Conspiracy Theories

Conspired on illuminati paper

Mass Grave Reversal

Here's that reversal project. I finally got a good pic, shooting for the portfolio (sorry Kristina). It's not done and there are alot of tiny shapes everywhere. I also can't bring out the white as much. I was actually about to use white chalk but it started to get really repetitive and boring. This was my first real understanding of tones.

Obligated To Post

I just wanted to add my friends Clam and Jeff to my list on the side and I always feel obligated to post everytime I update but I couldn't find anything new so here's an old figure drawing from a year and a half ago. I wish I knew what I learned in the classes I have taken since then because I didn't know squat about shadows and most of my drawings tended to be in high key. Fortunately, this was one of the ones that were suppose to be drawn in high key. Back then I always focused on certain areas that I reacted to the most. In this case it was the the hand and arms. I took the face a challenge because it's always been difficult for me to draw heads that aren't right side up.

I just got done with a rendering project and I remembered this quote my friend Dan showed me by Paul Madonna. After a couple of all-nighters, this quote epitomizes how I feel at the moment.

I've had trouble knowing when I've done enough in a day, unless I've worked myself to exhaustion./
What bothers me the most is that I try to measure accomplishment against time./
It feels cliche, but I wonder,/
Would I criticize a tree for how often it blooms?/

Here is the link to the artwork that accompanies the words.

Travel Sketchbook Pages

I've been pretty irritable over the past two days from lack of sleep and catching up on work. It sucks. This was probably the last good drawing I've had in a awhile. It was some weeks ago, I rememer looking through Kristina's sketchbook and it had this sick drawing. I couldn't remember it exactly when I refered to it in my head, except for how it was rendered so it motivated me for these pages. It's amazing how much tones can compensate for lack of accuracy or any other factors because this guys face is completely inaccurate. My teacher, John Clapp, had also told me that edges will take a lifetime to master so I was really trying to develop my sensabilities when approaching tonal ability. Nikita's sketchbook and Kim's figures had also stepped up last time I was flipping through them. I'm thankful and motivated but FUCK! this crap is becoming overwhelimg. I'm lacking the time to learn and the majority of my shapes in my Black and White render are still off. I have to write papers plus I'm annoyed and sleepy. rant...

peace and god bless

Brain Freeze

I did this while watching Juno, which is a pretty good movie. I was looking at Willie Real's blog and just really liked how he draws the eyes for his characters and I just ended up sneaking it in the drawing. I've been trying pull out stranger concepts lately. I love Odd Nerdrum's strangeness quality.

Chasing Tales

I found this little guy running around my spray can and thought Kristina would like it, so it ended up being her birthday present. It's based off the japanese folklore of Kitsune, meaning fox. "The more tails a kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make offerings to them as to a deity."

Say Cheese

This is a word association piece using "smile." I just worked around the idea that sometimes people have something to hide behind smiles. This was mostly for playtime with acrylics after asking some of my collegues how to blend with them because I wanted to prep for the illustration class I'm taking this upcoming semester. The letters where newspaper cut out.

Sorry about the quality. I adjusted it in photoshop but this was the best I can do.

Figure Drawing- 001

Just been practicing Sheldon's process: gesture, structure, anatomy, and then blurring the lines in between. Actually, he says to them at the same time. These were either just 10 or 2 minute poses. My current goal is to achieve the volume while still retaining the gesture and the "Cal State Cools" are helping tremendously.

Here is an interesting insight I read about James Jean's process.

I'm also interested in what you've referred to as a "matrix of rules" pertaining to how your creative ideas come about. Can you explain what you mean by this?
Once you put anything within the boundaries of a picture, you start to create relationships. Scale, color, perspective, texture—your mind starts making connections between these qualifications. Once you have characters in a space, they intensity of the relationships becomes very literal. I try to orchestrate these relationships so that they are ambigious yet believable. A good way to pull that off is to understand "the rules" that I've created in the picture. Once you create an action—say if a character is in repose or if that particular part of the composition is in darkness—then there must be an opposing force to have put that character in that position or to have cast that park of the picture in shadow. I draw this world until it reaches a kind of balance, until each action is accounted for in some way.

Also, some interviews of my favorite artists of all time...

ID4 Week Sketches

I spent the 4th of July in SoCal visiting family and had mix of fun and tear-jerking moments. But over the past week I had a great drawing binge, probably because I haven't drawn from life in a while. Nothing amazing... when drawing from life, I always want to strengthen my sensibilities. Doing the blinds and semi-blinds were the most helpful lesson I got all year when it came to drawing from life. I still need a great amount of work on my tonal skills though. The writing were just some lines from "Moon Dance," written by Van Morrison. I like the August Rush version and how it was played on a slower tempo.
Check this video out. It's extremely disheartening.

Ante Up

India Ink, Gouache, Paint Markers and Pens. Jonathan Wayshak was a huge influence for me with ink. It's amazing how much value he can create with lines. I was also looking at tattoo magazines for design ideas.

During my process I went back and forth so many times with ink and gouache, constantly making choices between design versus following "rules." After and series of thumbnails and ideas, I came up with the final plan but it was still to be experimental. I really enjoyed how different brushes can create a variety of effects and learned that it doesn't matter what kind of mark you make as long as the image reads the way you want it to. I guess the way you create a mark can be one way to designate a "style." My biggest problem was creating the ninja in low-key which led me to do some low-key and high-key studies soon because I wasn't even sure of what I was doing. probably The highlights might have just appeared to be overwrought.

Animal Sketches

I went with the CTExWS crew to the San Francisco Zoo on Saturday. I saw lions humping, bears playing and penguins swimming. I'm still familiarizing myself with drawing animals so much of the drawings are still very gestural. The worst problem for me is drawing an animal from the side without making it appear to be flat. I think I'll try to analyze them constructively next time I drop by the zoo.

Really good 1980's animation


GI Joe now means Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity

Ante Up sketches

There is a contest for 100 dollar shopping spree at Azuki and these are the sketches for my entree. I was going for a grungy, urban look. It also gives me time to delve back into the medium. Aside from these sketches, everything else will be experimental.

Blind Faith. I was channel surfing and saw this guy on BET, of all places, the other day.

Amoeba Records Art

I was in SF this past Saturday with some friends and I stopped by Haight. I've always been meaning to take pictures of the wall of Amoeba Records. Some of my favorite graffiti artists have pieces there and I finally did.

Graffiti/ Low brow/ Street art is always my favorite because it always motivates me to "be myself" when I create pieces or even sketches. I hate meeting artists that believe art can only be done a single way. It's nice to just meet people that enjoy what you enjoy doing.

Azuki Deck

This is the deck that I painted for Azuki in San Jose. I feel like I marked my territory whenever I leave a piece somewhere. I thought I'd get experimenting with acrylics and color. I also wanted to practice some perspective and composition. Although this piece is jampacked with errors, I learned a lot.

"Contrast is the meaning of life." John Clapp, one of my instructors, after random talks with him after class about other artistic factors, also told me that it works on multiple dimensions, though value should be the most important, which was something I failed to do in here. I had an arduous time at solving value composition. A ton of the light sources are wrong.

I played with contrasting colors as well. Figuring out the focal point, I decided would either have to be between the ninjas, a ninja, or the graffiti. I never decided. The ninjas have as much white on their faces as the graffiti, placing them up front simultaneously and although the ninjas are colored in complete black, the graffiti pops out as well because of its cool colors. This is all in theory.

During this semester, I remembered John being disappointed at my ability to not listen but I did learn more than I would need. I had used acrylic titanium white to fix mistakes in my comics. He told me I should've used Guoache because "acrylics are transparent BY NATURE." I've been wanting to paint eversince he said that. I experimented with scumbling, washes, and what marks I can make with different brushes.

I also learned that I should "be thoughtful." So I'm going to leave these long notes after each of these artistic endeavors come to an end. I can't wait for color lessons I'm going to learn in the next year.

CTE, WS, RBS

During my Nine to Five

I love my job. I'm currently working on giving students their graduation gear and it's been kinda slow due to the rush being over. So while waiting, I managed to pry this guy out of my head and onto the back of one of the regalia merchandise sheets. It turned out better than I thought considering it was originally suppose to be a feline. I realized I sucked at drawing animals on all fours correctly so this ended up looking like some mutated gerbil. Chill jobs rule!

Harold and Kumar with Iron Man kicks ass!

Monsta

I found my character on some random user's flickr. I've been waiting for the behemoth site to post the table drawings but I guess they were too busy. I wish I knew what the rest of the crew drew so I can spot them.

Illustration Friday- Heavy

This is the piece I did for Illustration Friday this week. The word was "heavy." It's pretty straight forward. I tried to design it so the weight was the focal point but place light tones around it. It's also the darkest and least saturated. I'm starting to play with the layer mode effects more in photoshop but I want to eventually learn to create textures on my own without the need for layer shortcuts.

Wonder Con

Wonder con. This was my second convention and this time I remembered to bring credit cards and money. I chatted with a few artist like Marc Gabbana and Jonathan Wayshak.. oh yeah, and Dave Yee. I learned so much from that guy like if you want to find SJSU students just go to a Mexican restuarant. Great knowledge. Someone accidently gave Nikita three 3-day passes so I ended up going for two days.... sweeeeeeeeet. The photo is of the Cult28 crew. Up next is Supercon, Fanime and ComicCon. Cult28 Out.