Yay! Valentine’s day is almost here. Ya… I’m not a fan either. I hated it when I was single and even now when I’m happily married and things are good, I still think it’s a stupid ‘holiday’. And lucky for me, the Mrs feels the same way. (You noticed I said happily married right?) So we don’t really celebrate it. Maybe dinner but never gifts. Unless they’re hand made.

We can’t do dinner this year as she’s away for work. So I ended up making her a mixtape she could take with her on her trip. It’s full of old school soul and r&b. She loves that kinda stuff. So do I, but I’m more into the older stuff. (Ya ya. I know…)

Anyway I tried to keep the whole mix pre 1980. But one or two later tracks may have snuck in there. Everything else is pretty old school. A bunch of classics, some songs that have been sampled a lot, and few gems you may have never heard before. I’m really starting to love this era of music.

You can stream the songs below or download the whole mixtape. So whether you love or hate Valentine’s, at the least give your ears something sweet to listen to.

Building Castles in the Sky

And Yes. The painting/cover is totally inspired by Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. It’s one of my fav paintings ever and I’ve always wanted to do my own interpretation of it. More on that soon.

I saw this picture of Summer & Seth kissing and couldn’t get over it. Their body language was lovely and I especially loved their feet.

I wasn’t really sure what to do with the background and then Boy Meets Girl’s “Waiting for a Star to Fall” came on the radio. And well, the lyrics fit kinda perfectly for what I was feeling and going for, so they went up as the background.

I’m still learning and figuring out the best way to use a fountain pen for inking but I really love how the feet, shoes & jeans came out.

It’s been rainy lately and I wasn’t feeling too well so I wasn’t going out anywhere this weekend. Instead, I spent a lot of time listening to music and playing with water colors.

One of the artists I listened to a lot this weekend (and have been into a lot lately in general actually) is Terry Callier. His song “You’re Gonna Miss Your Candyman“ has always been one of my favorites but his album What Color is Love? was on almost all weekend for me. It’s nice soft folk jazzy goodness was a pretty nice soundtrack to the rainy grey days.

One of the things I especially love about the What Color is Love? album is the cover art. I had been wanting to play with painting water colors a little differently. Use less lines and details and let the paint do most of the work. Reinterpreting the album cover was a perfect way to test it out.

I did a simple line drawing of the woman in the chair and then just kinda went at it with the paints. I tried to paint fast and not think about it too much. I focused on color values, shadows and lighting.

I’m not too happy with how the yellow stands out but overall, I like the direction this is going.

A custom one off Heart Attack shirt I made for a friend a while back. Hand drew the bomber. Then cut out the hearts from felt and stitched them on to the shirt. I loved this shirt. But I gave it away almost as soon as it was done cause Yonaton gave my wife an amazing hair cut/style.

I used WordPress as the content management system and designed a simple theme for the site design. Added in some Facebook & sharing plugins and it was ready to go. She does all the content and I help out with the photos occasionally. Now, I’m mostly just the taste tester. Which is more than fine with me.

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