This Saturday, some of my good friends and DJ’s, the Lollipop Shoppe are celebrating their 8 year anniversary with an awesome party. It will be at the Queen city tattoo shop and I’ll have some art there. They say it best so I’ll let them say it again:

New and Improved! Now with DJ MR RID guesting on the turntables for your dancing pleasure! B Y O B- pack your cooler, pay a 5 spot and enjoy a party like no other in town! FREE CD’S by Capt. Groovy! Go Go Girls- The Lolli Dollies shaking up a storm and ROCKULA teasing and pleasing your eyeballs with visual treats! ART SHOW starts at 8- come meet the artists, if you love rock n roll this art show is for YOU! Featured artists ARTBOT 138, DIABLO TEXAS, JOEY SEEMAN and TIGERBEE. ALL AGES. QUEEN CITY HALL! SEE YOU THERE!

This Saturday is the Kettle gallery’s For Love of Kettle art show. Everyone who has helped the kettle or has had some interweaving with Frank and the Kettle gallery, has donated pieces for sale and each peice is only $50 but they are worth WAY more than that. These go fast so get there early and get in line to get some amazing art to support and fantastic gallery in Deep Ellum.

Whoopdy Doo employees! Everyone who has found true love may receive 20% off at my etsy store for the month of February using coupon code: TRUELOVE

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DiabloTexas

The LAST problem I’ve had with my creating a cohesive social media appearance is a mobile version of my website. As I’ve mentioned before I created all my interweb presence myself but with limited knowledge so I can only create so far. The easiest solution is to just use the free templates available to me: work smarter not harder.
I’ve decided to use a tumblr site for my mobile version because most designer have taken the hardest part(detecting and directing mobile browsers to a uniquely designed version) and have already added this feature to most templates.
It doesn’t have the functionality of a website but considering I don’t expect someone on a mobile phone  to want to look at everything I do, I’m only using it to host a few images to give you an idea of what I can do.
So when a mobile browser is detected at my site, it reroutes to this simple tumblr

….which shows it as a professional looking mobile version you can scroll through, like this:

So to anyone who wants to keep up with social media and live on a budget like most of us starving artists, my advice is to use the tools that are available to you. They’re the most valuable weapons you’re going to get for free.

The LAST problem I’ve had with my creating a cohesive social media appearance is a mobile version of my website. As I’ve mentioned before I created all my interweb presence myself but with limited knowledge so I can only create so far. The easiest solution is to just use the free templates available to me: work smarter not harder.
I’ve decided to use a tumblr site for my mobile version because most designer have taken the hardest part(detecting and directing mobile browsers to a uniquely designed version) and have already added this feature to most templates.
It doesn’t have the functionality of a website but considering I don’t expect someone on a mobile phone  to want to look at everything I do, I’m only using it to host a few images to give you an idea of what I can do.
So when a mobile browser is detected at my site, it reroutes to this simple tumblr

….which shows it as a professional looking mobile version you can scroll through, like this:

So to anyone who wants to keep up with social media and live on a budget like most of us starving artists, my advice is to use the tools that are available to you. They’re the most valuable weapons you’re going to get for free.

So to anyone who wants to keep up with social media and live on a budget like most of us starving artists, my advice is to use the tools that are available to you. They’re the most valuable weapons you’re going to get for free.

As i was fumbling, a crumbling mumbler, I stumbled upon a humbling tumblr.

I finally found a designer that offered a good tumblr code that I was happy with. I learned html to design my own website but I only know the basics so while I can work out most of my problems I don’t know enough to solve all of them.
I want all my social media sites to have the same overall look to them and while most of them are pretty basic and helpful, those little things i want to do sometimes elude me and i honestly would rather be creating art than trying to make myself look better.
Luckily I found a designer that made something close to what i wanted for my tumblr and was extremely user friendly enough customize it to look like my other sites and website. I’m actually incredibly impressed that it even puts my icon by my web address. that’s something that I still haven’t figured out how to do and even though it’s something you probably don’t notice, I DO and am very proud of.

Next up is to make some twitter changes………….and think of a witty rhyme for that

http://diablotexas.tumblr.com/

I have a friend of mine who is doing a great thing and inspired me to try something new. Her name is Patricia Rodriguez and you can see her wonderful work ON HER WEBSITE. Check out her vinyl record art as well as her gallery peices to be impressed.
She has been supporting herself successfully with freelance work and something she does that gives people the opportunity to obtain some affordable art. This is something I’ve been trying to do but like I mentioned in other posts, I don’t think I’m in front of enough eyes because even my cheap pieces are not selling. She works on something for an hour and let’s people pay for that piece …..buy the hour basically so you get a quick piece for a good price.

The following  is the train wreck of a ride I attempted with just ONE hour to work.

The first one is just with prisma color markings to lay down some base colors and a little black line for definition. I had planned on coming back to add more shadows and highlights but time is fast and was over before I wanted to be finished.
It’s very embarrassing to post this as an example of my talents but I’m just being honest with my posts and showing you the full experiment.

Next is just a straight pencils sketch just to see how far I can actually get in a hour because of the shock of first round. Again, this hour went by fast and I was only able to get so far with it. I’m happier  with this one than the first despite of my crappy scanner  but the whole idea was to make art that someone would want to hang and I’m not a big fan of just selling a sketch. Nothing against it, but I feel it’s called a sketch for a reason.
The odd thing is I run the Dallas chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s anti-art school  and the most amount of time you get there is 20 minutes. Running it means I don’t get to play but obviously I need to get back into speed shape.

So I think that may be it for my hour long art piece attempts. I salute Patricia for being able to create and be successful with her experiments in unemployment but I need a little more time to romance my art before I’m happy with it. I have too many insecurities to be a  two pump chump.

Today I want to nerd out about pencils.
For the longest time my weapon of choice has been a Uni-ball Shift Pipe Lock Drafting Pencil

.

The upper body shifts forward to create a body transformation as it protects the guide pipe and lead from breakage. I carry mine all the time to this helps out when I drop it.
Today i learned that Rotring has one that brings the guide pipe in on itself and doesn’t require you to reduce the lead before you protect it. For me, that TOTALLY makes it worth $82.50