Honduran Equality Delegation

Holy Mother of Pearl! It's been too long, friends! I've been doing loads and loads of work so I haven't had time to sit and construct an update in a while. You can however check out my quick updates of my sketchbook on tumblr if you haven't already! http://deyampt.tumblr.com/

Now, down to business. Amongst working retail and finishing up a commission for a book cover (updates soon) I've been researching and working on a series of new paintings for the Honduran Equality Delegation. A friend of mine and Andrews (Jaclyn Scudiero) invited us to be involved by constructing a collaborative show. The intentions are to raise money and awareness about the LGBT community in Honduras. There is a lot of mistreatment and layered political/social brutality being directed at the community. You can read more about it here: http://honduranequalitydelegation.wordpress.com/ You can also apply to actually go down and visit Honduras to help out first hand.



You can also support the organization by liking them on Facebook. Stay involved!
Honduran Equality Delegation Facebook Page

As for the artwork I've been producing for the cause, this is a value drawing for one of the paintings I plan on doing. This is a pretty solid indication of whats going to happen throughout the series. I'm going to be painting some of the victims (illustratively, in order to avoid making the victim terribly uncomfortable) faces in the middle(ish) of a square surface. The head will be kind of floating over Honduran town-scapes while the houses are on fire. The house fires are more a symbol and a nod to the early witch hunts and trials. The accused "witches" being members of the the LGBT community. In this particular piece, she is a transgendered woman who was beaten heavily. I found the hospital photo on Google.

This is a line drawing for another painting I'm getting prepared to do. Instead of houses being completely engulfed in flames they will just be leaking loads of smoke. This way it will symbolize the lack of clarity and uncomfort that the LGBT community is being forced into. Not to mention the situations some of them are forced into. Safety isn't even felt in their own homes just because they're being themselves. On that note the floating mask in the middle of the composition is a mask I found in a photo of a Honduran pride parade (below). The amount of fear that is being injected into these people is massive. However, look at this photo, look at this group of people. The bravery to combat these political acts of bigotry is equally as massive. That's why I find such a great satisfaction in working on this project. I want to help in my own way. Even if it's only painting a series, I want to create awareness of what is going on. I hope you feel as inspired as I have by these incredible people.

This collaborative series I'm doing with Andrew Mannaz (my boyfriend) will be up for viewing at the end of August in the Crossroads district in Kansas City, MO. As the date gets closer I'll give you more details and more sneak peaks of what is going on. In the meantime hang out on my tumblr and watch my silly light-hearted sketches come about every so often. I post whenever I can find time between my retail alter ego(s).

I'll leave you with this song. It's been pretty darn helpful lately. Kick it hard to Purity Ring.

Millie the Sea Witch

Well. It took an extra amount of time but I finally managed to get the painting documented without hurting it! Some apologies for it being 4 months past my personal due date. Moving will do that to you, I guess. Now all I have to do is send it Lisa Ambrose to complete this way drawn out art trade. Here's the little old lady now so I can move on and let you know what else is going on.

Before I continue on I should let you all see what I got in return for Millie here. Lisa had painted this beautiful portrait of a despondent old woman in her kitchen. It's a really beautiful scene that she captured but take a look for yourself:

Alright. So, within these past four months of not updating you all with whats crackin, I've moved to Missouri. That's right, I'm a Kansas City resident. I'm looking forward to (more) making artist connections and some friends a long the way. I've got myself a job and everything. Hooha! It's not a grown up job quite yet, but that's what I'm working towards in this brand new year!

I've been drawing just as much as I usually do. At the same time I'm playing with new mediums that I became unfamiliar with at school-- such as Gouache, Watercolor, and Acrylic. I have it all posted on my sketchbook tumblr. Give it a look see! I'm pretty excited to be playing with new mediums and eventually getting them up to speed. While I'm playing these waterbased mediums I'll be hopefully building a portfolio I can walk into grown up illustration jobs with-- like Hallmark and whatever else Kansas City has to offer!

Until then I'll do my best to update with some of the cool stuff I'm getting myself into. There are some pretty cool things happening with a band I recently met. More on that soon, until then listen to this Fiona Apple song that I listened to A LOT while I was painting this image. Parallels in the video to the painting are strictly coincidental.  Oops.

Esther and the Sea Witch

In addition to working diligently on my large scale painting I've been doing a lot of drawing. I recently finished a sketchbook and started another one. You can see some of the sketches from the old on here: my tumblr  Then I started a new sketchbook that I bought from an art store that recently opened up at my old school. I was sketching and drawing in the morning yesterday and I had come up with painting this lady--

Her name is Esther and it was my first attempt at playing with acrylics in a LONG time. I did some some colored pencil touch ups on top as well. It only took me about 5 or 6 hours of on/off work on it. I'm pretty proud of her considering. Also my acrylics are very old and pretty poor quality. Oh well, she was mostly an experiment that came out well.

In other news I've still bee working sea witch painting. Right now her left (our right) leg is missing because I need to repaint it. Her position was progressively looking more and more strange. However aside from that the painting is coming together pretty nicely. I'm almost to a point where I can old an online crit for anyone who wants to be involved. People can put up pieces they've been working on too. If anyone would be interested in that you'll know the time when I start posting dates.

Here is the painting before i decided to take out the leg. The camera didn't pick up a lot of the detail in the glow-y areas but oh well. That's fine because this is only a progress shot.

I'm really enjoying using the brush for movement in the sky. So far I think that's the area I'm having the most fun. I still have areas I have to work on quite a bit but within the next few sittings it should be done.

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Thanks for stopping by, friends! I'll leave you with this little Dream Boat.

Sea Witch progress

 I know it's been a little while (and I'm sorry about that) but I've been in the process of moving all over. I'm out of Grand Rapids and I am currently residing at my parents house. The song sung by many college graduates these days. After a month of being up here I'm going to be moving down to Kansas City, MO. I'm pretty excited about all of the potential opportunities I'll have down there! So many galleries and so many people!

 This is where I've been painting. The basement--the spiders up here are a lot bigger than I remember them being when I was growing up. I have a feeling that has to do with the unfortunate fact that our family cat recently passed away. She seemed to keep them in line for most of her long happy life. She was eighteen years old! What a lover she was. She will be missed.

Other than the spiders it's been a pretty nice set up. The basement is kind of damp so my painting takes a little longer to dry but thats fine. My dad has a dehumidifier down there that I'm now using. Hopefully it will keep this momentum on the up and up.

 I'm have a particularly good time mixing the colors for this painting. So far all of the colors are really vibrant and pretty complimentary to one another. Saturated pallets are the best.

I've got a lot of perfecting and overall painting yet to do. I'm just excited about the speed I've been working on this (not to mention the pallet). That and who doesn't like witches, sea monsters, glowing nautilus and brains? I'm really looking forward to working on this piece until it's done. I'll keep you updated! Until then, listen to this song:

Every couple of months I listen to CocoRosie and it's like listening to them for the first time, again. Such a solid musical group. They are forever one of my favorites.

The beginings of an Elderly Lady Demon

Hey there! So within the past few months I've been doing some thorough planning on this painting I'm finally getting started on! It's for an instructor I had at Kendall. We're doing an art trade. It's going to be a 30 by 40 inch painting. Here's the rough--

and here is the original character sketch!

it's a redux of a painting I did in the beginning of my last semester at Kendall. The composition was so dry and boring that I really wanted to revisit the idea but do it pretty different.

I'm much more satisfied with the fluidity of the new composition in comparison to this stale one. I liked the color choice and paint application but it needs to be pushed more. Hence redoing the painting. It's also much larger than this painting. So I get to play with larger brushes and I'm pretty darn excited about that.

Depending on how this painting goes I may keep doing stylized old women for a little while. Playing with the concept of age and aging is pretty fun for me. It makes the whole process of growing up a little easier to swallow. Especially since I get a lot of inspiration from cartoons.

Other than experimenting with digital painting and watercolor I haven't done a whole lot. You can see most of that on my tumblr. Amongst all the inspiration posts I blog about on there you can find the images here----> http://tommydeyampert.tumblr.com/ Lets be friends on Tumblr! I have a pretty good time finding new artists on there.

Well, until next time folks! I hope everything is treating you as well as they can be!

Bones Don't Float

So I finally got around to scanning this piece. It's a 26 by 38 inch oil painting. The moment I had finished it I was submitting it and putting it in shows. So I didn't have much of a chance to sit down and document it. Especially considering this baby took 19 scans to get the whole thing together! I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out--I may do some digital painting on it because I feel like with the process I used to paint this would look good with digital work on top of it. It was a fun painting to do and it took a really long time. Rewarding none the less to have it exhibited in shows.

Zombie Bone Eating Snot Worm

I feel like I should narrate a little bit about what's happening here: The center character is a mutated whale combined with human anatomy. He has faces growing on his muzzle. He's in the desert because I wanted the whole piece to convey a very dead feeling. He from there is very literally leaning over his grave having a discussion of his (and potentailly more peoples) death(s) with a zombie snot worm. While this conversation is going on giant missiles go off in the distance indicating the end of the world. It's all very dramatic.


These worms live at the bottom of the ocean and wait for whales skeletons to fall to the bottom. When the whales bones are exposed they float over and burrow root like anatomy into the bones and suck out the marrow. Whale falls are some of the most interesting deaths I've ever heard of--Inspirational in fact.

They provide so much food for so many different types of sea creatures it's insane. After all, that's a lot of meat. As the whale carcass falls its providing a lot sustenance for many ecosystems along the way. Such as sharks, eels, snot worms, etc... I just find it extremely interesting.

Aside from that the whole painting is a supposed to envoke an interenal or external discussion about death. Very morbid, but I figured I'd finish college with a bang.

Drawing and Digital Painting Practice

Howdy all! Sorry for the small lull in updating this! I've been busy helping my boyfriend move, working, entering/attending art shows I've been in, and drawing! This is Big Booty Wrinkle Cat, I did this in PrismaColor pencil. It scanned funny so I had to play with the colors quiet a bit to get them close to what they actually are. I hope you like it!

I've also been practicing Digital Painting a little. Remember this little lady? Well, I'm working on her so she can become a full blown digital painting! I just have to figure out a background for her and overall work on her a bit more.

This summer has had quite the beginning! Unfortunately/fortunately(for them) most of my friends have been moving away since graduating college. I'll miss them quite a bit--I just don't like saying goodbye. However, that's what the summer is all about. Everyone is working hard to make something of themselves and if that means moving elsewhere--then so be it. I wish everyone the best of luck. I have the utmost faith that they'll succeed. In the meantime, look at some pictures of me and friends at art openings! Photos Courtesy of Jacki Granger and Barbara Counsil (who helped Curate the Creature Feature show!!)

Creature Feature opening! At the Calvin Gallery on Division St!

my bees in their little nook

Miranda Sharp (Glucose Girl) in front of her rad T-Rex poster

The place filled up rather nicely the moment the doors opened!

I just realized I only have the pictures form the Creature Feature show. Pictures pending from the Festival of the Arts downtown Grand Rapids. Thanks to all for attending and thanks for stopping by my blog!

P.S. I have a tumblr that I update fairly frequently http://tommydeyampert.tumblr.com/ lets be friends!