The Undiscovered: New World / The Secret of Deadbrook

Hey everyone! We haven't had time to write up a full new post this week, because we have been busily painting our behinds off for our upcoming split show!

This is going to be our first feature show and we're really excited about it. Seal is preparing a whole new slew of amazing other-worldly landscape paintings, and Monkey is preparing an interactive narrative to accompany his paintings. It should be a really fun evening!

The show opens on Friday, June 3rd from 8pm-11pm at Oz Gallery, located at 3224 1/2 22nd Street (between Bartlett and Mission). We're super excited and we hope to see you there!

The Undiscovered is a two-person show made up of two parts: "New World", a collection of new paintings by Eve Skylar, and "The Secret of Deadbrook," new paintings by Rick Kitagawa that weave an interactive tale of the macabre.

"New World' will explore a journey into the uncharted territory of the fantastic landscapes that inhabit Eve Skylar's mind. From steampunk junkyard swamps to soaring new heights and forgotten robots, come explore the realm of the New World.

"The Secret of Deadbrook" is an interactive horror murder mystery told through paintings and their accompanying narratives. Children have been disappearing in the town of Deadbrook, and when a witness comes forward concerning the most recent disappearance, it's up to you to unearth the sinister secrets of Deadbrook. All you will need to solve the mystery will be at your fingertips - can you figure out who is killing the children before it's too late? If you can, enter your guess and you'll have a chance to win original art!

Vote Monkey + Seal in 2011!

Hey everyone! We (and some of our friends) could really use your help!

So SF Weekly's Best of the Bay is going on right now, and they have a form that you can submit over and over again to vote for your favorite stuff! Even better, it's focus is DIY, which we are all about!!

We're trying to win in two categories: #1 Best Blog (www.blog.monkeyandseal.com), and #12 Best Artist (either Eve Skylar or Rick Kitagawa). You can vote here!

You can also help out our friends and other enterprises by voting for #8 Best Film Festival (Asian American International Film Festival), #10 Best Theater Company (Asian American Theater Company), #13 - Best Art Gallery (Big Umbrella Studios),and #98 Best Boutique (Urban Bazaar).

Please feel free to vote for other venues you think deserve the win too!

Note: You can vote as many times as you'd like, and also if you just want to vote for us quickly and be done (our category is on the first page!), you can just hit next over and over until you get to the "submit" page. You don't actually have to register or anything, nor do you have to fill everything out as long as you go all the way through the submit button (although if you want to, you should!)

To vote again once you've submitted your vote, just copy the URL from your browser and paste it back in where it was and hit enter.

Thanks so so much, and we really appreciate your time, votes, and support! You're truly the best!

Is your life and your art meaningful?

Creating Meaning:

Seal here.

What is your purpose in life? It's a loaded question, but once you figure that out, you will find the passion and drive in your art to overcome any obstacle. So, isn't it important enough to know?

Most people, Seal too, confuses meaning with goals. Goals are things you want to accomplish. Meaning is why you want to accomplish these goals. Is your life meaningful? In other words, is your life full of meaning? Is there a reason you get up every day?

Many people have come to Seal with frenetic passion and exclaim their goal: I want to make a comic, a novel, a book, a painting about ____ (blank). My next question usually consists of genuine encouragements and then the dreaded question: "why? what drives you to write that particular story? ... what is your purpose behind this work of art? what is this story REALLY about?"

Recently I wanted to do a painting about an ancient wasteland inhabited by old robots. But when I ask myself why, it took me awhile to find the answer. At first it was, "oh, I don't know. Everyone loves robots and ancient ruins. It looks cool." So I kept asking "why do I want to do this painting? What is the drive behind this painting?" "Why is it so important?" Eventually, I came down to the following answer: I wanted to depict my experiences of abandonment growing up in a household of working parents.Having also survived civil wars in the homeland country, they were emotionally drained and detached towards my sister and me." This was, of course, a far cry from my robots in a wasteland. . . but is it, really? Now that I understand the "meaning" and reason behind this painting, I can fully let my passions out. The robots become something more. It is a statement about myself. It also becomes easier to complete. Because every day I look forward to meeting and conversing with myself within the painting.

I think people often get the wrong idea when I say meaning. They think their meaning has to be "deep" or "grandiose." Monkey can draw monsters and it is still full of meaning. Because he is living truthfully to who he is. He is genuinely doing work for himself and living life with intention and honesty about what he wants to do. He faces his art head on, without apologies or compromises. When he is not drawing or painting, he comforts Seal and supports her dreams. They go on adventures and discover new things. Sometimes they hit a wall and overcome it. He also works passionately for equality and justice by donating his time to teach workshops or donating proceeds from his art. These are some of the many more reasons for why he exists on this earth.

It is simply living day to day with intention. Sometimes, the meaning in my day is as simple as: I would like to make someone laugh, then I draw a squiggly drawing of a penguin inside of a toilet bowl. Sometimes, it's something along the lines of I want to make my friends happy with a delicious meal, a dish I've never cooked before (so I have to research new dishes and learn something new). Those are the day to day meaning. You also need to know what is the overarching meaning to your life. For me, I create art that tell a truth about myself, whether literally or allegorically, in hopes that it resonates with people. It is my meaning, to also lead other people to their dreams. So I also hope to mentor and be mentored by other artists. Meanings sometimes change. As teenagers, (not all of us) but probably we had hoped to learn as much as possible, find friends, and a person to love and be loved. As adults, we tend to want to pass on our knowledge and experiences. As I grow older, sometimes it's simply to share more time with Monkey, friends, and family.

One way to know what your meaning is to ask several questions, here are some to begin with:

1. what makes me happy?
2. what do i look forward to every day?
   
3. what are some things I truly enjoy doing? (time passes and you don't even know it)
   
4. what are my gifts (art, intelligence, listening, etc).
5. how can I utilize my gifts to get genuine satisfaction out of life? (it can be simply, entertaining people, fighting for a cause, using your gifts to donate to a cause, teach aspiring artists, etc).
   

Making meaning is scary. It means that you matter. You matter to the world. And what you create matters. That's scary because it also means that you are charged with the important task of making a mark in your everyday world. However big or small.

I'm a firm believer that each individual is put here on earth to do a task. Most likely this task is something that only you can achieve. Only your voice can reach and say your story. Will you take this challenge?

"You decide to matter, to live a principled, creative, active life in support of your cherished ideals, to manifest your potential, to do work,[ . . .] do not presume that your life matters on a cosmic scale or that your efforts will move mountains [although, they might] But in short, it is to make your life meaningful at least to you." - Eric Maisel

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For further reading:

Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel

Gotta Do What You Love

Creepy? Disturbing? Monkey hopes so.

Monkey here:

After a long talk with Seal late Saturday night, I came to the realization about two things - I am extremely lucky to have a strong support system in place (ie Seal + friends), and that I've been unconsciously preventing myself from doing the type of art that I really want to do.

From an early age I've always been fascinated and enthralled by monsters. I had a huge book (similar to the size of my collegiate calculus textbook) about nearly every film monster that graced the screen until the mid-80's. I was reading Stephen King at 7, and the illustrations from the Scary Stories trilogy haunted my dreams.

Even to this day, great horror films are some of my favorite films ever. 28 Days Later and Let the Right One In are masterpieces. I also have a place in my heart for films like Aliens, Tremors, Predator, The Fly (1986 version), and tons of B-movie horror flicks. I do take offense to some of the more recent slasher/torture-porn films in the last decade, but for the most part, no matter how bad a horror movie is, if I have the time, I'll watch it.

However, when it comes to art, I've been struggling with the notion that I have to make art that really touches people on a deeper level. I felt like I needed to really say something; to inspire or empower. I wanted to make a difference in the world through art. And until recently, I thought that this was in stark contrast to the horrific material that I was really longing to create.

Eve helped me realize that I was creating the dreaded false dichotomy - I was making it an either-or situation when that really wasn't the case. I could paint monsters and demons and still say something meaningful, or still reach people at an emotional level. I thought I needed to be more clever or funny or wise than everyone else through my work, when really I just want to paint a bunch of scary monsters.

Whether or not the work I produce in the future has lots of symbolism, metaphors, and deep social commentary doesn't really matter. Eve pointed out that horror and tragedy are art forms that are centuries old - people still liked them for a reason. These pieces can act as a catharsis for the audience, allowing them to feel horror, fear, and sorrow without really having to go through the terrible acts that cause it. The viewers can feel relieved after the film is over, thinking "I'm glad that wasn't me," and can be thankful for what they do have.

Additionally, I've decided that changing the world through art doesn't necessarily mean inspiring the next generation of leaders through my artwork per se. I can sell t-shirts with my designs on them to raise money for charities. I can donate paintings to charities for auctions, and teach classes for underprivileged youth. There is lots and lots to be done, it's just a matter of finding my own way to do it.

I've realized that the hardest thing is releasing the rhino. It takes looking at it from a new perspective, and not getting boxed into the way that you think things have to be. I can just draw child-eating mothers and swamp beasts and demonic cults sacrificing towns and still be able to make a positive change on the world. I've found that your own mind tends to be your biggest prison, and it's all about figuring out what key fits to let yourself free.

I hope my story will help in some way..if anything, if you're dealing with your own personal cages and dichotomies and thoughts on what your art should be or what you think the world wants - you're not alone.

In the end, you have to create for yourself.


Thanks to Eve and everyone else who has been really supportive in my pursuit of art. I realize how lucky I am and I hope that everyone can find that support for your work. Keep on keeping on, and we can all change the world together.

877 Valencia Group Show

On Saturday, Seal had her group show opening at 877 Valencia in the Mission. It was relatively a small space, but the traffic was great. Seal got to live paint with James Garcia of Kulayan Arts and Wednesday Kirwan of Gama-Go. She realized what a fun privilege it is to be able to paint in the streets of San Francisco and to have art displayed in public spaces and local businesses. She met strangers and friends who stopped by to observe and ask questions. She loves San Francisco for its love of local artists.

The start of my live-painting, I had in mind a tree in the snow. After 30-40 minutes, James and I decided to switch to see what we could come up with. I like the creativity and unpredictability that comes with collaborative art. The pieces below are currently unfinished. We'll be working on them sometime in the coming weeks and will re-post the final. As friends of Monkey+Seal, you get to see our process and a short glimpse of what's to come.

The start of the collaborative mash-up with James Garcia.


James's piece, in which, I was able to partake in. He did the gorgeous colorful tree on the left (photo doesn't do the details justice). Since I had a brain fart, I added my signature jellyfish and raven on the right. I love working with other artists, since they have different ways of approaching the painting. I especially loved the palette that James was working in. It is also currently an unfinished piece, the final will be re-posted.


Wednesday Kirwan doing a painting of a beautiful girl.

Inside the show. The owner of the space was 17 when he got married to his wife. He and his wife worked hard while going to school and opened up his business in 1979. They have been doing well ever since, and are big supporters of showcasing local artists. It's touching to hear the success-stories of people who have struggled through their adventure cycle and came out on the other side.

When Seal is live-painting, she remembers how fun painting and art is. Sometimes it takes putting your art out in front of people to remember why you paint. To see people's reactions, questions, . . . that your art has somehow impacted them, even if by a little bit, this is what it means to make art. Sure you can make art and keep them in the closet from prying eyes, but ultimately, art is communication with people's thoughts and emotions. In the end, it needs to be seen and appreciated outside of yourself. So take out that half-written novel and unfinished painting, finish them and let them see the light of day.

Interview with Seal!

Monkey here:

Seal recently got interviewed by Northern Forcus, a Norcal-art blog run by Shannon Dutra that also interviewed me a while back. While the interview online here is pretty great, the 6-page full interview by Seal is really, really amazing.

Granted, I live with Seal, and we create next to each other, and have long discussions about art and live and tons of stuff, so I might be biased, but damn, that was a good interview. You have to download the full version (since it's so long), but really, if you're interested in who Eve is, both as a person and an artist, you can get a pretty large glimpse into why she creates, the incredible hurdles she has overcome, and her wide breadth of inspiration.

So enough reading here, go go go over to Northern Focus now!

Alien/ation: an Art Riot Extravaganza - TOMORROW!

Today's post is a friendly reminder that tomorrow, July 10th, is going to be the event that Monkey + Seal (as Paper Hat Productions) has been working on for the past three months. We've been super fortunate to collaborate with the Hyphen Magazine team, and we are proud to bring you Alien/ation: An Illustration Show.

We are honored to be showing among some amazing artists such as Kim Herbst, Joseph To, and Yoko Furusho, to name a few, and our favorite vegan baker, Jen Chau from Black Orchid Bakery will be on hand with cupcakes that are really frickin' amazing.

A preview of what Seal will be showing

We also want to emphasize how excited we are about the raffle - there will be another collaborative Art Battle, but this time it'll be a triple threat match of Monkey, Seal, and Joseph To. Each will start a painting based on an audience-submitted theme. Then, they'll move on to the next person's canvas and start painting, then they will switch again so that everyone paints on everyone's piece. Finally, the artist will move back to the original painting they started and will finish it off. Exciting, huh? Even better, these pieces will be raffled off at the end of the night.

A free artist's reception is from 5:30-6:45, and doors open at 7:00. Admission is $5 (or $15 if you want to get a subscription to Hyphen). The first 25 paying guests at 7:00 will get a swag bag with some limited edition goodies inside. If you want the swag, we suggest getting there early.

A preview of what Monkey will be showing

Where else can you win original art, eat awesome cupcakes, get free stuff, and check out some cutting-edge illustrators? No where (at least no place that we're aware of). Thus, you should definitely come check out our show, and don't forget to bring cash if you want to drink since SPACE gallery (1141 Polk x Sutter) is a 21+ only, cash only venue.

Also, this is really the only night to be able to see all this fantastic art in one place, so we highly recommend it. Besides new work by Monkey + Seal, the other art being hung is really amazing and it should be a really awesome event. We hope to see you there!

Eve on MYX Channel

Eve Skylar (aka Seal) got some facetime on MYX, an online tv channel about "Asian, Independent & Mainstream Music Videos and Lifestyle" as she was interviewed as part of Hyphen magazine's Trailblazing Issue Release party where she was live painting. You can see her here at about 1:04, talking about her inspiration for the piece, her interpretation of "trailblazing," and plus you get see her painting in action!

Woo! Go Seal go!

Paper Hat Productions Features: Monkey + Seal

Only 2 days left until the Out of Place Art Riot Extravaganza!

As the curators and participants in the upcoming Out of Place group show, it's time to feature: Monkey + Seal :P

First off is the ever talented Eve Skylar (aka Seal) who is an amazing painter/concept artist/illustrator who is 50% of the Paper Hat Production team.

Hailing originally from Long Beach, California, this feisty artist cites classic literature, contemporary Japanese environment artists, and social issues as her inspiration.

Using extensive reference and research, Seal meticulously paints her captivating backgrounds, often with a sense of mystery and loneliness. She'll be the first to tell you that her paintings (along with research) have taken upwards of 50 hours to complete, but all that time is definitely worth it!

The other 50% of Paper Hat Productions is Rick Kitagawa (aka Monkey), who is an painter and illustrator that looks to pop culture, internet memes, and issues that affect the Asian American population as inspiration for his often humorous critiques on life.

Examining the interplay between text and image, Rick often enjoys giving a voice to the subjects of his paintings, whether it be inanimate objects, mythical creatures, or figures who are sometimes obviously upset with the way they are painted.

Additionally, as a printmaker, Rick enjoys exploring different mediums, and his combination of screenprinting with interactive sculpture will be on display at the gallery.

We'll see you in a few days!

Reminder + Process: Coloring in Photoshop

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First off, as a reminder, our very talented Seal has been invited to showcase her artwork at the Saida Glide fundraiser event tonight at Sugar Cafe (679 Sutter St. at Taylor) in San Francisco. There is a fashion show at 9:30, but the event goes from 7pm til 2am. We'll be there from 7 til at least 11pm, networking, trying to sell our art, drinking, and doing some drawing.


Seal will be selling some fine art archival prints (giclees) for $25 of two of her newest work , as well as the original painting for the swamp house for $325 (or for $375 framed). Monkey might also go guerrilla-style (or is it gorilla style?) and sell some small prints and stuff for kicks (he'll have to wait and see how things are there).

Hopefully you'll stop on by and say hi!

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So today's Saturday process post is by Monkey. He'll be briefly explaining the basics of coloring in photoshop.

Hi everyone! So today I'll be explaining a bit how to do color a scanned line drawing in Adobe Photoshop. Examples of work I've done (and stuff that is suited for this sort of digital painting are things like:
and Notice both are really graphic with mainly solid linework and flat color mixed in. The way one does this is you start with a line drawing (I tend to do mine in a sketchbook or on paper as I don't really like to draw digitally if I can help it) that you scan in. After you scan it in, I usually clean up the half-erased marks and play with the levels to get my lines darker.

Here's my cleaned-up line drawing for the Handmade Ho Down poster and flyer.

You can see in the scan above that I actually didn't draw the flag logo yet...the logo was created the same way as I did the poster/flyer, but since it was already done I didn't want to redraw it, I left the top of the big flagpole off (I inserted it later digitally). Sometimes this is good if you already have an image that you're planning to work in - for me, leaving spots obviously blank is a good reminder that something needs to go there.

So here's where you start setting up PS to make coloring easier. Assuming all your lines are connected perfectly in your scanned drawing, you could just use the color bucket to paint large flat areas in your drawing. However, if you zoom in, you'll see that it'll eat into some of your linework, leaving it jagged at times. Thus, this is my preferred method. It's not quite as quick, but you'll get smoother lines.

What you do is first, right-click (or ctrl-click for mac mouse users) on the background layer (which should have your image in it if you opened it up in photoshop to start painting). Click on the "duplicate layer" and create a "background copy." Then, drag it on top of your background layer. Now, select your background layer and create a new layer between them. Select the background copy. In the photo below, it's labeled "Layer 1." Go to the little drop-down menu above the layers palette and change the layer property from "normal" to "multiply."
What multiply does is literally multiply the colors from that layer with the colors on the layer below it. Thus, any white space on your background copy will show pure color beneath it. Any blacks will show black. This allows you to paint on the sandwiched layer without affecting your original drawing. The only drawback to this is that you can't really use your paint bucket since this layer that you are coloring in is just an empty layer. However, like I said, it preserves your line quality, so it's almost like a coloring book where the black lines always stay on top of your coloring.

You could just create a multiply layer underneath the background layer, but I like to have a copy of the original drawing in case I need to make changes. This way, I can edit the drawing on my copied layer, and if I don't like it, I can always go back to my original background layer, make a new copy, and start from the original drawing.

In the screencap below, you can see which layer I'm painting on. Also, I felt it was prudent to point out the brush setting I use. Since I paint with a tablet (to be honest, I don't know how you can do digital art with a mouse), I have shape dynamics on, with size jitter at 0% and it being controlled by pen pressure. This way, the harder I press the fatter the line (to the max pixel size that my brush is set to), and the lighter I press the finer the line. This replicates brush control in real life - if you want to make a thinner line, you just use the tip of the brush. I also have the minimum diameter set to 0 so that I can use very very faint brushstrokes to make tiny, thin lines.
Also, note that I'm currently painting in RGB mode. This is great if you never plan to print out your illustration, but if you want to print it, BEFORE you start, change the mode to CMYK. Believe me, it'll make everyone happier.


So, after a lot of coloring and adding text and resizing things and moving things around, the little octopus guy turned out like this:
I ended up painting in the flag for the big logo, and replaced the hand-drawn SF Etsy flag with the actual logo. I also extended the pole and added the Etsy logo.

Anyway, that's it for now, and if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll get to them as soon as we can. Also, don't forget to show up to the Handmade Ho Down on December 3rd to meet us in person, check out our art, and see the grand premier of Monkey's new silkscreened ties! Thanks for reading!

Come see Seal's art on Saturday!

This Saturday, November 14th, come and check out Seal's work in person at the Sugar Cafe from 7pm til 2am! Seal was invited to be a part of a group show put on by Saida, an organization that is working to raise awareness about the growing problem of homelessness in San Francisco and to raise funds to build a homeless shelter. Pretty darn spiffy, if you ask us!

There's even going to be a fireplace and a fashion show involved as well! There is a cover charge (that enters you into a raffle) if you are under 21, and if you are of drinking age, part of the profits from your booze will go to Glide, and awesome SF org fighting homelessness in the Tenderloin - plus there should be some great art for sale!

Seal will have a few pieces in the show (look for Eve Skylar's work) so definitely stop on by! Monkey will be on hand as well drinking and supporting the Seal.

Seal's Watercolor Illustration - Process

Seal is currently working on a watercolor illustration. This piece is titled "Looking for Noah," loosely inspired by the Noah's Ark story and Blacksad, a comic album series created by author Juan Diaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guardino. Juanjo Guardino's detective story features anthropomorphic animals in full watercolor illustrated panels.

Seal mainly wanted to convey the overall tone of low key bar lighting, facial expressions of the different characters, and "a moment" during an investigation. Seal had in mind a Chicago bar with mahogany counters.
Seal usually starts with small thumbnails for composition, that get enlarged into a detailed pencil drawing. The above stage was trying to decide lighting. In order to get the "old wooden bar" look, she mixed burnt umber, purline, and rose madder. That way she can also control value and temperature just by varying the degree of each color.


Seal's palette resembles the color wheel. It makes it easier to reach across the complimentary color to mute, cool, or darken a color.

Seal normally doesn't like to use masking fluid, but because the piece called for extreme highlights, she does masks some of the lighted edges on the characters and bottles before painting. If you rub some liquid hand soap on your brush before using masking fluid, it will preserve your brush and make it easier to clean the glue off. Once the colors are mixed, Seal layers monochromatic value using a big flat brush. Textures are layered with hard small brushes. The result is the top above illustration. Eventhough Seal likes this monochromatic piece, she eventually wants to glaze some muted greens and blues to make the piece much more richer in color.

Monkey + Seal Giveaway Raffle!

Hey everyone! Monkey + Seal recently saw our first holiday card display (yikes!) and got in the gift-giving mood. Sooo, we have decided to hold our first raffle! Yay for you! Yay for free stuff! What can you win? Good question!

The prizes are:
3rd place - A free copy of The Monkey Zine!
2nd place - A free copy each of The Monkey Zine, The Bad Date Zine Issue 1 & Issue 2!
1st place - Your choice of any single print of Seal/Eve's that's in the shop!
Grand Prize - Either a free "Cryptids at Night" serigraph by Monkey/Ri.S.K. (value of $75) or a $45 gift certificate to the store.

Woo hoo! We're giving away over $100 worth of stuff! If you're as excited as we are, know that the contest is going to end this Sunday at 11:59 PM PST, with winners announced here at the blog on a special Tuesday post!

Here's the scoop as to how to enter:
Fill out our survey for 5 entries!
Any purchases on our Etsy site from Friday til Sunday night (11:59pm PST) gets 5 entries!
You get 2 entries for following our blog!
Fan us on Facebook for 2 entries!
You get 2 entries for signing up for our newsletter (from the sidebar on our main site).
You get 1 entry for posting a link to your favorite item in our shop and telling us why in the comments below!
If you saw our twitter post about our contest, retweet it for 1 entry! (limit 1 RT per 3 hours).

That's 18 potential entries you can have! More if you're a twitter-a-holic! Also, if you're already a fan on FB, or are following are blog, you don't even have to do anything - we'll already count you in!

Soo, good luck everyone, and we hope to see such a flurry of Monkey + Seal activity that we can barely contain ourselves! Have a great weekend!