But this is an exceptionally good reason to change that rule.

The first drawing is the first Kiskaloo thing I ever did.  I wanted to see if I could draw that cat and ink him successfully.   I tried for a couple of weeks.  Then I got it right.

Kiskaloo ink

This is actually a good size for hanging on your wall.  Or as a placemat.

The second drawing is a pencil sketch I did for my Sketchbook 2.  I liked the way this came out, and since I don’t get that much time to draw, any art from me is relatively rare.  Again, this is pretty good-sized.  At least one person in America has this tattooed on their calf.  Their lower leg that is, not a young bovine friend.

Tattoo girl 1

And…(and this is the important part) you should know that if for some reason these aren’t your thing, go to the links anyway, and click the ’see other items’ button.  Because there are some once-in-a-lifetime drawings and paintings being offered for sale.  And if you aren’t interested in any of them, you should know that someone out there is, and will thank you for spreading the word about this auction.

Links -

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tattoo-Girl-Original-Drawing-by-CHRIS-SANDERS_W0QQitemZ250569849839QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a57207bef

and

http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-KISKALOO-Comic-Art-by-CHRIS-SANDERS_W0QQitemZ250569846648QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a57206f78

There’s a Charles Schultz drawing offered, for goodness sake.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Peanuts-Charlie-Brown-Art-by-CHARLES-SCHULZ_W0QQitemZ250566071183QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a56e6d38f

The prototype

The first big hold-up was the skirt.  The old nodders from the 50’s had a cloth fringe that was probably used for drapes and chairs. The soft fringe was the perfect accompaniment to the soft features of the hula girls. But after several trips to the garment district, I could only come up with one fringe that was thick and full enough for a skirt, and it was unfortunately too short, as you can see by the picture. It wasn’t just too short aesthetically, but the fringe is also there to hide the wide gap in the girl’s legs that will be cut out for the spring. As you can see, this isn’t going to work for that.  The other problem was cost – they were going to be expensive at the numbers I was intending to make, and thus the whole thing went on the back burner till I had more time to devote to the project.

But its back on now.  I am planning on a run of only 150 to 200.  They will be cast in resin, and thus will have more detail than the vinyl girl from two years ago.  The resin will also give them the weight they will need for the spring to work.  As for the fringe, I’ll just move forward and hope something can be turned up.  The smaller run will compensate for the final cost.

But there is something else I’ve been wanting to do with this…

Prototype Mark II

This is the prototype for a huge version of the dashboard hula girl.  It will be an exact duplicate of the normal one, but at around three feet tall.  It will be fiberglass, and the four or five finished pieces will be hand painted by myself.  They will be scaled up versions of the smaller in all aspects, even down to the spring, which we’ll have to do a little research on in order to get the action just right.  The base will need to be weighted with sand to accommodate the spring action.  Who would buy such a thing?  I’m frankly not sure.  I’m hoping a gallery or two in Hawaii might sell them for me.  Or even someone here in Los Angeles.

Side view

Reverse angle

To answer a couple of questions up front, I’m not sure what the final price of one of these is going to be.  Just making the first one is likely to run to between six to eight thousand dollars.  I’m planning on making four or five, but the first one is likely to be sawed apart and used to engineer the balance weights and spring placement.  Even if I make five all total, I’ll probably be charging around three thousand dollars for each.  The skirts will be custom made, and I’ll start figuring out how to do all that in the next couple of weeks.  I’d like to have a traditional woven grass skirt, only using synthetic grasses so it retains it’s texture.

Do I think these will sell?  Hell no.  I really don’t expect to sell one, so I’ll probably end up with an expensive set of giant wobbling garden hula gnomes.  At least it will be easy for people to find my house.

The wondrous Nicolette Davenport is responsible for this beautiful upgrade to the site.  I really think she’s outdone herself – Thank you, Nicolette!  I am delighted with the way it turned out.

Now its my job to keep it current and interesting.

Some things don’t change.  I have been going to the Con for a long time.  Sometimes just for the day, leaving home before the sun came up and returning to LA the same day.  Yeesh.  Back before I had a booth, I would mow the lawn of the convention center, methodically traveling up and down each and every isle.  Because I sensed that there was something waiting for me out there.  Something for Chris.  Something Chris wouldn’t know he couldn’t live without until he found it.  And if I stopped to eat or drink or go to my car to drop off my bags of heavy books I foolishly bought when I first arrived, then someone else might find my…whatever it was that was waiting for me.  And they might get to it right before I did, if I stopped to do something frivolous like drink or eat.  I really did approach the whole thing like a treasure hunt, only instead of scratching around in some barren foothill with a canteen and a donkey and a rusted pistol, I chose to hunt for an original drawing in a cavernous super-cooled environment where eighty thousand other people are doing the same thing.  So what kept me moving on that convention floor was the fear that not only would someone find that special something, but somebody I WORKED WITH would find it.  Whatever IT was. Then I’d have to know about it.  And hear about it.

The fear I’d get back to work on Monday and show everyone the yucky Herculoid drawing I bought.  It didn’t have a signature so it wasn’t worth much, but the character was mostly all there.  Only his head and left arm were missing.  And then I’d and tell everyone about the flavorful churro I stopped to eat, and my co-worker would laugh and say,

“You fool, I was right behind you when you veered off to buy that churro.  Ten seconds after you left I came upon a booth where some poor stupid man was selling…THIS!”  And my co-worker would reach into a Tokyo Pop bag and pull out a yellowed illustration board…..  “It’s a drawing that Frank Frazetta made when he was on a vacation in Key West with Charles Schultz and Gil Elvgren and Jesus.  Did you know Jesus could draw?   Anyway, they all got back from snorkeling and were playing quarters when Hemmingway stopped at their table and asked them if they could draw him a cave-girl in a leather bikini wrestling a serpent while she was riding a space-gorilla who’s driving one of those chunky race-cars popping a wheelie and holding onto one of those crazy-long gear shifts.  See?  His tongue is all trailing out of his mouth and drooling.  It’s a group drawing.  Frank did the ape and Elvgren did the girl.  Jesus did the car.  Sparky added Snoopy waving a checkered flag because there was nothing left on the car to draw.  They all signed it and Hemmingway wrote a poem in the corner and drew a space helmet on Snoopy.  The helmet kind of ruins it, but it’s Hemmingway, so it’s still worth a lot of money.  They all signed it at the bottom.”

“You mentioned that. Who drew the serpent?”

“Leonardo Da Vinci.  Did I mention he was on the trip?  Sorry.  Yeah, he did the snake.  See how it’s all sepia and the other characters are black ink?”

“Oh.  Yeah.  It must have been expensive.”

“That’s the best part.  The guy selling it left to get a churro and his stupid brother was covering his booth and didn’t know what it was.  He sold it to me for five.”

“Five million?”

“No, five nail clippings.  I thought he was joking but there was something wrong with him and he handed me clippers and I trimmed my right hand nails and he caught them in his palm and then gave me the drawing.  It was free.  He was weird.  My hand looked nice after that and people who shook my hand commented on how well trimmed the nails were.”

“Wow.  That’s great.  I think that’s great.  Well, I have to go back to my desk now and eat my Herculoid drawing and then cry and then kill myself.”

So I kept moving.  Like a shark who would suffocate if he stopped.

Excerpt from Sketchbook 3

I think next year we’ll increase the amount just a little bit so we can resupply stores for the remainder of 2010-2011.