Hope This Doesn't St-ink

Business card. In progress. Still need to finish ink, add fish, and add a little paint. Oh and break it down into layers, reorganize in Photoshop and screen print at least 100 of these. T minus 5 days...

Takin' Care of Business

So for my 3rd screen print ever, I've decide to take on something that could mask my rookie-ness in the art... A business card. No one looks at those, right?

Here's a sneak peek:

High ambition, little experience, lots of RedBull. A formula for success.

Maze

Here's a close up of a piece from a few months ago that I'm re-working. It's almost 3am but I have to say I'm happy with where it's going. I think this is one of the toughest things I've tried to tackle. 

Viva Las Vegas

So cleaning up some old work in preparation for an upcoming show, I came across this piece and forgot how much I liked it. I don't know why. I just do. I think it's done now. Better and brighter colors than before.

It's Been Awhile

Like the great Staind once said: "It's been awhile" (or was it Creed...no wait, it was Staind). While busy in my little 10'x10' dungeon, the harsh reality that art schools doors are coming to a close for me has set in. Time to bust my ass like no ass has ever been busted. (Insert jokes here). Here's a "quick" self portrait that took me the better part of the day. I'm actually happy with it though. I'm submitting it for my BFA senior show as an info pic for myself. It felt good to get back on track with microns again too. I was never really comfortable with them but maybe this will mark a turning point.

This was the first one. A day later I wasn't happy with it so I went back, got better reference, practiced some new marks, and started the redo. 

At this point I could already tell I would be much happier with it. I'm not as much of a master of microns as some of my other colleagues, but for a rookie, I was ok with the effort. I didn't take too many in-between shots but here's the final:

4"x6" micron/copic on paper. Cheers!

Selfies

I had one of those nights where you fall asleep a little early, like 11ish, which is fine but then you wake up at 2 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. I decided to pass some time by starting a small sketchbook dedicated to self-portraits. Why not?

It Figures

Here's a day by day progress collection of a recent painting I completed. It was a 5-day pose and was really my first time painting in this style and with this many thin layers.

Bill Cosby: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (finished)

 Here are the finished versions from the good, bad, and ugly from a few weeks ago. You can see how the designed progressed and simply changed from the preliminary sketches. All-in-all, I'm happy with how they came out.

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Hold Still...

Since early February, I've been doing 2 still life oil paintings a week for a class. They started out rough: bad drawings, bad compositions, bad understanding of color, but the last few weeks I've been happier with the work im putting out. Here's an example of one from this week I was quite pleased with.

Here's my set-up. I started out with a basic graphite drawing.

Here's a close-up of the same drawing.

It's worth noting that this painting was only done with Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Light, and Cobalt blue, no white, no black, just those three colors. I started painting with thin, diluted paint and establishing basic washes and values. 

This is sort of in between in the painting process where I started to go more opaque with the paint. Knowing I couldn't use white, I had to leave some of the white canvas exposed, to act as my white, so I left those areas thin.

Fin.

The Good, The Bad, and the Skibbity Bee-BOP

Early Sketch/ color study of the good In Bill Cosby. Basic, silly sweater pattern based on the sweater he wore during the December 3rd, 1987 episode of the Bill Cosby Show, titled: "Dance Mania". I knew early on I wanted to cut out a hole for the neck on the masonite I was going to paint on.

Here's a little ways into the painting. It took a bit longer than expected only because I decided at the last minute to go more representational in painting of the face. Good choice at the end, I felt. Also, the rounding of the corners which you can barely see, was another last minute decision.

...And a little more into the painting. The face was about almost completely finished at this time. I went very direct with the painting of the sweater. A little rushed, but I plan on going back to it in the near future.

 Here is a prelim sketch of the bad side of BC. Not really bad but mainly how someone may see Bill and how others might. While he's big on trying to advance and sort of "save" some young and troubled black youth, others sometimes criticize him for going after the kids and their parents instead of the troubled education system and corrupted police officers and politicians.

Finally, here is the sketch for the ugly side, mainly focusing on the unfortunate death of his son, allegations of adultery, and an apparent daughter he may have been hiding. I nixed the Time magazine cover idea partially because of time, but also because I couldn't get the whole thing to wrap around his mouth and show his son and text without it looking weird. So I went wither a brightly painted cloth instead.

FINAL images are coming soon :)

Whole Lotso Love... II

 Finally finished. From this...

to this.

Oil on canvas. 14"x18" (without frame)

Whole Lotso Love...

So here's a simple still life painting of my sister's Lotso stuffed bear from Toy Story 3. The texture and color present obvious challenges but this will also be my first framed painting. Finished pieced will be posted ASAP.

This is where I started off. A stuffed Lotso Bear from Toy Story 3.

 Here's a comparison and a look at my set-up.

This is the painting at about 75% completion. Final coming soon.

Yelp This...

It's kind of like looking at the differences in ratings between "professional" critics and everyday, actual movie-goers in a Rotten Tomatoes movie review...a quick glance over and "A Good Day to Die Hard" has an 82% audience approval....but only 16% on the all-mighty "Tomatometer". This is why I like Yelp. Anywho... heres a quick sketch for/from Kafe Neo in Long Beach. Spoiler alert: 4/5.

Mall Sketches...Oldies but Goodies