insert SIRMIXALOT

HMMM,what can i say,

• so i picked up this months issue of airbrush action and Theresa an artist named Armando Huerta hes this little tiny Mexican dude who is just nasty at pinups, very tech the kinda guy i could learn a thing or two from,and i have. his step by step was very informative .so with that said I've decided to put his method to the test.well see what happens,he starts off with a fully rendered girl which is what I've done here only he likes to paint skinny little women and i like mine well ,with more curves. so i decided to use the infamous Buffy as my model for this one .not sure what im gonna put behind her yet definitly need to figure that out but for now im gonna concentrate on her.im also working on pre gesso massonite.so next i need to mask her off then i can start to paint so stay tuned ill post more picks as i go.

im really gonna try and slow myself down for this one .sometimes i get caught up in the fast bustem out mode and i look back and think hmmm i coulda did this or that........blah

• then i come across and artist like this who takes his time and really polishes his work and i think to myself theres nothing stopping me from doing that so why not give it a shot anyways ...i like big butts and i cannot lie you other brothers cant denie..........................insert sirmixalox

final step to leatherface

finaly!jeesh .....ha anyways here were i drop in the black shading you can see the eyes look deeper compared to before and i put black around the mouth and made the stitches darker and also made the hair darker on the top ill have to post some different angle so you can see all of it its a pretty fun hat i think.ill be selling it at fangoria weekend of horrors hope this step by step shed some light on my airbrushing and how i go about developing my work.enjoy and leave me some comments let me know if it was informative?now off to bed i go good night thanks for looking

step5

step five so your thinking this has got to be it this has to be the final step right !nope here ive dropped in some white highlights added a lot more thin line wrinkles simply by getting the airbrush so close and moving very fast to get those pin line details .also worked on the teeth a little bit cause leather face is definitley a yuck mouth!dropped a highlight in the eye its almost there almost

step 4

alright so as you can see i had gone through this entire hat with just two colors .at this point i through in some yellow into the skin area and mix a little red oxide and white for the lip area and eye are under the skin mask.because i had already established my lights and darks with the browns all i had to do was dust the hat with the yellow and blammo you have the mid tones.the key is to leave highs and lows in while your developing the piece so that its easier later, your painting more transparent at this point .leatherface is also a pretty easy character to do because you really cant mess up wrinkles and stitches .so next step detail

step3

ok so here ive started to introduce raw umber into the mix. i like to establish my lights and darks first then i worry about mid tones later so that the image comes to life immediately.ive started to develope some of the stiches and dropped in the top of the hair you can see how just a little bit of contrast already seems to pull it toghether and im still making suttle changes as i go .i also use the raw umber in different strengths by shading with it lighter over some areas and then getting in there close to get the darker hue in other spots.you can shade and line all at the same time with airbrush thats why your able to move so quickly with it .its all about control

step2

ok so here you can see i have my rough sketch starting to develop i like to render as i go so ill start just shading and making shapes pretty much with just one color until i get the image down how i like it because i free handed it you notice how some of the features are changing as i progress further. this is really fun because im just molding and creating in the rawest way possible.im not going by any particular reference im just making my own version with this one.if you wanna be more specific then you can take the time to transfer the image properly in pencil from your reference directly but that takes even more time and can end up being more generic and stiff looking on the hat .use the shape of the hat to your advantage.

leatherface step by step

hey its me again back at cha with something new.this time ive decided to do a quick step by step on how much work goes into one of my hats i did one of these on my myspace if you wanna check that one out its the hellboy hat .but today were talking about leatherface.
so first off i usually try and pull a bunch of reference for what im gonna do so i have some visual cues to work from as im painting.you can see the reference to the right of the hat .i decided since i know this charecter so well to just freehand it on the hat.
i started with some red oxide and just started lightly sketching with the airbrush as you can see here in step one

three hats one day

so heres the latest ,me and joe will be working the fangoria convention as mention in the previous post its at the jacob javits center in new york city june 5,6,7 should be a fun time.so besides trying to make prints and paint i thought it would be a good idea to also paint hats to sell but of course i decided to wait till last minute and since the only time i really have to do this is on the weekend it seems lately i decided to shut the door and just bangem all out in a day!each one takes me a two to three hours to make so its beena loooong day actually i did the evil dead one last night but it was after midnight so technicaly still the same day .and inbetween trying to run off prints entertain my son and not loose my mind in the process lol fun fun fun.so lets just hope people digem at the show i have a couple more i wanna do so the fun is far from over.at least i know that if i ever wanna stop tattooing i could always find a job at a mall somewere painting palm trees on lisence plates lol.

so pizza for dinner and beer for dessert and backto work i go wish me luck.......

mistress of the dark

so here we go again i just finished her last night but i was too tired to post it. i didnt want to sit down again after this.i actually started this painting right after my last post then i got side tracked and wasnt getting very far.so i decided that yeterday was the day i was gonna actually just sit down and work on it.

this painting was so much fun for me ,first of its elvira and i can honestly say i think she was the first woman i saw on tv that well,got me excited!lolwhen i was a young man.

she was and still is hot and timeless kinda like kim catral ,rhonda sheer remember that show "up all night"they all fall under that catagory for me.but elvira was the origianl late night hostess and then the cheesy horror films that followed were awsome.it was the frist time i could remember not being able to wait for commercial time just so shed come back on the screen .haha

awsome i hope i did her justice.

and who could forget the ghoulies the creatures that came outta the toilet to wreak havoc on the world ,actually i think they came from a carni who was losing buisness so he magicaly calls upon them to help buisness ,only they start killing everyone ha ,i need to watch that one again its been a while.i love watching horror films its so much fun from the corny one liners to the impossible kills ,fake blood and over acted drama ,pig guts ,chicken livers and rubber monsters now thats entertainment.

i tried something different on this painting i work on water color paper instead of illustration board and i didnt gesso it just to see if there was a major difference but there really wasnt for me other then the paper having more tooth it worked the same once the base coats are down i think it acts as a primer anyway because i work in layers and i use a lot of paint brush,in fact this painting was about 70percent paintbrush and 30 percent airbrush.i preety much painted everything yeterday except forthe one creature on the right he was mostly completed last week.i will be making prints of this to sell at the fangoria convention at the jacob javits center june 5,6,7 in new york im preety excited about it should be a fun weekend me and joe are splitting a booth and just selling art prints itll be the first time i attempt just selling art and not tattoos wich is how i really make a living, should be intresting.wish me luck!

im back at it again!

so its been a few weeks since i posted anything new so i figured id better start catching up i was on a roll there for a couple of weeks but then as always life takes over ,work, wife, kids ,family, you know that thing we call living .so sometimes i find it hard to balance things and i get overwhelmed it kinda sucks cause when that happens i don't accomplish anything. its like I'm stuck in neutral .i don't wanna answer phones or hang out or communicate with the living .it is a weird feeling, its the artist in me. i guess we all have our quirks.because in my head I'm just thinking about the next project i wanna do or that i should be more productive like drawing instead of watching that TV .or i really wanna play that video game but i should be painting or i should be hanging out with my kids instead of working I'm sooo conflicted sometimes it make me nuts!i wanna be a better artist but i don't wanna miss out on living and it takes a lot of sacrifice to do it that's why i admire those guys who do it and do it well.i guess there no point to this other then the fact i needed to vent a little bit hahaha wow i feel better.

so here's the next girl in the creepy series this little maid has torn out her share of hearts and shes just cleaning up enjoy!

the transformation

so heres a closer look at this one the other pics are a little small

the transformation

so im back with another goulish girl this time i had the pleasure of painting one of my tattoo clients jennifer who was kind enough to get pictures taken of herself in zombie poses for me .

im not
sure how shes gonna feel about me making her so um, dead .haha i hope shes into it ,i gave her fair warning that it wasnt gonna be too preety .im actually tattooing jenns entire back with a ganeish giving the middle finger and a dead elvis zombie head in one of his hands .why?youll have to ask her that.but thats what she wanted so thats what im doing. so i knew she would be cool with it if i asked to paint her as one of my dead girls and this is what i came up with.
now normaly i would never show my reference because to me its like letting the rabbit outta the hat .then it becomes more about this not looking like that and so forth and people forget about the painting by itself.sure i could of put 20more hours into it and made it look exactly like the reference but thats what cameras are for not paintbrushes!i paint to have fun and experiment so thats what im doing.so if any of you ladies out there wouldnt mind being turned into some kinda creature send me your pics at jrodshope@aim.com and if i choose to paint you ill give you some free prints of the painting of yourself to keep.and the creepier the poses the better.lol

its too early for halloween!

i actually started this painting last week and just never got to finish it due to the fact i had a surprise visit from my nephews who came up from Florida on there spring break.it was awesome getting to hang out with them. i really miss those kids and i shouldn't call them kids they

re grown men in there twenty's but i watched them grow up and even changed there diapers, so to me they'll always be kids.anyways no excuses i got it done, i think its OK but the composition is boring .the next painting i do i think i need to give it a little more action and i think i should have made the Micheal Myers face bigger so it was more in the background but whats done is done and ill take that lesson with me to the next one.maybe ill put a silhouette of Micheal in the upper left corner to give it a little more interest hmmm ill think about that one.the reality is that ill probalby just put it away and call it a day, next....

for me painting is more about learning from your mistakes and trying different things each time to add to my arsenal of skills thats why ive pointed out my mistakes because i know they exist especially with this subject matter of pin up.for me i learn more from doing rather then someone telling. so these paintings are a great way to excersize my brain and work out the bugs.and right now i feel like im tap dancing !lol and for those of you who never had roaches growing up ,tapping is what you do when you turn the lights on in the middle of the night in the bathroom.and ya it is too early for halloween.

IT CAME FROM THE MIST

SO i hope everyone out there is having a great day .we just got hit with this crazy winter storm and kinda blew my whole day for work so it was a great opportunity to come home and finish this one. i started it last night and was about half way through and i was looking forward to knocking this one out .

i tried something different with this one i went the comic book wrought, more use of lines to define the girl but i still have to work on my line weight more but all in all I'm happy with the effect of it.i kept the background super loose in order to keep the eyes focused on the girl.this one looks good when its cropped proper i just wanted to show the entire painting raw so you could see how it disappears into the board.

I'm learning with each painting i do and i feel like I'm starting to loosen up but at the same time trying to get tighter if that makes any sense anyways hope you enjoy it and feel free to leave comments id love to hear watcha think!

zombie child

so i went to work today and both my appointments didnt make it in so rather then burn the day doing nothing i came home and did this. its actually my son turned into a zombie .

last halloween i airbrushed his face and took some photos of him and ive been wanting to paint them since i took them, so heres a look at this one.

it didnt take me very long to paint ,this one is 5x7

pretty fun and i think my son will get a kick out of it.he actually requested a lot of blood on his shirt lol like father like son.

well heres part three !this one is done .i wanted to take the picture further away so that you could see how messy my board is from all the painting ive been doing lately.

i really like how she turned out im still trying to develope a style for these dead girls but i also keep wanting to try different looks ,some with hard lines others with no lines .i tend to use more paintbrush when it gets to the middle to end of the painting partly because i still lack 100percent control with the airbrush but im getting there i think.i think the next zombie i do needs to be less glam and more gore.so another one down and on to the NEXT.

zombie chick round 2

OK heres round two of the zombie chick i spent a couple of hours here rendering her as i go .I'm really liking it so far its pretty much what was in my head so far.still a ton more details to go but you can see how i put a base tone down then i like to build my paintings up from light to dark in order to achieve dimension and the illusion that shes coming off of the paper.I'm using golden paints which are acrylics and doing all the detail work with my paint brushes then going in and softening things up with the airbrush.i am using reference too by the way in order to get the proper lighting. the girl is pretty far from a zombie though and by the time I'm done it probably wont look anything like the reference but that's the whole point is to take something and make it yours and still make it believable ,especialy when your dealing with human forms .if the perportions are off you can tell right away. so its important to take the extra time find good reference or take your own photos when ever possible if your planning on doing human forms. this is not to say you cant just draw it and go, its just not going to be as real looking as it could be.and almost all proffessional artist who are amazing use good refference.im just still trying to be like them.stay tuned round three coming soon.

im going to last rights tonight for an artshow to hopefully get inspired some more so blog to ya soon!later

zombie chick

well started this one last night couldn't get this image outta my head fast enough.

ive been starting off doing the backgrounds first so that the setting of the piece is established and i can concentrate of the figure.i plan on keeping her very grey with hints of color to create that dead flaky skin look .

on a side note has anyone not seem zombie strippers yet if you havent pick it up its worth the laugh and im going for that look.

im preety happy with the brick wall in the background so far .it was neat to try and render it without doing too much i still want the focus to be on the zombie.i did this whole thing in about an hour but most of the work will be in the foreground and its also not a big painting its a bit smaller then 8x10 .i wanna keep them small so that i can keep knocking them out at a good pace.so watch out art world julio is motivated!its about time.......

blood bath

ok one more to add to the collection just finished this one its 1:50 am my eyes are buggin out and i feel accomplished.theres nothing better then finishing a painting to me because it means i can move on to the next one.Ive really been into vampire chicks lately not sure why,the next painting i do will have to do with zombies my other favorite subject matter.

this painting reminds me of the first blade movie when they re dancing in the beginning i guess that's were i subconsciously went with this one.i guess my work is heavily influenced by all the movies i watch the darker sexier side of human or inhuman nature.

anyways I'm rambling cause I'm tired so good night to all and thanks for looking.if you have any questions leave some comments and ill try and answer as best i can.

my bloody butt cheeks

so i hope everyone had a happy st valentines day yesterday. mine was spent with my wife and kids pretty mellow day dinner and a movie .watched that movie Push was an interesting premise for a movie it was like fire starter on crack .i was entertained ,anyway i did this painting for the paradise tattoo art show which went down Friday night ,there shop was packed, granted its a small place but they definitely had a pretty good turn out.Vinny and Jill and there family that run that studio are the nicest people ever .

so this painting is based on ice ts wife coco just in case you wanna see more of her she has her own web site and magazine.this woman is built like no woman I've ever seen its pretty amazing and well i just had to paint her.and in order to make her fit the theme of my bloody valentines which was the name of the show i made the alterations to make it work.

now shes a vampire who's just finished ripping a mans heart out and eating it and in the midst of eating it, she sat in some blood. oops hence the title my bloody butt cheeks.....lol enjoy

TRIBAL BEATS

sorry about the bad picture because of the layering of colors in this painting it was hard for me to get a photo or scan of this one a lot of the tones in this painting are transparent it looks much better in person.

anyways i call this one tribal beats, i tried to capture the feeling of music blasting her in the face and the bass boom,boom,boom. i had a lot of fun with this .the inksplater i created by just chance i just put my airbrush as close to the paper and let the chips fall were they may, it was cool to let the paint just flow were it wanted to go .this painting was more about instinct and experimenting with my backgrounds to create a feeling.

I plan on trying more things like this as far as flow and trying to create an atmosphere.

OK so here's the third painting i did in the series.tried to do something different with the background on this one the idea came from a trade i was going to do with a fellow coworker tim ,were both fans of the hellboy films and since I've been into doing pinups it was just natural to want to see hellboy as hellgirl.

of course i did my painting in one night and tim well lets just say I'm not holding my breath on that one lol.

i use a custom micron iwata for most of it and some small number1paint brushes for detail work .working on illustration board that i treated with a watery gesso .i also have prints available for this painting.

my goal is to eventually put enough artwork together and do something with it weather publishing it or having an art show or maybe both but right now i just need to focus on the work.

I'm not getting any younger and it might be something nice to leave behind before i bite it........OK that's to morbid but anyways i hope you dig it!

selma vampire

ok so this was the second painting i did for the pinup series as you can guess i used selma as the model for this sexy vampire chick.ever since dusk till dawn ive had this thing for selma shes so hot i could watch that snakedance a dozen times and still drool as much on the last as the first but enough about that .

this one i tried to keep a more realistic aproach and layer the skin tone a few times till i was happy with it, lots of paintbrush work accented with airbrush to soften things up i find it to be a really cool look .i also made prints of these that are available at the studio or you can contact me through email jrodshope@aim.com

i hope that you enjoy looking at my artwork as much as i enjoyed making it im hoping to keep the ball rolling and produce a lot more painting this year.

starting up this blog!

ok ,so im so confused on starting this blog right now but ill figure it out if its the last thing i do lol

oh theres that pic i was trying to upload!sweet and so it begins, heres a painting i did a couple of weeks ago acrylic on gesso board with a little bit of colored pencil.its not to big of a painting it about 6x9 somewere i havent messured it just guessing .anyways this was the first outta the pin up type series im expirimenting with at this time . i work with one of the best pin up artists aroun joe capobianco and one cant help but be influenced by that guy hes a true master of the boobs.

it was right after i had painted yet another skull that joe said another skull painting ?! and i thought you know what hes right so i thought id give it a go and release my inner pinup child and this is what ive started to come up with as a result.so let me know whatcha think im always intrested in what people think of the art im putting out and how i could improve as an artist thanks for looking .p.s. i terrible at proper grammer so i apologize in advance if i ramble or for my misspellings ,is that even a word?i dont know