#SK8 LIFE W/ SK8 WIFE

[nickywhoisi]

an idea that wouldn't leave my brain alone until I made it exist

Reblog > Likes, Thank you!

[sparkedblaze]

big ask i know BUT

whats ur favorite thing about each character in ur pinned post 👀👀

*deep breath*

Albert: I love his sass and his general assholery

Elmer: Sunshine boi™️

Jack: Angsty artist looking for a better life far away from where he is (relatable)

Davey: Again, sassmaster9000

Les: Such a little asshole, thinks the world of Jack and Davey, absolutely becomes King of Brooklyn

Mush: Sunshine boi 2: Electric Boogaloo

The Delanceys: I’m not even gonna say anything about them here. I have DOZENS of posts

Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, Stu Podmore, and Pandora Lovegood very special cases bc I really like the versions that I rp on Instagram (very much not canon fuck jkr)

Leo Valdez: Feels like a 3rd (or 7th) wheel all the time. Stupid jokes to cope with pain. He was my first pathetic little man

Luke Castellan: Y’all know I love villains. And the twist in the first book and then the way he moves and acts throughout the rest of the series??!!! I love him (also I wanted him to step on me when I was younger but that’s neither here nor there)

Frank Zhang: HES SUCH A TEDDY BEAR AND SO PROTECTIVE OF HIS FRIENDS 😭😭😭I LOVE HIM SM

Dabi: THE STORY?!?! ARE YOU FKING KIDDING ME?!?! BRUH IM CAUGHT UP ON THE MANGA AND HOLY FUCK DUDE

Shoto: I love him for the same reason I loved Zuko as a kid (*reminder to self watch ATLA again). He was cold and distant because of his past but has this beautiful arc about making friends he didn’t expect and coming out of his shell.

Iwaizumi Hajime: Asshole. Doesn’t put up with Oikawa’s shit. That’s enough for me 💀 Has been my husband since high school 🥰

Nishinoya Yuu: HIM SMILE SO BIG AND HIM REALLY WIDDLE AND HIM SAVE SO GOOD

Joe: 🤤🤤🤤 *clears throat* Sorry um. He’s good at cooking and he can sk8 real good and his husband is really good with technology

John Laurens: He’s so cute and devoted to the cause and LAURENS INTERLUDE MAKES ME S O B

Pip: I love Phillip so much 😭😭HES SO GOOD AT RAPPING AND SO PASSIONATE

Usnavi: I love how much he cares. I talked more about it in that ask post, but I just love him sm

Benny: THE RIFF MAN. HES SUCH A SIMP AND I LOVE HIM

JD: Ohohohoho more villains. I always attach to villains. Always always always.

Heather Chandler: See: JD, BUT ALSO THEY TURNED HER MEMORY INTO SOMETHING GOOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Michael Mell: YOU DESERVED BETTER. IVE ADOPTED HIM AS MY SON AND IF ANYONE THINKS MICHAEL MELL WASNT THE BEST FUCKING FRIEND JEREMY HEERE EVER HAD YOURE GONNA CATCH THESE FUCKING HANDS BECAUSE HE WAS THE BEST AND HE DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER 😤

Katherine Howard: HER SONG FUCKING SLAPS AND THE SASSINESS LIVE LEAVES ME MELTING 🫠

Anne of Cleves: AGAIN. BANGIN SONG. SASSINESS LIVE. AND I GOT TO DANCE WITH HER WHEN WE WENT TO SEE IT LIVE. SHE GAVE ME HEART HANDS. T W I C E

Justin Laboy: Simp: the Sequel. My mans is just so relatable. Working hard to get into college and throwing it all away. Just for some 🍃

Emmett Forest: DWEEBUS. NERD ALERT. ILYSFM. STANDS UP TO CALLAHAN FOR ELLE. HANDLES CALLAHANS DIVORCE (on his wife’s side obv) ARE YOU BFFR?!?!

Janis: So raise your riiiiight f i n g e r- YES BITCH PREACH. FUCK GENDER ROLES. DONT PUT UP WITH PEOPLE WHO DONT CARE ABOUT YOU.

Christopher Diaz: I only just met this little shitstick but I LOVE HIM. HE HAS SO MUCH RIZZ JFC. EVERYONE LOVES HIM (and I can’t blame them????) HES JUST A LIL GUY

Athena Grant: MOM. SHES SUCH A MOM. AND SHES A GOOD MOM. AND ACAB SHOULD APPLY TO HER BUT IT DOESNT

[spiritingawaytoanime]

< mutuals >

aka, my favorite people on this godforsaken hellsite

in no particular order, just how i saw you guys on my followers page anyway this is my excuse to geek out about yall cause <3

@tama-jam been putting up with my bs for 9 years now love her. talented artist and writer and musician and I could literally talk about you for hours but I'm not gonna so I don't write a 12 paragraph essay

@topazastral we really don't talk much? ur super super cool tho I'm just bad at talking to people lol

@radioactive-gold been dealing w my shit for 2+ years and love em for it. keep talking about ur gay exy boys forever please

@decora-peaches one of my first kick ass followers on my writing blog and I still appreciate you to this day <33333

@asleep-on-the-moon !!! you!!!! ur so funny and for what. we need to talk more

@maizumis WE HAVENT TALKED IN FOREVER ARE YOU ACTIVE ARE YOU ALIVE I MISS YOU /nm

@domestic-void literally an angel I still reread that lev fic bc that's how I met you you're so sweet <3

@atomicfanboy platonic bf #1 I love you

@shirari we r stressed about school and vibing. i need to figure out how tf to write for shirabu so I can write fic specifically catered towards you. also you're such a talented artist??

@mysterystarz wife #2 (only #2 bc inez was first I'm sorry). can and will fight akaashi for your heart

@shoyotime wife #1 and I remember following u and talking to you when I was a measely little blogger at 100 followers or less and u had just hit 400 and now ur like super famous I'm so proud of you babe

@ellesmain TUMBLR BIG SISTER NUMBER ONE BEST SISTER RIGHT HERE also one of my top fav writers on here your stuff is so good teach me your secrets. also ur so pretty ugh

@t0mmyfly WE USED TO TALK A LOT AND NOW WE DONT MUCH ANYMORE HI ARE YOU STILL ALIVE I MISS U

@oni-girx SEE ABOVE ^ WE USED TO TALK IN THAT GROUP CHAT HIKARI MADE BUT WE ALL LOST TOUCH R U GOOD HOW IS UR LIFE

@agonyaster my favorite fuckin little sibling ever I'm so platonically in love w you. thank u for the albedo luck you can have all of my itto luck.

@possiblypoe gay ass /j. anyway thanks for letting me geek out about my characters and thanks for being gay for them and plz keep talking about tokyo rev and jjk forever

@haikyuuublog we do not talk v much however!!! ur very cool and funny <3 /p

@0ltremareart CAN U CALL MY STARSTRUCK OMFG gonna expose myself here but I didn't realize we were mutuals and the first time I talked to you I was so nervous and then. and then I realized like 4 minutes after I sent an ask that we were mutuals . hihc apparently you think I'm cool enough to follow so I shouldn't have been embarrassed. so then I just screamed into a pillow for 2 hours bc I was embarrassed <//3 anyway matchablossom rights

@k-kazvha WE WILL GET ALBEDO ITS GONNA HAPPEN WE WILL GET THE BOY also when I finish this dumb world quest I cant do we should play genshin together

@i-li we have not talked in a while but you are very chill!! i haven't seen you online a lot I dunno if that's me or my dash being dumb and not letting me see ur posts

@criso ANGEL ARTIST OMFG we met and had nothing in common and now I gay panic to you 24/7 and geek out about sk8 and yuri on ice and its wonderful <3

@atsuvu you give such strong friend vibes like. just that really cool chill friend that everyone loves I hope u know that

@kitacharm we need to talk more I feel like I only talk to you through nova but that's alright. one day when I start being able to talk to people I will yell about random things in ur inbox

@animated-moon tendou supremacy. also ur like super sweet and give me big sibling vibes. but like the slight crackhead energy older sibling vibes

@kodzukoi another one that gives me older sibling vibes I feel like people are just gonna start adopting me at this point

@merucry tumblr dad officially ily and I still look at that fairy thing u drew me in that one day

@rudolphsboyfriend LITERALLY TALENTED. INCREDIBLE. LOML /p HOW DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO god the gender envy I get from you /hj

@kade-is-gay PRONOUN BUDS <3 what can I say about u ur so awesome

@chuupetarou platonic fiance and fellow cherry simp I cannot wait to get to know u better. lets be gay and piss off the conservatives together <3

@rqkuya YOUUUUUUUi cant wait till the day I pass you in ar rankings which is never gonna happen but that's okay ur awesome ily. rosaven supremacy

@coastalmangoes I don't think we've ever interacted personally but ur really funny and rb good stuff

@official-lucifers-child starstruck part 2 you're SO COOL I didn't think you were still following me tbh anyway hi!! you also give strong older sibling energy although I don't. i don't think you're that much older than me but that's alright lol /pos

who knew I had this many mutuals wow

[andromeda612]

I was tagged on this by @disgruntledtwig and I love it! Thank you :D

1- My favorite works are:

The Tale of Le Paon; because is what got me and my platonic wife @kapane-luyeshu together in the first place, that fic is our kitten and I love it for that

My day 29 for the Nathmarc Novemeber from last year, the prompt was "Your favorite book" and I ended up writing 11k of a marriage proposal with The Little Prince theme and I just love it

Reki 101: The guide to take care of your sunshine friend by the Reki Protection Squad, maybe I just have two chapters published but I have the whole story planned and I love it, I'm just waiting for time to write it XD

And the fic I'm more active about: Teruhashi Kokomi's guide to make your crush like you back... and how it worked out for Akechi Touma; because I really love the Saikechi ship and the story is planned until its last chapter and I love it, this is one of my comfort animes and Saikechi one of my OTP

2- The easiest genre to write in my opinion is probably fluff, since it's easy for me to just make the characters happy and wrote cute stuff, it's simple and the genre in which I make the less research

3- I don't like self inserts because most of the fics of that type I've read were poorly made, the self insert tends to overshadow the canon characters and be a Mary Sue, however, I can remember one or two self inserts that were well made, the self insert was actually adding to the plot and was of actual help to the canon characters.

If it's well made a self insert can be pleasant to read, but in general I don't like it.

4- I genuinely have no idea, inspiration just seems to like me... It could come from a comment I read, a hc, a prompt I read, something I saw or heard, out of nowhere, from a dream... One day I was literally washing the dishes when the idea for my Nathmarc November day 7 came ( it had nothing to do with washing the dishes btw) inspiration just came to me in a lot of different ways

5- Yeah, once in a while. In my case writer's block is very strange to happen and when it does happen it usually last one day at most

6- Right now my favorite fandom to write for is Miraculous Ladybug, more specially for the Nathmarc ship (My OTP) that could change of course

7- I'm not very constant on the length of my chapters, I could end up writing 2k or 21k for a single chapter or one-shot, it all depends on what I'm planning to write and how inspired I am

8- Fluff, I just like to make my favorite characters happy, okay? I also enjoy to write a good mystery

9- I'm currently writing for three fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sk8 The Infinity and Saiki Kusuo no psi nan, I also have works for the Higuel fandom.

I also have drafts and ideas for fanfics for Saint Seiya, My Hero Academia, Bungou Stray Dogs, Merlin (from BBC) and My Babysitter is a Vampire (for the Bethan shipp)

I'm also planing to write for Yuri On Ice, Onyx Equinox, The night beyond the tricornered window, Sherlock (from BBC, and for the Johnlock ship), A Matter of Life and Death and Kimetsu No Yaiba.

10- I actually do take request and even commissions, it's just people don't ask for them, I even have my own Ko-fi account for commissions:

I guess I need to work more on promoting myself, that's on me

11- My most popular fanfiction is: Too Short! My first Sk8 fanfic With 15k hits on Ao3, 1k kudos and 410 bookmarks

12- I have 40 for Miraculous Ladybug, 3 for Sk8 the Infinity, one for Saiki Kusuo no psi nan and 1 for Higuel, which in total is 45 fanfiction.

If we add my one original story I have posted on Ao3 I have 46 stories, not to mention a couple of works in spanish I published out of Ao3 which make it 50

13- Both, is a hobby I really like but I also take it seriously

14- Of course I do, one of my life pillars is reading fanfiction

15- Do your research, you will be surprised of how much better a fanfic is with actual facts and more solid bases.

Also, for the love of everything good in this world, respect the use of grammatical signs! It gives your work consistency and it makes it look clean and easier to read.

Try to keep things logical and concise, if you don't plan your fics as I do and go withe flow about the plot a good thing to do is re-read what you have before so you won't miss some detail or contradict yourself in the future.

I've come across fanfics that have a very good plot idea but a terrible ejecution, or a horrible format

16- Of course not! I've read a lot of fanfiction and a lot if it has no smut and is still a good story, not to denigrate smut! I have also read good smuts with a good plot and good smuts that are there just for the horny.

Trully, the fanfiction world is huge

17- I do write mature content with violence or sensible topics. I don't have any smut posted yet. Because I do have some smut drafts that I hope I will be posting in the future

18- I'm actually okay with all my stories for now

19- My first fanfictions were posted in 2018, then in 2019 I had a huge hiatus and retook it in 2020, adding it all up I've been writing fanfiction for 3 years (I'm not counting 2019 my hiatus)

20- It depends, for example my fic with most often updates is my Saikechi fic, at first I updated it almost daily, now my goal is at least once or twice a month. The Tale of Le Paon has more sporadic updates. I try to be as consistent as I can

21- Yes, it does, I hate the OOC tag. There are just two instances in which I would read OOC, one if the OOC is really well wrote and makes the character interesting in a new light and two if the story is really interesting and get me invested into it. But in my exprience that's hard to get, I actually just have read one fic with OOC because it have both: a hella good story and the OOC really well wrote, so I could put up with it and even started liking it a little bit. Otherwise I just avoid OOC

22- It's actually easy, as I said before inspiration seems to like me and I have a lot of ideas and writing just came to me easy, that I tend to procrastinate is another thing

23- Just if I find it necessary for the plot or to fill certain holes. For example, in most of my Nathmarc fics since there are not canon families for the ship yet I made OC's for those roles. Or in Too Short! The antagonist is an OC because is what the plot needed

24- Pfff, 99% of my fanfics are for my OTP's

25- Yes, I actually like to project into my favorite characters

26- Fanfic authors:

Stelfy94 is my favorite Tododeku author

ASingleRaindrop, OminousPredictions, Avdieo, Christallized and BooksRBetterThanPeople are my favorite Nathmarc authors

Infinite_Silence, Axureé and FanficMX are my favorite Higuel authors

Disgruntled_twig is my favorite Saikechi author

EpicKiya722 is my favorite Vanitas no Carte author

Finally leedonghyucks is my favorite SSKK author

Those are my favorite fanfiction authors

Now my favorithe authors in general are:

Edgar Allan Poe since I was 9, believe it or not I LOVE horror stuff and creepy things as well as mystery (is a wonder I haven't written a horror fanfic yet)

Dan Brown, I just love how he takes real facts and makes them fill into his fiction narrative, I really enjoy the history, art and secret codes that come with his books

27- Edgar Allan Poe and Dan Brown

28- Every single one of my fics have tons of hc, I live to make hc, and most of my fics also have AU's as well

29- Anything between an afternoon and a week

[avianurges]

For the ask meme- yes. The whole fucking alphabet. Any fandom of your choice for any of them -kipp

LMAO THE WHOLE THING? THIS SHOULDNT BE ALLOWED-

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

Honestly besides the Constant love for Mell and Kai, Ash and Eiji from banana fish, and Reki and Langa and Joe and Cherry from sk8 right now. Also i like Lawlight from specifically the 2015 death note tv drama. OH. AND ALSO. SEKI AND SHIMIZU FROM OYASUMI PUNPUN I LOVE THEM

(Side note ngl Detective Roberts and His Ex-Wife are v nice together i like them)

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

Ellspen from Self Aware. LIKE LISTEN. I KNOW I WRITE THE THING. BUT I NEVER CONSIDERED THAT UNTIL READERS STARTED SHIPPING IT

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

Uhhh idk I never thought about it. Ig i’m not really a fan of Aizawa/All Might? that’s the first ship to come to mind. oh and also Hawks/Endeavor. not my cup o tea, never will be

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

Any ship with Tanaka from haikyuu that Isnt him and kiyoko. like art of him and enoshita or him and noya are Cute, but i just dont ship it

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

Does writing “Regenerate, Fate” count

I also have Goose Yagami meme and the yelling cat meme but it’s death note

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

BNHA fandom has been since... november 2017ish

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

.........................................................................Klance.

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)

(ngl i dunno what this Means so sorry if my answer doesn’t make sense but-) I really like anime and animation, but also i really like comics and manga, more so now that im Making a comic

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

I don’t think tumblr’s ever stopped making me like a fandom, but just like. stop going in tumblr’s tag for it. for example 15ish year old me was NOT ready to see the things in the undertale tag that i did. oh god the horrors.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

i dont think tumblrs ever led me to starting a show/getting into a fandom, but pinterest has. most of my fandoms have been through seeing random things on pinterest ngl

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

Vigilantedekus is The Best and I Love Them

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

Matsuda from death note might’ve been played as the “Funny because he keeps fuckin up” kinda chara, but i do like that he was the one to shoot light and that he had that kind of outburst about light’s dad. BUT ALSO MATSUDA’S THEORY IN THE END OF THE MANGA? RIGHTS.

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

i dont have anything specific in mind, but all fandoms have DOPE artists

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

head empty no thoughts

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

Right now “The mind electric” reminds me of Jamie from SA, “Butterfly’s Repose” reminds me of Mell And Kai

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

uh uh uh uh Self Aware but without Aviancorp. That’s the only difference. The au is just what kind of ripple effect it would have on everyone and their lives

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

nothing’s coming to mind

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

Sobs. Seki and Shimizu from Goodnight Punpun. I only say them for this because theres So Little People who know them

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Athen (my oc, Choosing(02)) wants to see hatsune miku because he uses a voicebank to speak and “! she sounds like me!” 

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

I’m going to do these with my OCs instead. because while im the author, they’re headcanons because most of them i cant Really make canon: 

Athen has a mothman pajama set. He and adam have matching “Humanfucker”/”Robofucker” shirts

athen Has seriously wondered if adam would leave him for mothman

athen gets a pet roomba named Hal

Jamie would be a good parent

Sam (one of the dead kids from Subject 402/SA-) would’ve been a soccer player if she lived

Letho (the Other dead kid) would’ve been an art student

if jordan(Kai) had a Normal Life and WASNT a human experiment, he wouldnt be very accomplished in school despite being a genius, he’d be kinda a delinquent and getting in trouble a lot

If mell had a younger sibling, people would probably think HE’S the youngest one. they would not believe he were older if they were close in age

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

Mob from Mob psycho

L and Light are tied

Aizawa and Shinsou and Deku are top faves ig

ash and eiji from banana fish. love them. AND SHORTER> LOVE HIM

i like punpun as a character but if i had the chance i would prolly throw hands

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

Mell and Kai - Self Aware

Shindeku OR tododeku - bnha

(Letho and (Redacted)) - Self Aware (but like. the au if letho Lived)

Ash and Eiji - Banana Fish

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

I think we all know my fave ships from this post so far. no need to do this question lmao

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

MOB. WOULD KILL FOR HIM BUT I KNOW HE WOULD BE :( AT ME FOR IT

ngl there aren’t many Precious Babies. like I’d say Hinata is a precious baby but haikyuu ends when he’s like fuckin 30 so what counts as a precious baby hmmm

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

my dash gets so much TMA

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

this post is long enough,,,

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | Q&A w/ Mark Rogers (PDX)

Known for his oil paintings of extraterrestrial beings in Western backdrops, artist Mark Rogers creates quite literally some out-of-this-world artwork. Rogers’s pioneer and alien narratives started out as writings that would later evolve into his body of work, focusing on this idea that “aliens are [the] modern folklore creatures of our current time.” We’re excited to chat with this self taught artist and talk about various topics including his paintings, his sketchbook, and his sighting of a U.F.O in 2009! 

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Tell us about yourself Hi, I am Mark Rogers. I am a painter from Portland, Oregon. I have an irrational fear of bees, I am a vegan, and I love metal. Thanks so much for interviewing me.

What is your art background and when did you first get into drawing? I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. A lot of my elementary school memories were of me drawing on back side of whatever assignment the teachers had handed out to us, and possibly getting into trouble for it.

Being self taught, what are your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of maybe not attending art school?  Well, I don’t have to deal with the crippling student loan debt. Perhaps this is the most advantageous aspect of being self-taught. I received my degree in Political Science of all things, perhaps out of a sense of naive idealism before the grim apathy of adulthood sunk it’s fangs into my heart. I started making art seriously at an older age, (around 27) and felt that the school-thing wasn’t for me any more. Because I have never been to art school, I can’t completely attest to the advantages, but I do know quite a few other artists who have gone to art school, who also work a few shifts a week in restaurants and bars like myself. The same holds true of political science majors. It seems like I’m on the right path.    

Tell us about your current work which feature some prominent protagonist in the form of extraterrestrial beings interacting with American pioneers in the 1800’s. How did they evolve into your subject matter? Before I started painting, I dabbled in writing, but I wasn’t really that good at it.  My pioneer/alien narrative coalesced over the course of many paintings and sketchbook doodles and I am learning more about the story all the time. I feel that Aliens are the modern folklore creatures of the our current time as maybe fairies and elves were their predecessors from earlier generations. I have always loved westerns, but felt that they were sort of boring due to the lack of magic or mystery. A lot of people might say that my work is science fiction, but I am actually trying to create/explore a newer fantasy paradigm that is both magical and American. …..also I saw a UFO in 2009.

Wait, whoaaaa … Please share with us your U.F.O story. It was the early summer of 2009 and I was married at the time, living in Springfield Oregon. My ex-wife and I were walking down Centennial Blvd around dusk, headed to the corner store, when we both saw a glowing ball of orange light silently make its way really low across the sky to our right to vanish over the horizon line. We both looked at each other with huge eyes and say at the same time “UFO”. It was super weird and eerie. 

Later that summer we bought a telescope and spent a bit of time each night in the back yard hoping to see something like what we had witnessed, but sadly I have never seen anything like that ever again. That was around the time that I first began painting, although I didn’t paint aliens and such until much later. The painting that I made called, “Prayer to the Magi” depicts the actual UFO that we both witnessed. It might not be an actual ship from outer space, but it was certainly unusual, and unidentifiable.

What’s the weirdest comment or compliment you’ve gotten on a piece? I had a guy the other day tell me that if I painted an Alien virgin Mary, he would have that tattooed on his belly. Some people just message me wanting to talk about their experiences or their extraterrestrial DNA.

What were you painting or drawing prior to extraterrestrials?  Can you look back and see a direct evolution to what you’re painting now?  What was your first painting, painting? I have always done narrative paintings with characters but they didn’t have the same theme as my current work. They focused usually on something personal in my life that bothered me and I would use symbolism to create an image usually with ghosts and skulls and creepy spooky stuff. My first painting sucked and it was of a woman with branches growing out of her head and perched on the branches were crows. I recently learned from Game of Thrones that was she was doing would be considered “warging”.  

Do you keep a sketchbook or work your ideas as you go along?  What type of sketchbook do you keep – disorganized chaos or neat and clean? Hell Yeah!! My sketch book is my most important art weapon as well as a wonderfully antisocial lifestyle choice. I have used a lot of sketchbooks over the years, but my total favorite is the Stillman and Birn Gamma Series 9X12. My sketchbooks are filled with thumbnails, doodles and watercolor paintings. Some pages are organized and some are bonkers depending on my sobriety during my bi-weekly drink and draw sessions. I usually go out to coffee and draw once or twice a week too. I bring my sketchbook along with a box of art supplies with me everywhere.    

What are the current mediums you work with? What about them are forgiving and what about them is challenging if at all? I love oil painting!! It is my main medium and mega-forgiving. I have tried comic-style inking but getting all the lines perfect on the first shot really stressed me out. I love the slower drying time of oils, the rich colors you can get with glazing, and the texture of the paint. The poisons are fun too! I live in a small studio apartment and my easel is about 8 feet from my bed.  The only thing that is really challenging about oil painting is that packing in tiny details can be a little tricky, but it works for me, and I don’t ever foresee changing mediums.

What’s your specific artistic process like? Does a schedule help you? Are you a morning person or night owl? I am extremely process oriented. My typical flow goes: Sketchbook thumbnail, gather reference, better sketchbook thumbnail, draw on the panel, spray fix and cover it with matte medium, then do an underpainting and then the final layers. After that I varnish the painting and photograph it, frame it, and then usually mail it somewhere. I have a suggested art schedule, but I never stick to it. Instead, I am always kind of working or squeezing in chunks of painting time in here or there.  I am a total night owl, in fact I rarely leave my apartment unless it is dark out.

What artists are you really into at the moment? What is it about his or her work that stand out to you? I like so many artists both classical and contemporary that it is hard to really answer this question. I am very inspired by a lot of my friends and the community of people that I have met online. I feel like the person that most fascinates me currently is James Gurney because he is really into sharing his process. I have learned so much by just reading his blog. I love how he is a plein air painter as well as an amazing illustrator. I have almost all of his books.

Do you have a favorite pair of Vans (classics, sk8-hi etc)? I am currently wearing the AUTHENTIC black on black, but I also have had a ton of the OLD SKOOL and SK8 HI in the past.

What are some words you like to live by? I don’t have an exact quote, but I am very big on the idea of “Grit” as a personality trait. According to wikipedia: “Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective.” I feel that Grit is the most important personality trait of any serious artist.  

What are you looking forward to the rest of this year artwise? I have been working a ton with Red Truck Gallery in New Orleans, and I will continue to over the course of the year, with maybe a trip down to Los Angeles for the LA Art show and another trip to NOLA for fun. Also, I would really like to complete a very large painting with lots of characters before the year is over. Finally, it would be nice to have the Alien implant in my frontal cortex removed if possible. Thanks so much for interviewing me, Mike!

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