Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hope you had a pleasant New Year! I also had a birthday in there, so the past month has been one of many festivities. These pics are from work done at the end of December. I have a series of appointments starting this week, so I hope to have more regular updates for at least a little while. The bottom edge of my left sleeve is now starting to take shape. I'm glad he's starting with the shading on my arm as the imbalance between and the left and right sides of my body is particularly noticeable there.
One of my Christmas gifts this year was a copy of "Under Way Is The Only Way" by Grime and Horitaka, which I previously mentioned here. I found the book very good and I'd definitely recommend it. Aside from the great pictures, there are interviews with each artist that are in-depth and go a long way towards exposing a more personal side of the artists. I learned a lot of interesting things about Horizakura in there. Funny that after years of regular appointments I hardly know the guy, but I guess that's not too surprising considering neither one of us is very chatty. (Plus I always thought it was a bit rude to talk his ear off while he's trying to work).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike

Glad its coming along again. I'm about 20-30 hours behind you, and have most of the left side and back done, to give you an image. You don't have to post this on the blog but in regards to your previous entry about being a freakshow on the beach, I thought I'd share a funny story. I went scuba diving in Bali on a secluded beach and there were 6 balinese guys with shoulder/arm bali-style tattoos hanging out, with their shirts off, looking tough. When I took my shirt off one guy came over with his eyes wide. He started lightly touching my back to try to rub it off, obviously not believing someone would have that much black under their skin. Shortly, all 6 guys were behind me muttering and poking at my back, still incredulous that it wasn't paint. My GF speaks the language a bit and she answered their question that, yes its real. After which they all promptly pulled their shirts on and sat back down on their log. Not that its a competition, but it was amusing to have 6 Balinese guys poking me in the back, slack jawed. Shinji's work certainly leaves an impact.

all the best,

Anonymous said...

Greetings and Happy New Year Mike,
Wonderful to see your work progressing again.
I have been fortunate to have a significant amount of work completed on my suit as well.
The image and design of Oniwaka's battle is outstanding and very dynamic.
The wind bars are almost complete and we believe that the final section over my shoulders can be completed in our next appointment.
I'm looking forward to it for it will finally visually connect my sleeves to the back piece.
From there, well we still have a ways to go, but after all it's really a great lesson in patience in the end.
All the best,

Dmitri

Then it's on to the water shading.

Petri said...

The new stuff is looking great. I hope I can some day get the Underway book. And ton of other ones. And to get tattooed. Oh, how I would love to get tattooed...

Question. How have to people in your work reacted when you have tattoos in the arms now?

Mike Crash said...

Pyrrhus - I still wear long sleeves at work, so most folks don't know about the tattoo still..