Calaca-A-Day 365 Project - Day 2 - Max

Day 2 - +Max Rubenacker

For anyone I draw - you are more than welcome or rather encouraged to right click - save as download these, color and play with them if you so desire.

This 365 project was started because I have now been drawing people as skulls for three years so I think I am ready to do it daily. Having just finished a 366 mail art project having a few days off the the middle was odd and I just wanted to just right back into a daily project so here I am again. I still have plenty of space if you would like to be featured as a page. Follow the directions here.

Wenchkin's Calaca-A-Day 365 Project - Day 1

Day 1 - MJ Cartoonist +Michael Pohrer
What better way to kick off a 365 project drawing peers from Google Plus than to start with anther fun artist. This is my skeletonized take on his profile picture.

For anyone I draw - you are more than welcome or rather encouraged to right click - save as download these, color and play with them if you so desire.

This 365 project was started because I have now been drawing people as skulls for three years so I think I am ready to do it daily. Having just finished a 366 mail art project having a few days off the the middle was odd and I just wanted to just right back into a daily project so here I am again. I still have plenty of space if you would like to be featured as a page. Follow the directions here.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Dia de los Snowman

I was asked for a sugar skull snowman. Not having been something I had drawn before I kicked the idea around a bit and finally came up with this.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Rankin Bass Santa Tribute

Over on Google Plus Charles Dowd started a page for #drawallthesantas and a call out for all artists to play along and add their version of santa. In my wanting to play I decided to do a little Rankin Bass Rudolph style Santa action. For no real reason after the fact I thought hey, I should have made that a coloring page. I do that here since it is easier to click on the image and grab the full size.
So blam

click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color 

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - HK Bond

So often when you crowd source asking what people want they toss you a bunch of ideas. Yesterday I got Hello Kitty, James Bond and Dragons. As a joke I *almost rolled all three into one page. Instead today I ditched my normal sugar skull effect to do a simple Hello Kitty meet James Bond movie intro fan art of sorts.

click the picture to enlarge, right click to save as and color.

Dia de los Turkey

Happy Holiday Everyone and I am thankful for everyone that has joined me over the last year on my little corner of the interwebs.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Hello Calacathulhu

So crowd sourcing this week brought me a theme - tentacles.
So this week I will have two tentacly themed pages for you, this second one was asked for as tentacled creatures. The first thing that came to mind - cthulhu then for added fun I thought I would run off of my own version of the Hello Cthulhu for Mz Maau

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Skele-Squidward

So crowd sourcing this week brought me a theme - tentacles.
So this week I will have two tentacly themed pages for you, this first one was asked for I believe because of the Spongebob Page I did last week


Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Falling Leaves

This last page was also crowd sourced by Mz Maau. I almost did not post it since I am unhappy with the top right leaf but the other two I am ok with so I am going to let it fly none the less. That is the fun part of crowd sourcing, I get answers I often do not want to attempt but do it anyway to push myself out of my comfort level and leaves are one of those. I am not so hot with the nature.

click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Spongebob Calacapants

The second coloring page for this week is the linework for the Spongebob I drew that everyone seemed to like so much. You can stop stealing* the small version off my pages to color and just use the nice full size one here.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.










*quick note about this. I do this for free for friends, family and those that just love to color. My images are free for you to use to play with but not make money off of. That should kind of go without saying but as I joke about people stealing my images, sadly it has happened. Be cool. Ask if you want to use something of mine elsewhere.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Viva Pufnstuf

This week I will have three coloring pages for you. The first crowd sourced from my mom who wanted to see some H.R. Pufnstuff stuff.

click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's 365 Calaca-a-day project sign up sheet.

Morning all. My current 366 project is just over 30 days from completion. With that I sat and thought, do I want to keep it going? Do a new 365? I finally made up my mind. Since starting the 366 mail project my morning routine now involves art and coffee and I am not ready to break that habit having the year end project come to a close. So I thought for next year I am going to switch from 366 mail art to a 365
Calaca-A-Day.

What I propose to do - draw a person a day in my signature sugar skull style. These will be 4x5 black and whites like the examples I have shown. I will be uploading them here daily to my blog starting on Christmas Day.

If you would like to be drawn as a part of this project, here is what you need to know. You must leave a comment here stating your desire to be drawn along with a few other things.

Your comment MUST contain;

• a link to your google plus profile or to a picture of yourself for use in the project (no facebook)
• the name which you would like to have your picture listed as

I base all my drawings off pictures, I only take requests for you, not someone you know or are bumping uglies with. Send them to make their own request please. No couples or animals. I will not use this info to sell, spam you or anything of that nature. I want to maintain comments here as an easy list for me to work off of daily. If you feel uncomfortable leaving info in comments I understand but please leave a comment as a place marker then e-mail me your info to wenchkin@gmail.com if that makes you feel better. I will simply work off the list in order so first comment will go on christmas day and so on from there. It does not matter if I have drawn you before or not since this will be it's own new series outside of whatever play I did before.

They will look much like these.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Parade People #5

  So it has become a tradition of mine to paint my face and go to my local Dia de los Muertos parade. It was this past Sunday and I had the most wonderful time. I thought for this week's round of coloring pages I thought I would illustrate a few of the folks I saw at the parade.

  Now I am NOT a photographer but you can see the full set of parade pictures I took here. 

click on the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.

I also do not know these people. If you do, please make them aware of this series. If for some reason someone does NOT want a coloring page of their parade picture up just let me know and I will remove it. I am not making money of these they are simply for fun and because I thought your makeup rocked and I wanted to be able to capture that memory a bit longer.

Parade People Coloring Page #1
Parade People Coloring Page #2
Parade People Coloring Page #3
Parade People Coloring Page #4

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Parade People #4

  So it has become a tradition of mine to paint my face and go to my local Dia de los Muertos parade. It was this past Sunday and I had the most wonderful time. I thought for this week's round of coloring pages I thought I would illustrate a few of the folks I saw at the parade.

  Now I am NOT a photographer but you can see the full set of parade pictures I took here. 

click on the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.

I also do not know these people. If you do, please make them aware of this series. If for some reason someone does NOT want a coloring page of their parade picture up just let me know and I will remove it. I am not making money of these they are simply for fun and because I thought your makeup rocked and I wanted to be able to capture that memory a bit longer.

Parade People Coloring Page #1
Parade People Coloring Page #2
Parade People Coloring Page #3

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Parade People #3

  So it has become a tradition of mine to paint my face and go to my local Dia de los Muertos parade. It was this past Sunday and I had the most wonderful time. I thought for this week's round of coloring pages I thought I would illustrate a few of the folks I saw at the parade. This one is based off a photo of Scott and myself just before we left the house to go to the parade.

  Now I am NOT a photographer but you can see the full set of parade pictures I took here. 

click on the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.

I also do not know these people. If you do, please make them aware of this series. If for some reason someone does NOT want a coloring page of their parade picture up just let me know and I will remove it. I am not making money of these they are simply for fun and because I thought your makeup rocked and I wanted to be able to capture that memory a bit longer.

Parade People Coloring Page #1
Parade People Coloring Page #2

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Parade People #2

  So it has become a tradition of mine to paint my face and go to my local Dia de los Muertos parade. It was this past Sunday and I had the most wonderful time. I thought for this week's round of coloring pages I thought I would illustrate a few of the folks I saw at the parade.

  Now I am NOT a photographer but you can see the full set of parade pictures I took here. 

click on the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.

I also do not know these people. If you do, please make them aware of this series. If for some reason someone does NOT want a coloring page of their parade picture up just let me know and I will remove it. I am not making money of these they are simply for fun and because I thought your makeup rocked and I wanted to be able to capture that memory a bit longer.

Parade People Coloring Page #1

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Parade People #1

  So it has become a tradition of mine to paint my face and go to my local Dia de los Muertos parade. It was this past Sunday and I had the most wonderful time. I thought for this week's round of coloring pages I thought I would illustrate a few of the folks I saw at the parade.

  Now I am NOT a photographer but you can see the full set of parade pictures I took here. 

click on the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.



I also do not know these people. If you do, please make them aware of this series. If for some reason someone does NOT want a coloring page of their parade picture up just let me know and I will remove it. I am not making money of these they are simply for fun and because I thought your makeup rocked and I wanted to be able to capture that memory a bit longer.

Cheap Halloween Costume - Challenge Accepted

  So I thought I would roll my Halloween costume idea for this year into a mini tutorial with a bunch of masks so if the idea of what I am doing appeals to you then run with it. It could have been done much better. I used what I had on hand in the house. If I was going to do it again I would buy two spools of black ribbon and a little bit wider this time. So this is what I started with, a pair of old thermal underwear, a spool of ribbon, hot glue gun and some scissors.

  I did not step by step this since I literally just glued on what I thought stick figure lines should look like. You can make yours different, use what you have and do what you think might be fun. This is just an idea to help get your juices going.

  Memes- I joke about them all the time. The stick figure costume imho can go with ANY meme mask. I am going to attach the Dia de los Meme masks I made for fun. You are more than welcome to photoshop out my muerto lines, color them, seek other masks. That is up to you.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them. Right click save as to print and cut out.

And here are a few pictures of me making a fool out of myself in said outfit.

 

Why I draw people as skulls.

  Much like the What is a Tank-O-Lantern? post, on occasion I feel the need to write blog posts explaining things I do to better educate those around me. This is going to be another one of those. The most heart breaking thing for me is to have people look at one of my calacas and call them ugly or scary. They are not intended to be and why I feel the need to write this for those interested in the why.

  To start the largest influence on my work is The Day of the Dead. Once I was introduced to the parade here I was instantly fixated with the holiday. This was the first time I had seen death embraced or as Zarco Guerrero states so well in this video we metaphorically dance with death every day why not embrace it and live a healthier life free of fear of it. I found Jose Guadalupe Posada  and instantly fell in love. I myself am not going to talk alot about the holiday itself, I left you all the linkage you could want peppered in here to keep my wordage down.
 

 So needless to say I started emulating this style, mostly just dancing skeletons and sugar skulls. I also started painting my face and going to the parade every year. I go bringing something from the people I lost over the previous year. I also started memorializing those I lost in pictures of them as if painted to march in the parade with me. It was the best way I knew to honor them.

  In all the people I have loved and lost there was one that took her life. This left me reeling for far longer than I thought it should have. I drew her in my grief. The thing that struck me the most was how much she loved my art and how the best illustration of her I ever made she would never see. This rolled in my mind over and over mixed with other thoughts and beliefs of life. Previous to having lost her I had been trying to make it a point in my life to tell those around me how much they mean to me before I loose them. She knew I thought she was amazing but is not the point. It struck me that there was no reason that I could not celebrate those around me in life and draw them now and not have this amazing illustration project I started become something driven only of grief as that is the opposite of how the calaca is typically seen. It is lighthearted, fun. I started to think of it more as painting the faces of my friends as if going to the parade with me in life. People loved it. I do still draw memorial calacas for those I have lost but it is in celebration of the life they lived and how awesome they are.

  So yes it kills me when people come in and start saying these are scary.
These are my friends, family, my trolls, my fans, these are people I love, like, respect. 

That is why I draw them as skulls. They ask for it as they want to symbolically dance with death with me. Not because we are death obsessed, evil or any other nonsense. 

Because fun. A better reason than because potato. 

Wenchkin's 366 project is ending soon. Did YOU get some?

  There are certain things I do not blog here simply because I blog them elsewhere. One being my 366 Mail Art project. I originally decided to start it over on my brand new Google Plus page since unlike Facebook I was not going to be stuck at an image limit of 200 photos per folder. That is not even close to enough for a 366 project and I did not want to split it up. It can be found in it's entirety right here. For those that for some reason do not like Google Plus I also do blog the whole project over on Modern Rosies.

  I have less than two months left of this project. I have never put out a mail call on my blog for no real reason. So I thought I would offer to you, our readers a chance for a piece of my 366 Mail Art project before it is over. I do not sell your address, spam you or anything of the sort.
  I do have a few rules, or rather one. I only send mail to you. Not your kid, your better half, someone else you know. If you yourself would like a card I need to email me a physical mailing address to wenchkin@gmail.com.
  Please do not add addresses to comments or email addresses for me to write you. I keep one folder in gmail for all my mailing list addresses and I work off it hence why I want you to mail me there.
  So 53 days means 53 more cards will go out before the project ends.

 
People I have mailed in the past - Do I have your current address? Did you move?
Send me your new digits.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Dia de los Hipster Skull Mask

I saw Mike Searle recently doing some masks for fun on Google Plus and thought, man it has been ages since I made a mask. Since Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner from Halloween I thought I would make a few Sugar Skull masks for you to print, cutout and color for fun.

There are four others, the Stache Skull, regular Sugar Skull, Sugar Skull Mask with Roses, and Women's Calaca Mask

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color
For the masks it would hold up better if you printed them on a heavier card stock.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Women's Calaca Mask

I saw Mike Searle recently doing some masks for fun on Google Plus and thought, man it has been ages since I made a mask. Since Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner from Halloween I thought I would make a few Sugar Skull masks for you to print, cutout and color for fun.

There are three others, the Stache Skull, regular Sugar Skull, and Sugar Skull Mask with Roses

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color
For the masks it would hold up better if you printed them on a heavier card stock.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Sugar Skull Mask with Roses

I saw Mike Searle recently doing some masks for fun on Google Plus and thought, man it has been ages since I made a mask. Since Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner from Halloween I thought I would make a few Sugar Skull masks for you to print, cutout and color for fun.
There are two others, the Stache Skull and a regular Sugar Skull

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color
For the masks it would hold up better if you printed them on a heavier card stock.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Moustached Sugar Skull Mask

I saw Mike Searle recently doing some masks for fun on Google Plus and thought, man it has been ages since I made a mask. Since Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner from Halloween I thought I would make a few Sugar Skull masks for you to print, cutout and color for fun.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color
For the masks it would hold up better if you printed them on a heavier card stock.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Sugar Skull Mask

I saw Mike Searle recently doing some masks for fun on Google Plus and thought, man it has been ages since I made a mask. Since Dia de los Muertos is right around the corner from Halloween I thought I would make a few Sugar Skull masks for you to print, cutout and color for fun.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color
For the masks it would hold up better if you printed them on a heavier card stock.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Dia de los Patsy

I started this sketch awhile back and for some reason put it down. Rediscovering it today I decided to finish it and add it in as a coloring page for fun. Why? Because I loved Absolutely Fabulous and Patsy.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color.

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Jack-O-Lanterns

I crowed sourced ideas as usual. Circus and pizza came up and I just could not get into the swing of either. Since it is October I figured I would fall back on what I know and love. Pumpkins.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color. 

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Mini Mom

This was taken from a picture of my mom as a little girl.

click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

And here is one with the skull features and background blacked in for fun

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Dia de los Hot Air Balloon

Here locally we are right smack in the middle of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Talking to J.L. Btwee the other day I realized I had never seen a skull balloon and we thought someone should change that. Me being poor have only my dreams...
Well and a pen, I do not have money to go make a skull balloon but I can make a coloring page for fun and dream. Enjoy

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Sugar Skull Bear

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save-as to print and color

Month in Review - September

Ok, ok, this is really late in the coming but better late than never.

Scott has two things going on.
1. He got a new camera. A real one. Now to learn how to use it.
2. He is working his way through painting his characters one by one on a whole ream of card stock. He is crunching through it much faster then I thought he would.

Me, gearing up for HALLOWEEN!
I have added so many new coloring pages I am not going to list them individually, click the link.
I already have an ongoing 366 mail art project that can be found here...

but for fun since we have so many tanks I am doing a mini project on Google Plus of
30 days of stuff glowing on our porch.

Together we thought it would be a good idea to sit down and write a post called
What is a Tank-O-Lantern? Since so many people ask  what it is and how we make them.

For the record, Scott and I no longer use Facebook but we can both be found daily playing on Google Plus. If you are on Plus come play with us Scott's page and My Page

As usual we did turn around and list a whole new line of Halloween tanks, 13 of them to be exact.
That collection can be found for sale here in our store.

If for some reason it is just not in your budget this Halloween season to buy one of our tanks, we do understand that. So in conjunction with Skull-A-Day  we are giving one away!
Click this link and leave a comment on the original blog post

Seriously, Go NOW!!!! Now! Contest ends Oct 10th. You have less than two days! Just do it!

we are giving away this bad boy, you know you want it so hurry on over. 

Expect a lot more fun coming up this Halloween / Dia de los Muertos season!

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Skeletal Big Bird

  I know I was not due for another coloring page til tuesday but I did not feel like sitting on this on until then. So enjoy.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color

Wenchkin's Coloring Pages - Skeletal Masquerade

A bonus page for sun today. Partly due to the fact the first page I posted lacked any skulls.

Click the picture to enlarge, right click save as to print and color