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

Your best Tiki painting yet, Brad. Congratulations, it really is AWESOME! And thanks for sharing the steps you took in creating this gem.

GROG want!!!!(You can paint another one for the other guy, just tell him you got delayed.)

Awesome!

Was just looking at a bunch of Ghost Sites and to the tiki's right side, looks like all sorts of paranormal going down!

Fed the eels yet?

Out of Control!
Even without the bubbles...simply Breathtaking! Cannot wait for the next one! This one's a 5 footer right? :wink:

Frilled Shark or Sea Eel/Snake?
I love it when they discover prehistoric animals still swimming around! Ahh, the nysterious deep! Heath, how cool! Thanks!

....must kill GROG and move up in the rank and file to steal THEE TIKI ART...me want too!!!

I love the angry fish in the middle of the painting on the outer ring of the Lei. He's Cool.

holy sn-eel batman. That thing turned out great, I love the sn-eel now that I've conquered my fear. The fish lei is great too. I saw that frill shark on the news thismorning and I thought of the painting. Odd how all of us thought the same thing. Keep up the good work.

Once again....... WOW! Can't believe how far you took the painting with transparent overlays..... the dynamic color of the sneel, the dramatic lighting of the tiki himself, and the shadowing in the coins. I think the background depth of the painting ie. shipwreck and hammerhead is extremely convincing, now that you artistically concealed the foreground items with dramatic lighting, I agree this is one of the best - although all your paintings are inspiring and beautiful. Keep up the good work - can't wait for the next. Thanks for the step by step progression, it is enlightening.
Jon Mooers

Ah HELL yes! Now that is a superb painting, great color, precise details....NICE!

Yeh man, definitely up there with your best. LOVE IT :)

Wheres the next one already? :) :) :) Whatchya doin for the next one?

Beautiful painting! Would make a great print!..... Hint....Hint.

Ooo, a print! Yes, a print! This is one of the most gorgeous things i've seen. I'm with the others who WANT this! I love your work! But then, who doesn't? :)

Grog -Thanks, But, the Scuba diver (Tiki Don) is back and knows it's done. He's been watching on TC too! Keep watching , I know you'll get one if you really want it!, Rev Bam Boo Ben - Paranormal! Yeah, now that you mention it, there's all kinds of creepy faces in there. (And I thought I was subliminally putting in phallus's!), LLT - I know buddy, it's non-carbonated!, Vampy -now now let's play nice! , Bora Boris - Yeah, he does look mad about that eel!, frostiki -It was like immersion therapy, you looked at that eel for weeks till it didn't bother you anymore!, JPmartdog - Thanks for the kind words!, Sneakytiki - Mahalo!, Hewey - thanks! the next one...hmmm..., Tiki-Tonga - Thanks! a print. Yes, I think this one could be the first art print., Joontiki - Wow, thanks! Okay, a print. I talked to local art gallery folks, and they told me of a guy who makes fine art prints here on the Big Island. So, I don't have to send off to Maui or LA to get them done. Cool, saves some cash! So, here's a question. How much do you think I should charge for a fine art print? $100.00? What size? I have to figure out how much to spend on getting them created, what size, an all that. Never done this before... so what would you pay?

Ken urged me to sketch while I was all hopped up on cold medicine. So I sketched up this weird tiki-fever-dream............

So, it's a wahine sitting in a tree in front of a volcano being served a smoking tropical drink by a "Robby the Robot" looking tiki, that is delivering it from a Tiki Lounge, that is actually an abandoned science lab harboring an alien brain that wouldn't die, (ala "Donavon's Brain") with a giant moai carved into the mountain behind it. (My my, that cold medicine WAS good stuff!)

Don't know if that's actually my next painting, seems a bit crowded... but I do like the "Robby the tiki" waiter w/the wild drink. Perhaps I'll re-sketch it.
Thanks everyone, that's all from this Tiki Shark fer now...
Aloha from the Big Island!

Wow! Go with this concept Shark. (me really likes the Wahine being served up by KuRobbie idea)

Props don't do justice here sir.

Mahalo

McTiki

Hey TC,
so I'm doing a Tiki Tattoo design. Here's the first Rough

Three tikis....
But then I was told the three tikis are to represent this guy's family : wife, Daughter and son. So...

Here's the second rough.
Aloha, I'm off to gesso the next canvas...

Man that sketch is wild! Great idea :) Love seeing these babies roll out :)

Amazing Shark. Where do you get it from? I wish I had 1% of this imagination to draw from.

mahalo

McTiki

Brad!
Robo-Trippin Fever Dreams! (was it the DM-daytime medicine?-that's the best!) Your Robo-Tiki sketch is off the top! It's like a Todd Schorr meets Flounder meets Brueghal and Bosch with Dali art-directing! Make that sketch into the HUGE painting (6x6 footer) you promised you'd do! that way you can work on the smaller pieces and take your time on this involved piece! Rock on wit yo bad self! More phalluses! :lol:

Subliminal phalluses? Ok, i was so mesmerized by the rest of this painting that i failed to notice the subliminal phalluses. Maybe because they were subliminal? :P Ok, now i REALLY have to have that print! Gotta have the phalluses!

Price-wise, it depends on how big this print is. I'm hoping not too big (there's only so much room on one's wall), but i'd pay $100. Whatever you feel will be a fair price is fair by me.

Hey TC,
McTiki - Thanks, I think you're right. I like the idea of a tiki/robby serving a mysterious Wahine too. I think that will be mystic tiki #11
Hewey - Thanks, the strangeness of it is growing on me too. Would it be too much if Godzilla was playing a ukuklele off the coast? Hmm.... maybe that's mystic tiki #12.
LLT - Ken, thanks again for the tip about the cold med. It was sudafed I think.
Joontiki - Yeah, they are paranormal aquatic phallus's! Wow, thanks! I did talk to the fine art print guy up north. He's getting a photo of #9 for reproduction. I looked as his work, and it's good. I think I'm going to go with a 16" x 20" (full size), limited edition Giclee, on a heavy water color paper that's been treated to keep really dark blacks and saturated blues. Should be really true to the actual image. I looked all over the web at what other artists are offering prints for, and it's all over the place! . $20 to $2,000! Giclee's are usually a couple hundred to several hundred, so at $100 I think I'm in the ball park, but not out of reach, I hope. What do ya think?
So, on to Mystic Tiki #10. It's another commission. 30" x 20" Here's the sketch... it's a bit strange.

It's called the tourist. There's a joke in there... somewhere...
Aloha from the Big Island!

Mine!

Grog....he said "commision". You can't have this one either!

TSA, I really enjoyed looking at your new drawings (and old one's). Your drawing skills and imagination really floor me. Top notch!

Interesting! Is the puppy a scout for the cruise liner? Did the puppy and tiki take over the native village and eat everyone, and are now planning their attack on the cruise liner? How big is the ships keel - it looks very top heavy! Where are the bubbles?

Hey Tiki Shark- What cool and beautiful drawings! You have a great style even with the sketches... Sometimes my rough sketches are just that - very rough! These here are art pieces in themselves....

On 2007-01-29 22:36, Tiki Shark Art wrote:
I did talk to the fine art print guy up north. He's getting a photo of #9 for reproduction.

Remarkably good news!

You suck and I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I don't care if you got me over my fear of the dreaded sn-eel. I want drawing lessons, but I hate you. I'm going to cry myself in to a coma while looking at website code now. Did I mention you suck.

visit us at http://www.frostiki.com

[ Edited by: frostiki 2007-01-31 11:25 ]

Wow incredible sketches! great style from the very beginning, congrats!!

WOW Shark..can you teach me how to imagine such scenes so I can put it on paper??? Your paintings just keep gettin better.

Grog - I'm honored. (prints Will be available one day...)
Mctiki - Can you be my body guard and follow me around, and like push people out of the way and stuff? Cool!
Sneakytiki - Thank you!
Hewy - I not answering cause I've been told that a little bit of mystery is better than spelling things out. And becuase you mentioned the bubbles again.
Sam! Love your stuff! You art master you! I really like your web site too. Hypnotiki is awesome! my other fav is the Kona Club sign. I can't believe you finger paint!
Hodadhank - I'm glad to hear you think so. I'm a bit nervous - what if I don't sell enough to justify the cost? (worry worry)
Frostiki -Are you like bucking for grog's old job?
Clarita - Thank you!
Isle Conch - Weeeeellll, Ken said that when I was sick with this cold that I should take a bunch of cold medicine and sketch while I was all doped up. And it sort of worked! Go ahead kids, try it at home, it's fun!

So, here's the screwy start.
THE Transfer of the sketch to the canvas. Well, I always screw up getting the sketch on the canvas looking as good as the sketch on the paper. I've never figured out a good way to do this yet. I COULD do it the easy way buy a "Lucy" and be a good ILLUSTRATOR and just project the sketch onto the canvas and draw it on perfectly - but I'm sort of cheep and a few ARTIST friends who paint a lot told me "Hey, be an artist and Just free hand draw it on!"
Riiight...

So, now I'm getting all artsy and I decided I would try to be like Todd Schorr and "tone" my canvas with a "Wash" of Raw Sienna.
Of course, I screwed it by messing up the sketch I was trying to transfer to the "toned" canvas. First, Instead of sketching in pencil like I normally do, I tried sketing over the wash with a darker wash of Raw Umber. Problem, I messed up the brushy Raw Umber sketch. So I had to go back over my "tone Wash" with white gesso, then wait for that to dry, then "tone wash" it again. Then sketch it again.
Of course, I screwed it up again.

Man, I've drawn that stupid puppy twice, and gesso-ed over it twice (just not cute and Keen enough yet). Once over the "fire pit" (it was too high up). And twice over the tiki - (He was leaning - then I got the perspective on his face wrong) Now, I'm just working the tiki up with some of the Raw Umber mixed with white. Meaning I'm just sliding into the Raw Umber tonal under painting.

Do you think Todd Schorr goes through all this? Probably not. Actually I think Todd Schorr is so good now that he just farts and great art magically appears.

Thanks for wataching, and Aloha from the Big Island!

Tiki Shark

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-02-01 22:13 ]

TSA, I've always avoided the old projector trick as well, but with your detailed compositions, I dunno, I wouldn't blame you, although it's admirable that you freehand it again.

You're just getting used to the whole underpainting process, once you get it down it's not so bad. Sometimes it adds alot of depth to the painting as in when u leave xparent areas like in your underwater painting, if u paint all opaque, it's just a waste of paint, but of course you know that.

If I'm going to do an underpainting and want to do it right the 1st time (I'm lazy/impatient and usually don't underpaint), I'll use a vine charcoal stick to put in some basic outlines before painting in the outlines in earth tone so I don't underpaint all over the place and have to start over. If you make a mistake the charcoal blows or dusts off easier than the burnt umber, real easy, and the beauty of it (at least in oils) is that the burnt umber paint picks up the charcoal dust pretty imperceptibly, I think this works in acrylics too. If u left a pencil outline/mark in a xparent or xluscent area the pencil marks (graphite pencil) would show through rather than dissolving into the paint like charcoal does.

....Now I'll take my finger paints an give Picasso some advice on painting, lol!

TSA rocks the brush!
Sneaky

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-01 01:43 ]

I wasn't intentionally bucking for Grog's old job, but I'll take it. Admiration through sarcasm is the way for me, I figure I'll eventually wear you down to the point where you say OK, fine, enough already. Is it working?

Man, I really have to get off of my butt and start doing stuff again, instead of just saying I'm going to.

Mistakes are fine to make, just make sure you learn (and therefore improve) from them. As far as the projector vs. sketching - I dont think it matters much if you were to use a projector. You're only taking it off your own original image, its not like you're tracing a Shag figure or anything like that. Although I could just be saying that to minimise the time for each artwork so we get to see more...

Hey TC~
Wow, big storm hit Kona today. Rain Rain and more Rain! Wonderful,, all the windows wide open, Don Tiki on the stereo, and painting. But then, more guests arrived! It's all good. (as they say) But, I got about only half as much done as I wanted...
Sneakytiki -Vein charcoal, wow - you are a true artist. Perhaps I should try that.
Frostiki - Yeah, get to work! :)
Hewey - Projecting a Shag design, huh? Hmmm Maybe I WILL get a "Lucy"!

Thanks ~
Aloha from the Big wet Island!

SOLD! Ok, sign me up for one-a-them-there Sunken Tiki Prints! My email is [email protected]. Gimme a shout when you're ready for me to send you some moolah!

Thanks! I'll keep u posted on the whole print thing.

Here's today's -Looking messy. That cute puppy is weirding me out! Must make it even cuter so the joke works, I think. A bit interrupted, taking our house guests to see sea turtles lounging on the beach... rain this morning, but turned into a clear a beautiful day.
Aloha ~

On 2007-02-01 00:08, Tiki Shark Art wrote:
Do you think Todd Schorr goes through all this? Probably not. Actually I think Todd Schorr is so good now that he just farts and great art magically appears.

hahaha!! that made me laugh so hard! I swear, he really is just plain amazing, one of my favorite artists.

and of course, you kick so much ass! keep it up!

TSA,
I don't think your re-gesso-ing the tiki several times was such a bad deal, sometimes an extra millimeter of paint really helps a subject in the foreground of a painting 'pop' forward in a more powerful way, and so far it seems like this guys got a little extra 3D, in your face quality. This could be my imagination, but I've seen it before in paintings. Regardless of whether I'm smoking crack on that 3D issue or not, this painting looks really fun so far.

ST

Hala Kahiki- Thanks! Glad to know someone shares my warped sense of humor.
Sneakytiki- "Yeah, 3-D painting! I could build up glazes endlessly...
Hey, got my artist's proof for the Giclee for #9 (colors are dead on!) :) and I got #9 back.

Hpoing to put in some good hours this week.....
Aloha from the grey and overcast big Island.

Man!
What a clean Studio you have!!! Glad you're working bigger! Once you get this awesome piece finished you'll see how Size does Matter! Pow! Looking great so far-I kinda like the tonal version/underpainting! Gives it an Old Master's feel!!!! So, when are we gonna hear the story behind this new one?

any updates?

I miss my Sn-eel.

One thing keeps bugging me looking at these images, and really, looking at images of tiki from all sorts of areas, not just here: stop with the Ku.

I love your work and it's just incredible to see these pieces come together. But most especially in your medicated drawing where you have an alien brain, I thought, man, if any drawing needed those space alien Marquesan tikis in it, this does!

There are a lot of images out there. I'd like to see some variations. Maybe I am burnt out. I'd like to see a referendum to not allow any Moai or Ku images be created for a year.

Progress pics? GROG need GROG fix.

Are you painting or just sippin' mai tais on the beach? (Damn you!)

Swanky, would a Moai with a Ku headdress be pushing my luck? :wink:

On 2007-02-12 08:20, Swanky wrote:
There are a lot of images out there. I'd like to see some variations. Maybe I am burnt out. I'd like to see a referendum to not allow any Moai or Ku images be created for a year.

I love Ku's but I agree with you Swanky, on the Moai. I don't know how even the Rapa Nui didn't get bored with those.

Rapa Nui #1: Hey, I just carved another boring big head.
Rapa Nui #2: Yawn.

Hey everyone....this is my first post! I'm the SCUBA guy who commissioned and bought Tiki #9 aka the Sunken Tiki. The painting arrived here in Los Angeles last week and it looks amazing! Even more stunning that the photos here on the forum. I hope you'll all purchase the prints once they are available, or even better, commission your own painting! I'm actually considering commissioning a 2nd one as a birthday gift for someone.

Nice to hear TikiDon. Yer one lucky feller fer shur!

I hope TSA drops me a PM as soon as the prints are available.