A small piece of a very strange photoshop file I just found on my computer.

Tanned

Just Playing.

Francine.

We all feel like monsters sometimes!

One of those times you're like "oh man, so original!" and then you realize you probably stole it from this guy:

Hahaha oh well, Nick Cave is a genius, so no biggie. When people aren't wearing his soundsuits they have this presence in the gallery. A few days ago i met a friend for lunch and we were talking about the power objects get when they've been handled and used by people. It's definitely a strange idea, but makes so much natural sense. The more something is loved, or hated, or passively woven into our everyday life the more it changes and becomes something we later cherish. Maybe not necessarily always a power that exists because people do but then that goes into that whole "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound" concept.

Anyway, Francine was actually one monster out of many. If I can find the original magic marker sketches I'll do them too and montage them into an epic birthday scene! But really, they may be lost to the abyss that is my bookshelf. You see, I tend to shove notes, checks and other important documents in between my books and under objects to keep them safe...and then lose them.

Tomorrow is back to school and back to work. A bittersweet goodbye to Spring break. I gotta get my learn on :)

Hip-ley's Believe it or not!

Today was very frustrating to say the least. My shoes hurt my feet, I ruined my favorite shirt by splashing oil based ink on it, missed a bus, and spent six hours on printing and have nothing to show for it even though the drawing lovely. So to try and turn the day around I did a digital mock up that slightly resembles what I had in mind when I stepped into the studio most optimistically. This project was meant to be fun!! I really have to fight the urge to combine my school work with my "professional" or illustration practice. These classes are skill classes and they should go better as long as I focus only on learning the techniques, not the end product. How can a ruined piece of paper create such emotional crisis?!

Though I wish monoprinting was coming a little easier to me, my digital art work sometimes takes on a lot of the characteristics of an original print. Often I merge all the layers to prevent myself from going back after a few different versions have been made. Which is similar to "striking" a plate once an edition is done. That way the complete freedom of the computer program can be utilized but then made special by willingly closing the chapter on that image. One could even go further and completely delete the original file but that seems a bit rash, at least for a clutter-bug like me. 

"The Birds!"

Bird Dramas 

          Initially meant to be a series of politically oriented illustrations of women and birds. I've been trying to learn how to use acrylics (so frustrating!) and am slowly getting the hang of it. But its so different and I think it effected how I create images. After I was done with the above I was like "Whoa, who made that? I didn't make that!" Even though it still has my signiature corner fetish composition going on and hooded figures it just felt so...stable? It looks so dense and heavy. Like a chunk of cement. 

homecoming (acrylic)

          Which means I made the next bird image in total retaliation haha. Where in the first one I was somber and closed in, here it became suddenly windy and moving fanciful even. I decided to follow the graphic pattern motif that tentatively started in the first, the only stylistic quality that links the two. This time though it was almost too airy and the colors too bright! This illustration reminds me of some of the old sketchers shoe ads from the 90s :)

Help Yourself (Acrylic, India Ink, watercolor, Photoshop)

          Should I talk about the messages behind them? I used to write such full blown explanations and now, the more time I spend with an image the more it opens up until all I see is open roads ahead when it comes to what they could "mean". Well though they've morphed during the process and have severed ties completely with each other for the sake of mastering a medium the thumbnail sketches depicted sort of a trifecta of woman at home during war. Since they would have all been swarthed in flowing burqua like clothing people could have read it as a commentary on whats been happening in the middle east, but really they could have been any woman. 

          Interestingly when I look back I had no interest in depicting the woman warrior. In the scribbles there are only girls being left behind to put back together whats left of civilized society and to watch the fires from afar. They're quiet and reflecting inward on their priveleged safety. Thats what the last image was supposed to be, the one watching from a distance, grateful but ashamed at the same time. Basically carrying on the proud tradition of romanticizing tragedy for the sake of entertainment hehe Maybe I'll go there in the future. 

But until then, two final papers having to be written in less than 48 hours! Wish me luck!

And then there was one

Materials: Graphite, Gouache, watercolor, photoshop, collage

Finally, something I'm truthfully proud to show you guys! This piece was my first attempt to reconcile my love of drawing and my lack of skill in real life medium. I have a lot of prejudice against computer art (giant art snob actually), and yet I keep being drawn back to it. Thus it's been decided that I should shrug my shoulders and give in to the fact that I'm a participant of a specific time in history and that it should be embraced.

This doesn't mean that I'm giving up on traditional art work, just that I should view digital methods as more than just a shameful crutch. In this image for example I started with a graphite drawing, keeping most of it simple except for the bird which I wanted to completely render so I could try out a different version of layering where I can concentrate on value and then introduce color ontop of it, a basic oil painting technique that I have yet to learn. For a moment it seemed I had ruined everything by haphazardly applying pigment but then found that sometimes in breaking down a mistake you find something new hidden underneath. Once a wall was hit, the image was scanned in and slowly refined in photoshop. Mostly playing with the color levels and contrast to bring out texture.

It's by no means perfect, but so much was learned in the process that it feels like a success.

(p.s Don't want to go too much into the concept, but the Santa Muerte has been on my mind a lot lately.)

Love affair in the gauche.

We're not sure what kind of love this is.

Originally this piece was meant to be part of a series at least three pieces long about dominance, both sexual and social. After sketching out the images that were to follow I realized they were just cute pornagraphy haha which of course I really like but didn't fit in with this first image which loosely dealt with obediance and waiting. Maybe later I'll post some more naughty bits since as seedlings they looked pretty compellingly dirty and exploitative.

Special thanks to Morgan Conley, who last time we hung out showed me how to make it so you can color BEHIND your inked work. Have been asking around for literally ages on how to do this but nobody was ever able to give a straight answer! Was so excited, because it's really very important to be able to preserve the original drawing in all it's texture and minute mistakes and not just throw it all away in exchange for a clean yet fingerprintless line art thats only meant to hold robotically filled color.

Also, another friend Andrew Werner, reminded me that one of the perks of digital art work is how easily textures and colors can be spliced in. Collage used to seem very dishonest to me and I was closed to it's possibilities because egotistically I wanted to be able to take credit for every single aspect of what I created. As my computer slowly becomes a holding bank for stolen images it has become undeniable how important of a relationship my generation has with photography and video. That even if I wasn't directly using imagery in my pictures I was just as much of an image burgler as anyone else.

Quick fact: the background is blown up pixelated parts of colors found in photographs of the red light district in Amsterdam.

A Soft Spot for...

guess who?

shamble heads

These women, they're kind of like weathervanes. Originally they were supposed to be really graphic and sterile so the computer seemed like the obvious choice but the process wasn't that fun. Also I was unsure of where the image was going as a whole. Here is also a watercolor version that became a little bit more stormy.

Boobies got folds yo.

The other day I was watching that documentary/ film about the four different babies growing up around the world, appropriately titled Babies. One of the kids was from the Himba tribe in Namibia where the women coat their bodies and hair in a red clay that not only tints them a beautiful earthy crimson but also protects them from the sun that constantly beats down on them. They're jewlery is also very practical, particularly their tall metal anklets that protect their shins from poisonous snake bites! Plus the baby boys have these adorable little braided mohawks. Overall visually the tribe is visually fascinating and has earned a steady stream of tourists that borderline fetishize the proud women who walk around bare-chested regardless of age or body type.

And who can bloody blame them! I wish I could walk around shirtless, or at least wear sheer clothing. In New York it was actually legal, but how could one even fathom it when just wearing a skirt garners so much innapropriate male attention? How much healthier would the world be if women were allowed to bare it all without the fear of a sharp pinch or even sharper yelps? Though giant breast implants are now on the outs trend wise (hurrah!), what a breast actually looks like seems to still be a mystery to most. Since women arn't encouraged to be shown the breasts and bodies of others (because of society's rampant fear of homosexuality or honest sexuality of any kind) everyone just walks around thinking they're hella freaky and constantly apologizing, when really they're totally fine. Better than fine, BANGIN'!

At some point western (primarily American) culture decided that it was unnatural and unnatractive to be human... aaaannnddd to be alive.

It's wrong. They're wrong. The end.

Where we come from

Plato's take on where "love" came from. There's a lot that I learned during this process, and even with it's many shortcomings there are moments in this project that I'm really proud of, so I hope you enjoy these. Ironically I just got back from the SVA Illustration and Cartooning thesis show that dealt greatly with the Greek/ Roman gods, so on some level I was working right alongside them on something similar :)

(These were cut out and placed on plastic sheets so that when one opens the book one is introduced to all three types of humans at once)

(Zeus' head flips up to reveal...)

(THE HEAAAVVEEEENNSS!! *angels trumpet*)

Wanted the story to end in a way that shows the quest for our other part and how it doesn't always lead right away to the proper person. When I imagined the story all I could think of was this sort of rubbery squelching sound of the objects in space rubbing against each other as they passed or hooked into each other. Which really doesn't make much sense since there's no sound in the vacuum of space, but since the logic of the solar system was thrown to the winds anyway there can't be much harm in it haha

That's my Daughter in the water.

The First Mix.

Hello there readers! Summer is almost over and with just under a week before I leave and go back to the East Coast for school I would like to share with you the soundtrack for said summer. Special thanks to my musical Obi Wan Kenobi (Mandy) who is constantly thrusting good music into my lazy ears.

Hope you all enjoy! If not, bummer.

Songs for the uk (a summer compilation) <3

Download 

===Track list===

(1) West Coast - Coconut Records                              

(2) Keep it Real - Leslie Hall                                       

(3) Alma Song - Pwrfl Power                                       

(4) Fucking Boyfriend - The Bird and the Bee           

(5) Ghost Under Rocks - Ra Ra Riot                            

(6) Aruarian Dance - Nujabes, Fat Jon & Minmi       

(7) Chinese - Lily Allen                                                   

(8) Rymden I En Lada - Detektivebran                        

(9) Major Tom - Shiny Toy Guns                                   

(10) Invisible Shadow - Hollow Jan                                  

(11) Little Bit (feat. Lykke Li) - Drake                             

(12) S'Vive - Bibio                                                                 

(13) I'm in Miami Bitch - LMFAO                                      

(14) That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings                       

(15) Hang You From The Heavens - The Dead Weather

(16) goodbye song - Moldy Peaches                                   

I don't like it cheap.

Ok... so I epically fail at the sexy thing all right? Yeah I do. I cower in forfeit, especially after reading such comics as Chester 5000 XYV, Curvy and the few pumped out by Junko Mizuno. What they all have in common is this simple, attractive style and type of story telling that appeals to the romantic and sexually frantic. Having seen my fair share of smut, I like these artists, and others like them because unlike the billions of videos and pictures that can really disenchant one about sex, they leave you feeling naughty but totally not ashamed. Feeding the mind and body is a much more hollistic approach to erotica. Though, yes, the situations depicted are often super dramatized theres still this inkling of truth that the old shag n' bang industry just doesn't have. 

Lets switch gears a little bit. So yesterday I went to go hang out with a friend and we saw Afghan Star, a film about the first talent based American Idol-esque show to air Afghanistan after the rule of the Taliban. This is a huge deal because apparently music (!!!) had been banned, MUSIC!! and people could call in and vote, HELLO DEMOCRACY! Anyway, there were two woman contestants. When the first one, Setara, was kicked off she had to sing a farewell song. 

And so she starts, sort of swaying side to side from foot to foot to the beat and sings, and throws her head scarf off and continues to dance with all this emotion. Behind the scenes an entire country is shaking its head. Though music has been grudgingly approved dancing is out of the question. She is considered a floozy, loose and a huge threat to morals of the country, such a huge threat that there are death threats. All this for dancing! And not even sexy dancing! It's insane that such small actions are so revolutionary, but I guess they're not that small in such situations.

So I don't know. I was super humbled when I walked out of there and relieved that I have the potential to become this full human being in the open. Just looking down at what I was wearing, thinking of what I write and read and talk openly about with those around me, dang WE ARE SO LUCKY! hahhhh am glad I have the freedom to show you my badly photoshopped art :)

Why won't it grow?

I'm a bit distressed by the rut I've fallen into in respects to my art. It just seems to be the same colors and types of characters I've always done.

here it goes with that box again, you know the one I can never quite get out of! Baaahhh humbug what a lame-o I am, especially this summer.

You know I had the full intention of creating these beautiful oil paintings, "serious art" but I always end up liking my drawings better or shamefully don't have the initiative or attention span to follow through.

AND I HAVN'T TOUCHED MY SKETCHBOOK IN AGES! Its so bad! So Maybe I'll stop doing these mini projects for awhile and just start working in my silly black book again. Observe the world a bit more and actually start writing again. Well, maybe after I do this mini-comic I was thinking of...

Oi, this journal was never meant to be a pity party, so I'm going to stop, take a haitus and come back with something actually worth sharing that will enrich your lives. Stay tunes ladies and gentlemen!

P.S. Photoshop can suck it.

Practice.

Figure I would upload a few blunders done in photoshop. Its quite difficult to make things not look cheap in this program! Maybe its because there are so many novice artists using it and putting pieces up on Deviantart.  Or its just too clean for my taste. There are ways to to make the image aged and with different textures but heh, don't know how to do that yet.

Anyway the first little picture is of some characters from this childishly drawn futuristic murder mystery I've been thinking creating and the second piece is just a dumb portrait, nothing new, but it did lead me to think of doing a series of portraits of real people involving my growth idea. 

Enjoy!