I was contacted by one of the coordinators of “RAW Artists” and how they came across my art on Instagram and how they would love to have me be part of their Boston showcase! I was very excited and jumped to the opportunity, I hadn’t had a Gallery showing in a quite some time. The event was a huge success, so many people came up to me to talk about my art, it was a ton of fun. All my friends had shown up to support me and that alone was an amazing feeling. Having a Gallery show is very motivating to do even more art, and is so wonderful to see how many people truly enjoy my work. A local radio station “P.L.A.Y. Radio” was so impressed with my display and all my work they wanted to interview me their show! This was defiantly one of the funnest events I have done to date.
Homemade Christmas Gift
A couple years ago my girlfriend and I visited an “oddity” store that was in our town. If you have ever seen the TV reality “Oddities” it was just like that, a store full of weird, out of the ordinary, strange objects. Such as animals in jars, teeth, taxidermy, the strangest of the strange. One particular item we came across was a clear glass dome about 8 inches high and inside was a small skeleton. It grabbed our attention and we went in for a closer look. It was a skeleton of a fairy, made of small animal bones, sitting down with its forehead resting on its hand, as if it was pondering, deeply in thought.
My girlfriend loves magic and fantasy, so naturally she fell in love with it. The fairy was created by one of the taxidermy artists at the shop, and was pretty expensive since it was hand crafted. We didn’t purchase it as we had only gone in to check out the store and window shop.
That following Christmas I wanted to get her something that no one else could, something that was one of a kind, and that ‘s when I remembered the fairy skeleton. I contacted the store to see if it was still available but sadly it had been purchased by then. They did offer to make one for me but it would take 3 months to make and it was almost December already, so it wouldn’t be ready in time.
This Christmas I was going to attempt one more time to get it for her, but when I went to go contact them again, they were no longer based in the U.S. The store had closed and the owners had moved back to London. I searched to see if anyone made them but no one does, and the ones I did find didn't have the same quality nor looked like fairies. So I decided to make her one myself. I have done 3D sculpture in the past in classes I took in college so I knew I could come up with something.
I took a bunch of stems and thought “hey, they’re all different sizes and organic shapes they could be the bones!” So the skeletons bones are all stems that I trimmed, sanded down, and then painted. The skull was actually the most difficult part of the whole thing. There were obviously no stems in a skull ball like shape or a pelvis like shape. I took cardboard and made the skull and pelvis. Then all sides of the skull had to be drawn out first and then put together corner to corner. Then rip the top paper layer off of more cardboard so that it bonded and smoothed around making it more of a skull shape. The jaw and teeth were stems that I had to shape and cut it the way I needed it, and then painted it. The wings are stems and saran wrap with light strokes of paint.
The log it's sitting on was two pieces of a wooden toy that I smashed up, glued together, painted brown, and then smashed it again, giving it the rough look of bark. The snow, grass and berries were all from a Christmas decoration I found at a store. Lastly I didn’t want the position of the fairy being so deep on thought or depressed, so I put him in a playful position with the snow making it a happy scene. For each piece I attached I had to hold each jointed position by hand for almost 30 minutes. It as was a very long patient process. =)
Goodbye Bunny Clothing
Balloon T-shirt design
Goodbye Bunny is a graphic T-shirt line I created with a friend in college my sophomore year. In a nutshell, Hops (bunny) spills Teddy’s (bear) ice cream and it was the last scoops ever because the flavor was being discontinued. Since this moment, Teddy has sworn to kill Hops by any means possible…hence Goodbye Bunny. Each T-shirt design is a different crazy way that Teddy has concocted to kill Hops.
I have a lot of fun coming up with all these ideas because I get to draw them! People have always laughed at the designs and have asked how I came up with all these ideas…which gave me an even better idea. What if I made a mini comic series of how Teddy comes up with these ideas himself! Of course its going to be a lot of work with my full length comic Couch Surfers in progress buts also a nice little break to switch gears with different characters. So here’s the first of many mini comic series. The Master of Tricks, which goes along with the Balloon design! Enjoy!
Contact me with requests for sizes and pricing on T-shirt :) alexisdjlemus@gmail.com
Electric Forest Contest Design
Original Sketch
Hand written "Electric Forest 2015" text
Electric Forest is a music festival that is mixed with several genres of music, such as jam bands, indie/folk rock , jazz, funk hip/rop, and EDM just to name a few. Electric Forest is having a Sticker Design contest for this years festival. So I decided, hey why not!? I researched their past poster and shirt designs from previous years. I wanted to make something that was new but still had that “Electric Forest” feeling. I noticed they used a unique pattern style in all their images, so I wanted to incorporate that into my design. Electric Forest also likes to display how their festival brings different types of people together, there are no labels when you’re at the forest, everyone is a forester. That’s where my idea of the owl and deer uniting to become whole, one heart, and as many would say PLUR because it represents, Peace Love Unity and Respect. That is the message I wanted to get across and I know that’s the message of Electric Forest. I, of course, hope I win this contest, but there are other many great designs that have been entered. So we will see who wins soon enough! Wish me luck everyone!!!
My Music, My Art, My Life
People often ask, “what do you think about when you paint? What’s your inspiration? Where do you get your ideas to create these unusual, vibrant images?” My answer always is: “I don’t know, I just get lost. Once I start I don’t stop.” But what is it that gets me from point A to point B? The real answer is music. Music is what drives and takes me to a different place that I can’t describe. Whether it be, EDM, Instrumental, rock, etc. etc. The music I listen to is what puts me in certain moods, and that’s where the creativity starts to form. Rock can be anything from metal to indie and I could paint a monster or a flower. EDM will get me hyped up and the colors just start hitting the canvas and the creatures start to flow in a fluid motion. I become in tune with the music I’m listening to and the emotions it gives me. Music is a very big part of my life and always will be. Music is when I feel the most alive and when there is paint brush or a pencil in my hand it takes over. My work allows others to feel what I’m feeling during that moment. To me, music is life and life is art.
Danny and Kevin of DudenGuy playing at Royale reaping Goodbye Bunny.
DudenGuy repping Goodbye Bunny!
Goodbye Bunny is a t-shirt line that I had created and co-founded in college a few years ago. This graphic tee line displays illustrations of a bear that would always chase and try to kill the bunny for spilling his ice cream. My Inspiration for these characters comes from cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, Itchy & Scratchy, Spy VS Spy.
Recently I met and became good friends with Kevin and Danny, Boston local DJ's know as DUDEnGUY, when attending a large camping festival this past September. Kevin had seen me wearing a modified tie-dye colored “DJ Teddy” design and told me he liked the shirt and wanted to help a friend out by repping it during his DJ sets. So be sure to grab yourself a Goodbye Bunny Shirt and go watch DUDEnGUY play an amazing set at one of their many shows here in the Boston area!
Check out DudenGuy at dudenguy.com & facebook.com/Dudenguy
For updates and more about Goodbye Bunny check out: facebook.com/GoodbyeBunny
Character Illustrations
New Friend
Blastoff
I've been working on my comic, Couch Surfers, for almost two years now and I've started to have mental blocks when it comes to storyboarding because the comic takes place in a magical alternate universe of my own creation. So I went to my sketch book drawing new characters. I put the stress of creating a story line and drawing for a particular universe aside and just created. The illustrations above are the outcome of using this mentality to come up with new ideas and characters. I have found this to be very useful to my creativity and plan on doing it frequently so my imagination and creativity will remain fresh and active.
Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for regular posts of new illustrations like this as well!
FB page: facebook.com/alexisdjlemusart
Instagram: alexisdjlemus_art
Flower Buddy
Lonely Martian
It's just a dream
Couch Surfers deck painting
After posting my last blog about my present to my dear friend Luke, it reminded me of another piece I made for a friend in the past. I owed some cash to my roommate, and he had wanted to decorate his room and add some paintings and such. So he came up with the idea that I would make him a painting and not just any painting, he wanted a skateboard.
I made a few sketches for this this trying to figure out the best way for it to be represented on a skateboard because it was my first time painting on a board. I needed to make sure I grasped the concept of my comic book Couch Surfers while using the board the best possible way. Once I reached my concept I drew it on the board and then started painting. It took a really long time as it is more detailed and smaller then the usual paintings I create because it is more of a comic book illustration. It was a lot of work but in the end, I think it game out really well.
