PNG Coffee & An Audiobook

Ever listen to audiobooks? I tried once before when Spotify only had three chapters of a Harry Potter book and although I enjoyed the experience, I always chose physical books to digital books. However, I'm still listening to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson which I mentioned before and has still been incredible and enlightening even on my third listen through. I've enjoyed having my hands free and still receiving the impact from reading it myself. (This being said, I'll probably still buy a hard copy!) The neat thing about the audiobook aspect is being able to just hit play on your phone and get a quick refresher to keep the ongoing struggle more successful. It's a quick read or listen and worth every second and penny you invest. 

I've been kickin butt and taking names with these Pet Portrait commissions lately! I've also had the pleasure to work more on the South Carolina painting and will have that ready....(drum roll pls)...THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!!! YOU CAN ORDER YOUR PRINT THIS FRIDAY! so much excitement. Have a stroll through my site and keep an eye out for your chance to get a print! 

-Caleb

French Press & An Avocado Sausage English Muffin

THOUGHTS

          It's been a week...a decent week at that too. I'm getting a good turn around for commissions to keep me busy and my day job has only forced me to bang my head against a wall one time! I've begun listening to an audiobook, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" by Mark Manson, which in two chapters made me realize there was a better way to look at almost all situations than the way I was going about it. Most of the stress and frustrations and worries were all coming from fucks I gave out to the wrong things. The weirdest part is being shown a better way to do something after you strongly believed your way was already the better way. But it's humbling as well. 

A friend of mine went off on a rant the other day about how he loathes this phrase, "Ah, it is what it is." Which cracked me up because firstly, I couldn't tell if he was giving his f's to something not important, or secondly, he was actually on to a good point. He continued to say that "Life is what you allow it to be," which I like. I feel you usually hear more commonly that life is what you MAKE of it, but as most people can attest to, you can't always MAKE something happen but you can dictate the way you're treated and the way you allow yourself to live. You have the option to choose your values and thus refocus where to give your fucks.  

ART NEWS

These are the thoughts on my brain while I bust out some pet portraits for people! Which I'll show below. I am also having a Valentine's Sale coming up Monday-Friday so stay tuned for that! Remember to feel free to contact and chat me up whether it's a commission or idea or thoughts. Have a great week everybody. 

Project Update

Hey everyone! Some project updates!  

I just finished my pop art inspired commission with a process video filmed as well.  You can check out the final piece below and look for my video on the Instagram feed. 

I also finished my Marabou Stork watercolor which came out great! Excited to finally show you some painting progress of the house commission I'm working as well! It never hurts having fantastic commissions to work on! 

Hope everyone is having a great month! Keep up the hard work on your own projects and thanks for checking out mine.  

-Caleb  

French Press & Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar

I'm elbows deep into several projects these days! Which is a great thing. One of the best things for a mind, mine at least, is to stay busy with projects. (I suppose I know plenty of people that don't enjoy being busy and spend most of their time not doing anything, but where's the fun in that?) Not only is it important to me to have projects on my list but to have an array of projects to not get burnt out with one. That being said, I was stoked to get an acrylic commission causing me to get the biggest canvas I've painted on and to switch it up from my normal watercolor paintings. To take it a bit further, the style is not my norm either, where I'm working on portraits with pop art inspiration! This whole commission is a big challenge that I am eagerly working on. So obviously, I'm filming my process from sketch to base layers to full paint to special detailed work at the end. I'll post that video once completed, which hopefully will be by next week. 

I'm working on two watercolor commissions as well as the acrylic. Which allows me to switch back to a comfort area when the pop art piece is driving me insane ha! But keep an eye on my instagram to see regular updates on those. Have you ever heard of a Marabou Stork? Creepy looking stork that eats flamingos alive...that's one commission. haha! The other watercolor is a client's house based in California. Beautiful house that i get to decorate with lounging cats! 

Then there's the old digital paintings I'm trying to bring back to life with wheat paste and some paint. I honestly have no clue what I'm going to do with these paintings but I was tired of seeing this pictures collect dust. I needed a refreshment. 

And let me not forget my poor miata's clutch went to shit so I'm also in the process of replacing that.

All in all, I'm happily busy but will be quite excited to check some of them off my list as I know I'll have more projects to replace them! 

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Saturday Artwork WIP

Or S.A.W.I.P. If you will.....lol nvm  

I've been sick for a couple of days so naturally I've been drawing and painting away. Working on these adorable buntings! I've got a video in the works to show a good amount of my process as well. I'll post that tomorrow around noon for your Sunday fun. Until then, enjoy this sneak peak shot and I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Don't get sick!  

Morning Thunder Tea & Artisan Toast with Jim's Jam

Does anyone remember when Goku was traveling to Namek and training up to 100x increased gravity to beat Frieza? 

It looks to be customary for me to pop in here and say "oh gee wow! i haven't posted in a while" which is terrible and yet still happening. I'm not going to pepper you with whispers of sweet nothings by telling you that i'm going to post on a more regular basis. I'll try but I won't guarantee that. Life happens too fast and before you we all know it, years have passed and beards have grown and wrinkles have appeared. However, such is the nature of the beast, life has been constantly and unfailingly moving forward and quite the changes are being put into place and it's all exciting but time consuming. I'm working on a stronger hold on my duties in the companies i'm working with. As a stronger foundation is made, more fun is to be had, so cheers to the future. 

What's going on with the website? Great question, me! 

As it turns out i'm using this website as the best representation of who I am! Since I am working on so many things at once, not all those things can be shared and not always on the same platforms or within the same accounts. This obviously makes it difficult to find everything I'm working on. So this is pretty much a website and blog of all the things that I'm working on... to be completely redundant.

You'll be able to see my watercolor paintings and the occasional acrylic. I'll be posting my design illustrations as well. SE-KYU Short Films is another project I'm working on that'll basically be any kind of content creation or fun video I feel like doing. Special effects and animations included. And I still love photography so that'll occasionally pop up. There's a lot of content that will be posted here and all of it varying around a central point: Art by Me. 

So enjoy all that I release and work on and send any suggestions or questions you may have! 

Earl Grey Tea & Peanut Buttah Toast

About this time last year I teamed up with my buddy to create the dream. The dream being a company based on our skills that would allocate us the option to do whatever we want whenever we wanted to. What we want to do is travel and create and share with the world. After all these months of planning and working and building, Hootie Hoo Studio was created and it's been running since January. It's incredible to see it take off and worth every blood sweat and hypothetical tears to get it where it is now. This website will turn more into my watercolor adventures and some fun photography here and there. Since the company started, I took to watercolor as a venue for my own talents. My skills have increased dramatically since I've devoted all this time to it and I've fallen even more in love with the art. I can't wait to continue to explore and push the boundaries of this medium and hope you enjoy it too. 

I also, alongside Richard and Slayton, have put together a music festival!  The Campsite Music Festival which will be on May 19 in Johnston, South Carolina! Musicians will be playing until 2 am while yoga and live art go on throughout the evening. People will be able to set up camp and hang around a fire at leisure. There's an Outpost store inside the Barn that'll have basic supplies in case you forgot something. And allow me to repeat myself but some great music lasting all night! It's going to be incredible. Definitely worth looking into if you dig camping and music and good vibes...

I'll do my best to post more on here but we also have a scheduled blog over at Hootie Hoo that comes out every monday. Thanks for reading and enjoying. 

Small Batch Test Roasted Mexican Coffee & Not Yet Released Little Debbie Muffin

September 3, 2015

            Been gone form here for a little bit and that kinda blows but hey, I've been doing some things are I guess it all worked out. Amongst writing a butt loads and working a butt loads and trying to just live a butt loads, I got the opportunity to set up an art booth at a fundraiser event. So naturally I agreed and quickly realized I didn't have much in terms of something to deliver to the people. 

The next few weeks I spent my time working on pieces to be ready. Some were rushed but all came from a new spot. These pieces feel like home to me. They came straight out of new territory and I'm ridiculously excited to see where this path will take me.  They have been added to the "Illustrations" page on the website. The watermark is butts but it's a necessary evil. These are for sale so if you're interested please email me and we can work out purchasing and shipping! There are black and white prints available for every one as well. Sizes go from 11x17-24x36. 

I hope everyone enjoys them and stay tuned for new stuff!