows a place that I can direct my WebCam feed, the whole "live" aspect might be back in action.)

Anyway, check it out. There's also an hourly comic about to day that pretty much conveys how stressed out I've been.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrash.htm

-jared

Edit: Also I just need to say that "God Damn Those Ninjas" is my favorite so far. And I just to restate the fact: Until I get caught up, I'm just going to be posting my favorites here in the blog. Oh and if you were wondering who Ralph Steadman was (see the Daily Comic), he's the artist who illustrated all those Hunter S. Thompson novels.

Oh and a big thanks goes to Adam for hosting the WebCam. It's not live but it'll be taking pictures of stuff as I have stuff to take pictures of.

http://webpages.charter.net/bholwerda/headinjurytheater/webcam.html

Murphy's Law

Well, technical problems are jumping up left and right. It's stupid and coming at a terrible time, but what the hell, right? It's not like I NEED to have all the technology working to get this going and, after all, I've got 9 days to sort this out. So I'm going to be painting and when I've got the time to spare I'm going to sort out all this nutty computer/Webcam/Frontpage drama. Since I can still get online but can't update my site, please keep your eyes here for weird updates and...um...stuff.

In the meantime I leave you with a picture of Scooby Doo and Matthew Lillard burning a ghost pirate to death with a flaming fart of doom.

Because that's pretty much what I feel is going on.

Well, not really, but this still pisses me off. I'm still totally pumped about painting. Now to get back to it.

-jared

Lots of Info...It BEGINS

The next time we speak (or...um...you read me...I think) the Art Crash will have begun. It starts whenever I wake up, so I'll update you guys here when that happens. I'm about to pass out now but let me churn out some random info at you before I get some sweet, sweet sleep.

Random Info #1: I've added an official "Art Crash" page to the website. That's where I'm going to be putting the paintings whenever I have time to scan them in...which should be about once a day if all goes according to plan. Right now you might want to look at it because I cut & pasted a version of the "master request list" onto it. You people are insane. And even though a lot of your requests are great...some of them are less so. Feel free to keep suggesting. I hope to keep taking requests until this is over.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrash.htm

Random Info #2: The WebCamera is up. Well, it's set up and when I wake I'll turn it on so you can see what's drying and/or what I just finished painting. In the meantime you can check it out now and see what I'm having for breakfast in the morning.

I just removed the Webcam link because for some reason it's messing up my ability to update the website. Stupid technology messing with me....I'll sort out the webcam later. Sorry for it only being up a few hours but it's breaking my computer somehow. If you'd like to suggest an alternate place to upload the images, feel free to email me. For some reason my sit does NOT like the WebCam.

Random Info #3: A fair number of people have asked me to price paintings that I haven't even painted yet. I'm not one to turn down a fan with money, so here's the deal if you're interested:

Anything that gets painted this Crash is yours if you want it for 10 bucks. Since I'm in Germany and living off the Euro, add 8 for shipping and it's on its way (if you buy more, shipping only needs be covered once). That's a lot cheaper than usual, but I figured it'd be fun if I didn't have these things littering my apartment after this thing is over. Also I have the sneaking suspicion (because you've out-and-out told me) that a couple of people are afraid of the whole "bid" system I've got going on. Anywhoo. Ghetto Cheap art. Let's move on.

Random Info #4: I emailed a bunch of celebrites ranging from Internet citizens most of us have heard of to the original Tom Servo to several bestselling authors that I love to artists/cartoonists much better than me to a sock puppet of Sifly & Olly to Terry Pratchett's publicity agent, Colin Smythe. Even better, they responded...each suggesting weird things for me to draw or weird styles to do it in. When I start updating the Art Crash page I'll give you more info...because this is less about "OMG I talked to a Celebrity" and much more about actually getting creative suggestions from people who help influence me and got me where I am today. That sounds sappy, but God damn I've got some severely random influences going on here. Stay tuned.

Random Info #5: As promised, here's the update: At Noon on February 15th I got up and started painting. That's Berlin time, so for you Americans remember that I'm living in the Future.

See you guys soon, most likely with paintings.

God damn, I feel like it's Christmas Eve.

-jared

Oh almost forgot: For those of you that hate my Art and miss the good ol' days before I painted, please accept this review of Bakshi's Cool World as a gift. And if you like dirty things, I talk about Kim Basinger's cha-cha. A lot. Because it's funny.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article45.htm

Updates due to emails: Most of the paintings should be about 8 x 11 in size since I have a crapload of watercolor/sketch paper that size that I plan on going through, but since none are made yet I don't know for sure. Also that was Dollars and NOT Euros. And finally, because I totally forgot to label where most of the ideas came from, I don't know who's idea is who's.

Oh and to answer the final question: Yes, I ate the donut.

Update-Update: Yes, the website apparently wasn't working for about ten minutes. Don't ask...but all seems to be well now. I think.

2 More Days....214 Hours, No more Hype to Give

You know, I'm beginning to think I'm really bad at this whole Website Hype thing. People ask for a banner so they can link to me...I totally forget. I plan this big 214 hour painting marathon and tell, what....a dozen people that probably already read the site....maybe?
Here's the scoop:
Right now I'm trying to figure out a good Webcam set up so that you can literally "watch paint dry." If you want. And if I don't have enough time to scan everything. If I DO end up with enough time, I plan on scanning and posting everything I've painted so far on the site as I can....but that's if I have enough time. Oh and did I mention:
NOW is the time to start sending me your requests.
While you're more than welcome to wait, the big thing that I need for this to work (well) is a LOT of requests. Well, I don't NEED requests, but since that's a big part of this...well, you get the idea. You want to see a picture of Mr. T eating a Velociraptor? Ask away! You want to see what I do with the title "I can do anything with my Dreams"? Now's the time to demand it. You can post your request anywherer in the Blog or, if you'd like others to be totally surprised, you can email me at OhGodtheRats@aol.com. Neat.

I've got a few more surprises for this I'll unveil as the time gets closer and other stuff that I just plain need to sort out. (Like I'm not sure how to deal with people who want to buy something I haven't painted yet.....you guys are freaks...but I love you for it.)
It also just dawned on me that if I did more creative stuff regularly, I wouldn't feel I HAVE to do crazy crap like this to make up for lost time. Then again, I'm curious to see if I can actually do this. I really don't know. We'll see right?
-jared

Update: The WebCam has been sorted out. There will indeed be live footage of paint drying or me painting...I'm not sure which. It really comes down to how long the longest USB cable I can find is. We'll see.

Oh and I also addressed the Hype by mentioning this project on two of the forums I post on these days. I'm not feeling totally webwhorish....not yet.

4 Days....Movies: I'll Watch ANYTHING.

I've said it before. I've typed it many, many times. And still you won't believe me. What will it take?

By the way, that's "The Pacifier" only since Germans don't know what a pacifier is in regards to infants they thought they'd get "clever" with the title. Mind-numbing, right?

Anyway the reason I bring this up is that while I paint I watch movies. Sometimes I pay attention to them and they affect what I'm painting...other times they're nothing more than background noise. So in 4 Days I'm going to start painting for almost 9. Here's my inquiry:

Does anyone want to suggest any films for me to watch? One of the many perks I've got going for me here in Berlin is the fact that I'm friends the owner of a small Video Rental place. By small, I mean they've got more films than Netflix and they've never thrown anything out. From Porn to Pokemon to Pretentious Art films, they've got me covered. Hell, they've got a horror section bigger than my apartment (my flat is admittedly small, but you get the idea).

So if anyone wants to suggest a few films to paint during, I'm totally there.

During my last Art Crash, I simply went to the Video clerk and told him to "Surprise Me." He did succeed...mostly by introducing me to Chesty Morgan.

(http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article40.htm) The other interesting thing that I should point out is that because I paint a lot, I watch a lot of movies. I didn't really think about it too much until I read this article:

http://articles.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=20060210141309990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

If that guy gets in trouble for renting more than 11 movies a month, I'm totally doomed if I go back to the states. I watch an average of...what....70 films a month? At least?

Don't judge me. Just suggest something weird, brilliant, obscure, or painful for me to watch next week. If you want. Otherwise I'm sure the store clerk would just LOVE to traumatize me with more freaks of anatomy taking off their clothes.

-jared

7 Days.....

I don't do hype, so just believe me when I say I'm more excited about this than you.
The Art Crash 214 will be here in 7 days. 7 days from now I will wake up, start painting whatever anyone requests and whatever comes to mind until 214 hours are up. Painting one an hour, the math's easy to figure out if you want to know how many of these things I should have after (about) 9 days are up. There's going to be theme days/nights thrown in there (as well as at least one 24 hourly comic). An evil friend has even suggested a "Leaving Las Vegas" evening, where I try to paint under the influence for as long as I can. The Webcam/Skype idea is progressing and I'll let you know what's going on in the next few days in regards to that. If you'd like to suggest something Theme-related (keep those painting requests to yourself until next week) feel free to go ahead.

Art Crashes always feel like Christmas to me.

-jared

I hate Photoshop.

While I've always been pretty public about my intense hatred of Photoshop, I'd be a moron to think that I don't need to sort out the fundamentals of digital art. Thus I lurk in the shadows creating really terrible weird digital art that will one day bring me joy...but still knowing that my love for physical paint will NEVER be satisified by a computer. I'd like to hope that one day the two might at least be on speaking terms.

Enjoy the majesty that is one of my random Photoshop experiments:

I'm not sure what it is either, nor what it's looking at.

-jared

Oh and just a reminder: The 214-Hour Art Crash starts in a mere 10 Days! Well, that's not too close but hey, I'm excited. More information will be sorted out in time for next week's update. Such surprises to I have for you.

Blog Blog Bloggity Blog

You should know by now that I hate blogs. Well, hate might be too strong a word but, well, they always bugged me. I try to keep this bastard here in good shape, but well, I have to let that slide for a moment. At least everything I'm about to show you is sort of related to the main site. Sort of.

"Other Blog Entries you Need to Check out" or "What other People have done to my Art lately"

Collin (of FizzleandPop.com and occasional Isketch party fame) is starting to make it a habit to redraw some of my Art in his own style. It totally rocks. Here's Collin's take on "Aggressive Genital Display":

http://fizzleandpop.blogspot.com/2006/01/that-other-drawing-thing-that-i.html#links

And click below to see the freaking Amazing version of "Leper Man, steal your baby he can" that he did a few days ago.

http://fizzleandpop.blogspot.com/2006/02/drawing-project-1-part-um.html#links

The other thing you need to check out is this:

http://patrickccrawford.blogspot.com/2006/01/history-is-fun.html

Patrick indeed rocks for going that extra step and animating "Abe Lincoln is Special." (Thank you Jeff for sending me the link)

Now I'll run away as fast as I possibly can from this post...lest the smell of blog-linkage becomes too great.

-jared

Oh and in case a few of you were wondering where Carol Channing is these days (you know, the RASPBERRY lady from a few posts down) the answer is pretty clear:

The RASPBERRY lady herself recently appeared in an episode of the Family Guy, fighting Mike Tyson. Totally surreal....but good timing, right?

Also is it too soon to tell you that in two weeks I'll already be 48 hours into the 214 Art Crash?

Hourly Comic Day....

Yes, I indeed took part in the surreal autobiographical experience that was Hourly Comic Day (which is still awkward to say somehow). It's too big to post here, but I made a tiny page for it. In case you don't know what an Hourly Comic is, it just means that you draw a comic (or a panel) each hour that you're awake. I did that, including the two times nightmares kept me up. Enjoy.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/hourly1.htm

Kind of a random day I think.

Check out other people's daily lives illustrated here:

http://www.tencentticker.com/msgbrd/viewforum.php?f=11

I can only say it's weird to not be able to spend time on your art.

-jared