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

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ALOHA Tiki Tribe.
OK.
I, Tiki-Shark, have created the "Shark-Tiki" Tiki-Mug:

This is it.
It had to happen sooner or later. I just wasn't sure I was a good enough designer yet. But it just about flew out of my hands, like I was watching someone else draw it's pencil designs. It's really magical when That happens, and very rare. Once I figured that I could try putting shark teeth in a Tiki's mouth, the whole design just fell together. The final touch was the small shark aumakua swimming around it's base. Most things I design I have to fight with to get them to come out looking like I want, but this knew what it was right from the start! I just watched it appear on the paper! Big ALOHA, and mahalo - B Tiki-Shark P

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-21 01:11 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Just got in a new batch of beautiful gallery wrapped giclee on canvas art prints - same size as the originals - really came out nice.I'm signing and numbering them, getting 'em ready to be shipped out. JEEPERS CREEPERS, I'm still in shock, and I am just so FREAKING grateful that my printer is not moving off island!! ...I was scared he was for the whole last year! He was actually in the process of moving! ...when finally the tiki gods or fate or what ever stepped in and now he's staying on the Big Island, and saved my butt! His work is some of the best around, and not just in Hawaii - Curators of galleries in LA have told me his giclees are the best they have ever seen. So check 'em out at http://www.mahalotiki.com Thanks, and BIG ALOHA!

Aloha Tiki Tribe - still working on the Tiki Mug's "ugly mug". I'm working on the Bela Lugosi dramatic lighting across his eye kinda thing...

Aloha - Working on the mega surreal tiki lounge... ... closer on dat mug! More to come - ALOHA!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-22 05:30 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Here is the latest brush slapping on canvas of my newest painting. It doesn't really have a name yet .. so the working title is "Surreal Tiki Lounge". Right now I'm working on getting the tiki Mug to look a little like Bela Lugosi, while the zombie holding the drink up is based on the awesome looks of one of my Artist heroes, Crazy Al Evans from Tiki mania. Got lots more to do... ALOHA! Tiki-Shark

Aloha Tiki Tribe! I found this really nice, short, video (do people still call them videos even though no one uses actual video tape any more?" ...it's of the Father of Low-Brow Art; Robert Williams, talking about how the whole "low-Brow Art" (Pop-Surrealistic) Movement started out. Cool stuff! Father of "Low-Brow" givin' the Low-Down on da' Low-Brow!!!! Dig it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmqrIp5Jtlo&list=PL6FAA9CDF37B7BB31


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-23 22:55 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Something was not right with this painting. I just wasn't GROKing with what was going on in the lower front, while I really loved the rest of it. So I painted out the parts I didn't like and am now gonna sketch somethings that may I want to put in, or leave it empty, or my only fill out the flora.

That scared me Brad!

Listen to that instinct,Brad!
looking SO Incredible so far!
Have you got a white pastel pencil? those are great for sketching onto the painted surface
((if you need to rework that left bottom side)
and they wipe off with water and a rag!
Easy-Peasy!
:)

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Thanks LLT! U RAWK! Here's a new sketch of the Low-Brow Tropical Orchid. I was not sure I was digging it in the painting, but I recalled when I put teeth in my last Tiki Mug design,. IT all worked for me, -so I put some little fangs in the flower and it works for me now as a flower worthy to be in a pop-surreal painting. Let's see how it comes out on the canvas...

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Well, LLT, I just repainted the thing with a brush of red paint... I'll figure out what, if anything goes there after some more sketching... I will just paint over the paint when I decide I guess. Here's the repaint... Here's the new surreal-killer flower... more to come! ALOHA!

Looking good! You are using a technique I don't think I have seen you use before: using heavy lines to differentiate the areas that you are painting (which looks sort of like pen & ink at this stage). Is this new, or did I just not grock your use of it before?

Really like the crazy bizarre new flower! :)

tigertail777 ~ Thank you for the kind words. Aloha Tiki Tribe! We went out last night to the local Wyland Gallery (which carries my work) to see Wyland paint live. Always a fun time. We picked up the girls over at the Royal Kona Resort, and headed out... while we were at the event some tiki tribe folks came up were buying some of my work, and placing their pre-orders for the tiki mugs with the gallery, and so we talked about my tiki art, and I signed some tiki-swag, always a treat! a few drops of rain turned into a Hawaiian down pour... so after the gallery he drove north to clear skies and had drinks at the Lava Lounge at the 4 Seasons. Beautiful Hawaiian night... I think a big storm is coming, so the wind was coming up, the waves were getting big, very beautiful.







[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-07-28 12:08 ]

tigertail777 - OK, now that I got the photos down before my computer crashed, I can talk art. I was putting down some dark out lines to revitalize the old pencil sketch on the canvas. It was fading a little because I had taken a break from that piece to finish a commission. I had also just gotten and am being inspired by the last issue of HI Fructose magazine. Their piece on low-brow artist "McChess" aka Matthieu Bessudo really got me going. Love his B& W work, so I was in that kinda mood. I think, it'll all end up looking more like my regular stuff after it gets fully painted...but who knows, each canvas is a lesson and I'm always learning how to paint it seems! ALOHA!

Aloha Tiki Tribe -
Wow this shot of Lisa came out great, I had to show it to ya'. [
img]https://tikicentral.com/uploads/5514/51f4742d.jpg[/img]


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-28 12:09 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
I worked on the Killer orchid last night. Putting down the underpainting.
Here's a look.

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-28 12:14 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Here's the current painting in progress "The RED TIKI LOUNGE".

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-07-28 14:32 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
We went for a nice Sunday drive to enjoy the beautiful weather before Tropical Storm "FLOSSIE" hit's da' island!
Tropical Storm Location: 19.9N 148.5W
ABOUT 430 MI...690 KM E OF HILO HAWAII
ABOUT 615 MI...990 KM E OF HONOLULU HAWAII


ALOHA!


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-28 14:34 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So, next on the list of art projects is a b&W image for a tee shirt for the Body Glove 60th Anniversary /Tiki-Mug release party in October.
It's gonna be the Body Glove Sea -Creature. So It was so frickin' hot and humid in my art studio I couldn't really get much done till the
sun went down and things started to cool off. Of course now, there's a flying cockroach Hawaiian luau going on in my art studio... sheesh!
Must be the heat. Make all the bugs go crazy or something! Or is it that impending tropical storm everyone keeps talking about, just off
the coast? Well, sorry for the rant. Anyways, here the drawings in pencil so far,The first sketches are the two I did a while ago for the
painting.






I may take a break and go into the one room we got in the house that has AC. Watch some tube... then come back.
ALOHA!

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-07-29 00:06 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
So while tropical storm FLOSIE rages out side, I'm working on a B&W design for the
tee shirt for the Body Glove Tiki-Mug release party.


Here's a "BEFORE FLOSSIE" and "DURING" shot. Just some rain so far, nothing 2 bad.

ALOHA!

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-07-30 01:06 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!~
A bit more done on the B&W art for the tee shirt. It's actually a little complex, and I will make it
a little more simple by use of a strong light source and think of it all in terms of black shadows
and white highlights. That should help a bit. I want the image to "read" right away.
Thanks for watching!
ALOHA!


[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-30 01:14 ]

Dig it Brad! Looking good! Will this be line art, or halftone shading? Either way I know it will rock! :)

KK

This is going to make one Bad Ass t-Shirt Brad, but then I think everything you create is Bad Ass. Cant wait to get the mugs, towel, and now t-shirt in Oct. at the Body Glove party, this Im sure is going to be my best trip to Hawaii yet!

Thanks Everybody!
This is going to be just line art, no grey tones.
Like the wood cuts.... I really had fun doing that style, and it has a common link to some popular wood cut
art from Hawaii made back in the day. So, it's sort of a riff on that style, yet very low-brow. Here's the
finished Pencil work. Next I"ll pull out the brush and ink it. Wish me luck - I once was inking a very complex
drawing and at about 3/4 done, spilled ink all across it! EEK!.

I'm pretty happy with it, it looks a lot like the painting, yet the tikis look more like the mugs than the original
tiki designs, which I think kinda' makes them better looking. Here;s the ad with the original painting as ref:

And here's the mugs:

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-07-31 00:25 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-31 00:26 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Here's the first inking on the drawing. For those of you who just walked into the movie, this B & W drawing will be for a Tee shirt for the big Body Glove 60th Anniversary / Sea Creature Tiki-Mug Party in October held here in Kailua-0Kona Hawaii at the Royal Kona Resort, and the Wyland Art Gallery. Long story. Started with a short surf film entered into a contest made by my buddy Greg Browning (Body Glove pro surfer now movie director). His Entry was a surf/monster movie - it won first place! He showed the 7 minute short to me, and got me inspired to paint a low-brow tiki-art painting of the sea-creature. While I did that, Tiki Farm asked if I would design a 3 mug set. So I took 3 element from the painting and made them into 3 tiki-mugs. They came out really great! So, my agent arranged a TikiMug release party. The party kept getting bigger, till it turned into a Body Glove 60 year anniversary / Sea-Creature tiki-Mug release event, one day at the Royal Kona Resort, the next day at the Wyland Kona Oceanfront Gallery. The owners of Body Glove are coming to sign posters, prints, tee shirts, Tiki-Mugs..Plus the Sea Creature (the guy in da' suit) will also be there. October 24th and 25th. The local radio stations are gonna run promos for it, and broadcast live from the Royal Kona Event. The Mayor of the Big island may even show up. So, anyways, somewhere we decided we needed a Tee shirt to sell along with the limited edition Tiki-Mugs (which the gallery is taking pre-orders on, and quickly selling out of ). You can see more info on this event over in Tiki Central Tiki-Events (non LA events). So....back to the Tee Shirts...heres the pencil drawing starting to get inked.


Here's the Ad with the Original low-brow Tiki-Art painting of the Sea Creature.
,
and here's da' swanky Tiki-Mug set.

You can order tiki-Mugs over in the TC market place.

ALOHA!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-07-31 03:25 ]

Aloha tiki Tribe!
Family here for a visit. Showed off Kona - and the Wyland gallery.
Last time my sister and Brother-law-law where here I wasn't in a gallery, much less the whole front window. (sigh)
Big thanks to the tiki gods and the kind folks at the Wyland Kona Ocean Front gallery.
Was a good day!





Here's FIRST LOOK at a new Beach towel!

Got to show off my stuff in the big stores too..

and got to show off my fav beach too! more tomorrow... ALOHA!


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-08-01 22:38 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Got something cool in the mail today. The $1000 prototype for the new Body Glove Sea-Creature Beach Towel.
What do you think? It's pretty close to the original painting. Very Tiki/Low-Brow.
I'm still jazzed it's actually gonna' get made and be out in the world... (!)
ALOHA!







Watch this place, or my blog on Tiki Market place, or http://www.mahalotiki.com for when it's ready for public purchasing!


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-01 22:56 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe - more inking....

HAPPY ALOHA FRIDAY - Tiki Tribe!

















falling mangoes???

Great photos and fun as always. :)

BT

That sign has to be a typo, it should say:

"Stand here, falling mangos". Who doesn't want a fresh mango?

Sometimes I wonder if islanders take that for granted.

KK

Cool hammerhead shark pic!

Aloha Tiki Tribe! Thanks, It's always fun to go round the island and play tourist... I'll always be a tiki tourist in my heart no matter how long I live here... this island is amazing. Each time you see something new and beautiful. I had some photos of me wrasseling the Hammer head shark, but I chose not to post those, cause of the Humane Society asked me not to.... (snicker) OK tour guide done for today - now in studio making some art. I gotta' finish my b&W Sea Creature Tee Shirt design!

Aloha Tiki Tribe. When I was playing tour guide to some family visiting the B.I. I took them to see one of my favorite tikis.

G
GROG posted on Sun, Aug 4, 2013 2:07 AM

Hey! What's with all the personal pictures? This ain't no Facebook, Sharkboy!! Make with artwork posting or GROG gonna have to come kick your butt!!

Jus showing a little of the inspiration of my environment... you know like when I show all the weird stuff in my studio... and I got family on da' island visiting so I gotta play tour guide... but, this IS n' ART blog-thingie, sooooooo.... I will post the art I am working on tonight.... I will...

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-04 03:55 ]

... of course GROG, if you were gonna' whomp on me, first you'd have to catch me!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-04 05:33 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe!
Okay got some ART to look at! (Yipee!)



Thanks for waiting, wading through my travel log...for all your support and ALOHA! B~


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: tiki shark art 2013-08-04 05:32 ]

E

That's incredible! I know it's for a t-shirt, but will there be prints of that sweet ink job? It's too good not to have.

Elgarbo - Wow, thank you! I was trying to make it as good as the wood cut prints. Perhaps if I could, or any one could, get ahold of Earl Washington, we could do a run of vintage wood block prints! That would be cool. But, I lost contact with the mighty Earl Washington, he was somewhere tween Kansas and Florida...then no word. Right now, I'm focusing on getting tee shirts made in time for the October show... I will certainly think about it... we shall see... Thanks again!

ALOHA TIKI TRIBE!

So this is the ink drawing for the tee shirt. I gotta do a little clean up, and darken in some areas, clean up some others, make it camera perfect for the tee shirt screen.
So, I may post another shot of a Close up of that. But, don't worry I wont post any more personal travel log photos...

except maybe this one:

Hey, dig my new Hat!
ALOHA!


Brad (Tiki Shark) Parker
"Brad Parker creates lurid paintings that pull in influences from tiki, comics, and rock."

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-04 19:31 ]

Aloha Tiki Tribe. This is the B&W version of the full color acrylic painting of the "Body Glove Sea Creature". Its going on a tee shirt. The "Sea Creature" came from pro-surf now Film maker Greg Browning's award winning film "The Disappearance" you can see that short film here: http://www.bodyglove.com/campaigns/the-disappearance/?mwrc_session_code=SDaeAzPyhH7V6IjTf8qO

ALOHA!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-05 13:11 ]

KK

I second that, you need to make prints of the this! Just Do It Brad!

Kai Koa - well thanks so much for the kind wishes... I dunno if I can generate the $ to create tee shirts AND b & W prints... I think I would need to do them as cool wood block prints... and until I get ahold of some one who can create wood block prints, I don't have any plans to make them as prints. However, my agent and I went to the local tee shirt biz here in Kona, and they have some really cool ideas for the tee shirts. It will be very cool, I hope. Hey, speaking of new products & stuff... theres gonna be a sneak peak at the possible Body Glove Sea Creature Skate Board up next... oh, here it is! It would look cool mounted on da' wall of your home tiki-Bar!

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-07 18:42 ]

I love your Ink work, Brad....

Thanks!
We met with the local tee shirt company today. We had a good choice of colors. Hemp, tie-dye, black, and day glow (which is big with the kids we were told) Here is the final B&W design. They asked if we wanted any words on the illo (which will go on the back - the Body Glove logo will go on the front chest) - so... yeah, we thought we needed a few words...

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2013-08-07 18:25 ]

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