I went to The Short Stop on Monday night for Motown and Jim Mahfood (AKA Food One). My brother gave me Mahfood’s recent collection of autobio comics, “LA Ink Stains”, a few months back, and I ate it up. The black and white comics read like interesting lists of people, places, and events. Some of the events are live paintings (often on naked ladies) so I was stoked to have the chance to see him in action. It was like looking into the gutters of his comics (technically speaking). He painted as the crowd looked to the ceiling singing Jackson 5 and took turns spilling their drinks while dancing under the moving, blue polka-dotted lights.
I tried to incorporate the text in Food One way.
Lorna Phone 
nice use of dark/light contrasts
I really like the style of this guy- so he painted live in a bar? (The Short Stop) Thanks also for leading me to his website. I love his work and your blog.
So. Fucking. Cool.
Great piece – love your compositional technique. Very interesting work.
Yeah, he was painting while the crowd was dancing. It was great! I’m glad you like his work!
I love that kind of live art. You almost feel like it has a different quality to art produced “in secret”…
Nice contrast of photo and illo! Query: how much of your work is taken from photographs, and how directly? Do you use reference images, or paint/draw directly onto the source material? That is, if you don’t mind my asking 🙂 I love to learn about others’ techniques!
I use different amounts of different techniques for each drawing. Most recently my drawings are in Photoshop, where I draw directly onto the source material, as you thought. I appreciate your interest. It looks like you have a similar aesthetic going on in some of your work. Thanks for stopping by!
Glad to hear The Short Stop is still going strong! Used to go there a long time ago, in the days before they had a dance permit (and were subsequently slapped on the wrist at a certain point).
Love what you are doing and I’ve put a link to your blog on mine so more people can find you!
Wow! Cool! Thank you!
Thanks for letting me camp out in your blog for a little while today. I had a great time and tried to leave my campsite as good as when I arrived. I’ll be back!