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

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TIKI SHARK-
I love your work!!!!!
Some day I'll have the coin to purchase one of your fine pieces. I'm glad your diggin' our Surf Station. Glad your listening while creating these beautiful works of art. Please keep painting!
Be Well,
Ray Dukes

R

Wow, great start! I'm excited to see this finished!

The drawing tiki sketch is awesome too! :D

T

Some are faded but I think I'm sticking to 8.

hey TeaKs!
I think Brad,if anyone,knows how many tikis are in his painting!
But you get an A plus in math this sememster! :lol:
hey Brad! There's water soluble pencils you can use that you can paint over in acrylic and wipe off with a wet towel on the areas without paint! Try a light sand or gray one-they're the shizzle!
VROOM!

G
GROG posted on Wed, Aug 29, 2007 8:58 AM

Hey Teakmeister,

GROG believe #1 is sea god, Cthulu (not a tiki), and #7 is just a cliff side that had similar characteristcs to the Moai carved in the cliff next to it it so it didn't stand out as much. It looks like Brad made it look even less Moaiish in his final sketch.

GROG not sure if #2 qualifies as a tiki, it almost looks like an angry Honu. But, you can probably count the tiki swizzle in the mug as a tiki. It's hard to see since it's so small in the photos, but GROG figures it's probably a tiki swizzle.

Now if you want a REAL challenge counting tikis, try counting how many tikis are on Ruzic's mugs or on his mug prints. Just be sure to take breaks, drink plenty of water, and focus on something in the distance every fifteen minutes or so, otherwise it could cause brain hemmorhages and/or epileptic seizures.

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-08-29 08:59 ]

F

I can't count that high

you're incredible

Aloooooha Tiki Central~
MoondanceThanks so much, and thanks for playing the surf tunes!
Ravenne
Thank you, finished? Oh yeah, check back in two months... :)
teaKEYWell, you are looking real close, but did you notice I altered the sketch? And, when I transferred it to the canvas, I altered it again. I left the mug blank, because I'm totally redesigning it. I'll be doing some close up paper and pencil studies that I'll post.
LLT
Water soluble pencil? Wow, I gotta check that out! Thanks Tiki paintin' buddy!
GrogHmm, yeah, I'm going to make sure the 'cliff face' looks alot more Moai like when I get to painting it. Hey, I couldn't count all the tikis in a Ken Ruzic painting! Heck, I couldn't even get the number of water falls correct!
Frostiki
Yeah, it's started... zipping along... still fudging around with the sky...
tiki Duddy~ Mahalo! You're pretty great your-own-self!

So, I'm on the sunset. I got this thing going where I'm working up from dark shades to lightest shade. I'm hoping it will do much the same as the under painting.


Hey, if anyone's interested, I posted some info on the reproductions of "the Moon of Manakoora" that I'm doing over in the marketplace.

Mahalo from Kona!

H
hewey posted on Wed, Aug 29, 2007 8:59 PM

Woo-ee! Straight into colour! It will be interesting to see how you find it compared to the underpainting. :D

Aloha TC!
Hewey~Thanks, yeah, straight into the color! Layers and layers of color....I've still working on the farthest part of the sky, smoothing it out. Hiding brush strokes seems to be about using circular strokes, and many layers of semi transparent tones. And, like , always one more layer than you think you gotta slap down.


Getting pretty smoothed out. Sort of. Still have to create the transition tween the orange and the purple bit.

Hey! Did you see the Ad in Tiki Magazine for the art show? Now it's real! So guess I better quick goofing off and get this thing moving so it's done by November!

Hope everyone has nifty plans for the Labor Day Weekend. My plan is to get some painting done!

Mahalo!

Blend Blend Blend my Tiki Painter Friend!
This one is gonna be so AWESOME!!!!
I kin feel it! :D
And the best part is that we all get to see it in da flesh at the Bali Hai soon! :D
Blend Blend Blend...
Acrylic Flow medium might help,but it FEELS a little different from your approach-like brushing with syrup instead of water,kinda.....but the semi-transparent/watering down and blending of the acrylics is probably the approach that'll yield the Parker magic,as your hand is already used to doing it dat way! Looks like i might need to bring you an Artist Care Package in November so you won't have to hunt for these elusive materials on the islands! I hope you get the most of this weekend and just run yourself ragged with the Paint Fever!

Aloha TC~
Er.... I have come to the conclusion that I might be crazy. I painted the sky all day yesterday. Working, and shading, trying to get a better transition. Then, last night, I thought I hit on a cool looking technique. Reworked the painting that way. In the light of the studio last night it look interesting. However in day light this morning...er...I dunno. And, I'm no farther along! (ARRGH!)


It looks worse now. Right?
"Can you say Obsessive artist?"

Anyways.... perhaps today will be more productive!

AND... as if I didn't have enough to obsess over and go kooky... can someone go to my MY SPACE page and figure out the puzzle that Sea Jay posted on my comments? Please? I'm just not great at those things, but not knowing what it says is bugging me!

Big Aloha from the Island of misfit art-nuts!!!!!!!!!


Tiki Shark

http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-09-02 12:49 ]

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-09-02 12:50 ]

G
GROG posted on Sun, Sep 2, 2007 1:10 PM

Airbrush seems to blend pretty good.

Or working wet into wet.

J

Hiya Brad ... Happy Labor Day!
I like the size of this canvas!
I like everything about this painting!
Im watchin you!

J

On 2007-09-02 10:34, Tiki Shark Art wrote:
AND... as if I didn't have enough to obsess over and go kooky... can someone go to my MY SPACE page and figure out the puzzle that Sea Jay posted on my comments? Please? I'm just not great at those things, but not knowing what it says is bugging me!

"Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid. - Jules Feiffer"

ALOHA!
JPMARTDOGHey, thanks man! Howz the big picture coming along that You are doing?
GROGGY
Wet? Paint?! Wait a minute... I better research this! :) Actually, it helped thinking about your suggestion while I slapped the canvas. Dry shading, wet shading. I think I'm just starting to understand what these techniques really are.
JENTIKI~Ding! Ding! Ding! Yes, you've solved Sea Jay's puzzle! (Quite a poetic answer too, the ol' puzzle master must be getting all artistic in his old age!) And, thus you are the FIRST winner of the Tiki Shark/Sea Jay special secret puzzle contest! Your special secret prize will be mailed to you sometime this coming week. (Jentiki, please message me a mailing address for you, k?)

Okay-doekay. Here's the fruit of 8 hours of brush labor yesterday...

Hmmmmmm...

Yes Yes, MUCH better.

(??!!?!?!)

Hope you're having a grreeat laborious day!

Aloha from the Kona-side!

J

Yipeee!!! I didn't know I was gonna get a prize! :D :D :D

J

Jen - you are wicked lucky! You're gettin a prize from Hawaii! Damn!

R

On 2007-09-03 11:43, Tiki Shark Art wrote:

Yes Yes, MUCH better.

(??!!?!?!)

:lol: I don't mean to laugh at your slow deterioration of your sanity, but i3y5vgbrujdfs it looks good so far!

Don't start going crazy or you'll find yourself like poor'ole Jack.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

AH! IT BEGINS!

Aloha TC!

JentikiI should get it mailed out to you this week.
jpmartdog
Yeah, it's gonna be a great prize!.... as soon as I figure out what the special secret prize is! (I got a good idea, no worries!)
Ravenne~As long as I don't get snowed in here I think I'm safe. Taking those breaks down to the beach helps smooth the brain waves.
Sooooo here's da sky now.

Looking a little bit more like a sun set.

Well, at least a "Tiki Shark" sunset!

Back to the regular work week... hope u all had a nice labor day week end!
Aloha!

P
Paipo posted on Tue, Sep 4, 2007 2:05 PM

On 2007-09-02 10:34, Tiki Shark Art wrote:

"Can you say Obsessive artist?"

Is there any other sort? If you're not obsessive about your work you're probably in the wrong business! I kinda wish I could switch it off sometimes though...

Nice sky Brad!

Aloha TC!

Paipo~You are so right! I figure being a bit crazy and being an artist are sort of mutual requirements. One only works well in our society if you have the other to go along with it. And, thank god I can make art, cause otherwise I'm too weird to be employable for anything else!

Here's the first layer of the ocean. I think it's gonna be purple to green, with reflected surfaces showing the orange of the sunset.

Still not sure how hot to hit the edges of the clouds. I want it to be a gorgeous sunset, but not to fight too much with the objects that will be in the foreground. Sheesh, on my monitor that last pic looks like crap! It looks much smoother in person. Really. No really!

Thanks for watching!

Aloha~

Dig it, it's back! But only till I pack it up and ship it off to it's brand new home! (sniff!)

H
hewey posted on Wed, Sep 5, 2007 8:46 PM

That sunset looks great mate :D

Aloha TC~

Hewey, thanks. It's getting there. Here's the latest...

We got guests coming in for the next two days, so gotta vacate my art studio. More this week end.

Aloha from the Big Island!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
That sunset/sunrise is awesomely delicious! And the waves....it looks friggin real already!
:D :D Dude! this piece is gonna shine like turpentine at the TikiMag show! I can't wait to get
reeeeeeeeeeeal close to it and just examine your craftsmanship and hyper attention to detail!
So give us a rundown on wet blending/dry blending and where you used what....are the more solid opaquey blends the dry,and the soft cloudy areas the wet....and the water.....oh the lovely water! I've heard reports of UFO's ...actually USO's (Unidentified submerged objects) actually way down deep and sometimes surfacing,shooting thru the waves and BAM! disaapearing at hyperspeeds into the sunset! Boy! i would love to see that! I WOULD REALLY REALLY LOVE TO SEE SOMETHING LIKE THAT! especially in a tiki themed painting! :D Dude! Sad to hear about the guests! I hate breaks in the routine....real bummer! Your best bet is to keep on soaking up those
skies-storing them in your retartistic brain and readying them for other paintings! And eat lots of artistic fibre! Novembers comin fast! VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

J

I'll have to agree with Kinny :o The water is amazing! My eyes are having a little trouble focusing today and at one point, it looked like the water was actually moving! Weird, but cool! I'm looking forward to watching this whole piece come to life!

P
Paipo posted on Thu, Sep 6, 2007 1:15 PM

That's starting to look mighty spectacular already. Just like a West Coast sunset!
I'm liking the USO idea - I picture a tiki riding a tattooed shark with a laser beam on its head! The laser beam could be firing at another tiki riding a manta ray, which has missile pods under its wings! What do ya reckon Brad ? :lol:

G
GROG posted on Thu, Sep 6, 2007 1:49 PM

Envy/hatred growing.

ALOHA!
Paipo, Jentiki, Grog, LLT Hey thanks!
I had a few days off. During the Body Glove snorkel boat trip we took our guests on, we had a "close encounter" with what at first seemed a USO (unidentified submerged Object)! But turned out to be a giant manta ray! Sheesh, I didn't know those critters got THAT big.

So, here's the current brush slappings on da canvas!

Sloowly, oh so slowly is it starting to look like a forbidden Island.

Mahalo!

H
hewey posted on Sun, Sep 9, 2007 9:23 PM

That wave is looking great! And ooooh, there's a shark! :D How are you finding it without the underpainting?

R

Holy!

That sunset looks amazing! :D

Ahh, so cool man!

G
GROG posted on Mon, Sep 10, 2007 8:43 AM

Mine!

H

Love your step-by-step shots. It's cool to watch the masterpiece unfold. Like it, love it-show us more of it!!!!!!

Check out the big brain on Brad!

Another painting, already looks amazing, even without the underpainting!
The wave / shark looks amazing! Nice start!
Must be those Big Kahuna burgers! Mind if I have a taste of your tasty burger!

After all, anything I can do to help my art! BTW does your wallet have the initials B.M.F on it?

Aloha TC~
Hewey,Ravenne, Groggy, Howland, and Jpmartdog - thanks so much. It's been busy here at the ol' Tiki Shark Beach Towel ranch, and so not too much time fer painting. Much less munching down juicy Big Kahuna Burgers like a hit man. (Wow, watching that repeating clip made me have the munchies!)

But, I got some design done on the Tiki Mug that will be featured prominently in this painting. ( the one that's floating in the middle of it.)

It's a Cthulhu/Squid god tiki mug. However, I don't think I'm going to use it. At least not in this painting. It would be too much Squid God for this painting. Plus, I want the mug to be something extremely cute and happy. That way it will seem funnier that the evil alien Brain is serving it.

Mahalo!

R

:o! Ahhh! That mug design is so cute! make it happen! quick someone make this happen!

Awesome! :D!

Hey Brad- The painting is coming along great as I knew it would - underpainting or not... the quality of your work ranks up there with the old school pinup and movie poster artists from years ago - excellent quality.

Ditto what Sam said!
The Cthulu/Squid God Mug is kinda cute,in it's own way....you just got mug and Tiki designs pouring out of ya like water!!!!! Now hustle! 7 more weeks and I'mj expecting 2 masterpieces out of you before the show! :D VROOOOOOOOOOOM!

Oh boy, your mug sketch is great. I'm lovingthe wave with the shark in the paniting. Very cool

ALOHA TC!

Ravenne-Thanks you, I'm so glad you like the mug. Now, can the squid-elder-sea-god be cute? I was trying for a cute, and funny mug. but... I think I'm going for something more Tiki.
SAM!Thanks! I was really effected when, in 1975, I saw the Hildebrandt brother's "STAR WARS" movie poster. The old "Radiers" posters were amazing too. Funny how no one paints movie posters anymore. Now it's all photoshop.
LLT
OhhMyGosh! only 7 weeks! Where's that high fiber cereal???
Frostiki~Thanks, and I'm glad you like the mug too, but I am going to change it. But no worries, I think the next mug design will be even better.


Yeah, The canvas is so big I just taped the sketch and the color study up while I was painting the wave.

Working on the foam.

Oh, it's been busy here at Tiki Shark Central. Our new sales season is coming up for beach towels. So, I haven't had much time to paint. Gotta make it though! As a matter of fact yesterday was soooo crazy at work, I thought I was going to go, well, CRAZY. Just too many things all happening all at once. When you run a small business that happens, alot. (even when you're in someplace that supposed to be relaxing like Hawaii!)Anyways, right when I thought I was going to have heart palpitations, I switched on some exotica music. It's sweet tunes took me into a calm relaxing land of tiki lounges. And, as I was telling LLT, that really showed me how important Tiki culture is to modern man ( and woman). You have to have a mental escape or the modern world might over whelm you. And I think that is somthing that's at the heart of Tiki Culture.

(Made me kinda feel I was doing something important making tiki art!) :)

Mahalo ~

P
Paipo posted on Fri, Sep 14, 2007 3:56 PM

On 2007-09-13 11:38, Tiki Shark Art wrote:


Working on the foam.

Just beautiful. The illusion of depth/dimension on the sea behind that wave is quite staggering. The backlit shark is even better!

Wow, love this new painting Brad. They just keep getting more and more detailed with each one. The water in the distance looks so real and a sunset ref. pic taken right from your own back yard. Adds a personal touch to the piece. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Aloha TC~
PaipoThanks so much. I had to creep a shark in there somewhere! Hey, you ever done a shark carving? I'd love to see your interpretation of a shark-tiki. Or would that be tiki-shark? :) ( I still can't believe I missed buying your creature-tiki! I have to watch your thread more closely!)
Swampfire
I was a tad worried about the sea, but I'm glad you think it came out alright! Thanks!

So I think the wave is done.

I resketched the giant Moai.

...and roughed it in.

Aloha from the rainy Big Island!


Tiki Shark

http://www.myspace.com/Lotus_Land

[ Edited by: Tiki Shark Art 2007-09-15 11:44 ]

P
Paipo posted on Sat, Sep 15, 2007 3:40 PM

Funny you should ask...I have something planned, probably a series. I had a cool thrift shop find which will serve as inspiration for one of them. I'll give you a heads-up when it's actually underway. Oh, and the Creature was gone before I even carved him (commissioned) so there's no use kicking yourself over that!
Now, back to why we're here...I love that sketch. It really shows the nuts and bolts of how you visualise this stuff. I always like when I go to an exhibition and the artist has their sketchbooks and notes available to view, so you can see how the ideas develop.

Not only is the new painting (and wave in particular!) spectacular as usual...but that little sketch of the moai is incredible, Brad! I love your line quality and rendering in your drawings.....great stuff!

yeah! And now I'm your 60,000th viewer!

Love the moai sketch, love the shipwreck details and pirate treasure on the right side below 'Moai mountain' I'm Amazed how you weave color and detail into your base sketch so respectfully, maintaining even the most minute details of the sketch itself.

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