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