Inks

Decided to play around with some old drawings that were left over and floating around my room by inking over them. 

Two different takes on a funeral after party.

And this guy, with a plant and a pervy mouth. Obviously.

Hiking and Pit Stop

 

Rant brought to you by disgustingly talented 15 year olds.

For the "Saying Goodbye" theme on www.getbetterordie.tumblr.com

This was originally a really expansive image, about funerals and lots of people, and small scenes happening in big scenes, and well it just didn't work so it just kept getting cropped cropped cropped. And the drawing of the girl is waaay too stiff. Blerp, don't like it, but that's okay. I've been told you have to make a lot of crap before you do anything right. Maybe I'll move away from photoshop for awhile.

Actually i was thinking about illustration, and whats fashionable right now. I really love german children books from the 50s- 70s, and even now really. They tend to be really loose drawing, or simplistic shapes, and instead of one focus there's a lot of joy in creating images that have many interlocking social interactions happening in a tiny space. For example if it's a fairy tale, you'll have the main scene with the prince and princess swooning in the grass, and then you'll notice some owls in the trees peeping at them, and then when you're about to turn the page you realize there's a lawn gnome sunbathing by a puddle of water and some lady bugs having a property dispute. 

Example of German Story book illustration. Also, This is a pretty accurate description of my home. 

I don't like how insecure I've become with my art, or at least how it reached this pinnacle of paranoia about not being good enough, tight enough, talented enough, egotistical enough. It's actually one of the reasons I left SVA, because for some reason folks disregarded what I held as important (character, complexity, scatter brained etc.) and instead were trying with all their might to create another one of their slick drones, clean edges, worthy of awards given out by stuffy old men running obsolete museums. Now I wish I could have stood up a little stronger, been a little more of a butt-head and told folks to shove off. Because now I have all these sicko art school rules bouncing around my head and they're making me bonkers, because they make no sense and at not point have they helped me create better art. 

The point of all this is that I just want to leave all that bitterness behind, put it in the past and make this last year in school really count. 

And that is why I don't like my illustration for GetBetterOrDie.

maids

A few failed coloring attempts on these mermaid sketches

oh well.

Villainess Numero uno.

Hey kids!
I've been re-watching the first season of Sailor Moon and have been drawing a lot of villain ladies with obnoxiously large shoulder pads. I'll save my gushing over my current cartoon obsessions for a later post, but expect a lot more character designs, and practice shots, and photoshop practice and you know FUN STUFF. Who would have thought that a few goofy animated shows would make me so happy haha

I think coloring my character doodles will help with my inability to use color accurately. My goal is to be able to pick a color without having to fancy the image up with levels adjustment, as well as minimal and calculated shadow placement :) Not that complicated coloring is bad, but just for practical and professional environments I want to be able to know I can execute something even if I don't have much time.

Couch stuff

Painting Update part 2:

Experiments in abstraction and implied narration.

While contemplating voyeurism, motion, porn

And the mythical hotel room.

Painting Update part 1:

My painting is going in an odd direction, as you'lle likely make note of in the posts to come. This is where I started, imagery I'm comfortable with, but built on a surface that was more about how the materials reacted to gravity and light. As well as questioning why I was making a specific move within the painting instead of placing colors and visual information just because it would make the painting look more professional or identifiable as "art". 

There's even a pocket of excitement in creating something that can't be fully understood through photographs, prints and distributed like a virus through the internet, something that's become an obsession in the art world. Everythings, digital video, viewer controlled, computer generated, quick, 4g, social network overloaded and immediately disposable once the new status update is made. Digital work is becoming increasingly important for me but sometimes I get all paranoid that the digital images don't count or exist with the same integrity. It's so elitist but I can't help it! haha :) Talk about artistic self loathing and split morals!   

There's nothing like ranting about technology on your blog and uploading photos of your "real" paintings via picture phone heh 

Clocks