Calamity Clothing Update NEW

Ok, so apparently either some evil death flu had stricken my body or I got food poisoning from a restaurant that shall remain nameless...

Either way, I haven't been up to par for doing much of anything lately.

This update is a few days late on my Calamity Clothing jaunt... the wings are almost done being inked and the cross needs a bit more line thickening and some more "worn" texture on it.

Enjoy!

Faberge Jelly

Here's a pic of another thing I've been working on. The Faberge Jelly. I really like patterns. Just red and black ink on paper. I have trouble doing one thing at once. Nice to change it up and still create. Either that or I've got one ripping case of ADD that I'm in denial about...

Either way, here it is. Just need to repeat the pattern on the other side and it's complete.

Orange-Jelly Update (AKA 'Marmalade Mariner')

Here's a nice close-up photo of one of the gilded skull shell corners on my Orange-jellyfish painting. They look pretty bad A. I am starting to really like using a metallic element in things now. Makes it look 'sophisto'.

Enjoy!

New Death Metal I'm diggin': Ingested - Surpassing The Boundaries Of Human Suffering

The song titles are awesome.

More Updates!

As stated a few days ago... some buddies of mine wanted me to work on an idea for their band Head Of A Poet. Well, I just couldn't get the image of some Edgar Allan Poe-esque type being out of my head... but a little weirder. Since they're called 'Head' of a Poet – why not just his head? With a third eye? Hooked to someone else's brain? And electrified?

Why not? Right?

"Oh, Intro – Jellyman, offspring. Offspring, Jellyman."

This is my newest baby that I've been working on. I've figured out (yes, I do mean figured out), how to just send pics from my smellular to my email. It's actually pretty simple. I tend to overthink sometimes.

In any event, here it is... the Orange-Jellyfish. I think I'm going to title the painting 'Marmalade Mariner'... I love alliteration.

I've got a few more things to do to it. The corners are being done in gold metallic paint. And I need to do more to the background. All in good time, all in good time.

Anywho, enjoy.

Calamity Clothing Update

In the tradition of t-shirt designs these days, my man Carmen wanted a sleeve design for his first Calamity shirt (see skull and crossed battle axes below). This is what's going on the sleeve. The wings are going to be much more 'tattered' looking and the cross is going to have either a wood or stone texture to it. Getting the inking going as we speak. Enjoy!

New art stuff in the works...

Well, I can honestly say that I'm almost too busy with art as of late. Which is a wonderful wonderful thing.

I've got a few things lined up that I'm working on right now that I'm pretty excited about. One, being the "Calamity Clothing" art you see posted below. Over the past few months, I've been working with my man Carmen on t-shirt designs for his clothing line. It's coming along quite nicely. He's looking to have 5 or 6 original designs (by moi, of course). So, that's one.

Two, I've got a few of my own personal art projects I'm working on – that I'm hoping someone else appreciates and may want to purchase. One being an orange (as in fruit) jellyfish painting... which is looking pretty sweet. And since I hate most of my own stuff, I'll take that as it's looking pretty good. Another personal art project I've been working on is a two-color (red and black), pen and ink drawing of a jellyfish busting out of a faberge egg. I like underwater things, just deal with it. I will post pics of both when I can.

Three, I've got a few music/band-related things I'm working on. Some friends of mine want me to work on something for their band Head Of A Poet. Which is coming along quite nicely as of last night. (Third-eye Edgar Allan Poe anyone?). I've done work for them in the past, two of the members were in Knife Down Danger, and those fine young gents are happy with everything I give them which makes my job very very easy.

So, that in a nutshell is what I've been doing art-wise.

And as stated in my "mission statement" of my blog... I can't leave it without mentioning some music I've been listening to.

My albums I can't stop listening to as of the past few days:

Annotations Of An Autopsy - The Reign of Darkness

Emmure - Felony

The Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium

Despised Icon - Day Of Mourning

More artwork.

Here's some more artwork. Various degrees of done-ness... Some old. Some new.

Well, here it goes...

Hi. My name is Matt Shaffer (obviously). This is my blog. It's not here floating in the ether of the interwebs so you can read about "what really grinds my gears". I can do that in real life thank you.

This blog is here in order to share my artwork with people. It's a very easy, (and yes) very cheap way to do that.

This blog is gonna be mostly updates on my art, and other art-related art things. I'm sure I'll end up complaining about a thing here or there, or posting something about some amazing death metal or stoner rock band I found... but that's all part of my idea with this blog. Creative freedom. In all aspects. It's how we're influenced. Movies, music, people, conversations, anything. Influence can come from anywhere.

Something always influences something else.

Would I still have drawn this if I listened to James Taylor or Peter Cetera instead of Pantera or Tool?

Good question...