When you Listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, You Become Well

At least that’s what Anthony Keidis said in Good Time Boys.

I’ve been thinking lately that I’d like to steer this blog into more of a musical direction. I love music and If I wasn’t an artist, I think I definitely would’ve become a full time musician. Y’know…Madonna, Cher, Prince….Morgana.

I actually am a musician. I played clarinet from 6th grade through 12th and band is the only thing I dream about from high school. I can read music and play around a bit on the piano and I think I have a pretty good ear.

My love for music started in the womb. Just in case I could hear in there, my parents played classical, Elvis, oldies, show tunes, rock, and a bunch more for me while I was cooking. I think that’s why my musical taste spans over almost all genres and all decades. I’m always on the hunt to find rare stuff and new stuff too.

I can’t claim to be an expert though and there’s a lot of music I still don’t know… I only have so many hours in my day… but I like to think I know a lil sumthin about a variety of music and I really like to talk about it.

First of all

I wanna start with the band I consider my all time favorite – the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I can’t believe I’m actually able to pick one band above the rest, cuz it’s really hard for me to choose my favorite anything.

My earliest memory goes back to when I was 5, when I hung out with my friends next door, Ruby and Jeremy. We always listened to music or watched MTV. I can see us sitting there watching Give it Away and I remember how much I loved how they were dancing around all weird out in the Mojave Desert…which btw is the same desert I lived in at the time.

And I loved that funky sound, and Flea jumping around on bass, and Anthony’s rapping, and chad and John and all the stars aligning together in The Mansion creating my favorite album. Yes, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is my favorite album above all their others. It’s also my first rhcp album. I have so many memories of turning up the volume and immersing myself in each song, memorizing all the lyrics, and looking at the photos in the album booklet. This band appealed to me on so many levels.

I’m livid that I can’t remember where the album booklet is. I’m also not seeing my copy of What Hits!? so that’s gonna bug me.

Aside from all that funkiness, one of my favorite things about BSSM is how each song starts and how each song fits so seamlessly together.

My Blood Sugar Sex Magik Fav Song List

  • apache rose peacock
  • sir psycho sexy
  • funky monks
  • the power of equality
  • the righteous and the wicked
  • if you have to ask
  • mellowship slinky in b minor
  • suck my kiss
  • naked in the rain
  • under the bridge
  • they’re red hot
  • breaking the girl
  • i could’ve lied
  • my lovely man
  • the greeting song

I’m more concerned about the order of the first 8 songs, but y’know I love em all and I’ve been listening to a lot of chili peppers lately, getting hyped for April 1st when their new album drops. It’s been what…10 years since Frusciante has been with them and I know it’s gonna be great. We’ve gotten a tiny taste with Black Summer and Poster Child, both good, and make me wanna hear more. I’m liking Poster Child a lot. At first I thought it was good but it just made me wanna hear it with the other songs, but I keep listening to it and just loving it more and more.

Tell Me Baby

Listen up Red Hot Chili Pepper Fans, if you can choose, I know it’s hard because they’re all great, but let me know in the comments which album is your top favorite album. I know you have one that has a special place in your heart above all the other’s. And which song on that album is your favorite??

Inktober Day 9 – Watch

I started to draw this pocket watch from Titanic but I lost interest. So then I decided to do a little master study of Satan Vanquished by Gustave Dore. Those angels might be The Watchers. It’s not great looking but it was really good practice.

I always feel like somebody’s watching me
And I have no privacy (ooh ooh)
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Who’s playing tricks on me?

I bet nobody knows that song 😂

I Won’t be Happy until my FANS get what they Deserve!

Wha . . . did I really just say that? Did I really just quote Quattro from YuGiOh Zexal? Do I really know what Quattro and Zexal even are?! Jesse, if you’re reading this . . . *KICK!*

“I’ll gladly do anything for my fans” – Quattro

Sooo, today’s word was Fan and I decided to go with the Japanese folding fan because they’re so pretty. I’d actually like to explore this idea further.

Inktober Day 6 – Spirit

It was a busy day so I tried to do some sketches. This first one is a bottle of Gin with a Djinn escaping. Might be a fun idea to explore some more.

I had fun drawing these next ones. Who doesn’t love a good alien abduction story? I know I do lol.

And sketches from the movie Spirited Away. I watched that about a year ago with my boyfriend. He watched it as a kid and wanted to see if it’d freak him out now like it did then. It was kinda weird.

That night I had a dream caused by that movie and just now while drawing I remembered that dream and felt all weird. Our favorite line was when that spider dude said, “She’s my granddaughter.” We laughed so hard lol. And his little black pom pom spider worker boys are so cute.

And finally, the one I put on Instagram this morning. It was my original idea. It’s a Ghost Tequila bottle. I thought the ghost design was cool and it gives me double for the word spirit. Well, that’s all folks. Tomorrow is fan. Another word that doesn’t have me all fired up.

That’s So Raven . . .

Who else liked that show? It was one of my favorites. Sing with me now, “That’s so raven (it’s the future i can see)
That’s so raven (it’s so mysterious to me)”

That’s not the point though. The point is Cinco de Inktobre. I wasn’t that excited about today’s word. My expectations were so low I didn’t even use fancy paper. Poor thing didn’t even get it’s own dedicated page.

I wish I would have used better paper cuz it turned out looking pretty cool.

Someone’s missin’ an eye lol.

Think of All the Luck You Got

Know that it’s not for naught . . . no, day 4 of Inktober is KNOT. Pronounced Kuh Not. Just kidding . . . heh, a lil’ word play there for ya’.

It took me pretty much all day but I finished it.

Turned out pretty cool. I didn’t know where I was going with it. But I like it. I like how the light in each image changes throughout the day starting at 8 am and ending with 7 pm.

Tomorrow is Raven and I don’t have an idea yet that I’m happy with. Well, I have one idea, but I just came up with it so . . . we’ll see. Oh, and 10 badass points goes to whoever knows what song I was quoting in the title and first line.

Nuclear Wessels?

Nooo, not wessels. The word for day 3 of Inktober is Vessels. I found this cool image of blood vessels that reminded me of a tree.

The Franklin Institute

These particular colors wouldn’t show up on black paper so I used some hot pressed watercolor paper. I love how smoothly these gel pens glided over the paper.

I’m a bit nervous for when I have to add the black around those skinny little lines, but I want it to POP like it does in my inspiration photo. And I was thinking of adding a little tombstone and maybe some other little details. So, it’s blood vessels but it’s actually gonna be a gnarly tree.

This Ain’t Texas Hold ‘Em

I’ve had this idea for a while to make a card game based on iconic Texas thangs. The word for day 2 of Inktober is Suit, and I wasn’t interested in drawing a suit of armour or fashion, so I decided this was a good opportunity to explore the card idea.

My format inspiration is from these Tarot suit cards. But the overall game play would be inspired by Yu-Gi-Oh or Old Maid or UNO . . . something like that.

They’re not finished yet, but here’s what I’ve got so far.

And there you have it. I was struggling to fit the long horns on the Texas Longhorn so it’s blank for now. I’m thinking of trying out an old worn out wood background for these, possibly just under the barbed wire border, and then leave the space behind the image white.

Inktober 2021 Goals

I’m giving myself some freedom for this Inktober. I’ll just post the artwork as is, whether they’re finished or not. I’m also not restricting myself to using JUST ink. I’ll do as much as I can with ink, and then finish it up with whatever medium will work best for the look I’m going for.

I’m very pleased with how these are turning out. I love Texas and I love the barbed wire border and I’m excited to see what I can come up with.

This challenge really helps me get inspired to create artwork.

So, who else is doing Inktober? More importantly, who else loves Texas?! If you do or you’re proud to be a Texan just let me know in the comments what your favorite thing about Texas is.

One more thing: Jess Karp is such a good artist and she’s made her own Jesstober Challenge, so go check that out for a lil’ inspiration.

Crystal Ball with a Dragon Stand

Everytime I say, “Dragon Stand,” I think I’m talking about a stand on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. This here is day 1 of Inktober 2021 . . . and the magic word is Crystal. I’m gonna do as much as I can with the bic pens and the gel pens and the rest I’ll finish up with the Prismacolors.

There’s a button over there on the right or wherever it is that you can click to go to my Instagram to see the last image. I’ll post the finished drawing whenever it gets finished. Fun Fact: I drew a dragon for day 1 of Inktober last year and this year.

Here’s the link to the Item that I used as my reference picture.