Archive for the ‘Shop’ Category

This is “Big Thomas”. He’s a little bunny dude that is one of the 48 illustrations in my fancy pants coloring book. If you don’t have one yet than I can only imagine how boring your nights are. Seriously, coloring will make all of your problems blow away like dust in the wind. Here’s a better look at him.

I colored him digitally using the Procreate app on the iPad, which is probably the best art making app available. It’s so much fun. Before being a black and white illustration in the world’s coolest coloring book Big Thomas started his life as a painting on wood.

I wanted to include him in the book, which meant removing all the colors and also adding some black outlines to some of the shapes. When you look at the side by side comparison you’ll see what I mean. All the polka dots and bubble/cloud border (or whatever you would like to call it) needed to be outlined or they just wouldn’t exist anymore. And they NEED to exist because polka dots and bubbles are super fun.

Check out how fancy Big Thomas looks in the printed book.

If you would like a copy for yourself (and why wouldn’t you?) or a copy to gift to your bestie (they’ll love you for it), the printed version is now available on Amazon for $16. Click here to order. Sorry, I ran out of my personal copies and I probably won’t be ordering more anytime soon. For now, Amazon is the only place you’re going to find the printed version. Let’s be honest, it’s not as if people are reselling my stuff on Ebay or Poshmark.

The book is also available as a digital PDF. Color traditionally or digitally! These days a lot of us are drawing on iPads. With this PDF version you will be able to send a page to the Procreate App and color it digitally. You can also print out the pages on your home printer and color them with crayons, pencils, or whatever drawing tool fits your fancy. The PDF is available online for $5 at vivapaso.com.

But wait, there’s more…

BONUS!!!
I have two coloring book pages available as a FREE download. You can print these out and color them traditionally or send them to your device to color digitally. Simply click on the image and you are on your way!

Here’s my digital coloring for the sharp toothed big eared character.

Thanks for taking a look! If you have any questions about the book let me know.

See ya!
– Jeff

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Not ready to leave this wonderful blog yet? Check out this totally random post from ten years ago.

Tired of reading? Watch this video of the time I accidentally painted Dwight from The Office.

This is Brady.
He’s 5″ x 7″ – acrylic on wood. If you’d like add this 5 eyed man to your collection he is $80 and is available online at Viva Paso.

That’s the simple description. If you love reading, you are in for a treat because there are a bunch of words ahead. Of course, after reading this and getting a glimpse inside my head you might be totally turned off the idea of reading for fun. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen though. Now strap in and enjoy the ride.

We’ll call this the Random Bonus Description.
I don’t use brown often, but because it is a neutral color it always seems to create a great color combo with almost any other color you choose. I think blue and brown are great together. About the 5 eyes.

I didn’t choose 5 for any particular reason. I just thought it would be more interesting than the the typical “blockhead” paintings I make with 2 eyes.

I usually come up with the title for my paintings after I photograph them. When I get to the point where I have to save the file on my hard drive is when I decide on a title. Having a bunch of files named something like “IMG.98237” just bothers me. Anyway, I started looking up what number 5 symbolizes and what spiritual significance the number has. Turns out there is quite a bit, but the one thing that I kept seeing over and over was that number 5 is related to personal freedom, motivation, and determination. There is a lot more too, but those 3 things are what seemed to stand out the most. I tried to come up with a silly or thought provoking pun, but nothing was working, so I looked up names that mean “freedom”. Brady was on that list and that’s how it became the title for this painting. To add more random thoughts to this I thought about Gary Vee when I came up with this title because in a lot of photos he holds up his hand with his 5 fingers spread out. You can tell that it’s very intentional. The number 5 is significant to him for some reason. Maybe it’s just his favorite number. I’m not sure, but I thought it was an interesting correlation with Gary that the number is related to motivation and determination. When I started typing this and I wrote about the blue and brown color combo it reminded me that Gary V had a shoe collaboration with K-Swiss and the shoe had blue and brown stripes on it. He named the shoes “Clouds & Dirt” and the blue and brown are a pretty obvious representation of that. I don’t remember how Gary worded it, but I think it was something like the clouds represent the dream and where you want to be and the dirt is the hard work it takes to get there. All of this seems pretty random, but I like to chalk it up to synchronicity because I like the idea that things happen for a reason or that things that are seemingly random actually have a meaningful connection.

I’m not really sure what possessed me to write all of this. It sort of started because I laughed at myself about how much time I put into coming with such a simple title and I thought, “If only they knew that actual research went into this.” I thought it was funny because there is no way anybody would see “Brady” and think, “Oh yeah…doesn’t that name mean freedom and the 5 eyes represent freedom. That explains the title. Gee, that Jeff guy sure is a clever one!” I truly am not a fan of art speak. It’s a big turn off for me because I like art to be fun. If this comes off as boring pretentious art speak mumbo jumbo please know that is not the intention at all. This is more like sharing the thoughts whirling around my brain at 3:30am when I can’t sleep.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!
– Jeff

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Support this blog! If you have found my ramblings at all entertaining over the years and would like to treat me to a donut it would be much appreciated. While I’m working on setting up a Patreon page you can still send a little something to the virtual tip jar of your choice:
Paypal
Venmo
Thank you so much for the support! Now that I’ve closed my retail shop I’m strictly online and every little bit helps.

For more good time fun be sure to:
Watch some videos!
Follow on Instagram: @jeffclaassen

Writing this a bit late, meaning…this series dropped on March 16. Anyway…
For this drop I pulled out thee ole’ watercolors and Micron pens. I made 10 new pieces for this series. All of them are 5″ x 7″ with an abstract watercolor background and Microns for all the black lines. These are available unframed online and if you find yourself in Paso Robles, they are available framed. Sorry, I just don’t want to risk the glass breaking during shipping. Ok…on to the art!

First is a little video preview. There is a quick clip of what these look like framed, so you might want to check it out.

“Date Night”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Let’s Have A Sleepover”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Satisfy Me”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Sprung”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Garden Boy”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here
Here’s a quick time lapse of making Garden Boy.

“Brody”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Bernard”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Shelly”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“My Sassy Angel”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

“Ego Loss”
5″ x 7″ – watercolor and ink on paper
$60 unframed – order here

And there you have it! A new series of 10 paintings. I hope you enjoyed them.

– Jeff

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If you Instagram, say what’s up @jeffclaassen.
If you YouTube, binge watch all my videos at: youtube.com/jeffclaassen
And, of course, if you want to see the artwork in person visit my shop:
Viva Paso
1628 Spring St
Paso Robles CA 93446
Open Wed-Sat, 11am-5pm

I don’t know what is crazier. That I have been turning my art into stickers for over 20 years or that I have never made die cut stickers in that 20 year span. It’s no doubt that die cut adds a level of fanciness that any sticker collector can appreciate. Embracing that added fanciness I am happy to add die cut stickers to my repertoire.

These new stickers are now available in person at my retail shop:
Viva Paso
1628 Spring St
Paso Robles CA 93446

And also online at: etsy.com/shop/jeffclaassen

“Puzzled Girl”
3″ x 2.61″ – available here.

“Some Bitch Stole My Lunch Money”
3″ x 2.23″ – available here.

“Inez The Bunny”
3″ x 2.73″ – available here.

“More Amor Por Favor”
3″ x 2.68″ – available here.

In case you don’t make it to the end of the video and I somehow managed to hold your attention long enough for you to make it all the way down to this part, I will just tell you. I am stoked with how the stickers came out! Sticker Mule has never disappointed. The quality is awesome. The turnaround time is quick. Going through the order process on their site is super easy. So yeah, if you are looking to get stickers made with your own designs I highly recommend giving them a shot. Check them out at stickermule.com.

Enjoy!
Thanks for watching/reading/being alive.

– Jeff

This is drop #04 for 2022. I’m trying to do these every other Wednesday. More on the details of that later, but because of poor planning and being out of town I missed the last one. Hopefully, this one is good enough to make up for the loss. Anyway…

I am very excited to have 10 new wine paintings. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them. And now for the details.

These are all hand painted one of a kind original paintings on watercolor paper. They are 18″ x 24″ and are all signed and dated on the back. I also write the title on the back. The paper has been stained with wine and all the black lines were painted using an acrylic ink.
These are $100 each, plus $11 shipping, unframed. Sorry…shipping prices have gotten a little out of control. These will ship rolled up in a tube and will be delivered by USPS. You can also choose “in store pickup” if you’d like to come by my shop to save on shipping and pick yours up in person. If you choose in store pickup, please come during our scheduled business hours, which are Wed-Sat. – 11am-5pm.

Ok, enough talking. Let’s see some art!
If you see one you would like simply click the image to order. And remember, these are one of a kind originals, so once they’re sold they are gone forever.

Belle The Kitty – order here

Burgundy Becca – order here

Irvine The Whale – order here

Loopy Bunny – order here

One Too Many – order here

Rehab Month – order here
There’s a little bonus prize for this one. If you can figure out why I made “Rehab Month” the title for this I will send you some free art goodies. Just send me DM on Instagram with your answer: @jeffclaassen

Rosey Rosé – order here

Spencer – order here

Stella – order here

Valerie Vino – order here

And there you have it. 10 brand new wine paintings! These paintings have been my whole life the past couple of weeks. A lot of late nights listening to music and putting ink down on the paper. Thank you for taking the time to look at these. If you order one it will ship out with 24-48 hours.

Also, I’m using my Viva Paso shop for this drop because it’s a lot easier to keep track of things on there.
Thanks again!
– Jeff

I don’t know what is crazier. That I have been turning my art into stickers for over 20 years or that I have never made die cut stickers in that 20 year span. It’s no doubt that die cut adds a level of fanciness that any sticker collector can appreciate. Embracing that added fanciness I am happy to add die cut stickers to my repertoire.

To be a proper “drop” I wanted to do more than just a sticker pack, so after tossing around a couple of ideas I thought it would be fun to include a surprise one of a kind original Post-It Note drawing.

In my 20 years of selling artwork I have never offered Post-It Note drawings for sale and I’m not sure if I will again, so this might be your only chance to add one of these to your collection. The drawing will be a total surprise. I probably haven’t even made it yet, but that’s the fun part. You don’t know what the drawing will be, but I can tell you it will be black ink on a 3″ x 3″ Post-It Note. Please keep in mind, you will probably not receive one of the Post-It Notes from the example photo, but I do promise that what you receive will be the same size and done in a similar style.

This sticker/drawing pack is limited to 25.
$16 each, plus shipping.
If you’d like one of these packs please place your order HERE.

This is a list of what you will receive:

1 – “Some Bitch Stole My Lunch Money” die cut sticker, 3″ x 2.23″
1 – “Inez The Bunny” die cut sticker, 3″ x 2.73″
1 – “Puzzled Girl” die cut sticker, 3″ x 2.61″
1 – “Sketchy Pirate” sticker, 3″ diameter
1 – “Sketchy Kitty” sticker, 3″ diameter
1 – One of a kind original drawing on a Post-It note, 3″ x 3″, signed and dated on the back

All of these stickers are:
– Full color on vinyl
– High quality, scratch resistant
– Great for phone cases, water bottles, laptops, bikes, helmets, skateboards, etc.

Thank you so much for the support!

Happy sticking!
– Jeff

* In case you missed the link earlier, please CLICK HERE to place your order. Thank you!

This drop was officially on January 19, but I did the main promotion on Instagram and Facebook. With a new drop coming tomorrow I figured I better mention this Screen Print Bundle before Drop #03 just so these drops don’t get all mixed up. It feels better to keep them posted in chronological order. Ok…so, on with the goods!

2022 DROP #02 – “Responsibility Is For Losers” Bundle!

This is a brand new limited edition print. It comes with a matching pin and 3 stickers.

There are only 10 prints available, so when I say limited, I mean very limited. Each print has a one of a kind spray painted background. No two prints are the same. It’s so fun making prints like this because each one is essentially an original. They all have the same main character printed over an abstract background. To keep the edition cohesive I only used three colors: turquoise, lime green, and black.
Bundle includes:
1 – 16” x 20” limited edition screen print, signed, numbered, and dated on the back.
1 – enamel pin, 1.25” tall.
3 – full color vinyl stickers, 3” diameter
$60, plus shipping.
Available now at vivapaso.com

Number 1/10

Number 2/10

Number 3/10

Number 4/10

Number 5/10

Number 6/10

Number 7/10

Number 8/10

Number 9/10

Number 10/10

And there you have it! Thank you so much for taking a look at this new edition. If you would like to order one of these please visit: vivapaso.com

Thank you so much for the support! I hope you enjoy this new print as much as I enjoyed making them.

– Jeff

PS.
Since it’s been almost 2 weeks since this first dropped I have now made the pins and stickers available individually.
Order pins here.
Order stickers here.

Thanks again!

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I only wrote two blog posts in 2021 and those were in January. Needless to say, this blog has become a ghost town. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook got most of my online attention in 2021. If you follow me on any of those then you are probably up to date with any new artwork I made in 2021.

Here are some screen print works I made towards the end of Summer. This first one is a one of a kind original on a donut box.

“Faces In The Sky, With Donuts”
17.5″ x 23″ – acrylic and screen print ink on donut box
$100, signed and dated on the back.
To order: add to cart

I also used this same image for a small run of limited edition prints. When I say “small” I’m not kidding. I only made 6 of these in this color combo. The blue background is different on each one making each print its own unique art piece.

“Faces In The Sky”
16” x 20” – screen print ink on paper
$40, signed, numbered, and dated on front.
To order: add to cart

On the order page you’ll see a drop down menu so that you can pick the exact number/background print you would like. Also, 16″ x 20″ is a standard frame size, perfect for do-it-yourself framing, so you can avoid custom framing costs.

Here’s a video to show you part of the process of making this edition.

If you have any questions about these art pieces, let me know.

Thanks for looking!
– Jeff

This is the aftermath of a wallet making session in the studio at Viva Paso. Lots of thin strips of vinyl, art prints, and magazine clippings. There’s an art project in there somewhere in that pile of colorful debris, but I haven’t figured out what that is yet. Alternative to packing peanuts, maybe? Not really an “art project” per se, but it’s something.

This is the stage just before sewing. There are 6 layers to these wallets and I hold them all together with paper clips so they don’t slip and slide all over the place when I start sewing them.

They look so much cleaner after sewing, but the big messy stack is probably cooler to see. After this stage is when I trim all the edges off, giving each wallet a clean smooth edge.

Big news over here. I hope you’re ready for it. The classic red Hunter S. Thompson wallet that I’ve been making for years is finally available in two more colors. I don’t know why it’s taken so long, but a few months ago a customer requested/suggested making orange or yellow. He had already purchased 2 (maybe 3) red ones and he loves the graphic (obviously) but didn’t want another red one. So, I took his suggestion and made both colors. Check em out!

If you’d like one they are both available on my site now. They are $16 each.
To order click one of the above photos or just click one of these:
– Orange
– Yellow
And, of course, the Red is still available too.

And if that’s enough, I also added two new Card Cases to the selection.

This one is called “Fluffle”, which is great word you don’t hear too often. A fluffle is a group of bunnies and who doesn’t love a group of bunnies? Nobody, that’s who! Crazy talk, I tell ya.

This one is called “Let’s Kick It.” The card cases are $13 each.
If you’d like to order one just click one of the photos above or use these links:
– Fluffle
– Let’s Kick It

As of right now I only have these 2 designs for card cases, but I have over 30 wallet designs. Here’s just a few of them from the batch I made the other night.

You can see all of the designs right here. Also, I almost don’t like to admit it, but January was sadly the worst month Viva Paso has ever experienced, so if you order a wallet it would be very much appreciated.

And before I forget, I would really love to get these wallets into some other shops. I’ve done wholesale with these in the past and would really like to get more involved in that world. So, if you own a shop or work at a shop or know any store that might be interested in selling these please let me know or send them my way.

Email or send me a DM on Instagram: @jeffclaassen

Thank you so much for your support!
– Jeff

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Wow…you aren’t bored out of your eyeballs yet? That’s fantastic because check this out. You can now follow me on TikTok. I’ve been uploading a lot of quick time lapse painting videos on there. At the longest they are only 60 seconds, which is a bit easier to swallow than some of the YouTube videos I upload. Happy watching!

First post of 2020. I’ve started the year off being as productive as possible. Before 2020 was upon us I told myself I was going to focus on making bigger paintings, but here I am making a series of 3.5″ x 7″ paintings. In my defense, I had some paintings in the works that weren’t quite finished, so I am working on those and then I really would like to make some bigger paintings this year. Anyway…for now I have one new piece to show you.

This is Ginger. She’s 3.5″ x 7″, mixed media on wood with epoxy resin coating. She’s available in my online shop or in person at Viva Paso – 1211 Pine St in downtown Paso Robles.

You know, come to think of it, I have more than one new piece to show you. I finished these next two a few weeks ago, so you might have seen them on Instagram, but if not, here ya go.

“Gilligan”
3.5″ x 7″ – mixed media on wood.
Available in my online shop.

“Mary Ann”
3.5″ x 7″ – mixed media on wood.
Available in my online shop.

Yes, I am using all the characters names from Gilligan’s Island. I have a few more to go, so be on the lookout for Lovey, Thurston, The Skipper, and The Professor.

Enjoy!
– Jeff

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What, that’s not enough for you? Fine…
follow me on the IG: @jeffclaassen.
and on TikTok: @jeffclaassen

I have been obsessed with making these little 3″ square paintings. Here’s a little video showing the newest batch.

All of these are one of a kind hand painted originals. They are 3″ x 3″ canvases and are available on my site for $30 each. Yes, the awesome little easels are included.

If for some reason watching a video makes you cringe here are photos of the paintings in all of their 3″ glory.

“Prankster” – adopt me

“Gordie” – take me home

“Denny” – let’s hang out

“Philip” – hold me

“Joel” – let’s get donuts

“Ace” – fly with me

“Teddy” – kiss me

“Chris” – let’s be friends

“Lydia” – be my roommate

“Vern” – be my roommate

And there you have it…that is what 10 mini canvas paintings look like.
Thanks for checking them out!

– Jeff

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If that wasn’t enough for you…
– I’m now on TikTok
– Follow on The Gram: @jeffclaassen

The journals/notebooks were new this year. I had toyed around with the idea for awhile and finally got off my butt and figured out what would work best for me. I’m super stoked with how popular they’ve been. I recently ordered a new batch. In case you haven’t kept up on Instagram I now have 4 designs to choose from.

All of them are 120 lined pages and are 6″ x 9″, which is the perfect size for a notebook.
Right now they are all in stock, so I can ship them out within 24 hours. If you’d like to order one they are all available in my online shop. They are also available in person at Viva Paso – 1211 Pine St in downtown Paso Robles.

Thanks for the support!
See ya!

– Jeff