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

Wow these nior prints are flying out. Great job on the tension in this piece, you can almost hear the gumshoe voice over...

It's really cool to see your thought process on this.

It's another great piece. I love the wood medium too, it's like nothing I've seen out here.

Beautious.

Excellent design! Again, I don't feel that these sorts of designs are all that easy to execute like you have....

Aloha!
Thanks everyone for the warm and squishy feed back on the print series so far. It helps me rev up to do some tiki art even after a long day of regular work.
LLT~ Yes, her eyes - I just had to make 'em glow. I showed the piece to my Hawaiian buddy, Sam, and he said it hit on a lot of things that are very "Hawaiian", probably a lot more than I knew. That's was a big complement. And I made a really wacky "Tiki" print aloha shirt on the guy. I wanted something playful of off set the woman's smoldering gaze. (And I wanted a shirt that I'd like to wear!)
Limey ~ I always like seeing other artist's rough sketches. It inspires me to see the creative process being worked out. So, when do we get to see some of the sketches that went into making your fantastic tiki masterpieces?! (hint hint, nudge nudge!)
Paipo ~ Oh yeah, Wrightson is king! reading his "Swamp Thing" comics really lured me into Ink work in the first place!
tikiracer ~ Tiki Noir! I dig it! You know, I have been listening to a lot of "Old Time Radio" shows off the net. That and all that Martin Denny. I guess it's saturating my brain and oozing into my art!
Flatblack ~ Big Thanks! Glad you're digging it!
GROG! Thanks Buddy! Hey I heard your up coming cover of Tiki Magazine is Killer! Can't wait to see it!

So, I squeezed in a few hours on the painting again.

Like the grass?

Now don't get excited and go thinking I'm painting Bela to be a different race than he was in the movie "White Zombie". I just normally start with the dark colors and work my way up to the lightest highlights. I wanted to give him an "island" tan, but he's got lots of lighter tones for me still to work through on his face.

Mahalo for looking!

Brad, wow great prints love the graphic novel wood block think you have going almost as much as I love your paintings. I can't wait to see more. Keep them coming, I can't wait to see more.

Aloha!
Thanks Frostiki! More's a coming!

Here's last nights progress on the painting. It certainly looks like the most "Exotica" version of Bela Lugosi I've ever seen. Sort of Bela Lugosi as if he were Latin/Hawaiian/Middle Eastern/Island-ish! Well, all I can say is, it's far from done, so we'll see what it looks like when it's finished.

Hey Hey,
I got my part of the prints back! All signed and finished! (mmm, love that antique printing press smell!) Really came out cool.

So there's my signature (and numbering and dating) in the lower left, and Earl's (the carver/printer) signature in the lower right.

We were going for a run of 180, but only got to 178 when the wooden block gave out under the pressure from the press. I'll get them up in the market place later on today, I hope. Just wanted to show 'em off!

Aloha!

final piece is perfect, the stock is great, looking like it's just be found in an attic.

The prints look ace TS, nice work!. As to posting my working sketches, don't hold your breath, to be honest they're pretty unimpressive really. Thumbnail, 1st draught, 2nd draught all in pencil and presto straight to the canvas. There is something satisfying about the not knowing what will come out, and letting the story unfold on the canvas or linen or maybe I just get excited and run for the paints. checkya.

Tikiracer - Thanks! A Tiki Noir Priont is headed your way in the nest few days...
Limey ~ Not big on sketches huh? Wow, a very organic process, letting it develop on the canvas!

speaking of developing on the canvas...

Here's last nights work.

Aloha!

Tiki Shark

http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2008-03-13 18:16 ]

Aloha!

Here's what I did last night.

I know that Limey's account of how he paints has effected how I'm approaching this.

Have a great ALOHA FRIDAY!

OKAY,

I flipped the image and really "saw" where our exotic Tiki Lounge denizen had a wandering eye. A little photoshop later an he's "looKin" better...

Now I know more of what I gotta do to the canvas tonight....

Aloha!

It's funny because I hadn't really noticed until you pointed it out.

Aloha~
Flatblack~ Yeah I can never see the weird stuff I've done wrong on a piece till I flip it , or as in the old pre computer days, look at in a mirror.

So, I think I got him looking at the viewer now.

Have a great weekend!

Aloha~

Here's whats new...

Mahalo~

Hey Brad- I'm diggin' ol' Bela there! He's looking great. I had a "lazy eye" problem with the eyes on my Sandy Warner painting.... Since her eyes were really all that was showing of her face, I HAD to get them right or else. I didn't want her looking like Keith Richards... :)

SAM~ Thanks for the advise Sam, you are the king of getting a good likeness in your paintings. Yeah, the eyes are tricky. The closer you look at how the eye sits in the socket and lids the trickier it seems to represent in a painting! I'm sort of packing up the painting for a few days, as we have guests staying in the studio/guest room, so it'll be few days before I can get back to "The Zombie!" - Whew! This one is being interrupted a LOT and taking a LONG time to finish!

I was stumbling around TC and fell into your pages. Just spend the last 3 and a half hours going through all 85 pages. And after all that all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!

Looking forward to seeing more.

Happy "Aloha Friday" Folks!

Blindy the Pirate ~ Thanks so much!

Getting his shirt one color for now. It's going to have all kinds of images on it, but for now I needed it to be one color so I could think about the rest of the painting.

(Here's what I look like after staying up all night drinking Zombies!) I wanted an "undead" look to Bela, so I went with the green skin tones and dark eye sockets. I'm in mid change of his eyes from the blue to orange yellow.

I took these shots outside this morning. A bit over cast, so they may be slightly blue. Weird air here in Kona lately. The Volcano is very active, and tons of Sulfur Dioxide, and some ash, has been vented. So the VOG has been thick! For about a week we could not see the horizon on the sea because of the hazy conditions. Reminded me of being back in LA.

Mahalo~

The tones around the eyes have him looking pretty vampiric. (that isn't a real word)

Wow man! just finished reading this entire thread, your work is super inspiring. Really really cool man. Imagine my dismay however at literally just starting to explore Cthulhu mythos/poly pop connection in my own work, only to discover that you'd already done it! like last year! Would it be uncool if I continued to run with this? I'm not anywhere close to being in the same league. Anyhoo, thanks for walking us thru your amazing work. Oh yeah, went to your web site looking for the "less expensive" prints of the cthulhu mug/robby/brain forbidden island painting & could not find them, all gone?

Thanks again man. . .

Hey Brad- He's looking great... The green skin tones and the dark eyes work perfectly here - drunkenly sinister! He gets better everytime I check this thread!

aloha~
Flatblack ~ Vampric isn't a word? How about Zombiric? I took the darkened eye make up from what Lugosi was wearing in the movie "White Zombie". Well, I may have even made it more extreme. Guess I listened to too much Alice Cooper!
Thick ~ Thanks! Hey, Cthulhu calls to all us weirdly creative types! If you want to put it into you poly-pop art please feel free! Just post it so I can get a look at how cool it is, and get inspired by it myself!
Sam ~ Drunkenly Sinister - I like that! I'm learning a bit more about skin tones and shading on this one. the color on his fingers right now seems like a"Glen Bar" Green to me.

Finally getting some rough work on the mug.

But after looking at the painting thus far. I was going to make the mug a warm green, but it might be better if it was a red orange like the tiki behind him. Pull the warm colors out, and make it pop out of the cool blue background more. Whatcha' think?

Mahalo fer gawking through the VOG at the art.

I think it is looking stellar! WOW. Gotta say, I love when you and other artists show works in progress. Amazing as always man.

On 2008-03-30 10:42, Tiki Shark Art wrote:

But after looking at the painting thus far. I was going to make the mug a warm green, but it might be better if it was a red orange like the tiki behind him. Pull the warm colors out, and make it pop out of the cool blue background more. Whatcha' think?

How about both? I've always loved the contrast glaze on these vintage Toby mugs:


(from Tiki-Kate's collection)

Bela is looking really nice now Brad - I like the organic way he's developed, and I can see the delays have helped you clarify your vision. I wish I could just change stuff round like that with my carvings!

Hey Brad!
go with the Toby Glaze!
it'll bring it forward and out of the painting!
Bela's face turned out beautious....dash of green in there!!
You just get better and better every piece!!!
Looks like the Finish line is not too far!
during your musings, have you thought of what's next ?

Aloha~
Kahu ~ Thanks! If you like in progress stuff showing the mistakes and all, you'll love today's posting! Hey, so Kahu, that's Hawaiian. It's Hawaiian for...( I'll look it up here in the handy dandy Hawaiian / English dictionary) let's see, KAHU: Honored attendant, guardian, nurse, keeper, or ... one who owns a dog or a cat, or any pet. So, which one is it?
Paipo ~ Mahalo. Wow, that Toby glaze is beautiful! The fanciest mug in my collection is my super cool RUZIC hand painted mug. And speaking of Ken...
Ken ~ Thanks, thanks, but I dunno if I'm up to getting a complex glaze like that right. and I DID start the next painting! I did a KEN! I'm actually working on two at once! More on that one later... now for today's screw ups... er, I mean artistic learning opportunity.

So, being the obsessive artist that I am, I was flipping the image back and forth in Photoshop, and something about it was bothering me. Then, I finally noticed the eyes were at WAY different levels. I mean WAY off. I figured if the left eye was a little bit lower, it would be because of the roundness of the head, but not THIS low.

Okay, soooo it's an easy cut and paste fix in photoshop, but that doesn't fix the original painting. I figured I could do a lot of repainting, or I could think of a cleaver way to fix it. Like...
1.) Paint a big eye patch on him and make him a pirate.
2.) Paint on a big pair of dark sunglasses.
or
3.) Say it's not Bela Lugosi, but actually Quasimodo.
Hmmm, so much for clever fixes.
So...

On

with

the

repainting!

Almost got his new eye worked in. He's looking a bit better. Well, a bit less freaky anyways. Not really sure if he's a dead ringer for Bela Lugosi, but not sure if that's even important to me anymore. Roughing in the mug.

I'm thinking about the glaze.

Laters!

no flaws no flaws. Everything is looking right and it all has the same look in detail. Glad you fixed the forehead. The wrinkles running off the side of the head did bother me. I guess I should have said something? Maybe just the teeth are too white box with black line border but can't help with a fix or no fix. Great looking painting. How about a whole shot cause its been awhile. Later. Nevermind about the teeth, not really a focus anyways.

[ Edited by: teaKEY 2008-04-02 08:54 ]

Whoa Brad!
Perfect Fix em up!
the previous eyewas cool-but the new one was the best call!
looking soooooo good!
i KNEW you had another painting waiting behind the curtain!
Give it up!
sneak peek!
Really liking the lower right you got going with the hand and maw.....
Stoked that you're getting more brush-slinging time recently!

Aloha~
Teakey ~ Thank you for the comments. I always consider what the art collective here on TC has to say.

Here's a wide shot.

Here's a closer shot of some work I got in late last night. Of course, now that I've carefully repainted the eye on the left, I've noticed that the eye on the right is off center of it's iris. Doh!

LLT ~ Okay, here's a sneak at the sketch for #14.

No people this time! The only thing I've done to the canvas so far is buy it and tone it with Raw Umber.

Laters~

Hey Shark,

Love the look of that Bela piece. And the starting sketch of the new one is going to fun to see develop.

And as far as what Kahu means, well I would like to give you a good answer, though it has been a year plus since I signed up here, I do think it had something to do with being a guardian, in some way it will sound sappy even fake to others, but we are all Kahu, the guardians of tiki.

Kahu ~ Gaurdians of Tiki. I like it!

Here's a study for the tiki in #14. Ink and pencil.

Mahalo~

Man, I can just imagine that with a gorgeous iridescent aqua flame coming from the glowing/reflective water, and a sunset that ranges from almost black purple (with stars poking through) down through pink and a teensy bit of orange lingering on the horizon :D :D :D

Stoked you're multi-tasking on the pieces!
That way the inspiration is always there
deprnding on your mindset.....
love how you develop these with a pencil-then a tighter drawing
then BLINGBLANGBLONG! the painting!
this guardian one kind of re-examines your early mystic tiki work
but with all of the talent and experience you've gained from the recent
more ambitious pieces!
Sometimes an environment can carry the message/narrative
and no people are necessary....
sometimes what they leave behind
tells a story in itself...
Now hurry up with Bela
and quit gettin so obsessive/compulsive with the minor details! :lol:

That tiki #14 is buff! Look at those arms and abs on that guy! You'd think he wouldn't have so many chins being that in-shape.

Brad, great sketches. I'm glad that you fixed the eye on your Bella, I didn't notice the problem until you changed it. However it made the painting work a lot more. And thanks for commenting on the Mrs.' Zombie Painting, we really appreciate it.

Hewey~ Flame, Check. Glowing reflective water, check. Sunset going from Black purple to pink and orange, check. Boy, you know my color pallet pretty well! Thanks!
LLTYep, multitasking! "the environment... Sometimes it's what they leave behind." That's soo cool!
Grog He's all built up from lifting Mai Tais!
Frostiki~ glad you dig the eye fix. Yep, I'm digging the Zombie painting!

Here's the canvas with the image roughed in. It's 12" x 30"

Aloha~

Tiki Shark

http://www.tikishark.com
http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2008-04-05 22:22 ]

What happened to the hut?

Hewey,

Yeah, I know. The canvas is a lot less wide then my sketch. It didn't have room for the hut.

Aloha

Roughing in da mug.
Mahalo

ALOHA~

More on da' mug!
Mahalo from the VOGGY volcanic big Island!

My neighbor was up at the volcano this last week end, and he said they reported very high amounts of Sulfur Dioxide venting. Huge amounts. Only equal to when the latest eruption started back in the 80's. Luckily, the Kona winds are blowing today, so Kailua isn't totally socked in with VOG.

Wow, this mus be the only and most extensive coverage of a Tiki artist's work ever. If you do a book, reserve me a copy. Beyond awesome.

Man even at the impressive (but not to imply unreasonable) price this painting probably will fetch, based upon the amount of time you've put into it you're probably not making minimum wage. Being a perfectionist is leave you homeless dude! You're gonna have to move into a convent and end up cutting off your own ear due to insanity (or was that someone else?)

The mug looks really cool!

[ Edited by: Flat Black 2008-04-09 07:21 ]

Hey Brad- Your detail is impeccable! That mug could be it's own painting.

Aloha~
Rob ~ Okee Dokee, I'm reserving one for you right now! (heh heh) Well, who knows? Could happen.
Surf Tiki ~ Thanks, but you're so right. This is not about making a fast buck by any stretch of the imagination. This is OCD tiki art. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure "Why" I'm doing it, or even "How" I'm doing it, all I know is that I HAVE to do it.
Flat Black ~ Thanks! Wait til it's done!
Sam! ~ Big Mahalo buddy! Yeah, I want this mug to look so freaky 3-D that you could grab it off the canvas.

Here's the latest on the Wood Cuts.
#3 "Fern Twilight".

First rough idea.

Got a certain Don the Beach Comber look going I think.

Or maybe that's Fluid Floyd from Don Tiki.

I'm pushing Earl to put color into this wood cut. He's never done a color wood cut in his whole life, so this is gonna be a learnign experience for us both. So, it'll be some plates of an orange to red sunset behind the fern tree and the tiki Lounge dude. Then some blue shades on the under lighting on the figure, the fern tree, and the Big Tiki.

I transferred it to the board, and will start inking tomorrow.

Mahalo~

Tiki Shark

http://www.tikishark.com
http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2008-04-09 22:56 ]

The new wood cut is shaping up nice. Really pleased with my print of the first design, keep them coming.