Shortly after I completed my “poker” piece, a flood of requests began coming in for “billiards” art. I never realized so many people owned pool tables. This is the final work of art and my goal was to do it justice. I took the theme of the old pool hall and put a more contemporary spin on it. Think wine bar. The palette is more muted to lend to the sophistication, but contrast that element with the bad behavior of the patrons.

Welcome to our new website. After creating and maintaining Gekkards.com for over ten years, I decided it was time to turn it over to the professionals. Thank you to Skyhook Marketing for an inspiring design. The Gekkards are pleased as punch.

Our goal in creating the new site was to give the Gekkards a fantastic new home, where visitors can easily navigate content and purchase our products. More great content will be coming to the site soon, including some videos, so stay tuned.

Halloween is always a favorite time of year around our household. For many years, I have wanted to paint a spooky image featuring the Gekkards, but timing has never been in my favor. This year, I found enough time to create a solid sketch that I hope to paint for Halloween next year.

My childhood occurred during the mid-seventies through the early eighties. One day, my parents brought home a collie that I would name Macintosh. I don’t actually recall giving him the name, but we often called him Mackie for short and he quickly become a treasured part of my life. Although, I was unaware of the profound part his name would play later in my life.

In 1984, my father took me to work with him. He worked as an metallurgist for a steel mill. He realized I had little interest in this field, but he knew I liked computers. In his office were several computers, one being, the original Macintosh by Apple. There, I spent the day exploring this machine, fascinated by the things it could do and games it could play. One program in particular, MacPaint, immediately captured my attention. MacPaint was a program for painting graphics on the computer and once I understood the fundamentals of how it worked, I didn’t want to do anything else.

Since the early nineties, I have made my living in one way or another by working on a Macintosh. Either as, a typesetter, a production artist, or a graphic designer. Eventually, I bought my own Mac and started a design business. My wife, who was then still my girlfriend, actually co-signed for that loan to help me buy my first Macintosh computer.

It is astonishing how my life has changed since my first Mac. Although my business started off as a graphic design biz, it soon morphed into an art business where I have been fortunate to make a living as a digital artist since 2004. It was on that first Macintosh that I painted the first Gekkards, digitally, after years of creating them with color pencils. It was also on that Mac that I built the very first website for the Gekkards and used it to make the very first prints of my art.

I feel blessed, to have a father who sensed my interest might lie elsewhere, to have a wife who believed in me enough to help support me, even though she was a single mom at the time. I am so grateful to have grown up in the age of Apple computers and all the possibilities their technology offers. These things aligned in my life to open extraordinary doors for creativity and success. It has allowed me to do what I love and share my sense of humor with the world.

I followed my heart and intuition as Steve Jobs suggests in his 2005 commencement speech for Stanford graduates. My journey has been exciting, astonishing, heartbreaking and hard, harder than I ever imagined. But, I like to think if Steve ever met the Gekkards, he would feel pride, for trusting my gut, for staying hungry, for staying foolish. He would be even prouder knowing it all began on a Macintosh.

Godspeed Mr. Jobs.

Here is how Chopper feels about the recent round of changes from Facebook. I tend to agree with him.

Don’t take this image the wrong way…I’m a fan of Michael Godard’s art and his olives. I just thought the Gekkards might have a little fun with them.  

This is how video games always played out with my friends; defiant, emotional, in-your-face experiences. No doubt this one will make it to final art sooner or later.

First, I would like to commend Breathing Color for their excellent customer service whenever I have had issues with any of their products. They have always been willing to help me troubleshoot problems and, when necessary, replace defective product, which has only occured once.

My spray environment is not a professional spray booth. I use my garage with all the doors open, coverings on the walls and also on anything within 3-5 feet of the spray area. My air compressor is a Craftsman 20-gal, which handles spraying 3-4 prints before it needs refilling. The canvas prints are all taped to large cardboard sheets while being sprayed. I have found cardboard to be more durable then using foam board. It is also less expensive.

When using Timeless, I follow the manufacturer’s directions in storing, stirring and prepping the product. I have also used their Glamour 2 finishing product on my work, but honestly, I don’t have time to create my own satin mixture, so I was determined to make Timeless work for my business and the following tips help me get near perfect results every time.

Rule 1: Invest in a quality HVLP Spray Gun
I cannot emphasize this enough. I recognize many people out there may not do enough volume to warrant the spray gun method, but if you do get a good one. When I upgraded from my Husky Pro Spray Gun ($99) to a DeVilbiss Finishline FLG-654 Spray Gun($199), the difference was immediate and apparent. This gun applied the coats evenly and with consistency.

When using the Husky Pro, I would often get latent air bubbles appearing in the coating (read previous post), but when using the DeVilbiss, it has reduced the air bubbles occurrence to almost never. If it does occur, it is when applying the Timeless to heavy and too quickly. 

Rule 2: Use the proper size fluid tip
Oddly, I have never seen this mentioned anywhere, but the size of the fluid tip can be a big factor to successful coating. When I bought the DeVilbiss gun, it came with three different sized fluid tips, 1.3, 1.5 and 1.8 mm. I started off using the 1.5 mm, since it was the closest to the 1.4 mm I was using with the Husky Pro. This size worked fine, but it seemed to take a long time to apply a sufficient coat.

I switched out the 1.5 mm tip for the 1.8 mm to experiment and the results were surprising. Finally, I could pass the spray gun swiftly back and forth to coat a print in seconds. The coat was heavy, yet even and flawless. Print after print, the coverage was lush and ideal for making a perfect print.

Three coats covers the majority of my smaller size prints (anything 16″ x 20″ or under) sufficiently. The larger prints usually require a fourth coat. This additional coat seems to ensure a nice even sheen on a more substantial surface area. With this number of coats, I rarely see cracking in the corner folds when the artwork gets stretched. 

Rule 3: Clean your gun frequently
This is just common sense when using a tacky substance like Timeless. Upon completing a round of spraying, I always spray warm, soapy water through the gun for a minute or two to cleanse it. After this, I break down the gun and clean it thoroughly. The best cleaner I have found for the job is Goo Gone. This citrus based cleaner is easy on your skin and has no fumes. It does a great job of removing harden Timeless. You may have to use several applications to remove more stubborn areas, but it will restore your gun to a like-new condition. Q-tips are helpful in reaching the tighter areas. 

I will also occasionally soak the spray nozzle and fluid tip in Acetone to remove any interior buildup. If you find your gun spraying inconsistently, often a good cleaning will remedy the issue.

Other Tips
Be sure the small air hole located in the lid of the spray gun cup is open. Timeless can often get splashed onto the inside of the lid and dry. The closed hole can result in unpredictable bursts and uneven spray due to improper ventilation. I usually poke a small nail through the hole before each spray session.

Check and recheck the pressure valve on your compressor. Different, hoses, connectors, valves, etc. can all affect the final output of the spray. As suggested by Breathing Color, you want to make sure the spray penetrates the surface of the canvas. Typically, my compressor drops in pressure after the first round of spraying and needs to be nudged back up. It usually only requires this once, but if you find your spray diminish during a session, this is a good place to check first.

In Closing 
Timeless is helping my artwork reach its full potential. Since upgrading to a higher quality spray-gun, this coating has been performing the way I need it to. My prints look beautiful, there is no cracking in the folds and the satin sheen is consistent. The results are durable works of art that I’m proud to pass on to my customers. 

Grapework is a concept I created a long time ago (see inset image). In fact, I believe it was only the third illustration I had created using the Gekkards. It was also the first time I stood the Gekkards upright on the hind legs, making them anthropomorphic. This piece was significant in the development of the Gekkards. It was around this time I realized the vast potential these characters had for humor.   

In honor of that work, I decided to create a more refined version of the concept. It is satisfying to compare the images side-by-side and see how my work has matured in 10 short years. I encourage other artists to persevere at their craft, to keep digging, because the truly good stuff is buried deep.