The Lurid low-brow Tiki-Art of Brad (tiki-shark) Parker

Another awesome piece man :)

Swamp Fire, Isle Conch, Hewey, thanks so much!

Here's the sketch for Mystic Tiki #9 "the Sunken Tiki".
This one's also a 16" x 20" canvas. The reason it's this size as the fella who commissioned it requested a smaller piece. We all don't live in vast halls with huge walls, as all artist's wished everyone did. But, I'm totally cool with it. Let's see now, where's my magnifying glass...

Aloha from the Big Island!

Hey TC hope everyone had a great holiday! So, this afternoon, we said a fond "aloha" to our X-mas guests, as they left the Big Island, and I could deflate the air mattress and get my art studio back into being a .. art studio.
I got the sketch ready to be gawked at while I re-sketch it onto the canvas. To do this I just put a piece of tracing paper over it and draw four lines on it to break it up

But, as I sketched it out, I wasn't paying attention and realized I screwed up and didn't leave enough space for the foreground. One of the things I like most about this composition was the foreground."DOH!"

So, I grabbed the gesso and painted over it.

Let's start this again, with a more careful eye...

OCTOPUS?
WHERE'S AN OCTOPUS?

The octopus is gonna be hiding on the left.

Im getting excited already! :)

I'm scared of snakes, even if it is a sea snake. Other than that I'm looking forward to seeing the progress. I only wish I had the time to create as much as you.

On 2006-12-27 07:17, frostiki wrote:
I'm scared of snakes, even if it is a sea snake...

Sea snake venom is more toxic than the venom of land snakes...In fact Yellow Bellied Sea Snakes have the most toxic venom of any snake. There is no known antivenom for their bite. They are close relatives to the cobra and are totally adapted to marine life: they have modified lungs to help them maintain buoyancy and to remain underwater for a long time.
It is said that sea snakes can open their mouths wide enough to bite a man on the thigh. If provoked, the sea snake may become very aggressive and persistent, especially during the mating season in the winter.

Boo!

Brad I love the fish lei! What kind of fish are they? Will you incorporate shadows so the fish look raised above the surface of the submerged tiki?

Nice info about sea snakes, but it's an eel guarding the treasure. So, tell us a bit about eels.

• There are Freshwater and Saltwater Eels.

• A young eel is called an elver.

• A traditional East London food is jellied eels.

• A giant moray eel ate Louis Gosset Jr. in the 1977 film The Deep

Cool piece TSA, there's alot of interesting characters populating this composition. Although painting smaller can be faster, I personally find it more challenging with painting detailed shapes and what not. I'm sure it's no problem for you. This composition has alot less neg. space than your last couple o' paintings which also makes for some cool variation within the series and also harkens back to your first painting in the series. Speaking of variety, are you going to do some horizontal/landscape formats in this series? Keep up the good work!

ST

Hodadhank, OMG! I'm never setting foot in the friggin ocean again! It's full of frickin snakes! Bora Boris, Thanks for the info, I think I feel somewhat enlightened. Nice Grog vs the eel! Frostiki, I'm still working out the light sources, but I hope I stick the shadows where they should be... if not tell me before it's too late.
Grog, actually though, it's not a true eel. But a hybrid sea snake and eel. A sneel.
Let's see if I can get a color test done tonight...

YEah, I think I got a horizontal composition in mind, thanks for asking Sneakitiki!

Tiki Shark

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2006-12-28 02:45 ]

I went back and forth on a color scheme. Finally I hauled out my boxes from the garage, found the all important Greg Hildebrandt and Todd Schorr art books to consult. And for good measure I even hauled out the holy grail of Josh Agle. Finally I picked one. Funny, it's like the same color scheme I had on the last one!

:)

This time I'm doing an under-painting. This way I can work out the light and shadows - I'm a bit fuzzy in the treasure chest area still. Anyway, it's about half way.
Aloha!

TS the colorized proof looks great so far. you may want to add a little orange to the highlights of the sunken ship, very subtle to play on the luminence of the eel. BTW very happy to learn that it was an eel and not a sea snake. Can't wait to see more. As soon as we get our Digital camera to be able to take more that one pic with out going through the batteries we'll post some more of Mrs, Frostiki's paintings and our prints.

Keep up the good work.

Hodadhank, thank you for making me fear snkaes even more. I thought I freaked out after seein Jaws as a kid, but this tops that. Bora Boris, very informative. You both must be as bored at work as I am.

..great work, a pleasure to see...can't wait to watch the progress.

Hey TC, I had some Tiki Shark beach towel work to get caught up on so was busy. But I got a few hours of painting in...

Here's the finished under-painting. It's the first time I've done an under-painting. I'm not totally sure how much it's helped me figure of some things. I has of course.

Here;s some of the sky... er..sea colored in. Needs lots more work.
Hope the holidays are good where you are.
Aloha from the Big Island!

Aloha Tiki Shark Art! Don't know if I've ever posted on here before, but I wanted to tell you that I'm a big fan of this thread and I think your work is amazing! I absolutely love the progress pics, and it's wonderful to see a piece come together in the end. Keep it up!

I have one question: Where the hell is the gallery on your website so I can at least buy some prints or something?
For cripes Tiki Shark, don't keep all this tiki goodness to yourself.....

I like totes and mats and all but where is the wall-candy?

oops that's two questions. :wink:

[ Edited by: thegreenman 2006-12-30 06:27 ]

I like the treasure guarded by a snake. When I was a boy, this is the picture that I could look at all day and dream about finding hidden treasure like that.

I see in the last painting that you changed the way the blue looks in the nose and face but you still kept it blue. Great move.

Hopefully whoever comissioned this one will back out from buying it like your last painting, and GROG can buy it.

Bastard!

greenman - Thank you so much. I'm honored.
finkdaddy - Yeah I know, I'm working on a gallery page right now. After the move, and setting up the business again, and the art studio, and with having to stop everyday to go down and play in the waves with sea turtles and drink rum and watch the sunsets, well it's all coming together slowly. I have good photos of the paintings, and some will make it to be prints. someday. Hey, there is a real chance that a whole line of tea-shirts will be made from the "Mystic Tiki" series. I'm talking with one of Tiki Shark's business partners who's in the apparel business - and also a huge tiki fan. But, it's all talk till it happens ya know.
teakey - You noticed! Thanks.
grog - Hay, anything can happen! I'd be proud to have a piece hanging in the Grog cave, along side the Ruzic piece no doubt!

Guess 'shit' doesn't move to fast on the big island !!!!

Hey Tiki Shark, been drooling over your work for some time now myself, awesome! I'm waiting for the card decks to come out, anytime soon I hope? my poker game will never be the same!

Coming along very nicely man. The "under" painting thing is new to me. Gave me an idea - what about a vintage looking print done in sepia tones? And there's one cool lighting element I am yet to see in your paintings - lightning!

One of my favourite threads :)

I'm with Hewey on that one! if you look at old thrift store paintings with the faded prints on wood all yellowy from coats and coats of lacquer! Your graphic precision shows before the colors are put in! Beautiful! And the ripples on the surface are coming along! remember that the light is all straight and smooth roaming from the sun to the earth,BUT when it hit's water, it's like a liquid mirror/reflector/lens... water has been described as a liquid crystal before-YUP! Have fun! Glad I'm not painting that! It would drive me mad in a frenzy to accurately depict it! Good job man! Happy New Year!

On 2007-01-01 10:52, little lost tiki wrote:
remember that the light is all straight and smooth roaming from the sun to the earth,BUT when it hit's water, it's like a liquid mirror/reflector/lens... water has been described as a liquid crystal before-YUP! Have fun! Glad I'm not painting that! It would drive me mad in a frenzy to accurately depict it! Good job man! Happy New Year!

Seeing you're on a moai kick you should do a version of the pics I posted earlier - I would love to see how one of you artist types could interpret that!
I found this pic finally, which is the original one I had...it looks different to the other moai I posted - like a much bigger and older statue?

Back on topic, this one is going to have a quite a different feel to the others I think TSA...I'm really interested to see how the underpainting is going to affect the outcome.
A quick question...the ad you've got in Tiki mag, with the robot tiki carrying the girl...is the art from one of your playing card designs? It would make the best T-shirt ever.

tikilale - yeah things move at the speed of lava here, or at least I do.
Stiki Tiki - Cards, oh yeah... gotta get back on dat too!
Hewey - I'm not sure about the whole underapinting thing yet, this is the first one I tried. So, far I think it did help a bit figure some things out...
LLT - Water is completely weird from below! It even looks different in most of my scrap photos, so I just went with what I though would look cool.
Paipo - gosh that's a cool photo! It makes me really want to go diving!


more coming,
Aloha from the most remote active volcanic island in the world...

The surface in the second pic is tops

TSA, your skill and talent disgust me. Keep up the great work. (from Hawaii, no less, arrgh!)

[ Edited by: foamy 2007-01-02 07:04 ]

The underpainting is great, I like the way the surface light is coming through. I just have to keepsaying, it's an eel not a snake. Eel not snake.

Hey Tiki Shark - very cool piece. I love the use of a hammerhead too. Those things are outright bad and kitschy....

http://www.samgambino.com

Thanks Hewey, the surface was daunting, but sokay now.
Frostiki - it's a sneel, part sea snake part eel.
Foamy, glad your disgusted, er... I think...
Here's more

and a close up of the Hammerhead for Sam.

I dig your stuff too daddy-o!
Aloha,

I can live with a sneel, they are only mildly creepy. The details in your close ups are great, very smooth transitions. Nice and subtle colors. Thanks for posting, you help keep me motivated.

I love the feeling of depth in your art :)

Moving along great Brad! that hammerhead close-up is pretty nifty! rock on!

your work is so amazing!! the detail is just gorgeous!

Thanks everyone.
Tonight it rained for the first time since I moved here, then the full moon came out. The air smelled so amazing. A lot different than LA. I just stood there on the lani, breathing the air and listening to the waves. I had to force myself to go back inside and paint. I'm not sure when the shock of being in Hawaii is going to ware off, I hope never.


I just figured I didn't put in the wavey light from the surface over the ship. Dare I go back and risk screwing it up by painting them in?

Oh hey, if you go to http://www.coconutwired.com, I'm the current featured artist on Chongolio's podcast. He let me pick the band and the song to get played while my art is being shown on that tiny itty bitty i-pod window. I sent many e-mails to my favorite surf band, and secured my favorite track off "The Ghastly One's" latest CD. I listen to coconut wired alot while I paint, and it was totally cool to be a part of it. Thanks Chongolio, and thanks Norman!!

nice! The Ghastly Ones are so awesome!

Somemore... something still wrong about that mermaid's face - and I've painted it about ten times, argh!

octopuses are easier than wooden mermaids.

Looking wonderful TSA! Don't bother changing the lighting from above on the shipwreck. The light waves you are thinking of are more common in shallow water anyway.

A suggested solution or your mermaid...

http://www.tonyhowell.co.uk/angelwidcombe.jpg

This one is definitely going have to go to GROG. Whoever commissioned it will have to wait for next one.

WOW! Thanks hodadhank! That helped ALOT! As my old illustration teacher used to say, "you're only as good as your ref scrap."

I'm doing more work on the under painting for the main elements. I had to work out the shading on the sn-eel. A Hawaiian girl was telling me that eels can come up out of the water and raise up like cobras. (?!) Was she having this haole on?

So, this whole under painting thing is new to me. Has anyone here got any pointers before I start the color glazes?
Grog, I'm thrilled you like it, but the fella who commissioned this , we'll call him tiki-Don, already paid half up front. And actually right now he's on a scuba trip to some where south of Thailand. He wants his painting on his return... Of course if a deadly sea sn-eel gets him, then the painting goes to Grog.

Hey Tiki Shark,
Once again I am in awe of your ability for progress - you seem to possess not only amazing talent but an ability to get the work "done". That is a very hard thing for many artists. Your paintings and your progress is very inspirational.
I feel a little bit like I am offering real estate advice to Donald Trump .... but here goes- Some undersea depictions include rays of light filtering through the undulating water to the objects below, resulting in almost prismatic or magnified light effects on those objects surfaces. This is a tiny section of many giant school murals I created about 5 years ago.

Of course it would seem your primary light source is emanating from the cache of treasure at the feet of the idol - so that golden light would probably obscure that undersea effect - yet perhaps it might still be visible further back in the scene!

Not that my painting should grace this thread - for that I am sorry.
I humbly post this only as suggestion - frankly your painting, as always, leaves me in awe.
Thanks again
Jon

[ Edited by: jpmartdog 2007-01-07 08:06 ]

TS

Your showing us a underwater painting and your big chance to show us one and you don't. Where is the "Tiki" Shark in this painting?? Just kidding but you do have a tiki and a shark like the one you posted a couple back.

I see the process shots and I still don't know how you do it. I see the underpainting and different objects but you showed you tiki looking great in the second to last photo and the looking totally different color wise in the next.

The only thing that I can imagine is that you are putting major time in between rounds. The eel, bam! polished and knowing you probably a couple more extras to it.

Like watching Bob Ross move his brush across the canvas and things appear, but that stuff is only suggestive and looks good from afar. Yours looks to fly with color and detail with ease.

Tikishark, do you hang out with Thor?