Art Exchange- MTB

Makeshift Terror Beak, Mixed Media, 8.5"11"

A bunch of my friends did an art exchange event and I did this piece for my friend, Tara. I based it off a comic she did during our beginning illustration class, as well as graffiti. I pick up a lot of graffiti influence from The Seventh Letter, CBS crew. Craola is probably my favorite writer. Doing art for others is always fun for me to do, and she seemed pretty stoked when I gave it her, so yeah... dope!

IPYB Collaboration

IPYB, Mixed Media

I did this piece with my friend, Bryan Kistler (check his stuff out) and we put it in a Graffiti Show. It was located behind a recycle center, which I thought was a pretty cool place to do an art show at. Collaborating on a piece was a great experience, luckily we didn't complicate choices (but may will next time) and it was a fun and spontaneous process.

Winter Sketchdump II

Long overdue but I haven't been keeping up with posting. And if people know... that is Giant One's Tag. I ran into him in an artshow.

Do the Tengu

Do the Tengu, Mix Media, 18"x24"

Done in Barron Storey's Conceptual Illustration class.

Figure Drawing- 004

Blue Pencil, 11"x14", 5 minutes

Blue Pencil, 11"x14", 10 minutes

Blue Pencil, 11"x14", 10 minutes

Blue Pencil, 11"x14", 10 minutes

Some figure drawings done since school has started. I've been swamped so I may not be posting as much...

Sub-Zero Shrunken Heads

Me, two girls, Brian, Kristina, Sideshow Bob, what appears to be some kind of Dan and Harley Quinn, and Hardcore Jerome are in Content Magazine's "space" issue. These were during the Sub-Zero Festival, an artwalk in San Jose, a couple of months ago.

Cephlacidae

Cephlacidae, Graphite, Painter

Spent some time on Painter, figuring out ways to use it. This was an old drawing back when I was still in my Beginning Illustration class. In this I was just trying to retain the original drawing and just playing around. I also got that metallic look I was trying to achieve. I worked under this notion as well.

"Pyle never understood color. He realized this and it embittered his whole life. But he arrived at this fundamental truth about color; the shadows carry the drawing and the light carries the color."

Harvey Dunn

Journal 1: The Art Spirit- 01

072509 Study Study, Ballpoint Pen and Xerox, 10.5"x8.25"

072109 Mom Time, 072209 Twins, Ballpoint Pen and Ink, 10.5"x8.25"

071509 Pier Patience, Ballpoint Pen, 10.5"x8.25"

Everytime I see Barron Storey's Journals, they are always inspiring but I would always fail to comprehend what the purpose may be. However, I've noticed that there would be a common theme in each journal, so I am trying to approach a journal with that same quality. These are some pages from my "Art Spirit" journal, learning from the great teacher of art, Robert Henri. Of course, I have no idea what I am doing necessarily. I am just trying to sync myself with what the book is about, sometimes passages and sometimes approaches. The readings are very inspiring to me. I've also been collecting maps after looking at Corwin's sketchbook, where he had a few inside of it. They are awesome!

A passage and some notes from the The Art Spirit.

"The sketch hunter moves through life as he finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know them, and to note them down in the short hand of his sketchbook."

He is looking for what he loves and it is found everywhere. Hunters don't see this. They are learning to see and to understand... to enjoy.

Figure Drawing- 003

Ballpoint Pen and Blue Pencil on paper, 11.5"x8", 5 minutes

Ballpoint Pen and Blue Pencil on paper, 8"x11.5", 5 minutes

Ballpoint Pen on paper, 11.5"x8", 5 minutes

Blue Pencil on paper, 8"x11.5", 2 minutes

Ballpoint Pen on paper, 11.5"x8", 20 minutes

Ballpoint Pen on paper, 8"x11.5", 2 minutes

Here are some figure drawings I have done over the summer. My goal has been to make it more of an experience rather than a systematic analysis of the human body and trying to kick the habit of not being too precious with what it is I produce. Sometimes I try to make notes of analogous descriptions about the subject.

Sketchbook- Perspective 001

06/22/09 Billboard, Blue Pencil and Ballpoint Pen, 12"x8"

I thought I would post a sketch since I haven't done so in a while. For that matter, I haven't drawn anything from life either. I also just tried to create an interior out of my head, and man, was my perspective horrible... lame. So I am taking it back old school, via art28 and doing 6 perspectives a week, at least.

P.S. a Will Eisner interview. This is the part where he draws but watching the interview in its entirety is well worth it.

Prehistoric Pandemonium

Dragonosaur, Pencil and Painter

Jawsaurus, Pencil and Painter

Pirahnasaur, Pencil and Painter

Colored some old sketches. I wanted to practice painting and modeling on top of the line drawing. I was also trying to achieve a slick, metallic look on surfaces which I think I worked best on the Dragonosaur. I believe it was from the soft edges, high contrast and reflective light. Upping the contrast on the Pirahnasaur worked well but I removed the intense reflective light source which took away from the metallic look I was trying to achieve.

Ox Demon- Warrior

Ox Demon Warrior, Pencil and Painter

This was a character design for Project Spank that I finally found time to color. I wanted to keep it high key so it has a more chalky, specter attribute but looking back at it, it appears to be closer to a mid-range of values. The palette was taken from a Frederic Church painting by color picking in a specific high key area. Oh yeah, Painter is awesome!

Forest Opening

Forest Opening Sketch, Blue Pencil and Ballpoint Pen, 10.5"x 8"

Forest Opening Color, Painter, 10.5"x8"

I pried the sketch a couple of days ago and just felt like coloring. I haven't done an environment since the "Tidepool" class. I focused more on saturation in this painting and I think it's time I explore different brushes for environment design. The forms tend become rounder as I render areas, which worked well for areas immersed in atmosphere but I wasn't too sure how to handle the read of details in the foreground. In conclusion, I am off to do more nature studies.

Shaman

Shaman, Blue Pencil, Ballpoint Pen, Painter

She was the shaman who prophesized of King Aboiye in January (according to our Gregorian calendar). In addition, we can infer from the list of names etched in her cane that she comes from a family surviving fourteen generations; She was of the Enu Tribe.

I've been drawing characters out of my head recently and started exploring digital painting more. Painter has so many features on it but I found brush I liked and its blending application is more comfortable than photoshop's. I used one of Rembrandt's palettes for this image. I wished I developed it more but I accidently saved incorrectly and lost a chunk load of pixels.

Also... check this animation out... It's hilarious and involves ninjas.

Various Drawings

Various Sketches, Ballpoint Pens

I've been experimenting with the new drawing knowledge I gained from the animation class by drawing more spontaneous and gesturely. I also built a habit of building the drawing and taking my time with the process. It gives the drawing a chance to reveal itself as oppose to putting down conclusive marks.

The first drawing of a kid was done doing another exercise which is using a finished drawing (which was a gesture) and applying it to a character. I managed to do a few but this was the best in the bunch as I spent quite some time working the "insides" before a put down the indelible linework, which I also tried to keep at a minimum. My brain began churning in a different directions reconfiguring the accumulated gesture drawings over the years and had lots of fun doing it...

yay!

Academics- Beginning Animation

This is the sack pantomime project for my animation class. It turned out OK but I learned the most from this project about animation. There's an obvious volume change. I think it's because I was producing the animation as two seperate parts. Actually, now that I think about it, I did it in probably several different parts. I would 70 percent of it was straight foreward animation and then built upon. It kept me loose in drawing, fast, and spontaneous which is good but it also created flaws like a lack of a plan and that stupid volume change. So, I am going to practice animation more during my break and immerse myself in the scene too.

One more. Here's a video of Dustin Hoffman. The last question of the episode really motivated me when I first saw it almost two years ago. Just really inspirational, especially because I still wasn't completely sure with I was going to do with my life. Check out the whole episode as well.

Figure and Drapery Studies

Tonal Figure Drawings, Graphite and White Chalk, (2)8.5"x11"

Figure Drawing, Graphite on Paper, 10"x10"

Drapery Study, Graphite on Paper, 10"x10"

Here's an animation by a Cal Arts student.

Academics- Intermediate Project pt2/ Kazuto Nakazawa

Dark Forest LRRH, Acrylic on Illustration Board, 9"x12"

Dark Forest Color Comps, Acrylic on Illustration Board, (6)2"x3"

I managed to finish one of my environments for the illustration project. I developed greatly and picked up all types of habits from Bunny, my instructor for the class, and gained some technique as well from constantly looking at N.C. Wyeth and Ivan Shishkin. Placing their masterpieces in front of me while I paint was one of the best habits I picked up. I know there are flaws and mistakes everywhere but I couldn't solve them in the painting. The next few rounds of environment design should be better. The class was also about process and I tried to follow it, especially using the black and white rendering as a guide and using the color comp we had chosen. Achieving a piece by going through the development process was the most important lesson to me.

Also, over the course of the semester, I delve more into the animation and film realm. One day I was flipping through one of my old sketchbooks and stubled upon an artist and director, Kazuto Nakazawa. He's worked on a few animation projects such as Samurai Champloo, Animatrix, and Kill Bill to name a few. I've been a big fan of his work, since I saw Samurai Champloo, and thought I'd share some of his work here... enjoy! (sorry for the lack of subtitles)

Telos Blackbook

Gesso, India Ink, White Out, Pen, Sharpie, and Sticker, 11"x17"

Pen, Sharpie, and Sticker, 11"x17"
Graphite, Pen and Sharpie, 11"x8.5"

It's been awhile since I actually did one of these... Telos asked me to do a piece in his blackbook. I put some pages out of book so people can see his work. It was really fun to do and a nice way to vent and do personal work for a change. It's always an honor for someone to ask you to put something in their sketchbook and a high degree of respect for anybody to enjoy your work more than you would so I was pretty stoked that he asked me to do a piece. Flipping through a graffiti artist's blackbook was inspring because I saw a different type of an artistic process. I thought one of the most unique features in a writer's blackbook is how other artist's are welcomed in it, so I also saw other artist's that he met.

Figure Drawing- 002

Graphite on paper, 8.5"x11", 1 minute

Graphite on paper, (2)8.5"x11", 2 minutes

Graphite and Ballpoint pen on paper, (2)8.5"x11", 10 and 20 minutes

I've been learning new techniques as well as mastering old ones over this semester. I believe Professor Chai showed us a Vilppu video and explained to the class that we should take our time with the drawings. Many students in the class were trying to get full figures completed resulting in a rushed drawing.

There are so many things I had to keep in mind in these drawings. I always find some trouble in retaining the gesture of the figures after constructing and placing in anatomy. Proportions were also an issue for me because I grew a habit of exagerrating poses which led me to relearning previous studies. Using the Vilppu and Walt Stanchfield techniques were very helpful and I'm currently trying to finish those up thoroughly so I can I apply those concepts and hopefully it'll remedy those problems. study study study.

Academics- Intermediate Project pt1

Here's some of the work from the new criteria for the Intermediate Illustration Project Class. It is a forest design for a version of the Little Red Riding Hood story called, The Grandmother's Tale. The story had a very dark atmosphere and maybe you can read it... here. So based on the tale, a concept was designed by my friend, Cory Peckham who was assigned to be my art director for the assignment.

I had also done another forest but I don't feel I conveyed the idea as well as the "evil" forest. I'm planning to redo the project over this break because this was also an introduction to landscapes, in which I completely got slaughtered in. We're currently working on our color comps for the project so I'll be posting the those along with the final as well.

Draw Off- 001

Here's some drawings from a game the crew plays while we are working in the art building. We just call it "Draw Off." Usually everyone contributes an attribute and then we design a character but generally, the game is to just work around an idea. Sometimes we play a version where we draw a character that's already been designed and just sketch from memory. These usually come out insane looking and sometimes random but these are my better ones. We'll probably get a blog soon because we have a ton of these drawings but I don't know... we'll see.