Archive for February, 2012

About a year ago I stopped making wallets. The wallets were always a fun thing to make on the side. Making paintings has always been my priority so I wanted to focus on that. Now I’m slowly bringing the wallets back, but this time they’re part of my main etsy shop as opposed to a separate shop. It gets hectic signing into the same site with multiple user names so this will help me out quite a bit.

There are currently 13 designs to choose from.
You can see them all right here.

Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

I don’t know if this is considered “upcycling” or “recycling”, but I do know that it’s better to make a fun artsy thing out of something that was headed to the landfill.

Viva la art nerd!

“I Painted A Paint Brush”
House paint and ink on used paint brush.
$40, plus shipping
To purchase please visit: my etsy shop.

From the end of handle to the bottom of the bristles is 9.5″. This is a 3″ wide brush.

This is a one of a kind, hand painted original.
This listing does not include the small red brush or the bottle of ink, sorry!

We recently painted some rooms in our house and normally I wash out brushes when I’m done painting. Somehow, a couple of them slipped by. After three days of ripping out carpet, painting walls and staining the wood floor I was just too tired to wash out a couple of brushes. When I found them the other day with the bristles stuck together by dried paint I was, at first, bummed that I was too lazy to clean the brushes and now had to toss them in the trash. Then I realized I could paint one of my little characters on the bristles since the dried paint had made them permanently stuck in their position.

There is a hole at the top of the handle so this can easily hang on nail. The bristles are also stiff enough that you can display the brush simply by leaning it against something.

Enjoy!
Thanks for looking!

- Jeff

I get asked variations of this quite a bit and it wasn’t until someone recently asked on my Facebook Wall that I realized it would make a good blog post. This sums up quite well all the tools I need to make my artwork.

Behr Paint from Home Depot. I use this for a few different reasons.
1. I’m not a fan of mixing my own colors. It’s not that I’m totally against it, but it’s a real pain to mix a second batch of the same color. I can get any shade of any color I want at Home Depot and it’s always consistent. You can actually make your own custom color at home and take a sample of it to Home Depot and they can match it for you. All they need is a sample that’s at least the size of a quarter. Check this out. This is something I’ve actually done. One of my favorite colors of MTN Spray Paint is called “Luminouse Green”. I sprayed it on a piece of paper, took it to Home Depot and they color matched it. I was able to get a quart of my favorite spray paint color in house paint form.

2. I like the consistency. I can make it drip if I want to. Watering it down to do light washes isn’t a problem. It just works for me.

3. Price. It simply can’t be beat. We’ve all seen those little 2oz. tubes of Golden Acrylics for $8. Or $15 if you want Cadnium Red. Even the “cheap” stuff like Liquitex Basics is going to cost you $6.50 for a 4oz tube. Behr, you can get one quart of paint (32oz.) for $12-15.

About a year ago I discovered these little gems. Home Depot, I’m guessing, finally got tired of people returning paint that was custom mixed. Basically, people would get a gallon mixed, take it home and not like it. Then return it. Now you can get these little 7.25 oz. jars of any color you want for $3. I rarely need an entire quart or gallon of paint for what I do, so these things have been great for me.

I use spray paint quite a bit. Mostly for my backgrounds. I’m certainly not one of those guys doing super fine detailed and technical work with a spray can. I like brushes too much.

I’ve strictly been using MTN Spray Paint for the past four years. In my opinion, it’s the best. It’s so great, in fact, that I’ve been selling it in my gallery since 2008. DO NOT get it confused with “Montana Gold” or “Montana Black” or “Montana Cans”. The one you want is manufactured in Spain and simply goes by “MTN” or “Montana Colors”. If it doesn’t look like the cans pictured here don’t get it. MTN has a very interesting story that you can read about here.

All the black lines you see in my paintings are done with brushes and ink. Some people ask if I use paint pens for my fine lines. The answer: no. I can get way more detail with a brush than with a pen. Over the years I’ve used a few different inks, but this acrylic ink by Daler-Rowney called “FW” is currently my favorite.

And of course, painting on wood is the best. Canvas is way overrated.

- Jeff

I started a series of paintings on paper. First, I throw down a layer of spray paint then I use black ink and a little brush to paint something over the colorful background. I’ve done similar ones before and it’s turned out to be something I like to revisit from time to time. Here are three that I painted this past weekend.

“The Friendly Octopi”
8″ x 10″ – spray paint and ink on paper
sold

“Not So Serious Seahorse”
8″ x 10″ – spray paint and ink on paper
$60, plus shipping
available in my etsy shop.

“I Need A Cough Drop”
8″ x 10″ – spray paint and ink on paper
$60, plus shipping
available in my etsy shop.

Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

Visit Dr. Cain’s at:
778 Marsh St
Downtown SLO, CA
www.drcainscomics.com

Being asked to paint random objects is always fun for me, especially if it’s something I wouldn’t have thought to do on my own. This latest project to paint headphones goes right on that list.

Before being painted.

While being painted.

Painted.

Enjoy!
- Jeff

Like I’ve said before, lettering is not my thing. Evy suggested I paint my sister’s name on this since it was a present for her. It never would have occurred to me to put her name on it. So, I went for it.

I’ve painted a few cell phone cases, but this is my first iPad case/cover.

If you are interested in getting a custom case painted for your iPad let me know.
The cost is $100 and you will need to provide the case.

Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

Art Nerd holding new painting, looking super tough.

I started this a couple of nights ago and finished it this afternoon. My idea was to start and finish in one sitting. Then I remembered I have three kids, one of which is seven months old. Then I laughed at myself for thinking such crazy thoughts.

“Tucked Away”
5″ x 7″ – acrylic on wood with epoxy resin coating
$100, plus shipping

Available in my etsy shop.

Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

Here are the two latest iPhone case commissions. When it comes to commission work I will take some loose direction and this first case is a perfect example. I was asked if I could paint something similar to this painting…

…same colors and similar style. This is what I came up with. Please keep in mind that the painting was 12″ x 24″. A cell phone cover is 2.5″ x 4.75″, so the phone cover is much smaller. This is probably the most detailed phone cover I’ve done so far.

The next one I had free reign to do as I please. So, I painted one big face.

If you are interested in having a custom painted case for you phone please check out all the details on this post.

Thanks for looking!
- Jeff

I always love when I get asked to paint something that wouldn’t have crossed my mind to paint. Today, it was headphones. I’m pretty excited to get started on these.

I’ll post some photos of the completed headphones as soon as I finish them.