Paper Hat Productions Features: Francois Vigneault

Today's Paper Hat Productions' spotlight shines on the witty, ever-talented Francois Vigneault. One of the lead organizers of the San Francisco Zine Fest, this zine-producing, comic-creating, illustrator will be showing a series of illustrations painted on book covers, offering new takes on classic works of literature. Check out more of his awesome work over at his publishing company Family Style or at www.tourdefrancois.com.

Live painting!

Friday night, Monkey and Seal boarded the bus at 9pm with their easel, table, and acrylic paints for Hyphen Magazine's live painting at 111 Minna, SF.

With live painting and any engaging creative act, it is a constant feedback between the artist and its surrounding. There is often a lot of pressure to make something "amazing" in a couple of minutes. I don't know how many of the guests stayed for the entire night to see its progress, but the earlier guests only saw a blank canvas and some incoherent squiggle marks. Some audience members also approached with, "what the hell is that?" "where are you going with this?" And often, the artist themselves are unsure.

When good music came on, the paint and canvas connected. There were a couple of moments of crippling self-doubts, and I had to reign myself in and trust the movement and life of the art to come through.

Not quite what I had envisioned, but after 2 hours, this is what Seal came up with. Not too bad for the first live painting ever. Monkey was so supportive and Seal had so much fun. She is looking forward to the next one!

Stop by to see Seal Paint!

Hi all! Don't forget that you can see Seal in action once again doing a live painting show with the ever talented Lawrence Yang at Hyphen's Issue 19 release party: the Blaze of Glory! Monkey will also be on hand selling Seal's prints and his ties, so be sure to check it out!

The show is at 111 Minna, and starts at 9pm. Seal should start painting around 9:30-10pm. Cover is $10, but if you pay $20, you also get a 1 year subscription! Cool beans! You can check out Hyphen's FB event page for more info.

Paper Hat Productions Features: Alyss Estay

Featuring Alyss Estay
She is an incredibly creative, talented and articulate artist. Her fine arts serigraphs have those hard-to-execute beautiful gradient washes, subtly-mixed muted palettes, and innovative scenes. And all of it is screenprinted! To produce something of this detailed caliber takes an unbelievable amount of accuracy in registration.

We are happy to have her on our March gallery show. March 12th 8pm at SPACE Gallery, 1141 Polk St.




If you are connected on Facebook, you can RSVP here.

Paper Hat Production features: Alexander Shen!

Today we'll have a little spotlight on Alexander Shen, the comic mastermind behind comics such as Robot in the City and Capesville, as well as fun little games found under the umbrella of Shen Games.

Also a talented singer/songwriter, Alexander likes to "spend most of his time dabbling and less of his time dobbling." You can usually catch Mr. Shen at the Alternative Press Expo, APAture, and most recently at the Giant Robot SF Print show. Anyhoo, please check out his plethora of sites (I'd recommend starting with his blog) and enjoy the hours of comic goodness he's got to offer!

See you on the 12th!

Seal's Live Painting!

Woooo! February is turning out to be such a busy month for Monkey + Seal! We apologize for the lack of process posts, but so many freelance projects and events are popping up, we're struggling just to keep up!

Seal has just confirmed that she'll be doing some live painting at Hyphen Magazine's latest issue's Release Party! It's the big bash at 111 Minna for Issue #19, the Trailblazing Issue, on Friday, February 26 (the night before the Pop N' Shop).

Anyway, Monkey will be on hand selling our wondrous merch and supporting Seal's first live painting event! We'd love for familiar faces (and not-so familiar faces) to stop by and say hello! We hope to see you there!

Half-birthdays + Noise Pop N' Shop

Monkey + Seal buddy Molly is having her Half-Birthday today! We thought the idea was so cute and fun that perhaps Monkey + Seal might adopt the idea of the half-birthday party: you have a smaller, "half" birthday on your actual birthday, as well as a party for 6 months from you birthday.

This concept could be super awesome for kids who have birthdays in the summer (Monkey knows this shafting by school systems all too well), as well as for kids who have birthdays during the winter, especially if your birthday falls within a few days of the commercial juggernaut of Christmas (like Monkey's younger brother).

Additionally, let us remind you to keep next Saturday (not tomorrow, but the 27th) open for the Noise Pop N' Shop! Yay! We'll be selling from 12pm-5pm in the Verde Club on Mariposa in SF! We hope to see you all there!