art mondays at apache

it has been a while since I've been to Apache Cafe on a regular basis, but I must say, the combination of fresh dj music and nude modeling do get the artistic juices flowing!

I do not know the name of the model, but she did a good job with the poses. she knocked a few out the park! I only did a couple of sketches, but I did take plenty of pictures for future sketching.

Also as part of the art exhibit, Sam Renaissance displayed some of his work tonite. Sam is a man on a mission and is always hustling his work. check him out! his website is coming soon...

figure drawing is back!

Another great session at Binders this Monday March 30th. A lot of artists showed up with their sharpened pencils, new coloring utensils and brushes.... and then the model doesnt show! what?!

No worries, Cecilia stepped up to the plate and swung a home run! she did a great job of modeling for us sketch fanatics. The usual artists were there as well as a couple of faces that hadn't been by in a while.

This figure drawing series will be six weeks, on mondays, 7-9pm at Binder's Art Supply Store in Buckhead ATL. come on thru!

tattoo story continued

So now it is late in 1995 and I'm doing practice tattoos on my friends. Everyone I knew at that time was well aware that I had drawing skills. I was a little nervous in those days doing those first tattoos. I had to get a feel for the machine in my hand and lean on a person to tattoo on.

I first started doing the simple tattoos. line work. any tattoo with lines only. That went on for a few months, you have to wait and see the tattoo once its healed up to see if what you did to it was right. In the meantime, you learn how to keep a shop organized, you learn to answer customer's questions... and they are all asking the same questions. You learn to clean the needles, tubes and related equipment. Order supplies, keep track of inventory and keep a clean shop.

Months later, I started doing shading and coloring in the tattoos. The shading was easy to me, tattooing is very similar and different to drawing.... but the similarities is what helped me. The coloring is a little tedious at times, depending on the size of the area you wish to cover.

and then in early 96 came the big day. I became an official tattoo artist. more on that...

drawing and drinking

I only drank some Crown & Coke. one drink. then a big Coca Cola. focus.
It was a great evening sitting around with a bunch o' artists. Everyone had a story to tell about their coming up as an artist.

I met some artists that are doing big things in the ATL, plus I finally came across an awesome artist whom I've been a fan of for a long time. David Bolt. http://www.davidbollt.com/ He is awesome! has great skills AND has been a tattoo artist for a long time... plus he has a company that distributes flash (tattoo related artwork) www.tattoojohnny.com I'ma get with him so I can put out my artwork all over the world! yeah baby.... dats right!

another artist was Craig, http://www.myspace.com/drinkanddrawatl and the deal was you come out to draw, drink and then enter a contest designing a t-shirt for The Highlander. cool! 100.00 bar tab to the winner.

then there was Chis. damn that dude can draw. http://www.myspace.com/urbnpop He's got a group artshow coming up at a doughnut shop. May something. get at him if you wish to join the list of artists, I already hit him up on it!

and also, Juicy was there, thank you Joshwaa! He told me to come out to this thing... he said u never know who u might meet. http://www.myspace.com/juicyjxxx

and a bunch of other artists were there also, I caught the names of a few, but my memory is slow and I'm getting old... cant remember sometimes. But I did give everyone a flyer to the show in april. thats coming up real soon.

tattoos, tattoos and more tattoos...

Cuz thats what I do. I've been tattooing since 1995.

I started drawing tattoo designs back when I was in the Marines. People used to come up to me and ask me to draw them designs. Then later they would come back and show me the finished product. Thats when I started to consider the possibility of me getting some tattoos also. I did a couple of designs and took it to a tattoo shop. I was drunk and I got into an argument with the receptionist over the details of my design and how they couldn't guarantee that the tattoo would look as good on paper.

Now its 1994 and I'm in Atlanta finding my way working everyday and looking for outlets for my art skills. A few people start telling me that I should start doing tattoos since my artwork is really good. I never took those comments seriously because I didnt have any idea on how someone goes about learning how to do tattoos, where do you start and who do you ask?
Finally, one day in the middle of 1995, I was riding around with a friend of mine running errands when suddenly he stops in the front of a tattoo shop in the West End area of Atlanta. He turns to me and says: "Look, there's a tattoo shop there, you should go in and find out if you can work here" I thought to myself: "this dude is crazy, how u get a job somewhere by just walking in and asking" I was 23 years old. I didn't know anything.

I walk in there and introduce myself. I meet the owner and show her my work. I always carried paper and drawings that I was working on. So she looks thru my artwork and she asks me if I wanna learn. I immediately say yes. She tells me the rules about what is expected in terms of costs once you are ready to start doing tattoos. In the meantime I have to learn by watching and listening. I dont know anything about tattoos. I come in a couple of days a week and sit and watch for hours at a time. I still have a regular job so I cant be at the tattoo shop all day.
Well, one day I walk in there and the berating starts! The owner starts yelling at me and talking about how I didnt show up at the shop the day before and how if I say I'm gonna come over then I need to be there cuz she's depending on me.... and on and on. what?!

Needless to say, I walked out of there and decided that no one was gonna yell at me and treat me that way.

A few weeks later I pick up a business card for a tattoo shop in Decatur. So I called and asked if I could stop by and check out the artwork. I'm given directions and I head out to Decatur.
I walk up to this place and its in a house. A House. Someone's house. I knock on the front door and out the side of the house a man walks up and asks me what I want. I tell him I'm looking for the tattoo shop. He tells me to follow him around the side of the house. I do.
We walk down some steps into the basement and there's a whole tattoo shop in there! Very surprising. But a tattoo shop nonetheless. This was the official start to my tattooing career.

more coming soon..

Da Kids Again!

And the kids again. I had to do it, I liked the first ones but I wanted to clean it up... a lil. I think I like this style better.

hey everybody, I'm online!

One of my many claims to fame, on the lot with Montell Jordan for the Fighting Temptations movie here in Atlanta GA. I did Montell's fake tattoos on his arms and neck.

So I was going thru my list of online profiles and found out I am all over the internet. the world wide web. the information super highway. dang! check me out:

www.denominatorgraphics.com my official graphic design biz
www.visualartwerks.com my skateboard decks
www.manoamanoartshow.com my art shows
www.tattoopartys.com my tattoo skills

and then everything else!

http://www.myspace.com/eldeno
http://dacreativegenius.deviantart.com
http://dacreativegenius.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/visualartwerks
http://www.boardpusher.com/visualartwerks
http://www.cafepress.com/visualartwerks

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1565844744
http://twitter.com/VisualArtWerks
http://creativegenius.myplaxo.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/manoamanoartshow
http://www.youtube.com/user/visualartwerks

http://www.comicspace.com/dacreativegenius/
http://profiles.friendster.com/dacreativegenius
http://dacreativegenius.artician.com/

http://atlcomix.ning.com/profile/DTM
http://theverbalartist.ning.com/profile/DTMcreativegenius
http://love2live2learn.ning.com/profile/DTMcreativegenius
http://hitsamillion.ning.com/profile/DTM
http://thehotsawce.ning.com/profile/DTM

http://www.taltopia.com/creativegenius
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dacreativegenius
whew!

the kids at home

Three Children. different personalities, different attitudes and different behaviors. At any one time, one of them will be acting up or getting on your nerves. So I developed their comic characters based on their true selves.
First is Aihlla. She loves to let you know that she is not happy by making grunting noises. those episodes last ten seconds cuz she's back to smiling right after that. I guess thats her way of letting go of what she cannot control. But even when she's happy, she mean muggs at you! On her right hand she has a clump of hair... from the poor sap who just pissed her off!
Second is Morena, nice girl, beautiful smile. But watch yo ass if she's upset! She will stab you with one look of her eyes. You can see the meanness in her eyes for real. And she likes to play with fire, so the fire coming off her hair bun and hands.
The last one is the boy, Jared. That kid will dissamble anything that he comes close to. calculators, radios, t.v.s, playstations, gameboys, mp3 players, cd players, computers! He has no sense of consequences, the only thing that matters to him is the moment and the moment right now its his to conquer!
whew!

Quetzacoatl

and then there was Quetzalcoatl. here's the 09 version. yeah! This here took hours... son. hours!


And here is the black pencil version of Tezcatlipoca. I'm going for a complete Aztec pantheon, for reals.

tha cypha

I enter, the center of the cypha
Blunts and lighter, the ruff rhyme writer nine
Skills up the koolu, I do you like voodoo
Pins in the mojo, oh no!
Eyes are red, I'm high again
You wan' try again, die again my friend, one less than ten
Eight plus one me, n-i-n-e
Name up in lights g, I'm hype g, all night g
Can't no man step in my cypha
(heard up, word up!) pay the piper
Who rocks the party? nine rocks the party
Make you move your body, in trunks like john gotti
I got the strength of ten mc's on steroids
Rappers are paranoid, my cypha ain't a safe place to be g
I cruise avenues, stomp blue suede shoes
I can't lose, mashin crews to pay my dues

The cypha
get frisked, just in order to get in..


One sucker, two sucker, three suckers, fo' suckers
Bring mo' suckers, punk muh'fuckers
Talkin bout you can't feel my style, I can't feel you either
But I bet yo' ass feel this meat cleaver
(swing swing swing, chop chop!) you gonna drop
I can't wait to see you fall off, in the pig slop
Pop, went the gat, drop, went the fat
Slob that tried to diss, nah sucka can touch this
Cheese-eatin, tapdancin sambo - don't push your luck
Brand new sucka and I will go rambo (pow)
Tryin to break my cypha is suicide
+passin me by+ like I'm the pharcyde
Give respect, recognize, give props where props are due
Before me and my crew come and murder you
This ain't no game, it's about eatin, payin rent
And (tings like dat) you nah wan' test me black

The cypha
get frisked, just in order to get in..

Game recognize game all the time
Who's your man, with the wack ass rhyme?
You must be stupid, I was doin this before you hit
Puberty, you think your style's original - it ain't new to me
Save it, for david, easy back it up
I got o.j. simpson's knife right at your gut
I do you like your name was nicole
When I roll headspins suckaz drop like ronald goldman
My cypha's complete without you your wack crew
Your wack beats, nine moves feets
Act like you know homo -- I get around
Nine comes back like a pro
Ich, ni, son, shi, mc's, can't touch me
No matter how much weight you push you're still lighter
When you enter my cypha

The cypha
get frisked, just in order to get in..

the last session

DTM in the flesh.... welcome to figure drawing sessions at binders...
















everybody brought one of work-in-progress pieces tonite since it was the last night for these series of figure drawing sessions. the next series starts in a few weeks and it moves to mondays.

Here are tonite's pictures. Thank you WAK and Dubelyoo for bringing all these talented artists together. Keep your eyes on this space for news on the upcoming figure drawing sessions, mano a mano art shows and more sketches!