Dan Bones!

so, my camera got stomped on real good during a Concussion set back in May, and blogging about stuff just isn’t as fun when you don’t have the photos to back it up. here’s a handful that i’ve scavenged from friends (and my scanner). New tattoo work!

all kindsa new stuff lately. click each image for the larger version.

Hand of Doom

11×14″ micron pen on strathmore watercolor paper. pretty stoked on this one.

Homage to Jean Toutin part II

9×12″ princeton liner brushes on Arches watercolor paper. liner brushes are a whooooole new process, but its a pretty necessary skill. this is a remake of Jean Toutin’s 17th century blackwork print done as a painting.

Six Pack Hustle

quick commission for a friend of mine for an upcoming race. still looking for a beer sponsor. get in touch if you’ve got any leads! danbones@danbones.com

new piece i’ve been working on for …quite a while now. i’m really happy with the end result though. i’m pitching this as the cover artwork for the Revolta/Concussion split 7″ that’s currently in the works.

the image is initially based of of my own irrational fears; amputation and wasps. from there, it deals with the sting of disloyalty and subsequently being rendered useless (armless). if i may be so candid, a lotta people that are very important to me have been royally screwing me over lately. so i draw stuff about it. enjoy.

also, Concussion’s “Dried Blood” EP is off getting mastered right now, but we’ve posted the mixed tracks up online at http://myspace.com/concussionbk. give it a listen ‘n come see us rock out ‘n stuff.

its been a while since i’ve actually drawn anything without it becoming a tattoo or a show flier.

this was the first time i’ve done a piece like this and only used one piece of paper instead of 50 sheets of tracing paper or graph paper. usually i’ll just composite everything in photoshop, but i just sorta went for it here. i borrowed pretty heavily from Durer, Gorey, and pretty blatantly reused imagery from a piece i did last year, but i think i finally made something in this style i’ve been going for that isn’t too cartoony.

also, there’s a piece that goes with this i wanna have done this week, and hopefully both are gonna be used as album artwork for the EP my band Concussion just recorded.

I started this piece while we were up in Mass. recording at Dead Air Studios and the image came together pretty organically with the music. I’m really pleased with how it came out in general, but overall i’m just really happy to be drawing again.

More on recording later!

my tattoo work is comin’ along. thanks so much to my friends for being so supportive! hopefully i’ll have more to post soon. In the meantime, my band Concussion is playing at Union Pool Feb. 20th with Misery Index, Magrudergrind and our friends Mutant Supremacy, playing at Europa on the 23rd with Acrassicauda, and then recording in March at Dead Air Studios in MA. rock ‘n roll ‘n stuff.

It has recently come to my attention that I’m not gonna be young forever. Someday, I’m gonna have to actually act like an adult. When i turned 25, i decided that i needed to come up with some decent Five Year Plans so’s i wouldn’t wind up a no-account, good for nothing, scoundrel, drunkard, scumbag man-child by the time i hit 30. somewhere on that list - between “millionaire” and “town mayor” - i decided i was going to become a tattoo artist. Steady work, good pay, lots of travel, fulfillment of art school dreams…

Well, its been a little over a year since, and I have my full rig set up and I’ve been steadily working on grapefruit, pigskin, and willing friends alike, as well as moonlighting as shop assistant at my friend Nate’s new tattoo shop, Thicker Than Water.

I can’t say i’m any closer to being the actual adult i aspire to be, but damn it, I’m gonna be a tattoo artist one of these days. Here’s what I’ve gotten done in the past few weeks. Click the pictures for larger images.

click on each piece for the full sized image.

Deth King

Thom Smith, one of my best friends and the drummer for my band Haunted Castle, taught me how to carve linoleum blocks and how to hand pull prints from them on high quality paper. the top image, “Deth King” is a print from my first block. 3×4″ on RFK creme paper. email me at Danbones@danbones.com if you’d like a print, i’ve got a bunch just sitting around.

HasiBGB’s - Dick Jones

Next up is the second collaborative piece between myself and Nick James, better known as Dick Jones. This was the flier artwork for a house party at my apartment (now known best as HasiBGB’s), where I did the linework and Nick did the watercolor work. Nick is one of my favorite artists currently active right now. He also moved to SLC and i miss the hell out of him.

Eastern Goldfinch Wedding

The third image here are the the Eastern Goldfinches with the absurdly floral patterned background. i love love love this piece, and i’m really glad i committed to completing it. This was a wedding present for my step brother Gary, and the Goldfinches are the state bird of New Jersey to represent the best the state has to offer, and the pink peonies are a blessing for a long and happy marriage. I was pretty happy with how this one came out.

Flying Death

Not to dwell on Thom Smith or anything, but the last image is my submission for Thom’s zine, Submit To Satan. This is for the first issue, which has 17 artists from all around the world contributing all sorts of metal themed artwork. I’m really stoked I got to be a part of it, and I’m dying to see the ‘zine when its finished.

Ok, now I’ll dwell on Thom. The dude is one of my best friends in New York and he’s moving to Japan in a week. This means my band Haunted Castle is breaking up, but it also means that two of my closest friends have moved out of the city in the past year. Its not that I’m hard up on friends or nothin’, I’m just awful at travelling to visit friends and keeping in touch in general.
So, we’re having our farewell show at my house (HasiBGB’s) this saturday, 1/09/10 as Thom’s going away party and one last boozed up thrash fest for a band that finally got its shit together and doesn’t suck. so come on over!

I AM BAD AT HOSTING A BLOG. I HAVE WRITTEN NOTHING IN OVER TWO MONTHS.

this ain’t the first time, neither. what am i gonna do with you, blog? how do i explain what i been up to? let’s start from the top:

i’m now in two bands and easily spend half my week playing music, I got hired as an animator for a small project in May for Ride5 Media group in Hoboken, NJ, and have since completed my first professional animation project for “The Edge with Jake Sasseville”, i got the HELL out of new york and went to Berlin and Prague for a week, i started getting into block printing and have since pulled some sweet looking prints, and about fiiiive hundred other things that are keeping me as busy as ever.

i’ll start with music, that’s easiest.

Haunted Castle has been playing shows like nuts. we’re getting louder, angrier, better at playing our instruments, and finally coming into our own as a legit thrash band.

i’ll elaborate on everything else later. I’ve been drawing every day still, and i have some rad stuff in the works for the future. sorry i ain’t been updatin’ you, blog. but you’ll live. more fun stuff to come.

-bones

Man, I ain’t posted nothin’ in over a month! I’ve been busy. Also, i get about six to eight spam comments on this thing per day lately, and its a total buzzkill. Anyway, lemme recap the past few weeks:

Haunted Castle is playing a Burlesque Show.

We played a house party with Japanther.

And we’ve got new artwork in progress.

In other news, I got a postcard in the mail from Dave Kloc, who is an amazing illustrator in LA. He and I are doing an art trade, and this is what i got from him.

I’d post up my end of the bargain, but I’m a terrible person and haven’t mailed it yet. it came out pretty rad though. Hopefully its worth the wait.

Also, I’m an animator now! I’ve been hired by a company called Ride5 Media in Hoboken to be their animator on a project they’ve got in the works. I started last week, and I’ve been doing a ton of character design and workin’ fairly furiously over in NJ. They’re treating me super well, and I should have some awesome work to add to my demo reel down the road…

So, I’ve got a few commissions i desperately need to finish up in the near future, new artwork i’ve been crankin’ out pretty regularly I’ll post soon, new Haunted Castle shows in the near future, and I’m goin’ to Berlin in June! I’m goin’ to visit my friend Kat for a week, draw a ton of stuff, drink a ton of beer and I’m even gonna Czech out Prague while i’m there. …sorry.
Kat rules, and I’m pretty thrilled to get the helllll outta new york for a hot minute.

ok. more soon.

So, I’ve got five different drawings i wanna get done within the next week, and I sorta fell into a rut where I’m getting NONE of them done. I’ve also spent the entire week completely out of it. I’ve been in sleepwalk mode for like five days straight now. Total suck. I got this done though.

However! Its been a fairly eventful week anyway, especially when it comes to rockin’ out. First off, Thom ‘n I went to see Converge last friday night. I’ve been trying to see this band for SEVEN YEARS now, and i finally did. Completely blew me away. Say what you want about this band, but this was one of the best live sets I’ve ever seen. They played “The Saddest Day”, they played new stuff, and they covered “Wolverine Blues” by Entombed! Entombed!!! Oh, and Thom ‘n I were in total Booze Tornado mode. Trouble/adventures everywhere.

Monday night, Haunted Castle finished writing our 4th song, sans Doug and vocals.

Haunted Castle - “G.F.T.D. (A.G.T.H.)” rough practice - 033009 from Dan Bones on Vimeo.
We’ve got a pretty solid setlist right now, and I’m extremely amped for our next show, which is in two weeks at the Charleston.

We’re playing with Nanda Devi from Portland, who are super heavy doom metal, and We Are All Savages, who are good friends of ours, and tear stuff up pretty hard. Do me a favor and repost this damned flyer.

WAAS also played Fontana’s in the Lower East Side on Wednesday night, and I took a ton of photos.



They also did an amazing His Hero is Gone cover.

We Are All Savages - Fontana’s - 4/1/09 from Dan Bones on Vimeo.

As if that wasn’t enough of these dudes, Jack Crank also interviewed singer/guitarist Junior for No Gods No Vegetables

Aaaaand to round out things nicely, THE SLEEPIES ARE PLAYING TOMORROW NIGHT!

Stupid jerk lovable bastards. It’s Josh’s birthday soon, so come out tomorrow night and throw beer cans at these guys extra hard. Circle Pits everywhere!